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Feb 3, 2024 · Raymond Wright was a family man and a construction contractor who disappeared in 2018. His body was found in a van with a convicted felon who was hired by a man who blamed him for a DUI crash in 2011.
Feb 2, 2024 · Ray Wright, a 55-year-old carpenter, vanished without a trace, leaving his daughters, Kennedy Wright and Haley Kendall, deeply concerned. Their attempts to reach him were met with eerie silence, prompting Kendall to express her foreboding sense of dread.
- Overview
- RAY WRIGHT VANISHES WITHOUT A TRACE
- A TREASURE TROVE OF EVIDENCE
- A PLOT FOR REVENGE?
- RAY WRIGHT IS STILL MISSING BUT THE CASE GOES TO TRIAL
- "A BITTERSWEET VICTORY"
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
Ray Wright's daughters were worried when their dad didn't show up at his carpentry shop and didn't answer any calls or texts. "I knew something bad was happening to him. I felt it," says Haley Kendall.
Dean Wright felt it too. He headed to his brother's house and looked around. That's when he realized someone was in the house and it wasn't Ray. The intruder fled but left evidence on the kitchen counter. It would be a while before investigators would figure out who that intruder was. It began with a police chase.
"It was a very dangerous high-speed chase with speeds of up to a hundred miles an hour," prosecutor Matt Chisholm tells "48 Hours" contributor Natalie Morales. "There was a terrible accident at the end of that pursuit."
The driver was a man named Victor Gray. And in his wrecked van was a treasure trove of evidence. Prosecutors say they found a photograph on Gray's cellphone of a letter he wrote to a man named Bob. Gray was demanding payment for delivering the "dude" to Bob. Prosecutors say Gray wrote that he "hand delivered you your revenge ... "
Dean Wright was nervous. It was Saturday morning, Jan. 13, 2018, in Sacramento, California.
Dean Wright: Where's Ray? ... I just wanted to know where Ray is.
Dean hadn't heard from his younger brother Ray in two days – highly unusual for brothers who spoke every day without fail.
Natalie Morales: All of a sudden, middle of January, there's just —
Dean Wright: Nothing.
Natalie Morales: Nothing.
Ray Wright, much admired and loved by friends and family — described as generous, creative and vibrant – had seemingly vanished with the snap of a finger.
Matt Chisholm: No one has any leads as to where he is or what happened to him.
It was the frightening home invasion just two days after Ray had disappeared that seemed too coincidental, says Prosecutor Matt Chisholm.
Matt Chisholm: I think that … raised everyone's concern to a different level.
Sgt. Zack Lewis: As days go by, it becomes more suspicious.
Rocklin Police Sergeant Zack Lewis briefly considered Ray's history of alcohol abuse but dismissed the possibility of a relapse.
Natalie Morales: Let's talk about what was found in that phone. … Text messages that seemed to refer to Ray Wright's possible kidnapping at that point, right?
Matt Chisholm: Yes.
It took months, but investigators eventually dug up a gold mine of evidence from Gray's cellphone.
Matt Chisholm: There was a text conversation with a woman, who … appeared to be working as a lookout for Mr. Gray.
"Rays out fron y of the sjop," texted the woman, "Kalifornia Katie," in a series of misspelled texts. It was 9:50 a.m. on Jan. 11, 2018. "Yes im watching out front for any thimg."
Tracing "Kalifornia Katie's" number found in Gray's cellphone, police identified her as Katie Barnard.
Ashley Englefield: It was still a missing person, but we all assumed it was a homicide.
Natalie Morales: Did they tell you, at any point, we believe your brother is dead?
Dean Wright: Yes. … Maybe three-and-a-half years in.
During those agonizing years, Ray Wright's family – one by one – eventually came to the same conclusion: Ray was no longer alive. And their grief was compounded by not having his body to bury.
Kennedy Wright: That's definitely still … a source of like pain for us. There was no … laying him to rest. Like he doesn't get the send away that he deserves.
Prosecutor Matt Chisholm hoped to provide the family a measure of justice by convicting Manor and Gray. Approaching trial, Chisholm's crucial concern was the credibility of his witnesses.
Natalie Morales: How long before you got word there's a verdict?
Matt Chisholm: The jury was out about four hours.
It was late afternoon on March 17, 2023. The verdict was in.
Kennedy Wright: It was the most gut-wrenching day of my life.
Manor and Gray were found guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping.
Kennedy Wright: But it didn't bring him back. So, it was like — it was a bittersweet victory.
Ray Wright, a carpenter and grandfather, vanished in 2018 after a high-speed chase involving a man named Victor Gray. Prosecutors say Gray abducted Wright at the request of a man named Bob, who wanted revenge for something Wright did years earlier.
- CBS News
- 41 min
Feb 1, 2024 · The Abduction of Ray Wright. A family man abruptly vanishes. Police tie his disappearance to a monstrous plot for revenge. "48 Hours" correspondent Natalie Morales reports Saturday, Feb. 3 at...
- 3 min
- 53.4K
- 48 Hours
Feb 28, 2019 · The character and story are the brainchild of Ray Wright, who initially penned the screenplay then worked with Neil Jordan on a draft that merged their two creative visions. Together they have plotted a story, at once fascinating and terrifying, which, like its title character, is impossible to look away from.
Feb 2, 2024 · Ray Wright, a family man and carpenter, vanished in 2018 after a burglar left a soda cup in his home. Police traced the cup to Victor Gray, who had a grudge against Wright for a DUI accident six years earlier.
Mar 2, 2019 · The suspense thriller Greta is not based on a book. The Focus Features release is an original story by Ray Wright (screenwriter of The Crazies, Case 39) and a script written by Ray Wright and Neil Jordan. Screenwriter Wright explains the idea for the film came initially came from a “visual image” he envisioned.
