Disclaimer: This blog discusses topics such as missing persons, harm to animals, and potential s*icides. Reader's discretion advised.
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The Curious Case of Keith Reinhard and Tom Young
Tom Young
On the 7th of September, 1987, a man named Tom Young disappeared from the Rocky Mountains, Silver Plume, Colorado. His body was found on the 31st of July, 1988.
Just under a year later, on the 7th of August, 1988, a man named Keith Reinhard told his friends that he was going for a hike one afternoon and disappeared from the same town. Coincidence you may ask? Well, maybe. Suppose it wasn't for the fact that Keith got so invested in Tom Young's disappearance before he was found. So let's look at what happened.
Tom Young closed up his bookstore on the 7th of September,1987, and told his friends he was going on a trip to Europe. I'm assuming he told people this to avoid suspicion. However, after this, Tom and his dog Gus were not seen again. 10 months later, two hikers found Tom and his dog Gus, dead, and both had died from a bullet to the head. They were found around 2.4km (or 1.5 miles) away from Silver Plume. A g*n was also found at the scene and following investigations showed that Tom had purchased said g*n 4 days prior to his disappearance. Authorities closed the case as it was ruled a s*icide.
Keith Reinhard
That brings us to the case of Keith Reinhard, which is a bit more complicated and still unsolved. In 1988, Keith Reinhard decided to take a career break and focus on writing a novel and he did so in the town of Silver Plume (where Tom went missing). Keith also had a goal of running an antique store, and if successful, he and his wife would relocate to Silver Plume indefinitely. Keith ended up becoming so fascinated by Tom Young's disappearance that he wanted to write his novel about him and he got so invested that authorities even thought he may have been involved in Tom Young's disappearance. However, we now know that's not the case. The building that Keith ended up using for his antique store was Tom's old bookstore, creepy. Keith created a character called "Guy Gypsum" that was kind of a collaboration of both his personality and Tom Young's. Keith's shop was also across the road from his friend Ted's coffee shop. Allegedly, members of the town of Silver Plume would sometimes struggle to differentiate Keith's personality from his characters'.
On the 7th of August, 1988, Keith closed his antique shop earlier (2:30pm ish) than normal and told Ted from the coffee shop and a few other people in Silver Plume that he was going on a hike up Pendleton Mountain and that if he wasn't in in the morning, to call authorities as something would have gone wrong. The hike Keith was planning on doing was around 6 hours.
As Keith had a fear of heights and it was so late in the day to do a hike, most people in the town of Silver Plume didn't take Keith seriously, thinking "yeah right dude". Keith didn't have any hiking gear with him and carried no supplies, so you can kinda see why people may have not taken him seriously. However, the next day Keith did not return, and a search rescue team was sent out. The search and rescue team were unable to locate any remains or any belongings of Keith - most likely because he didn't take much with him. The search was called off by the 12th of August as a plane carrying two rescuers crashed and k*lled the pilot.
What's a bit eerie about this case is what was left open on Keith's computer (i.e., what he had written before he disappeared):
"Once you know death, once you've accepted it, the fear is gone. All that remains is the anticipation."
So eerie. And I don't mean that in a judgemental way, just feels eerie.
Theories About Keith's Disappearance
The most likely: s*cide - maybe Keith just wanted to peacefully end his life and felt like as he became so obsessed with Tom Young, he'd go the same way. Claims from his family don't think this is plausible (that doesn't make it not true though, sometimes we don't really know someone).
He wanted to climb Pendleton Mountain and died trying (it is odd that the search and rescue team found nothing as the Colorado search and rescue team has found 99% of their lost hikers).
Keith set up his own disappearance. Maybe he started a new life.
There was an active serial k*ller in Silver Plume at the time and maybe Keith was asking too much or found out too much information.
Maybe someone m*rdered Tom Young and his dog and made it look like he ended his own life and then when Keith started poking around, they decided they needed to do the same with Keith (pure speculation, but the timing is odd as Keith went missing one week after they found Tom's remains).
The town is very scarcely populated so it's surprising that no one knew anything (I think around 140 people in the 1980s).
Carbon Monoxide poisoning: I just read this theory on a blog article comment and it's an interesting one because it would link the two cases together as both men worked in the same shop and it can cause strange hallucinations and behaviours in people. However, I don't really have any conclusive evidence - I am not sure if it was obvious what impacts this would have had or if authorities checked the building for signs of carbon monoxide. But maybe? To me, this feels like the most obvious answer (Occam's Razor).
Allegedly, there is a documentary about this case being made called the Dark Side of the Mountain. However, there haven't been any updates since 2023 so I am not sure if they are having logistical problems OR if it will ever be released. The website can be found in my references list below.
What do you think happened to Keith? Let me know in the comments below.
Thanks for reading,
Stay safe,
Ash x
References
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