Where’s Ray Wright? High-speed chase leads to clues in Sacramento man’s abduction and “revenge” murder

Ray Wright‘s daughters had been fearful when their dad did not present up at his carpentry store and did not reply any calls or texts. “I knew one thing dangerous was taking place to him. I felt it,” says Haley Kendall.

Dean Wright felt it too. He headed to his brother’s home and regarded round. That is when he realized somebody was in the home and it wasn’t Ray. The intruder fled however left proof on the kitchen counter. It could be some time earlier than investigators would work out who that intruder was. It started with a police chase.

“It was a really harmful high-speed chase with speeds of as much as 100 miles an hour,” prosecutor Matt Chisholm tells “48 Hours” contributor Natalie Morales. “There was a horrible accident on the finish of that pursuit.”

The motive force was a person named Victor Grey. And in his wrecked van was a treasure trove of proof. Prosecutors say they discovered {a photograph} on Grey’s cellphone of a letter he wrote to a person named Bob. Grey was demanding cost for delivering the “dude” to Bob. Prosecutors say Grey wrote that he “hand delivered you your revenge … “

To authorities, it appeared like Grey had kidnapped Ray Wright at Bob’s request, however that they had no concept who Bob was — or why he would need revenge.

RAY WRIGHT VANISHES WITHOUT A TRACE

Dean Wright was nervous. It was Saturday morning, Jan. 13, 2018, in Sacramento, California.

Dean Wright: The place’s Ray? … I simply needed to know the place Ray is.

Dean hadn’t heard from his youthful brother Ray in two days – extremely uncommon for brothers who spoke day-after-day with out fail.

Natalie Morales: Hastily, center of January, there’s simply —

Dean Wright: Nothing.

Natalie Morales: Nothing.

Dean Wright: Nothing.

No cellphone calls, no texts, no social media posts.

Ray Wright, 55, had missed work. Nobody had seen or heard from him, together with his daughters, Haley Kendall and Kennedy Wright.

Kennedy Wright: My sister known as me, and she or he was like, “hey, like, have you ever heard from dad?” Like, “nobody has heard from him.”

Haley Kendall: I instantly … hung up and known as him. … And I known as, and I known as, and I known as, straight to voicemail each time.

Dean Wright: So, I used to be getting more and more involved.

Dean had repeatedly checked his brother’s home in Rocklin, a Sacramento suburb, and the store Ray rented in Rio Linda for his work as a grasp carpenter. Nothing appeared uncommon besides the silence of Ray’s absence.

Natalie Morales: And also you did not see his truck?

Dean Wright: No, his truck was not there.

Natalie Morales: You are panicked at this level.

Dean Wright: Proper.

Haley Kendall: I believe the primary couple of days was when it actually began to get actual and severe.

Kennedy Wright: I simply felt actually powerless over the state of affairs … and it was actually scary. … It was the worst factor that would have ever occurred.

Ray’s ex-wife, Peggy Wright, was additionally upset.

Peggy Wright: I knew straight away when he was out of contact that there was one thing improper … 

Though they had been now not married, Peggy nonetheless thought-about Ray to be the love of her life.

Natalie Morales: Was he romantic?

Peggy Wright: Oh God, he was tremendous romantic.

They married in June 1994 and Ray grew to become an immediate dad to stepdaughter, Haley, then 3 years outdated.

Peggy Wright: He was meant to be a father and he was so good along with her.

Haley Kendall: He … was at all times there for me. … First male function mannequin. … He at all times did all the pieces to the fullest.

Alongside got here Kennedy almost three years later. She says her father,  a loving, hands-on dad, would by no means simply up and disappear.

Kennedy Wright: He was like a T-ball dad. Um, and he would love take me, like, fishing.

Haley Kendall: Soccer …

Kennedy Wright: Soccer dad. … Swim meets … 

Natalie Morales: He might do all of it.

Kennedy Wright: Yeah. He might do all of it. He was good at all the pieces.

However after a number of good years, Peggy says, the couple discovered themselves drifting aside.

Peggy Wright: He was so busy working. I used to be busy parenting and I additionally labored.

They divorced in 2001. Ray remarried and divorced once more in 2009.

Peggy Wright: I believe it was the tip of his second marriage that sort of put him over the sting. And that is when he fell off the wagon at virtually 20 years sober.

Ray, a recovering alcoholic, had stayed sober for many of his grownup life. However when he went lacking, Peggy fearful he was in hassle.

Peggy Wright: You suppose, oh gosh, possibly, you recognize, he had a setback or one thing.

Natalie Morales: He was sober throughout your marriage?

Peggy Wright: Oh, yeah.

It was Ray’s relapse after his second marriage that sparked a downward spiral, exploding one evening in November 2011 when Ray bought in a automotive and drove drunk. He slammed head-on right into a automobile severely injuring a husband and spouse. Ray, then 49, was convicted of felony DUI and sentenced to 18 months in jail.

Haley Kendall: I believe that was all-time low for him.

Natalie Morales: All-time low was getting on this devastating accident?

Haley Kendall: Yeah.

Kennedy Wright: And hurting individuals within the midst of it.

Ray instantly stopped ingesting, rejoined Alcoholics Nameless and checked in together with his sponsor day-after-day.

Peggy Wright: I believe the Ray after that point was even higher than the Ray previous to that point, as a result of … he needed … to be … the very best model of … Ray Wright that he may very well be.

Simply weeks earlier than he went lacking, Ray spent Thanksgiving and Christmas together with his rising household – celebrations that included Ray’s first granddaughter, Ashtyn.

Proud mother, Haley, was thrilled for her dad.

Haley Kendall: And he was tremendous excited. … He constructed her a customized crib.

Haley Kendall: He liked being a grandpa and she or he liked Grandpa Ray.

Peggy Wright:  Ray was at such an incredible spot in his life … he had all of it.

After which he disappeared.

By Saturday afternoon on Jan. 13, greater than 48 hours had handed with out a single signal of Ray. Dean went again to his brother’s home but once more, knocked on the door, after which let himself in.

Dean Wright: Stated, “Hi there, hi there.”  And instantly I smelled … marijuana smoke. … And that is once I knew … that is fully improper as a result of he did not like that. … And I am getting more and more tense about it. … So, as I walked ahead … I noticed a cup. … And that had not been there. … I took one other step-and-a-half …

That is when a again door burst open.

Dean Wright: And a man yelled at me, “Get out of right here.” … And I mentioned, “Who’re you?” … “The place’s Ray?”

The person took a step in the direction of Dean, he says, then turned away and ran out the again door.

Dean Wright: I instantly known as 911.

Rocklin Police arrived. Dean, shaken, filed a lacking particular person’s report and pointed to the soda cup on the kitchen counter, explaining that the intruder will need to have left it.

Matt Chisholm | Sacramento County Prosecutor: The cup is filled with ice. It is stuffed with soda. It has a lid and a straw and it is sweating, so it is recent.  

Natalie Morales: When did you begin to worry the worst, Dean?

Dean Wright: Then. Proper then. … It was crushing.

Natalie Morales: And also you suspected foul play?

Dean Wright: Sure.

A TREASURE TROVE OF EVIDENCE

Ray Wright, a lot admired and liked by family and friends — described as beneficiant, inventive and vibrant – had seemingly vanished with the snap of a finger.

Matt Chisholm: Nobody has any leads as to the place he’s or what occurred to him.

It was the scary dwelling invasion simply two days after Ray had disappeared that appeared too coincidental, says Prosecutor Matt Chisholm.

Matt Chisholm: I believe that … raised everybody’s concern to a special stage.

Sgt. Zack Lewis: As days go by, it turns into extra suspicious.

Rocklin Police Sergeant Zack Lewis briefly thought-about Ray’s historical past of alcohol abuse however dismissed the potential for a relapse.

Sgt. Zack Lewis: We checked his financial institution accounts. There was no exercise on his financial institution. His automobile had disappeared off of license plate readers. We could not discover his automobile anymore. His cellphone wasn’t working. … All these issues led us to imagine that it was extra than simply him not calling members of the family again and ingesting.

Ray’s household instantly organized a search.

Haley Kendall: All of us met up at a Goal parking zone and handed out flyers.

Dean Wright: After which we simply unfold out and went in all completely different instructions.

Haley Kendall: We had been doing all the pieces we might and exhausting all the pieces that we might do.

The resounding query for the Wright household, echoing in any respect hours of the day and evening: the place was Ray?

Ten days after his disappearance, police found Ray’s deserted pickup truck in a North Highlands house complicated.

Peggy Wright: On this actually excessive crime space.

The radio and license plates had been stripped. For police, discovering Ray’s automobile was a break within the case. For Haley, it was simply heartbreaking.

Haley Kendall: That was — the primary like actual piece of proof that was like, OK. We all know one thing dangerous occurred to him.

Matt Chisholm: Rocklin P.D. seized the automotive and collaborated with the FBI to have it processed for hint proof.

Behind the truck, brown stains barely seen on black carpet liner had been later decided to be human blood.

Matt Chisholm: That was examined for DNA towards Ray Wright’s toothbrushes … since we do not have a physique … and it was a match.

Sixteen days after Ray’s disappearance, one thing occurred that will shift the investigation into overdrive.

All of it started with a harrowing high-speed police chase by Sacramento.

Matt Chisholm: It was a really harmful high-speed chase with speeds of as much as 100 miles an hour. … There was a horrible accident on the finish of that pursuit.

POLICE DASHCAM VIDEO (Officers strategy the van):  Put your fingers up! … Open the door! … Is anybody within the automotive with you?

Natalie Morales: That is a kind of chases that you just watch on TV and it is like, whoa.

Matt Chisholm: Sure.

Natalie Morales: Besides on this case, the man who was accountable for that’s rather more harmful than we even know.

The motive force, pinned contained in the automobile with a damaged leg, was unable to maneuver.

California Freeway Patrol officers cuffed the driving force, who seemed to be intoxicated. The person’s title: Victor Grey. He had issues with the regulation earlier than, and police arrested him this time for felony evasion and DUI.

Matt Chisholm: He is taken to a hospital for therapy and is beneath guard … and has been booked within the Sacramento County Jail.

It was Grey’s expired registration — with present registration sticker tabs — that caught the eye of a police officer.

Natalie Morales: Like a stolen automobile? Is that what they’re considering?

Matt Chisholm: Presumably. … Or any individual stole the registration tab and simply caught it on their …  license plate.

A DMV information search confirmed the registration tab really belonged to a 2016 Ford pickup truck that had just lately been reported lacking together with its proprietor, Raymond Wright.

Matt Chisholm: The registration tab … is definitely Ray Wright’s registration tag off of his license plate. … And so, that is the primary connection that they are in a position to make between Victor Grey and Ray Wright’s disappearance.

After which, three months after Ray’s disappearance, one other turning level within the case. Investigators bought a DNA hit off that soda straw within the cup left behind by the fleeing intruder  who lastly had a reputation – and it is one the police already knew: Victor Grey.

Matt Chisholm: So, now we have now two items of proof linking him to Ray Wright.

The DNA match positioned Victor Grey inside Ray’s dwelling and on the heart of the increasing investigation. Turned out, issues had been about to get so much worse for Grey, as a result of his wrecked, smoking van was a smoking gun.

Natalie Morales: Right here you’ve got bought a treasure trove of proof. … The place was all of this discovered?

Sgt. Zack Lewis: All this was positioned within the automobile that Victor Grey was driving.

Within the van’s cluttered cargo space, Rocklin Police and FBI investigators unraveled a black plastic tarp. Inside they discovered disturbing proof that deepened the Ray Wright thriller.

Natalie Morales: The hat. … You pull that hat out, “Ray Wright Design.”

Sgt. Zack Lewis: It was like a holy s*** second.

Sgt. Zack Lewis: That is enormous for us.

Natalie Morales: The yellow rain jacket. That’s Ray Wright’s Jacket. And what was discovered on that?

Sgt. Zack Lewis: His DNA was discovered on that jacket.

Sgt. Zack Lewis: The glasses are simply —

Natalie Morales: Simply heartbreaking.

Sgt. Zack Lewis: They’re simply damaged right into a bunch of items.

St. Zack Lewis: His pockets, which it appeared they tried to burn.

Natalie Morales: A cellphone that is clearly been … destroyed, like any individual took a hammer to it, proper?

Sgt. Zack Lewis: That is what it regarded like, sure.

Sgt. Zack Lewis: We needed to run the serial quantity on the again, and it was registered to Ray Wright’s cellphone provider.

Sgt. Zack Lewis: We now had been undoubtedly in a position to tie Victor Grey to Ray Wright going lacking.

However police had not discovered Ray. There was nonetheless a sliver of hope.

Kennedy Wright: It is simply actually laborious being affected person.

Matt Chisholm: It is nonetheless a scorching investigation. There’s nonetheless many particulars left to determine.

Maybe none extra important than Victor Grey’s cellphone.

It wasn’t simply Ray’s cellphone within the van; Grey’s was there, too. The violent collision ending the police chase despatched Grey’s cellphone sliding beneath the van’s heart console.

Matt Chisholm: The FBI discovered that and was in a position to course of it for its contents. And inside that cellphone was additionally a treasure trove of proof.

Astonishingly, there was a photograph of a handwritten, three-page letter, prosecutors say, from Grey to somebody named “Bob.”

Matt Chisholm: And at this level we do not know who Bob is.

It was dated Jan. 27 – the identical day as Grey’s ill-fated chase with police.

Matt Chisholm: It is clear that Victor has grievances with Bob. … And the grievances stem about not being paid for delivering the “dude” to you.

Natalie Morales: These are his phrases, the “dude.”

Matt Chisholm:  Yeah, I “hand-delivered you your revenge.” Now, it is time to pay me.

A PLOT FOR REVENGE?

Natalie Morales: Let’s speak about what was present in that cellphone. … Textual content messages that appeared to confer with Ray Wright’s doable kidnapping at that time, proper?

Matt Chisholm: Sure.

It took months, however investigators finally dug up a gold mine of proof from Grey’s cellphone.

Matt Chisholm: There was a textual content dialog with a lady, who … seemed to be working as a lookout for Mr. Grey.

“Rays out fron y of the sjop,” texted the girl, “Kalifornia Katie,” in a sequence of misspelled texts. It was 9:50 a.m. on Jan. 11, 2018. “Sure im watching out entrance for any thimg.”

Tracing “Kalifornia Katie’s” quantity present in Grey’s cellphone, police recognized her as Katie Barnard.

Ashley Englefield: The textual content messages with Katie Barnard had been invaluable.

These messages had been despatched the very morning Ray Wright went lacking, final seen at his workshop. They revealed a plan of kinds, says Placer County District Legal professional Investigator Ashley Englefield.

Englefield confirmed “48 Hours” Ray Wright’s former workshop in Rio Linda and its shut proximity to a neighbor, Katie Barnard.

Ashley Englefield: She occurred to be residing in a trailer subsequent to Ray Wright’s cupboard store. … In order that trailer proper there may be the place Katie Barnard was staying.

That morning, Englefield believes, Barnard was watching Ray’s workshop from simply yards away.

Ashley Englefield: She was in a primary spot to be a supply of intelligence for Victor Grey. … She’s looking that window and she or he’s wanting on the store. 

Natalie Morales: So the place do we predict Victor Grey is on that morning?

Ashley Englefield: Through the course of that textual content dialog, we predict Victor is on the market on the street. He is ready for the textual content from Katie …

The one that will inform him when Ray Wright was alone at his store. It got here simply earlier than 10 a.m.: “Simply u n him bon.”  A number of hours later, Ray Wright would disappear.

Englefield introduced in Barnard for questioning in October 2018. Ray had been lacking for almost 300 days.

INVESTIGATOR ENGLEFIELD (police interview): If we do not have causes for why you probably did sure issues … and also you mislead us about doing the issues we all know you probably did … It makes you appear to be a killer.

KATIE BARNARD: OK.

INVESTIGATOR ENGLEFIELD: Are you a killer?

KATIE BARNARD: No.

Barnard would grudgingly turn out to be a pivotal witness.

Natalie Morales: What did Katie Barnard suppose she was doing this all for?

Ashley Englefield: She advised us that she was solely concerned as a result of she thought that Victor Grey needed to steal Raymond Wright’s truck.

INVESTIGATOR ENGLEFIELD (police interview): This wasn’t about Ray’s truck. … This does not begin and finish — with Victor Grey.

KATIE BARNARD: OK.

INVESTIGATOR ENGLEFIELD: It begins with any individual else … you had been about to say it.

KATIE BARNARD: Who? Bob?

Barnard knew the important thing gamers, together with the mysterious “Bob” named in that letter.

INVESTIGATOR ENGLEFIELD (police interview): Who’s Bob?

KATIE BARNARD: Bob is my ex-boyfriend.

INVESTIGATOR ENGLEFIELD: What’s Bob’s full title?

KATIE BARNARD: Bob Manor.

Robert “Bobby” Manor.

INVESTIGATOR ENGLEFIELD (police interview): And so what is the story then? What’s the entire backstory? …

KATIE BARNARD: Ray and Bob had been in a automotive accident.

When Ray Wright drove drunk six years earlier in November 2011, the married couple he struck was Robert Manor and his spouse. She almost died, and Manor suffered a number of damaged bones that left him with a everlasting limp and lingering ache.

Matt Chisholm: He was reminded … about it every day from his accidents. And he might by no means let it go.

After Ray Wright’s DUI conviction, he was ordered to pay greater than $275,000 in restitution to Manor and his spouse.

Ashley Englefield: He had sometimes made … funds … however not very a lot.

Police say Manor was not a person to stiff. He was a feared methamphetamine supplier in North Sacramento, authorities say, who had accomplished time for assault and promoting medicine, armed with a gun. And witnesses advised police that Manor was enraged and needed revenge towards Ray Wright.

Natalie Morales: That provides you a motive, proper?

Ashley Englefield: The cash and the revenge, largely.

A number of months earlier than Ray Wright went lacking – in a staggering coincidence – police imagine that Manor, whereas visiting Barnard, simply occurred to see the person who had smashed into him driving drunk years in the past – the person he blamed for shattering his life.

KATIE BARNARD (police interview): He came to visit sooner or later, and Ray was there.

Ray Wright was working in his store about 30 toes away. That may have been the second, Englefield says, when Manor lit the fuse — igniting his plot for revenge that had smoldered for years.

INVESTIGATOR ENGLEFIELD (police interview): Truck is gone.

KATIE BARNARD: Sure. And Ray’s been lacking.

INVESTIGATOR ENGLEFIELD: And Ray is gone.

KATIE BARNARD: Sure.

Barnard advised police when she heard the information that Ray Wright was lacking, she realized this wasn’t nearly stealing his truck.

KATIE BARNARD (police interview): I am freaking out.

INVESTIGATOR ENGLEFIELD: Why?

KATIE BARNARD: As a result of, like, it is apparent, you recognize like —

INVESTIGATOR ENGLEFIELD: About what?

KATIE BARNARD: That he is been taken or damage or one thing. The cops come —

INVESTIGATOR ENGLEFIELD: By who?

KATIE BARNARD: Victor and Bob.

Barnard says Victor Grey later advised her that morning, armed with a gun, he approached Ray Wright and punched him.

Ashley Englefield: I believe he then … someway secured Ray’s fingers and he was in a position to put Ray into his personal truck.

Then, Englefield says, Grey drove Ray Wright’s truck with a bloodied Ray Wright within the again to Manor’s home just a few miles away.

KATIE BARNARD (police interview): I do not know what they did with Ray.

Afraid she could be implicated in Ray Wright’s disappearance, Barnard advised investigators she confronted Manor.

Matt Chisholm: She requested him … about whether or not he killed Ray Wright, and he tells her that he did. … Manor then grabbed her across the neck, choked her, and advised her by no means to discuss this once more.

In accordance with Chisholm, Manor’s chilling admission got here in simply three phrases.

Matt Chisholm: He says, “I bought him.”

Natalie Morales: “I bought him.”

Matt Chisholm: “I bought him.” … We heard that quote from Mr. Manor from a number of witnesses…

Like Tessa Trimble.

TESSA TRIMBLE (police interview): I did not do something.

INVESTIGATOR ENGLEFIELD: I am not saying you probably did.

TESSA TRIMBLE: I am not concerned in it.

INVESTIGATOR ENGLEFIELD: I am not saying that you’re.

In an audio-only police interview, Englefield spoke to Trimble, a therapeutic massage therapist who had handled Manor’s accidents from the accident. She says they finally grew to become romantically concerned.

Ashley Englefield: Tessa was very hesitant to talk, initially. And she or he was additionally very afraid of Bobby.

TESSA TRIMBLE (police interview): You are gonna get me killed. I’ve to go. I gotta get out of right here.

It could take a while, however Trimble started to speak.

Ashley Englefield: She acquired a cellphone name from Bobby and Bobby had advised her “hey, come over to the home, we have to discuss.” In accordance with her, what she thought on the time was that they had been gonna speak about their relationship.

However when she noticed Manor, Trimble says there was one thing else on his thoughts.

INVESTIGATOR ENGLEFIELD (police interview): What did he discuss to you about?

TESSA TRIMBLE: He advised me he took care of — no matter. One thing he was making an attempt to maintain for a very long time.

TESSA TRIMBLE: He did not give me particulars, he simply advised me that he took care of it. He felt good about that.

INVESTIGATOR ENGLEFIELD: When he mentioned that, who did you suppose he was speaking about?

TESSA TRIMBLE: He was speaking about Ray Wright.

INVESTIGATOR ENGLEFIELD: Why would you suppose he was speaking about Ray Wright?

TESSA TRIMBLE: As a result of he had an issue with that man. He talked about on quite a few events he needed to get that man…

Ashley Englefield: It — it sounded to me like … one of many solely individuals … that Bobby might inform about this was Tessa. And so he did.

INVESTIGATOR ENGLEFIELD (police interview): Bobby’s tellin’ you what? He bought him?

TESSA TRIMBLE: Mm-hmm.

INVESTIGATOR ENGLEFIELD: Is that what he mentioned is “I bought him?”

TESSA TRIMBLE: Yeah.

Matt Chisholm: Everybody knew that Manor was speaking about Ray Wright. … After which the primary time they see him after the disappearance, see Manor, he says, “I bought him.”

In March 2021, prosecutors charged Manor and Grey with the kidnapping and homicide of Ray Wright despite the fact that police had but to search out Ray. Each males pleaded not responsible. Manor, going through a life sentence with out parole, had a really completely different story to inform.

Natalie Morales (on cellphone in jail visiting space): Are you able to hear me Mr. Manor?

Robert Manor: I am harmless.

Natalie Morales: You had nothing to do … with the homicide of Ray Wright?

Robert Manor: Nothing to do with it.

RAY WRIGHT IS STILL MISSING BUT THE CASE GOES TO TRIAL

Ashley Englefield:  It was nonetheless a lacking particular person, however all of us assumed it was a murder.

Natalie Morales: Did they inform you, at any level, we imagine your brother is lifeless?

Dean Wright: Sure. … Possibly three-and-a-half years in.

Throughout these agonizing years, Ray Wright’s household – one after the other – finally got here to the identical conclusion: Ray was now not alive. And their grief was compounded by not having his physique to bury.

Kennedy Wright: That is undoubtedly nonetheless … a supply of like ache for us. There was no … laying him to relaxation. Like he does not get the ship away that he deserves.

Prosecutor Matt Chisholm hoped to supply the household a measure of justice by convicting  Manor and Grey. Approaching trial, Chisholm’s essential concern was the credibility of his witnesses.

Natalie Morales: You have bought … witnesses … who’ve a historical past of medicine and drug use. Does that create a complication with the jury?

Matt Chisholm: Sure. All these witnesses had important credibility points.

Together with one other witness who had come ahead – Victor Grey’s cellmate.

In an audio-only interview, the cellmate says Victor Grey advised him about Ray Wright’s tortured, closing hours in Bob Manor’s home.

GRAY’S CELLMATE: Effectively, I began off speaking to him. And I am actual comfy speaking to him.

MATT CHISHOLM: What did Grey inform you?

GRAY’S CELLMATE: He delivered dude to Bobby. Alive although.

The cellmate claims Grey advised him there was plastic sheeting laying on the ground.

GRAY’S CELLMATE: Plastic in every single place.

In accordance with  the cellmate, Grey mentioned Manor had Ray poisoned.

GRAY’S CELLMATE: He poisoned him.  

The cellmate says Grey additionally advised him that Manor had Ray’s physique dismembered.

GRAY’S CELLMATE: Minimize the physique up.

MATT CHISHOLM: Did he inform you what they did with it?

GRAY’S CELLMATE: Nope. … He did not inform me none of that.

Natalie Morales: Victor was your confederate on this kidnapping and homicide plot.

Robert Manor: There is not any connection in any way with me and Victor … earlier than the incident.

Robert Manor spoke to “48 Hours” from the Sacramento County Jail.

Robert Manor: They searched my home. … They tore the carpet up. They did all the pieces like that. There was no DNA discovered.

Natalie Morales: Effectively since you put plastic everywhere in the ground.

Robert Manor: No.

Matt Chisholm: He was good at protecting his tracks. He bought different individuals to do the soiled work.

Folks like Victor Grey says Chisholm.

Matt Chisholm: We discover … all of the proof of Ray Wright’s demise.

Natalie Morales: In Victor Grey’s van.

Matt Chisholm: The cleanup is finished, and Victor Grey tells you that on the jail name.

VICTOR GRAY’S WIFE (jail name): I miss you.

VICTOR GRAY: I miss you, too.

In a jailhouse go to together with his spouse after the high-speed chase with police, Victor Grey made a strong admission, says Chisholm.

Matt Chisholm: He … virtually sort of confesses to his spouse and brings his spouse into the know.

VICTOR GRAY (jail name): To wash up the scene or no matter. I needed to clear up. You recognize what I imply?

Matt Chisholm: He mentioned, “I needed to clear up the scene,” as if he was virtually bitter about it.

VICTOR GRAY’S WIFE (jail name): Such a multitude, honey.

VICTOR GRAY: Yep. However he performed me. He used me.

Matt Chisholm: We imagine that Victor was alleged to be paid $10,000.

KATIE BARNARD (police interview): He was pissed off as a result of he did not receives a commission by Bob.

That is why prosecutors imagine Victor Grey wrote the three-page letter discovered on his cellphone. In it, he mentioned, “I am accomplished ready and want a fats bundle at this time,” which means the cash Grey believed he was owed. He advised Bob Manor to maintain him as a result of he had “hand-delivered you your revenge.”

However Manor by no means paid, Chisholm says, so Victor Grey determined to ship some revenge of his personal.

He was on his option to Manor’s home with all of the Ray Wright proof nonetheless contained in the van, in line with Chisholm. That is when police tried pulling Grey over.

Matt Chisholm: Had Victor Grey been paid, then possibly he is not driving throughout city with this treasure trove of proof behind the van.

The trial lastly started in March 2023, greater than 5 years after Ray Wright went lacking.  Since there was nonetheless no physique, the case had turn out to be a no-body murder. 

Matt Chisholm: No-body instances are powerful to show. You lose lots of info by shedding the physique. … We developed each single lead doable as a way to show this case.

As Chisholm absolutely anticipated, the credibility of his witnesses got here beneath relentless fireplace.

Matt Chisholm: The thrust of the protection was these witnesses are saying regardless of the cops need them to say as a way to assist themselves.

KATIE BARNARD (police interview): I am petrified of them.

KATIE BARNARD (police interview): They’re harmful individuals. They’ve weapons.

However Barnard, who was granted immunity and by no means charged with against the law, emerged as a star witness, says Chisholm, for her damaging testimony about Grey’s involvement and Manor’s admission.

Matt Chisholm: After which it was one thing that Manor was making an attempt to maintain beneath wraps. Though that he mentioned it to her, it was one thing that she was to take to her grave.

In courtroom, Manor and Grey’s protection groups zeroed in on the prosecution’s lack of direct bodily proof towards Robert Manor — and the absence of a physique.

Matt Chisholm: I reminded the jury that it’d been 1,889 days and nobody on the face of this earth had seen Ray Wright.

The trial, says Peggy, left her imagining the unimaginable — Ray’s closing moments.

Peggy Wright: It is even worse … to search out out … what it will need to have been like on the finish for him. How scared he will need to have been. … He knew what was gonna occur.

After an eight-day trial, the jury bought the case. 

Kennedy Wright: I keep in mind like squeezing Haley’s hand and like considering I used to be gonna throw up, like whereas we had been ready for the decision.

“A BITTERSWEET VICTORY”

Natalie Morales: How lengthy earlier than you bought phrase there is a verdict?

Matt Chisholm: The jury was out about 4 hours.

It was late afternoon on March 17, 2023. The decision was in.

Kennedy Wright: It was essentially the most gut-wrenching day of my life.

Manor and Grey had been discovered responsible of first-degree homicide and kidnapping.

Kennedy Wright: Nevertheless it did not deliver him again. So, it was like — it was a bittersweet victory.

Peggy Wright: It is … unthinkable that somebody would do one thing like that. Like, you may’t think about that your beloved can be swept off the earth like that.

April 28 – the day of reckoning for Manor and Grey. Earlier than listening to their sentence, they heard from Ray Wright’s household.

Kennedy Wright: I mentioned, “my dad might be in heaven, like amongst the angels, like the place he belongs, and you will be in jail for all times … the place you belong.”

Peggy Wright: We’ll by no means be the identical. None of us. You simply cannot think about the way it impacts the household.

Manor and Grey had been sentenced to life with out the potential for parole. Grey by no means responded to “48 Hours”‘ request for an interview. However Manor insisted there had been a miscarriage of justice.

Robert Manor: I didn’t have something to do with something to do with Ray Wright’s disappearance in any respect …

Natalie Morales: Ray Wright’s physique has by no means been discovered.

Robert Manor: No.

Natalie Morales: The place did you bury him?

Robert Manor: I — I by no means buried Ray Wright. I by no means chopped Ray Wright up. I by no means had something to do with Ray Wright’s disappearance or homicide. Nothing.

Natalie Morales: He has a household that deserves solutions. … They wanna know why? Why did you do that?

Robert Manor: I did not. I didn’t do that.

And there was one thing else Manor needed to say. He claimed it was Grey and Barnard who had plotted to set him up by kidnapping and killing Ray Wright.

Robert Manor: They got here up with this and tried to come back and ask me for cash.

Grey and Barnard tried to extort Manor for $20,000, he says — a declare that was by no means raised in courtroom. Manor was making it for the primary time throughout our interview.

Natalie Morales: What do you make of that argument?

Matt Chisholm: Wow. It — it — that is a whopper, proper?

Matt Chisholm: There is not any proof of — of something like that.

Chisholm argues it makes rather more sense that Manor was the mastermind.

Matt Chisholm: You even have this monster motive. … Revenge.

Robert Manor:  Let the proof communicate for itself. … Not the three folks that … mentioned the identical precise phrase. You recognize, “I bought him.”  I did not get no person.

The remnants of Ray Wright’s life that had been discovered within the van — these silent witnesses —  did communicate loud and clear.

Kennedy Wright: His well-known yellow raincoat that he had had for like 15 years, like soaked in blood.

Haley Kendall: Yeah, I believe seeing his damaged glasses is what sealed the deal for me.

Kennedy Wright: That killed us.

Haley says even her younger daughter Ashtyn was overwhelmed by shedding Grandpa Ray.

Haley Kendall (crying): She at all times thought individuals had been gonna go lacking. … I caught her singing in the dead of night – songs that she would make up about the place her grandpa went.

Sgt. Zack Lewis: I hope we did sufficient for the household. … Till we discover the physique, it is nonetheless an open lacking particular person’s case with the Rocklin Police Division.

Natalie Morales: On the finish of the day, do you imagine justice was served?

Matt Chisholm: Sure. … justice was served. … It offers this household someplace to begin over.

Consumed by Ray’s disappearance and demise for years, family and friends determined it was time to rejoice his life.

Dean Wright: Ray was, to me, my first finest and eternally buddy.

On at the present time, June 17 – day 1,983 since he went lacking, Ray Wright’s presence crammed the room and the hearts of those that liked him.

Natalie Morales: How would you like your dad to be remembered, Haley?

Haley Kendall: Precisely how he’s remembered, lovable, accountable, inventive, considerate …

Kennedy Wright: Like, I undoubtedly used this complete occasion as motivation to do higher. … It is all like a testomony to my dad.

Peggy Wright: I hope he is at peace … free as a fowl.

If in case you have any details about Ray Wright’s whereabouts please name Rocklin Police at (916) 625-5400.

Produced by Mead Stone. Greg Fisher is the event producer. Kat Teurfs is the sphere producer. Doreen Schechter, Gary Winter and Mead Stone are the producer/editors. Anthony Venditti is the content material analysis supervisor. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.