Dark Side of the Mountain /// Part 1 /// 882 | Forensic Files

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>> [music] >> Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks
for listening. I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man with a reminder that there is no way out of
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everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer, let's talk some true crime. >> [music]
[music] [music] [music] [music] >> Two men, each possibly grappling with his own version of a midlife crisis,
vanish 10 months apart from the same tiny town in the Colorado Rockies under eerily similar circumstances.
The odds of this happening seem frankly astronomical. Yet, in September of 1987,
a solitary 47-year-old man and his faithful dog vanished from the near ghost town of Silver Plume, Colorado, a
once booming silver hub a century earlier. Months later, in August of 1988, another man, staring down the barrel of
50 years of age, retraced the missing man's steps to investigate the mystery. He, too, disappeared.
Naturally, both disappearances had a profound and lasting impact upon the close-knit community of fewer than 200
residents. In a place where practically everyone knew one another, it isn't difficult to
imagine the shock and grief that resulted when one of their own vanished without a trace or turned up dead.
This is the true crime story of Tom Young who went missing on the dark side of the mountain
and two, the story of Keith Reinhard who may have vanished forever. This is True Crime Garage.
>> [music] [music] >> Today we are headed out to a place called Silver Plume, [music] Colorado.
This is a very picturesque old mining town located in Clear Creek County, which is in the center central western
part of Colorado. Currently, it is home to about 200 full-time residents living in the shadow of the mountains.
You have a few businesses and the train station down at the bottom of a ravine and some quaint homes with a lot of
windows that dot the mountainside at Silver Plume. Very interesting looking place. I've never been there before.
Only 200 full-time residents, so this is a very unique place to live and visit. Between the town's founding and current
day, there was a massive fire and a deadly avalanche. So, this is a city that and town that is used to
its share of scares. And today's story is not far from that at all. Silver Plume is often described as a living
ghost town. After the silver crash of the 1890s, the town had seen some dark times and mysterious tragedies going all
the way back to the late 1800s. Presiding over the town is a granite shrine marking the final resting place
of miner Clifford Griffin. In 1887, the Englishman came to Silver Plume following his fiance's death on the eve
of their wedding night in New York. >> [clears throat] >> According to findagrave, he quickly
became wealthy upon discovering a rich vein of ore containing both silver and gold. But as it seems, he was very much
still overcome with grief. He spent his evenings alone in a modest mountainside cabin that he had built. He would sit
and play the violin late at night alone. On June 19, 1887, the 39-year-old dug a grave into the rock in front of
his cabin. Then the sharp sound of a gunshot rang out. When miners raced up to see what
had happened, they found Griffin had fallen face first into his grave dead from a bullet piercing his heart.
A note found inside his cabin requested that he be left in his stone grave he had dug into the earth, and he was. The
miners erected a granite marker to stand over the grave. And I tell that story here, Captain, because this bizarre
mysterious story that we are going to tell today that takes place 100 years later after this Englishman, Clifford
Griffin, seemingly took his own life, this story has some markings that could be
considered similar to the death of what the townsfolk will tell you is the strange death of Clifford Griffin. A
little more about Silver Plume, it is nestled deep within the Arapaho National Forest cradled between two peaks of the
Rocky Mountains in the Clear Creek Valley. This is very interesting because because it sits at
the bottom between two mountains, Silver Plume sits draped in shadows. The north
side sometimes experiences less than two and a half hours of direct sunlight a day
and the south side is sunless for about six weeks of the year. Silver Plume is 46 miles to the west of Denver right off
of Interstate 70. Now that we got the skinny on the location, let's get into this week's true crime story. We have to
introduce to you Keith Reinhard. He was born to parents John and Ruth on September 10th, 1938.
He has one sibling, a sister Lynn. Keith grew up in the Chicago area. In the 1960s, Keith served this great
country in the United States Army and was stationed in Germany where he met his first wife, Astrid. They had a son
together. His name Sven. This was while he was still stationed abroad. The couple ultimately ended up returning
to the states, coming back to the states to live in the greater Chicago area. And
once they did this, Captain, they welcomed two more children, another son, Kai Allen, and a daughter, Tiffany.
Eventually, however, the couple would separate, with Keith remaining a devoted father to
his three children. Sometime around 1966, Keith begins working as a sports writer
for the Daily Herald, a newspaper located in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights.
Keith's beat was primarily local high school sports, but he also sometimes would cover the NFL
Chicago Bears and the NBA's Chicago Bulls. I pulled an example of Keith's work from this September 20th, 1975
article to give you a little example of Keith's work here. The headline was, "Wheeling collects 22-8
win by Keith Reinhard." And it reads, "Wheeling came up with a mixed bag of heroes Friday night and notched one in
the win column for new head coach Gary Clinon by downing the visitors from Fenton
22-8. A blend of hard-nosed running, key passing, and alert defense all played a
part in the first wildcat triumph of the campaign after two previous setbacks. The cats never trailed following a first
quarter touchdown and were never really threatened. Keith Reinhard, known to co-workers around the office as KR,
he was universally liked and described as a responsible and hard-working person, as well as a friend and a mentor
to his colleagues. He did marry again. It's reported that Keith was happily married to his second
wife, Carolyn. This is in As opposed to unhappily married to his first wife. This is in 1985 or '86, the sources vary
on when he married his second wife. But then, in early 1988, Keith seemed to be feeling the first
stirrings of what some would call a midlife crisis. In June of 1988, Keith was just months from turning 50 years of
age. And he had worked by this time in his life, captain, as a sports writer for 22 years, when he decided he needed
a break. He wanted to take stock of his accomplishments, do some soul-searching and reflection,
and chart a path for what may lay ahead. On the phone with his long-time friend,
his name Ted Parker, Keith decided that he was going to go out and visit the small former silver mining town of
Silver Plume, Colorado. I want to point out here something that is left out of this story frequently. Two things.
First, his friendship with this Ted Parker goes way, way back. Okay, so Keith was
turning 50. He's 6 years older than Ted Parker. The two actually grew up across the street
from one another. Knew each other at when they were boys. I believe that they first started talking to each other and
were aware of one another when Ted Parker was like five or six, and Keith would have been about 11 or 12. So,
they're from the same neighborhood, grew up across the street from one another. Ted Parker was a very good athlete when
he was in high school. Now, by the time Ted Parker's in high school, Keith would
have already graduated several years prior. Their friendship would be a lifetime friendship,
because at some point in Keith's adult life, Ted Parker's already living down in Silver Plume. Right. And he would go
down there for an annual visit and visit Ted Parker and basically stay for about a week or so down in Silver
Plume once a year, and it's reported that he did this for like 12 consecutive years before he actually decided to He's
ultimately going to decide to to move there for an extended stay. We shouldn't say move
there, but go and stay there for an extended stay in 1988. >> But doesn't he tell his wife, like, "If
I like it down here, if I find a path, I'd like you to come down with me?" Yeah, she's
>> Maybe a possible stay, long-term stay. Yeah, she's mostly on board with this,
it sounds like, but a little reluctant. He loves Silver Plume, has said so much that he visits there once a year,
consecutive years, and I think the idea was, he's like, "Hey, I I've reached this point in my
life, I can get a break from my job. They're willing to let me have an extended leave.
I'll go down to Silver Plume, and if I can make and sort of set up a life there, she can move down and and stay
with me." Keep in mind, I mean, his kids are all grown by this point. Right. He's
worked for the newspaper for 22 years, and it's not uncommon for folks, when they start to get up there in years, to
want to do a little soul-searching and maybe change their life in in what may seem like a dramatic fashion, but
really, the this whole idea of moving to a place like Silver Plume appeals to me.
It seems like you're living in this very beautiful mountainside community, where you can strap on your boots every
day and walk to everywhere that you want to go. And I think this might have been
one, an adventure for him, but two, also maybe a way to ease himself into retirement, right? Where he's where he
would only be doing what he wants to do, rather than reporting for work each and
every day. Well, the term midlife crisis isn't a great term, cuz for some people,
it's a it's a awakening. Oh, yes, a resurgence, if you will. So, Parker, his friend Ted
Parker, is interesting because this is a bit of a resource that most folks wouldn't have, right? Like, if you
just show up to a small town like Silver Plume, most of the time, I would assume you're
you're strolling in there and you don't know anybody. But he's known this guy for his
basically the entirety of his life, the majority of his life. And Parker is well set up down there in
Silver Plume. So, by this point, Parker is had been living there for a considerable amount of time.
He's running a small business. It sounds like he owns several buildings that are located there. Some of them he
restored. Now, although Silver Plume is little more than a dot on the map, Ted Parker's assuring his friend, like,
"Hey, if if you do want to come down here and try to hang out or have an extended
stay in this peaceful burg that's tucked within the shadow of the Rockies, this might be exactly what you need, my
friend." I mean, at some point, Ted Parker moved there and never went back to the Chicago area. Yeah, but I
question this, because if it's such a magical place, don't you think more people would live
there? I didn't I I don't know it to be magical. What I What I What I'm seeing here is Ted
Parker fell in love with this place, and at some point, Keith fell in love with this place to
the point where he returns to it year after year for an annual trip. So, this is probably something that the two
shared in common, and they seem to both love this place. There was a lot of thought, I think, that went into this
idea, because the general idea here, guys, is that Keith was going to go down there and just stay for 3 months.
And while it's commonly reported that he his intentions, his sole intention, was
to go down there on this extended vacation and start to write a novel. He had always wanted to write a novel. We
know he's a writer, he'd been writing for the newspaper for 22 years. That's always the short version of this. But
the longer version, and probably the more correct version, is Keith wanted a break from his life.
Keith wanted a break from his work. Yeah, he always wanted to write a novel, and that is certainly part of this
story, but he also said things to his wife and friends back in Chicago, like, "Look, I'm getting up there in age. I
want to get there I want to get in better shape. I want to focus on a few different things and try a few different
things before I get too old." You know, we got to keep in mind, you might live to be 80, 90 years old. Many of us won't
be hiking the mountains when we are 80 and 90 years old. Right. And so, that was part of this adventure. This was
going to be not just a a trip to hunker down and and bang out a novel. No, this was much more than that. The novel, in
my opinion, from what I can see, seems to just be a piece of that. He wanted to kind of go down there and live in this
town and experience this town for 90 days, for 3 months, rather than just 1 week. Well, like you said, it's a it's a
break from his current reality, but almost a refresh or a a new start to old Keith. To dive into his
relationship with his wife a little bit more, and this is from the sheriff's department out there.
This is not my opinion. The sheriff's department has reported on this that Keith stayed in regular contact with his
wife Carolyn. They would regularly have conversation phone conversations most nights.
When the sheriff's departments would speak to Carolyn, they would learn that she was often sad.
You know, she was sad about him being gone and she even said that the phone calls, while she enjoyed talking with
Keith, would kind of upset her. She was intending to go down there and visit with him. They had a scheduled visit.
She was going to come down and spend a few days with Keith, but then as you will see,
things got went off the rails here before that could happen. And the captain's absolutely right.
There was some talk that if things go well for Keith while he's down here, he will permanently stay and Carolyn
will eventually join her husband down and set up roots in Silver Plume. Upon his
arrival to the town, Keith rented an apartment behind an abandoned Catholic Church. He
also leased the adjacent space across from his friend Ted Parker's business. So, Ted Parker
owned and ran the KP Cafe. This, from my understanding at the time, was the only
cafe in town. In addition to being a journalist and a writer, Keith Reinhardt was also a skilled
amateur photographer and he opened up So, he's running this small antique shop that he's leasing
from his friend Ted Parker, but a big part of that what he wanted to do with that antique shop here, Captain, was
he's going to display and sell his matted and framed photographs and some other items. So, the space that
Keith was renting for the shop was formally a bookstore. The name of that bookstore was the Charing Cross Station
Bookstore. This had actually been run by a local man. His name is Tom Young. Now,
not much is known about Tom Young. In particular, not much is known about his early life. But what we do know
may be more mysterious than the Keith Reinhardt part of this very, very strange story. We do know that Tom Young
had been an art teacher at Arvada High School. He was a US Army Special Forces veteran.
In 1969 at the age of 30, Tom pulled up stakes and moved to the mountain hamlet of Silver Plume,
Colorado. Upon his arrival in town, Tom settled in on the south side of Pendleton Mountain,
which was perpetually shrouded from the sunshine for a portion of the year. The south side of the mountain is also
known as the dark side due to a strange environmental quirk based on the town's position between two towering peaks of
the Rockies. Tom was considered to be creative, a touch eccentric. >> [clears throat]
>> He was generally well regarded by the locals in Silver Plume. He But he was a man that was very private.
Not extremely outgoing. And the locals seemed to respect his privacy. And although he kept mostly to
himself, folks got used to seeing him throughout town and among the hiking paths.
Now, one thing that he was well known for was his dog. So, he has this this deer dog that that
you can't even call this a dog because it's more of Tom's companion. The two went everywhere together. He had a black
Labrador Retriever named Gus, who was always by his side. Old Gus. Old Gus. >> What a great name for a dog. Especially
a black Labrador Retriever. Tom owned and operated, as we said, a small bookstore on Main Street in Silver
Plume in the old Knights of Pythias building in the tiny village of fewer than So, today it's 200
residents, but at the time, I believe the residency was more of close to 150, 140. So, very small
very small community here. And the important thing to note is that the bookstore that Tom ran would then
become the antique {slash} photograph store run by Keith Reinhardt. On September
7th, 1987. So, this is a little less than a year prior to Keith Reinhardt arriving
to stay for his extended stay in Silver Plume. Tom Young on this day is 47 years old.
He closes the front door of his bookstore and along with his faithful companion Gus
walked off toward the majestic Rocky Mountains and then seemingly vanished without a
trace. Now, at first, Captain, it was assumed he had gone on a lengthy vacation.
So, his disappearance sort of goes unnoticed. Tom had told friends that he might be visiting Europe at some
point. In fact, he had mentioned that this trip might be sooner rather than later. So, in the
short term, if Tom was unaccounted for or could not be reached by friends, they just sort of assumed that he had
went on this trip that he had been talking about. But as the weeks passed and no one had heard from Tom,
his friends and family grew concerned. So, they report him missing to the Clear Creek County Sheriff's Office, who then
opened up an investigation. What they find here, Captain, is the authorities say they find no
evidence that Tom had traveled abroad or traveled outside of Silver Plume. There
was no record of any type of plane ticket and Gus was not at the kennel that Tom would
typically use to board him if he needed to leave town. So, neither man nor dog could be located
by the authorities. And they checked Tom's apartment, obviously. His vehicle, a Chevy Blazer, was sitting in the
driveway exactly where he had left it when he had locked up his store for the day. So, the last time this man could be
accounted for was on September 7th, 1987. Tom Young and his steadfast companion Gus
seem to have disappeared into thin air, leaving behind a mystery that confounded
authorities and unsettled the close-knit [music] town of Silver Plume, Colorado.
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rosettastone.com/pod50 and start learning today. >> [music] [music] >> All right, we are back. Cheers, mates.
[music] Thanks for joining us here in the garage. For not one mystery, but seems like two mysteries. Yeah, and I
think you could easily go we might have three or four mysteries here. This is a story that bear with us
for a minute, because it takes a moment to set this one up. But this is in all the time we've been
chilling here in the garage, this one is about as strange as as they come. So, let's fast forward here.
Several months, right? So, Tom Young, along with his black Labrador, Gus, they vanish without a trace less than a
year before Keith Reinhardt arrives to stay in Silver Plume. And of course, we know the mysterious circumstances
surrounding that disappearance. Yeah. Keith knew the circumstances as well. So, Keith, this part's
interesting, because remember Keith would regularly visit Silver Plume. And as you kind of keep going back to,
there's not a whole lot of people there. So, if you're going there and hanging out for a week, year after year after
year, you're going to kind of bump into everybody at some point or pass them in walking or maybe chit-chat with them at
some point. And Tom had been there for a while, for for many years before he went
missing. So, while they didn't know each other very well, it's reported that Keith and Tom were
acquaintances. And so, he they had met on more than one occasion. Keith gets there, he learns that this guy's
missing. He also learns that, "Oh, I'm now taking over his bookstore and running an antique shop out of it."
The guy's been missing for a little less than a year. Keith was first intrigued by the
disappearance story, then inspired, and ultimately, the townsfolk say he became obsessed
with Tom's story. >> Well, like you were saying, he he wanted to go there and possibly write a book,
but I don't think he had a subject matter for that book. >> Correct. From what I could find, when he
left the Chicago area, he had this dream of of starting a novel, subject unknown. He arrives
into Silver Plume, learns about this disappearance of this man that he that he knew.
And keep in mind, what's missing from our telling of this story and from everybody else's is, what are they
talking about at the tavern? What are they talking about at the church? What are the rumors in Silver Plume about the
disappearance of Tom Young? I'm sure they are all over the shop and range from very simple, easy to understand to
very mysterious, could have been anything. And so, Keith arrives in the town and he's like, "Whoa, here's this
story. And not only is this story very interesting to me, I'm kind of walking in this man's footsteps a bit, working
in the same space Right. with my antique store." People of Silver Plume say he became obsessed with Tom Young's story,
the story of his disappearance. And then this very quickly becomes the subject of his
novel. Now, I've not seen, not had the not been able to read any of his workings on
this novel. It doesn't sound like he got very far into the process, but what I want to point out from the little bit
that I've been made aware of, it sounds like this was going to be the inspiration for
a work of fiction. He wasn't working on document a documentary about this missing man
that's all factual and in his own personal investigation. >> Yeah, but more like a based on a true
story. >> I don't even think it was that. I I mean, really, when you examine a lot of
good fiction out there, a lot of it is surrounded in truth and fact, uh real-life experiences and such. I think
that that that's what he was that was the yarn that he was going to spin. Right. So, 9 months before Keith
Reinhardt arrives in Silver Plume, 47-year-old Tom Young vanishes after closing the front door and locking up
his Charing Cross Station bookstore for the day. That brings us back around full
circle to 49-year-old sports writer Keith Reinhardt leaving the Chicago suburban area for the small mining town
of Colorado, Silver Plume, as said, with his wife's reluctant blessing. He takes this 3-month leave of absence
from his job as a journalist, and he's there with his good friend, lifetime friend, Ted Parker,
who is running the KP Cafe across the street from Keith Reinhardt's now antique store.
Ted Parker would later tell many people that when he starts to make Keith aware of
the prior occupant's unknown fate, Tom Young's unknown fate, Right. as said, like
I think I think it's important to include this part. He says that it was almost like nothing
that had piqued Keith's interest so much in many, many years. You know, kind of that aha moment. You had said an
awakening earlier. That's how I would kind of describe what Ted Parker is saying about him
telling his friend Keith about this other man disappearing. Well, you said he wasn't that far along in the process,
but I think this is hard to decipher. And you'd know this better than most people, cuz you actually wrote a book.
But I've talked to some writers where like, "Well, I just got to do the research. I just got to do the planning.
The writing's not going to take me that long once I have this portion done." That's quite [snorts] insightful. I
would agree with that. I I think everybody has a different process. Right. But I'm with you on that. Even
oftentimes for the stories we tell here in the garage, one of the hardest parts for me is,
well, what's the shape of that story? Right. Again, without being able to review his work, and there's not great
reporting on his work with this novel. The reporting is that the authorities do find some stuff, and and we'll get into
that later, but the best I could come up with here, Captain, was it sounds like he was well on his way working through
the outline of the soon-to-be novel. He was fleshing out the Tom Young character,
and some reports state that he was creating his other protagonist, and then other
reports say that the Tom Young character was going to be named Guy Gypsum. So, either Guy Gypsum, without having seen
the work, is either another character and Tom Young would be a character, or the real-life Tom Young is going to
morph into this fictional character of Guy Gypsum for his book. >> Which was my nickname in high school.
>> Mine was the midnight hammer. The character appears to be, from what folks who knew both,
they say they believe the character was a combination of both Keith and Tom Young.
Which some would even say that Keith was starting to see the two as almost kindred spirits,
right? [snorts] That they for some reason they were both put in the same place at different times.
But it's often reported that they both had that they had very different personalities, where Keith was very
outgoing, very positive, very optimistic. Right. Tom Young was more reserved, kept to himself, would prefer
to read alone rather than hang out with a whole bunch of people. Yeah, but maybe
he just viewed it as serendipitous that he came across this story when he's looking for subject matter for his
novel. Six weeks after Keith arrives in Colorado, so this is more than 10 months
after he was last seen, the skeletal remains of the missing Tom Young and his dog Gus are discovered.
Hunters stumble across the remains on Mount Sherman. This is about an hour's hike outside of
the town of Silver Plume. Tom's skeleton is found propped up near a tree and Gus's remains were found a
short distance away. Also nearby, they found a gun. This is a Smith & Wesson Model 36 and a backpack.
Both man and dog had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. Local authorities learn that Tom Young
had purchased a gun 4 days before he went missing and then they rule his death a suicide.
The autopsy report lists suicide as the manner of death. This is something we're going to circle
back to. So, bear with me, please. Most reports state that no ballistics were ever performed on the
bullets that killed each. Now, locals, however, were not so certain that Tom died by his own hand.
Their belief, they couldn't fathom the idea that Tom would ever hurt his loyal companion Gus. So, because of
that, the locals suspect some foul play. Then, there were whispers that surfaced
that when this man was found, eventually located, that a tarp was placed over his body.
All right, I want to stop our timeline right here for a moment, pause it, because we need to get eyeballs deep
into this part of the story here. It might help to clear any confusion, but it also will very likely add further
to the mystery. So, these two men, about the same age, they rent the same space for a small shop from the same guy. The
one to do it first, Tom Young, vanishes along with his dog and only after several weeks
of Keith Reinhard arriving for an extended stay in Silver Plume, Tom Young and his dog, their bodies are found,
both shot and killed, found in the woods. Authorities say suicide, townsfolk are really curious and wonder if it
could have been something else. Well, not to critique you, but you're you're not hitting home the idea that these
bodies were found underneath a tarp. For good reason. The reporting is all over the shop on
the finding of Tom Young. Right. And that's interesting that you bring that up, because I too have seen reports that
say both man and dog were found under the tarp. I've also seen a report that states that the dog was found a distance
away and only Tom Young was found under a tarp. The general consensus seems to be, well, he didn't shoot himself and
then hide his body under a tarp. It's also not entirely impossible that he was already under the tarp before he shot
himself. Exactly. And the dog may have already been there with him as well. And this could be a
nothing burger because narrative matters. And what we've learned over these 10 years of
doing this show is there's little details that sometimes make the story a little bit more of a story. Like Brian
Shaffer went into a bar and is never seen leaving the bar. What happened to him? Did he leave the
bar? Little details that once you start investigating the case and you start talking to other individuals that
investigated case, they're like, well, one, this guy could have shot himself underneath the tarp.
And then that explains it away and it's a simple explanation. Or he wasn't found underneath the tarp,
it's a nothing burger. It would be really insightful to figure out where the first
version of this tarp portion of the story go, but the thing here too that the two major parts of this, Captain,
are very obviously the tarp, number one, but also the gun. Right? So, some reports never mention a
tarp, others do. As far as the gun and the ballistics of such are concerned, I would like to crowdsource this to all
of our garage friends out there, because here's what I have. Some reports stating
it was a suicide dog-side, other reports stating that it was changed from suicide
to mysterious death or even unsolved. Here's a man with his dog, Gus. And they're like famous
in that town to be the best of buddies. Do we have any understanding of the health of the dog? [snorts]
Because I do know some dog owners that are like, hey, if I if I'm going to have to put him down, I'm going to put him
down myself. I would say more importantly, do we know have a great understanding of the physical health or
mental health of Tom Young? Right. Because while it seems inconceivable to most of us
regular folks, there are many, many occasions, sadly, where a mother or father or both
have wiped out their family or killed their kids before killing themselves. Right.
But, regardless of Here's one thing that makes me stick with this story and want
to sink my teeth into it more. Regardless of the reporting, one thing that seems extremely
consistent is authorities say suicide, the people of Silver Plume who would have known Tom
Young very well, they're all very suspicious of this ruling. And a lot of talk in town at the time
that maybe the authorities got it wrong. So, whether it was changed to mysterious
death or unsolved, Right. Further digging is required here. Now, locals arrange for a memorial
service to honor Tom Young and Gus. So, this is going to take place on August 6th. Keith attends this service and it
it's referred to as a service a lot of times, but I think we should refer to it as what it it is sounds like to me, more
of a party, right? A celebration of this man and dog's life. Uh because it it's referred to in the
local papers as a beer party that a lot of people attended. So, Keith attends this service or party. His
fascination with the mysterious circumstances surrounding this man's disappearance have increased since the
discovery of the remains. Earlier that same day, so this service party takes place in the
evening and it sounds like it goes late into the night. But, earlier the same day, Keith had
actually contacted his bosses at the Daily Herald. And he's requesting that when he returns from his
sabbatical, that he be able to cover the Chicago Bulls for the paper. Remember, this is right at
the height of Michael Jordan's rise to superstardom. Yeah, this would have been a big deal, cuz like you said, he mostly
did high school sports. Yeah, filling in on occasion for the Bears and the Bulls, but I I believe
what's happening here is the the person in charge of covering the Bulls was either moving on to another
position with the paper or was leaving the paper. And when he became aware of this opening, he wanted to
toss his hat in the ring for consideration. To me, this is one of the markers in our
timeline that doesn't seem to be in dispute. And so, to me, this is a clear indication that Keith was
had every intention of returning to his life after this 3-month break was completed. So, he's
making plans for the future here. As said, the party is on August 6th. Keith attends that party. It's held at
the KP building in Silver Plume, hosted by a Denver radio station. By now, the writer is fully obsessed
with the mysterious disappearance. Sources report that Keith was seen talking at length with a woman
whose name was either Greta or Gretchen at the event. People believe she was from out of town.
Rumor has it that she may have hailed from Denver. He also seems to be having a good time,
drinking freely and getting pretty buzzed while loudly confiding in party-goers that he doesn't believe that
Tom Young's death was a suicide. He also declares to all attendees of his intention to hike to the top of the of
Mount Pendleton. It's reported that his friends first take this declaration with
a grain of salt because Keith is not an experienced hiker. He's not in great shape. Not in great shape.
And he has a fear of heights. So, the following afternoon, Keith closes up his antique shop a bit earlier than normal.
Most reports say around 2:30 p.m. And despite this fear of heights, his inexperience as a hiker and potentially
a hangover from the party from the previous night, Keith then walks around town and he goes to the cafe,
amongst other places. He's telling people that he encounters that he is off to go to the top of Pendleton Mountain,
stating he expects to be back by 10:00 p.m. that night and advising friends to call authorities
if he's not back in the morning. It's believed that at some point Keith sets off on this journey.
Given that it's about a 6-hour round trip to the peak of Mount Pinalton, by now it is already late afternoon.
Locals were skeptical that this dude serious. Some of them even said, "Oh, but we
thought he was pulling our leg." Because it's awfully late in the day to be leaving on
this hiking trip. And his friend Ted Parker >> Yeah, his friend Ted Parker, who owns
the cafe, also said, "I assumed he was kidding." But part of this Ted Parker version
of this day is he says Keith asked me if I wanted to go with him. I think he'd asked Ted Parker at the party the night
before. Ted Parker says, "I told him no, I wasn't going to go with him." This is
interesting because Parker would say that Keith, the limited times that he would actually go out on a hike or
attempt to go up the mountains, was always in Ted Parker's presence. Ted Parker liked the hike. Keith was kind of
tagging along. And on a couple of those occasions, he had experienced vertigo, Keith had,
and was not able to keep up with Ted Parker. Parker says that he just sort of assumed that Keith was
pulling his leg. They're good buddies. And when Ted Parker said, "No, I'm not going to go hiking. I don't have the
time or or I don't have the you know, I'm not able to go with you." He just assumed that Keith's pulling his leg and
that Keith was not going to go and would wait till another date and time when Parker could
accompany him. Right. Parker also says that he believes that Keith Reinhardt had
made no preparations for such a hike, brought no supplies with him, no water, no protective clothing or foot gear
other than the clothing on his back. The only thing it's believed that Keith Reinhardt
took with him, if he did go on the hike, would be a can of soda. >> [laughter] >> Sounds
Sounds like the way the captain would pack. [clears throat] >> Yeah, that's based off of what is
believed to be the last known sighting of Keith, which takes place sometime between 4:30 and 5:05 p.m. when he
stopped into the Buckley's General Store on the northern edge of town and purchased a can of soda. So, the can
of soda part comes from somebody else, another person in this story, another location.
Talking to folks in town, the authorities would put together that same timeline and state
that Keith was last seen wearing only a T-shirt, a dark red and black flannel plaid
shirt, blue jeans, and beat-up tennis shoes. If Keith Reinhardt did go up into the mountains that
evening on August 7th, 1988, regardless of where he went, he's never been seen again.
>> [music] >> Want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage. Thanks for telling
your mother. Thanks [music] for telling your brother. Stick around for part two.
And then till then, be good, be kind, and don't litter. >> [music] [music] [music]
>> Pandora makes it easy for you to find your favorite music, discover new artists and genres by selecting any song
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Dark Side of the Mountain /// Part 1 /// 882

Part 1 of 2

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Two men - each possibly grappling with his own version of a mid-life crisis - vanish 10 months apart from the same, tiny town in the Colorado Rockies under eerily similar circumstances. In September of 1987, a 47-year-old man and his faithful dog vanished from the near-ghost town of Silver Plume, Colorado. Months later in August 1988 another man, staring down the barrel of 50 years of age, retraced the missing man’s steps to investigate the mystery - and he too - disappeared. This is the true story of Tom Young who went missing on the dark side of the mountain, and too the story of Keith Reinhard who may have vanished forever.

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Brief Summary

Tom Young and Keith Reinhardt vanished in Silver Plume, Colorado, under mysterious circumstances, raising questions about their fates.

Key points

The Mysterious Disappearances. Two men vanish from a small town under eerily similar circumstances.
Welcome to Silver Plume. A picturesque mining town with a dark history.
The Strange Death of Clifford Griffin. A haunting tale from the past echoes in the present.
The Disappearance of Tom Young. Tom Young, a bookstore owner, vanishes without a trace, leaving behind a mystery.
Discovery of Remains. The skeletal remains of Tom Young and his dog Gus are found months later, raising questions.
Memorial Service for Tom and Gus. A memorial service turns into a celebration of life for Tom Young and his dog.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The odds of this happening seem frankly astronomical.

Describing the disappearances.

3:46WatchNov 5, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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