Keith Warren // 523

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Keith Warren // 523" – Going West: True Crime

Podcast Information:

• Title: Going West: True Crime
• Hosts: Daphne Woolsoncroft and Heath Merryman
• Description: Daphne and Heath delve into the eerie details of various disappearance and murder cases each week. New episodes are released every Tuesday and Friday.
• Episode: Keith Warren // 523
• Release Date: July 25, 2025

---

Introduction

In episode 523 of Going West: True Crime, hosts Daphne Woolsoncroft and Heath Merryman explore the mysterious and unresolved case of Keith Warren. This episode uncovers the suspicious circumstances surrounding Keith's death, the questionable police investigation, and the haunting evidence that continues to puzzle his family and true crime enthusiasts alike.

---

Background

Keith Warren's Early Life:

• Birth and Family: Keith Warren was born on April 9, 1967, in Topeka, Kansas, to Mary and Cleo Warren. The family later relocated to North Carolina, where Keith developed a close-knit relationship with his younger sister, Sherry.
• Family Dynamics: Mary and Cleo divorced when Keith was around 10 years old, resulting in Cleo moving away while Mary, Keith, and Sherry remained in North Carolina. Sherry describes Keith as a "protective big brother" who was "passionate, loving, trustworthy, charming, goofy, confident, quiet, and cerebral."

Transition to Maryland:

• Relocation for Work: Mary secured a position at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. Despite the challenges of moving away from their established life in North Carolina, the family settled in the Georgian Colonies neighborhood of Silver Spring.
• Keith's Flourishing Years: In Maryland, Keith thrived socially, making numerous friends and excelling in his high school environment. He graduated from Kennedy High School in 1986 and was set to attend North Carolina Central University in Durham.

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The Disappearance

Summer 1986:

• Employment and Social Life: Keith worked at a Chrysler dealership in Glenmont, Maryland, developing a keen interest in the automotive industry. However, during the summer before his college move, Keith's mother noted that he had started associating with a new group of friends whom she deemed "bad news," potentially tied to the local drug trade.

Last Contact and Departure:

• Phone Call with Sherry: The day before his disappearance, Sherry spoke with Keith, who seemed in good spirits and looked forward to an upcoming family wedding where he would be a groomsman.
• July 29, 1986: After a phone call, Keith left his mother's house armed with a small duffel bag containing cassette tapes. He was dressed in a Jimi Hendrix hat, blue hoodie, shorts, a T-shirt, and distinctive brown leather work boots that his sister fondly (and teasingly) recalls.

---

Investigation and Initial Findings

Discovery of the Body:

• July 31, 1986: Two days after his disappearance, a woman walking her dog found Keith's body hanging from a tree in the wooded area behind his neighborhood. EMT Dallas Lipp, arriving first, immediately suspected foul play, stating, "this is not a case of suicide" ([10:30]).

Police Handling:

• Officer Luther Leverett's Actions: Leverett deemed the case a "textbook suicide" without conducting an autopsy or toxicology tests. He informed Mary Warren bluntly, "he killed himself" ([16:27]).
• Scene Mismanagement: The discovery site was left unprotected, and minimal evidence was collected. Keith's car was found at the clubhouse nearby, but no thorough investigation was conducted.
• Delayed Notification: Keith's family was notified seven hours after his body was found, without having been properly informed or consulted for further information.

Suspicious Circumstances:

• Discrepancies Noted:
  • The tree was too small to support Keith's weight.
  • No autopsy or toxicology was performed.
  • Friends appeared indifferent, with minimal concern.
• Family's Doubts:
  • Rodney Kendall, Keith’s friend, was disturbed by the police's casual handling: "nothing was roped off... nothing seemed to be taken in for evidence" ([14:36]).
  • Mary questioned the lack of thorough investigation and the absence of consideration for potential foul play or drug involvement.

---

Revelations and Continued Pursuit for Justice

Mysterious Envelope:

• July 25, 1992: Mary Warren received a manila envelope containing official photos of Keith's death scene. Notably, Keith was dressed differently in these photos—wearing white tennis shoes, a long-sleeve shirt, and pants—contrary to the clothes initially returned to the family ([30:44]).
• Suspicious Note: Accompanying the photos was a note stating, "Ms. Warren, don't worry, Mark Finley and [redacted name] will be next."

Mark Finley's Involvement:

• Connection to Mary: Mark Finley, a high school acquaintance of Keith, contacted Mary claiming he needed to "unload." A month later, Mark died in what was deemed a bike accident, though observers found the scene suspiciously staged ([38:25], [40:35]).
• Implications: Mark had hinted at involvement in Keith's death, and his sudden death raised questions about potential retribution or a cover-up.

Public Exposure and Further Evidence:

• Unsolved Mysteries Feature: An episode prompted a tip from a woman in Alabama claiming she dressed Keith in the clothes found in the photos. However, she ceased communication thereafter, adding another layer of mystery.
• Crime Scene Photos: Examination revealed an unidentified shirtless man in the background of one photo, suggesting possible involvement of another individual ([45:00]).

Community and Family Advocacy:

• Grassroots Support: Mary spearheaded efforts to seek justice, garnering support from local organizations like CLAMS, which funded the exhumation and autopsy of Keith's remains.
• Autopsy Findings (1994): Dr. Isidor Mialocis concluded that the death was not a suicide, citing the presence of multiple toxic chemicals. Contrarily, Dr. John Smialek, Maryland's Chief Medical Examiner, attributed these chemicals to the embalming process, asserting no physical injuries supported suicide ([52:32], [55:08]).

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Legal and Familial Aftermath

Grand Jury and Official Rulings:

• 1999 Grand Jury: Convened by State's Attorney Doug Ganzler, the grand jury deemed the case inconclusive despite 13 years of evidence.
• Amended Cause of Death: On March 21, 2024, Keith's cause of death was changed to "undetermined," though the case remains officially closed.

Family Dynamics and Legacy:

• Mary's Passing: Mary died in 2009, leaving Sherry to continue the quest for answers.
• Cleo's Stance: Keith and Sherry's father accepted the suicide ruling, though he acknowledged police shortcomings, prior conflicts with Keith, and emphasized moving forward ([58:20]).

Sherry's Advocacy:

• Ongoing Fight: Sherry continues to campaign for justice, highlighting institutional failures and the need for accountability within law enforcement.

Apology from Law Enforcement:

• Chief J. Thomas Manger's Apology (2020): The former Montgomery County Police Chief privately apologized to Sherry, lamenting the policing institution's disregard for scientific and factual evidence ([54:38]).

---

Conclusion

The episode paints a grim picture of a young man's untimely death overshadowed by police negligence, inconsistent evidence handling, and potential foul play. Despite multiple red flags and the family's relentless pursuit, Keith Warren's case remains shrouded in mystery, emblematic of systemic failures in addressing and resolving true crime cases. Daphne and Heath close the episode by urging listeners to spread awareness, review the evidence, and support the ongoing search for justice.

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Notable Quotes

1. Heath Merryman ([10:30]): "from the small tree, which could barely support his weight, to the lack of an autopsy, to the suspicious friends who seemed to vanish in the wake of his sudden death."
2. Heath Merryman ([14:09]): "I mean, come on, what the fuck? Like, that's not the response you have when you find a body."
3. Daphne Woolsoncroft ([14:23]): "Way off base."
4. Heath Merryman ([19:50]): "Yeah, what the fuck do you know? You didn't do your due diligence to even make the autopsy happen."
5. Daphne Woolsoncroft ([24:52]): "So many pieces of shit in one place."
6. Heath Merryman ([37:32]): "She's probably freaking out at this point."
7. Heath Merryman ([46:05]): "It is very."

---

Additional Resources

• Photos and Evidence: The hosts direct listeners to view the official crime scene photos on Keith Warren Justice Site, noting the presence of an unidentified individual in the background.
• Community Engagement: Listeners are encouraged to join discussions on the podcast's Facebook group and follow them on Instagram at @GoingWestPodcast to share thoughts and support the case.

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End of Summary

Transcript

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[Heath]

What is going on? True crime fans? I'm your host Heath.

[Daphne]

And I'm your host Daphne and you're.

[Heath]

Listening to Going West.

[Daphne]

Hello everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Big big big shout out to T for recommending this story. This is such a suspicious and honestly eerie case that needs way more attention.

[Heath]

Yeah, it is so crazy that this case has not been solved just based on the details. The weird investigation that takes place, the.

[Daphne]

Crazy thing that the victim's mother received years after the investigation on her doorstep. Like it is true. I can't believe we haven't covered this before. This is so our type of case because there's so much mystery surrounding it.

[Heath]

Yes, this one is definitely going to shock you guys. But real quick, before we get into today's case, I wanted to remind everybody that we are going on tour in September. So make sure you get tickets. We're going to be in Denver, Dallas, Boston, Atlanta and Chicago.

[Daphne]

Yeah, if you guys love listening to Going west, you guys are going to love seeing us live on stage because it's going to be like this but honestly, way more fun.

[Heath]

Yeah, we're going to play some games. It's going to get really interactive for you guys. It is going to be such a blast.

[Daphne]

And even if you don't have a Going west bestie, you know, and you just have a friend that loves true crime or that just likes to have a good time, bring em and let's have a good time together.

[Heath]

Also we are going to be with Love Murder podcast. Those guys are amazing. Or should I say those gals are amazing. You guys are gonna love them just as much as we do. So go get your tickets. You can get your [e-mail] tour well.

[Daphne]

Then without further ado.

[Heath]

Alright guys, this is episode 523 of Going West. So let's get into it.

[Daphne]

In July of 1986, a 19 year old man was found hanging from a tree near his Maryland home. Authorities swiftly ruled it a suicide, but those closest to him questioned everything about the scene. From the small tree, which could barely support his weight, to the lack of an autopsy, to the suspicious friends who seemed to vanish in the wake of his sudden death. Years later, his mother received a suspicious envelope on her doorstep and new evidence would challenge the original ruling. This is the story of Keith Warren. Keith Warren was born on April 9, 1967 in Topeka, Kansas to Mary and Cleo Warren. But then he and his parents moved to North Carolina where Mary and Cleo are from when Keith was still very young. And it was there that Keith's younger sister Sherry was born. And because Mary's family had a few dozen acres of farmland in rural North Carolina, both Keith and his sister Sherry grew up there with tight knit family very close by on the farm. Like there's even a family graveyard on the property. But when Mary and Cleo divorced when Keith was about 10, Cleo ended up moving away. So dad moved, but mother Mary, Keith and sister Sherry stayed close to her family right there in North Carolina. And they all stayed very close with Sherry fondly recalling Keith as a quote, protective big brother. When asked to describe him, Sherry chose the words passionate, loving and trustworthy. But he was also charming, goofy and confident. Though in turn, he was quiet and cerebral. And Sherry says that he was an introvert at heart. Now, after many happy years in North Carolina, Mary landed a job at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland, which is a northern suburb of Washington, D.C. so although it was really hard for the kids to, you know, be taken so far away from their family and the life that they knew there in North Carolina, the opportunity was just way too good for her to turn down. So the family of three again, Mary, Keith, Sherry, moved up north and settled in the Georgian Colonies neighborhood of Silver Spring. And Keith actually seemed to flourish here. He fit in very well in his new community and at his high school, making many, many friends. He graduated from Kennedy high school in 1986 and was bound to return actually to North Carolina, having accepted his admittance to North Carolina Central University in Durham. So, you know, he pretty much grew up in North Carolina, then moved to Maryland during high school.

[Heath]

And now he's gonna go back for college.

[Daphne]

Now he's going back.

[Heath]

But first, that summer, 19 year old Keith found work at a Chrysler dealership in Glenmont, which is just about 10 minutes away from where he lived with his mom and sister in Silver Spring. And he really enjoyed working with cars, actually so much that he was considering a career in the automotive industry sometime in the near future. By Mary's recollection, Keith spent his last summer before college out with his friends, as well as just making new friends and enjoying the last few weeks before he would move out of state for college. But in early summer of 1986, he made some new friends that his mom really just didn't approve of. Overall, she described her son as likable and personable. So, you know, someone who could get along with everybody, but occasionally it would work to his disadvantage. Even his sister Sherry believes that some of these young men may have been tied to the local drug trade because they were basically just bad news. At the time of Keith's disappearance, Cheri was staying with her aunt in New Jersey for a visit. But she did chat with her brother Keith on the phone the day before he vanished. And she says that everything seemed perfectly normal with him. In fact, he was in good spirits and they were both looking forward to an upcoming family wedding because Keith was going to be one of the groomsmen for his uncle. On Tuesday, July 29, 1986, after receiving a phone call, Keith left his mom's house with a small duffel bag full of cassette tapes. Now, he was wearing a Jimi Hendrix hat, a blue hoodie, shorts, and A T shirt, as well as a pair of beat up brown leather work boots that his family teased him for wearing. And Sherry actually described them as his ugly ass boots and remembered that he paired them with everything that he wore. Now, 19 year old Keith did not return home that night, nor did he come home the next morning. So knowing that this was completely abnormal, Mary called the police to file a missing persons report. But she was advised to wait a day or two before officially making this report because they believed that it was likely that he was just staying in a friend's house, basically because he wasn't a high risk individual. So they discouraged Mary from filing that report that day. But it was kind of weird because as Sherry remembers, after he disappeared, none of his friends seemed concerned or reached out to ask if he was okay. So Mary called around and she spoke to some of his friends, including his best friend, who said that he thought he knew where Keith was and that he would just send him home. But the next day, Keith was found deceased.

[Daphne]

The story that the family was originally told was that on Thursday, July 31, 1986. So two days after he was last seen, a woman walking her dog through the backwoods of Keith's neighborhood spotted a body hanging in a tree and she ran home to report it to police. EMT Dallas Lipp, who was one of the first to arrive on the scene, claimed that he knew just from looking at Keith's body before the police even descended upon the scene that this was not a case of suicide, which kind of feels like it's saying a lot, especially considered the fact that he was found hanging from a tree after all. Now, to give you guys a bit of a visual of Keith's neighborhood, we will post photos on our socials if you want to go look again. This is the Georgian Colonies townhouse complex. It had a clubhouse with a pool, tennis courts, and basketball courts. But again, these are townhouses, so there is a lot of stacked homes in a row. This is definitely not like a remote neighborhood or a rural neighborhood. There are woods surrounding the neighborhood, but the actual neighborhood itself is not rural. There's a lot of homes in there. And after his body was found, a police officer trudged down to the clubhouse to locate somebody who knew Keith and could identify his body There at the clubhouse, law enforcement met a friend of Keith's named Rodney Kendall. We're going to talk about Rodney a little bit today. And Rodney agreed to go with them to the scene and confirm that the remains belonged to Keith. But Rodney was shocked to see Keith's Body limp under the tension of the rope that he was found hanging from, with bugs crawling around his mouth, proving that he had been up there for a bit of time. Remember, two days had passed since he had last been seen. And this scene was just really weird because strangely, Keith's body was slack. You know, that's not too weird. But his legs were sloped toward the ground with his feet pointing upwards and his ankles touching the dirt, as if he could have stood up. Which I gotta say is very reminiscent of a case that we covered a couple years ago called what Happened to Sean, which is also a believed suicide case that me, Heath and his family and many others, many of you guys don't agree with. So off the bat, Rodney is shocked and confused by what he's seeing, but he was also very shocked at the kind of like cavalier handling of the scene itself because there was nothing roped off. The scene was left wide open for just about anybody to pass through. There was no evidence being collected, like near the body. There was a few empty cardboard boxes from like wine coolers, but nothing seemed to be taken in for evidence. There was nothing around the scene being scrutinized, even though it really did seem off. And I also do want to mention that Keith's car was found parked at the clubhouse. But yeah, so Rodney recalled with distaste that he overheard the cops discussing where they were planning to go for lunch that day and that he was appalled at how casual their approach was about the whole thing. And this account was even corroborated by Dallas Lip, the emt, who said that he remembered Montgomery County Police Officer Luther Leverett, who we're going to talk about today as well, saying, quote, why would this have to happen on my lunch break?

[Heath]

I mean, come on, what the fuck? Like, that's not the response you have when you find a body.

[Daphne]

Yeah, and there's multiple people listening to this, just thinking, like, what are. What are you saying? Like, he's not even trying to be private about his horrific comments.

[Heath]

Way off base.

[Daphne]

So after confirming that the victim was in fact Keith, Rodney said that he was never asked for a follow up interview or consulted with any subsequent questions.

[Heath]

So after they find Keith's body, Officer Leverett then ordered that Keith's body be removed and taken to the Francis J. Collins Funeral Home, which is about 20 minutes away. So at this point, the family had still not yet been notified of Keith's passing. And instead the detective called the coroner, John Rogers, to tell him that he didn't need to report to the scene because it was clearly just a suicide.

[Daphne]

Case, which is horrible to say. This is a textbook suicide case. And don't. Just don't come to the scene, like, not even to check. He's just, like, he wants to get this over with.

[Heath]

Yeah. It seems like he's being burdened by.

[Daphne]

His job, which is like, okay, then maybe get a different job.

[Heath]

Yeah, maybe don't do this. Well, in his report, Officer Leverett wrote that he believed that Keith had jumped off a log, despite a paramedic citing that there was nothing nearby that was substantial enough to have jumped off of. And again, he could touch the ground. The tree that Keith was tied to was small, slight, and unable to support very much weight. So it was actually buckling under pressure, which was why Keith's body was sloped towards the ground so much, because Officer Leverett said that it was a textbook suicide. There was no autopsy and no toxicology examination performed on Keith's body whatsoever. So they just didn't even do any sort of due diligence here. And sadly, about seven hours passed between when his body was discovered and when his family was notified. Despite the fact that Keith had multiple forms of identification in his pockets, so they could have easily reached his next of kin, they just didn't do it.

[Daphne]

Which is why when Rodney went down there, they already pretty much knew who he was because he had his ID on him. So, like, they knew it was him and they're not doing anything about it yet.

[Heath]

Yeah. So instead, Officer Leverett stopped by Mary's house, but because she was at work, he spoke with her next door neighbor instead. This neighbor offered up Mary's work phone number, but Officer Leverett declined to call, telling the neighbor to have Mary call him when she arrived home from the office, as if it wasn't, like, the most pressing piece of information that she would ever receive. Two hours later, Officer Leverett arrived at her workplace and produced one of Keith's identification cards, which he used to access the neighborhood clubhouse, asking if he indeed was her son. Mary confirmed that Keith was her son, and Officer Leverett informed her that he was dead and that he had killed himself.

[Daphne]

As you can imagine, Mary was in complete shock and disbelief, and Officer Leverett's very strange, blunt approach didn't help the situation whatsoever. He even asked her why he would have been driven to do such a thing. Mary is like, I have no idea. And actually, the only negative thing that she could even think of that had happened recently was that they had kind of gotten into a bit of a spat over his car because basically, Keith and his dad did not have a good relationship. But as a high school graduation gift, his dad had gotten him a blue 1976 Corvette, which Keith loved especially, you know, because he loved cars so much. But only a week and a half before Keith's death, Keith left his job. Some reports say that he lost it, but most say that he left in preparation for his upcoming move.

[Heath]

Yeah, because obviously he's going to go back to college.

[Daphne]

Exactly. So basically his insurance bills were really starting to stack up, all the way up to $2,000, which is obviously a huge bill for a 19 year old without a job at the moment. So his dad, since he had bought him the car, told Keith that he'd be coming to Maryland to take the car back shortly. And he was planning to do that that the weekend that Keith had died. So Mary knew that Keith was upset about this, but not enough to take his own life, of course.

[Heath]

Yeah, I mean, it's just, it's just a car. It's not something that's life changing, I guess.

[Daphne]

So she's just saying, I mean, this had happened and he was about to get his car taken away, but otherwise, like, I mean, not otherwise, like, she's just kind of relaying the only negative things she can think about, but it's still not sufficient enough in her mind.

[Heath]

Yeah, she's just going through the memories of the past, like couple weeks. Like, is. Was anything bothering him? No, not really.

[Daphne]

But according to Mary, this information that she gave the officer was later exaggerated in the records of Keith's case and used basically as a blanket justification for his suicide.

[Heath]

Of course they're going to say, well, you know, because of this situation, it's clear that this has to be suicide.

[Daphne]

Yeah. And she's like, no, like you just spun my words so much and made it out to be something that it wasn't. I'm just, I was just kind of talking, you know. And Mary also questioned whether or not there had been drugs in his system. She's asking this to Officer Leverett and he said no. Though how he would have known without an autopsy was such a mystery. So it's like the fact that he didn't say, oh, we're not sure he's saying no, concretely. It's like you don't know.

[Heath]

Yeah, what the fuck do you know? You didn't do your due diligence to even make the autopsy happen.

[Daphne]

Which is why it's frustrating that he gave a concrete answer like, no, because he didn't do that. So why are you giving any Information that you don't even have. This guy is an idiot.

[Heath]

It just really seems like he does not care.

[Daphne]

But, of course, Mary didn't know this at the time. She didn't know that. That he wasn't doing his due diligence and that they were just trying to wrap this up as quickly as they could. So she is still kind of wondering, even so, if drugs were to blame, knowing that there were pockets in this area, in the area that they lived in, known for the sale and distribution of drugs, not that Keith was known to do that. Again, she's trying to figure out what the hell happened. So, unceremoniously, Officer Leverett handed her a business card for the Francis J. Collins Funeral Home in nearby Silver Spring, telling her to call anytime after 9am the next day. So he's like, okay, here's. Here's the card for the funeral home. Your son killed himself. See you later. Like, that's it?

[Heath]

Yep. Nothing else?

[Daphne]

Well, at the time, as we know, Sherry was staying at her Aunt Deb's house in New Jersey for the summer. So they and all the rest of Mary's family from North Carolina raced to Maryland to be by her side and help figure out what happened to Keith. Keith's Uncle Pete was the one to identify him officially, but he struggled to get into the funeral home, claiming that he was discouraged from even seeing his nephew on the day he was brought in. Thursday, July 31, the same day that Keith was found. Pete attempted to go into the funeral home three times to identify him, and he was not permitted to do so each time. He was told to come back the next day after the embalming process was completed, which is obviously very suspicious, or at the very least, unjust. The following day, when he was finally allowed to make the identification, Pete claims that he was rushed and that he was only given a few seconds to look at Keith's body before he was ushered out of the room. So it's like, look at him. Look at him. Okay, That's Keith Gray. Go.

[Heath]

Yeah, like, get out of here. Well, the family called the coroner to pressure them to perform an autopsy before it was too late. But get this. Their request was denied. Like Daphne said, no evidence was taken from the scene. But initially, a few of the items found at the scene, including the rope found wrapped around Keith's neck, were admitted into evidence, but they were eventually either turned back over to the family or they were discarded. Keith's uncle recalls receiving the rope from an officer and being stunned that they didn't want to hang onto it any longer. He's like, why are you just, like, giving this back to me? There could be evidence on it, right?

[Daphne]

But they're like, oh, no, this is a suicide, so not gonna investigate.

[Heath]

Well, he was also given the brown leather boots that Keith had supposedly been wearing at the time, along with a blue hoodie and his Jimi Hendrix hat. But that was pretty much it, because Mary was told by the funeral home that they were forced to destroy the clothes that he had been wearing when he was found because of the severe decomposition.

[Daphne]

And please remember this for later that they do not have the clothes that was found wearing. They do not have these.

[Heath]

Yeah, this is going to come up in a major way here in a little bit. Now, Rodney, as we know, who was the first of Keith's friends and family to see his body, was stunned to hear this. Having laid eyes on the body himself, Mary said doubtfully, I have never heard of that happening within two days. And I make my living working in pathology. Days after Keith's death, the tree that he was found hanging from had been cut down. Mary remembers that her mother wanted to see it and pay respects to the site where Keith was found, but they were completely stunned to just find a stump in its place. So naturally, they were in disbelief and asked police why this had happened. And they were told that it was removed for evidence, but also it's removed.

[Daphne]

For evidence, but you're not taking other evidence and you're not admitting that you're doing an investigation, so then. And then you're giving up other evidence. Like the rope. Like, every move they're making is confusing.

[Heath]

Mary later bemoaned that various police officers had told her things like, I don't care how many lawyers she hires, it will not change the ruling of suicide. And that she was described as, quote, an emotionally distraught mother who cannot come to terms with her son's death. And then, worst of all, if you had been a better mother, this wouldn't have happened. Like, how dare you say those things?

[Daphne]

So many pieces of shit in one place.

[Heath]

Lot of pieces of shit. While Keith's new circle of friends stayed away from the family in the wake of Keith's death. And Sherri claims that they only stopped by one time to give their condolences to Mary after she herself pressured them to do so. It wouldn't be until six years later that a revelation would come in the form of an anonymous delivery that materialized on Mary's doorstep. A delivery that would call everything into question and begin the family's dogged pursuit of justice, which has not relented for over three decades since my friends, spring is coming up. We're doing some spring cleaning, and we're also buying some new things to be able to replace those old things.

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[Daphne]

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[Heath]

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[Daphne]

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[Daphne]

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[Daphne]

April 9, 1992 should have been Keith's 25th birthday, but that Thursday evening Mary returned home from work to find a manila envelope waiting for her on her doorstep. The envelope was addressed to her, but there was no return address. So already kinda suspicious. But inside were official pictures of the scene of Keith's death, which neither Mary nor anybody in the family had seen before. In them, Mary was shocked to see that Keith had not been wearing the clothes that had been returned to her. You know, the clothes that they were told he had been wearing when he was found, remember, they had only received his Jimi Hendrix hat, his blue hoodie, and his signature brown shoes, which Mary had actually seen Keith leave home in that Tuesday, so two days before he was found. But in the pictures of Keith hanging from the tree, he was wearing white tennis shoes, which Sherry claimed that he didn't even own, as well as a long sleeve shirt and pants. So a totally different outfit than they thought he was wearing when he died. And weirdly, his mom, Mary didn't recognize any of the clothes in the photographs. And she said that as the one doing Keith's laundry, she would have recognized anything that he had been wearing.

[Heath]

Yeah. So this is really, really strange, the fact that they gave the family back clothes that he wasn't even found to be wearing when he was found deceased.

[Daphne]

Yeah, it's almost like. And I just wonder, where were those clothes then? Because he had been wearing those when he was last seen by his mother, but he wasn't found wearing those when he was dead. So where did those clothes even come from? And this is really weird too. So on his back. Because she's looking at these photos and she sees that in the photo from behind, you can see leaves on the back of the clothes that he was wearing, which indicated that maybe he had been recumbent on the ground before being strung up by somebody else, which is really very strange. The pictures that were mysteriously dropped off on our doorstep featured a shirtless man lurking in the background of the picture. Like maybe proving that the clothes Keith was wearing were somebody else's. But this is why it's so weird, because those clothes were destroyed. So any potential evidence of somebody else's on the clothes, anybody else's DNA, because they weren't his clothes, would have been found if they tested or kept the clothes. But they were destroyed.

[Heath]

Yeah. And the excuse for that, again, was that there was just too much decomposition, so they had to get rid of them. But it's like you could have at least tested them before you destroyed them.

[Daphne]

It's just. It's all so weird. And I'm sure had Mary known or had seen these pictures or known that he had been wearing somebody else's clothes, maybe she would have pushed for that. Not that it seems she had any freaking pull, because they're just doing whatever they wanted from the beginning, not even letting his uncle see him before he was embalmed. So the whole way this is handled is so weird. Now Mary is getting these incredibly suspicious photos on her doorstep six years later, and now she just has way more questions and let's just talk about this right now because these pictures are available. There are multiple photos available of Keith hanging from the tree, which I can't believe that these are out. And honestly, these are like some of the most horrific photos I've ever seen.

[Heath]

And we're not, we're not going to post them on our socials out of respect for the family, but they do exist. If you're interested in this case and you want to find out more information, you can look them up yourself.

[Daphne]

Yeah, I. Oh my God. I'm just like looking at it right now, trying to describe it.

[Heath]

It is very disturbing.

[Daphne]

It's so disturbing. So basically the area behind him is very wooded. This is not like, you know, I said this was like public, but it's, it's in public, but it's not like, you know, it didn't happen on a playground or something. Right. This is, it's still in a wooded area, which is probably why a couple days passed without anybody finding him.

[Heath]

Right. It was close to where he lived, but. But there was some wooded area, as you mentioned earlier. There was wooded area around that complex.

[Daphne]

Yes. And so in the photo it's really weird because there's a few photos available, but it's like, I just want to note that the clothes, like his shirt in particular. It does, in my opinion, and not just because with the information we have, we know that it does seem like maybe if you believe that he did not take his own life, that somebody else dressed him. And I just think that's a really interesting thing to take note. When you're looking at his shirt especially there's one angle that's head on. Oh God, this photo is so horrifying. But basically the, the collar and the shoulder area of his shirt are really bunched up. Like I would fully believe that somebody else put this shirt on his body. It's like a button down shirt.

[Heath]

And again, this is really not Keith's style. It looks like he's. He's wearing a long sleeve, button down shirt.

[Daphne]

Oh. You know, you can kind of see his feet more in this one.

[Heath]

Oh yeah, you can. You can definitely see a little bit of his feet in that photo for sure.

[Daphne]

Which is why it's so strange and eerie because they're all black and white photos and there's so many different angles. You don't see it. I'm trying to find, if I can. You know how we had mentioned that there was like a shirtless person in the background. I'm not seeing anybody else in these pictures. Which I think is part of also what makes it so unnerving is like, he's just in the woods hanging from a tree in these black and white pictures, and there's nobody around. I mean, looking at them and being able to see them and knowing that these at least were, in some regard, the photos that his mother had to see when she was not able to go to the scene is so deeply disturbing. And she doesn't know who these photos were taken by, who put them on her doorstep, and why they were put on her doorstep. But get the this. Included with the pictures was a note. And the note read, Ms. Warren, don't worry, Mark Finley and redacted name will be next. So we have the name of Mark Finley, but there's another name in this note that has not been released to police. So it's almost like. Like to receive these pictures of her son, deceased, hanging in the spot where he supposedly died. And then, Ms. Warren, don't worry. Mark Finley and Blank will be next. What?

[Heath]

She's probably freaking out at this point.

[Daphne]

Yeah. So I. I want to talk about Mark Finley really quick, because I know none of you know who that is. So Mark was a high school acquaintance of Keith's whom Sherry remembered he had gotten into a fight with, like, at some point before his death. We don't know if that was in school or after school, but knowing that he died when he was 19, it couldn't have been that far away. So this is a name that they recognized at least a little bit, but they have no idea why Mark's name and somebody else's name is on the note because it's making them think, okay, are Mark and this other person involved in what happened? Like, what does this note even mean? Well, Mark somehow caught wind of the note that she received, and he called Mary and left a message telling her that he needed to, quote, unload.

[Heath]

So this is really. Again, I keep saying this. So this is just very strange. Everything about this case is so damn strange. Like, she receives this. This note with these pictures, and then somehow, we don't know how, but Mark finds out that she receives these photos, and then he decides to call her. There's no way in my mind that I'm believing that Mark didn't like. Like he had knowledge that those photos were left on her doorstep. You know what I mean?

[Daphne]

Right, but how? Because obviously he wouldn't have left that there. But it gets even freaking weirder because guess what? Mark never came by the house. You know why? Because about a month later, Mark Finley was killed in an accident that Keith's family still finds suspicious to this day. Especially considering the fact that the note said that he would be next.

[Heath]

I mean, the note was correct.

[Daphne]

Like, the whole don't worry thing. Don't worry, Keith and Blank or, sorry, Mark and blank will be next. Like, does that mean he was killed for potentially being involved in Keith's death?

[Heath]

It's possible. I can't wrap my head around any of this. Well, here's what happened to Mark. So in the spring of 1992, again, weeks after the Warrens received this note, Mark, who was about 24 years old at the time, was riding his bike home around 2am and was thrown from his bicycle after hitting a curb in a seemingly, like, freak accident. And he died from head trauma that he sustained from his fall when he was launched off of his bike. But the EMTs found the scene incredibly puzzling, and they really just didn't understand the positioning of the body in relation to the bike, nor the injuries to his body that he had sustained, which they acknowledged appeared more like injuries that he'd received from a car accident or from taking a hit from a baseball bat. Like, as if he was killed and the scene was staged to look like a freak bike accident.

[Daphne]

So creepy and creepy that they're acknowledging that it's not adding up.

[Heath]

And remember, Mary Warren received a message from Mark that he needed to get some things off of his chest, but he died before being able to say.

[Daphne]

Anything, which makes me wonder if he was killed on purpose because he was going to tell or because somebody is, like, on a Dexter rampage. Like, somebody's like, I'm gonna kill Mark because he killed Keith.

[Heath]

Yeah, it's so strange. I was gonna. I was actually thinking of that earlier about this whole Dexter angle. I don't know why that that just popped into my brain.

[Daphne]

Well, probably because he said, don't worry, Ms. Warren.

[Heath]

Like, everything. Yeah, everything's going to be fine. We're going to take care of this.

[Daphne]

But, yeah, like, I'm going to get redemption. Well, to this day, like, you know, this wasn't. They didn't investigate this like it was a potential homicide. It's just looked at like a bike accident. But, yeah, it must have been pretty severe, especially if they think that it also looked like he might have been hit by a baseball bat. Because, as we know, like, the impact of a car accident can be very severe. So if that's what they're thinking versus just him falling off his bike, that's pretty weird, right?

[Heath]

So feeling like it could relate to Keith's case. The tape of his voicemail was turned over to the police, but they never followed up on this tip.

[Daphne]

They're just. This is. Imagine being on this case and you hear this and you're like, eh, yeah.

[Heath]

Doesn't mean anything. I mean, they just drop the ball.

[Daphne]

They're not doing shit.

[Heath]

They just dropped the ball left and right. While allegedly, Mark had also mentioned to a few people at a party that he had helped string Keith up from the Tree back in 1986, giving even more credence to the belief that he was involved and that he was killed somehow because of it. And even crazier. Sherry later explained that suspiciously around the time that Mark died, her car was broken in two. And among other things taken from her car was the note that came in the envelope with the photos.

[Daphne]

So creepy.

[Heath]

Something is going on behind the scenes that we do not know about very much.

[Daphne]

So. Like, I just. I can't look at this all and just be like, ah, it's just. It's not related. He took his own life. Like, there's. There's a. There's something being hidden here.

[Heath]

Yeah, I mean, sometimes you can stumble upon cases and go, all right, there's a few coincidences here. This just does not feel like a coincidence.

[Daphne]

Not at all. So Keith's friend Rodney Kendall, again, who first identified the body for police, later told Mary that in the days before Keith's death, a car full of men pulled up to ask him where Keith was. But neither Rodney nor any of his friends or family knew who these men were. And that same week, Mark Finley had also stopped Rodney to inquire about Keith's whereabouts, which is very suspicious. And the strange clues didn't stop here, because after Keith's case was featured on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries, a young woman called into the tip line from Alabama claiming to have crucial information about Keith's death. She maintained that she had dressed Keith's body in the clothes in which he was found. Which, again, does make sense when you can look at the pictures. The area around his shoulders and his neck looks really weird. It looks like somebody else tried to shove the clothes on him. In my opinion, it doesn't look neat or tidy like he had been wearing them.

[Heath]

So is this woman from Alabama telling the truth?

[Daphne]

Well, here's the thing. After offering up this account, she stopped talking and would not cooperate with authorities or Keith's family. You know, maybe out of fear that she would get in trouble, either from the police or the people who had really Killed Keith. When Mary went to police and showed them the pictures that they had received, they acknowledged that they were official crime scene photos. But these photos were released on Keith Warren Justicesite.blogspot.com There are five photos and they all say manila envelope photo. You know, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Oh, my God. I see a person in one of them.

[Heath]

Wait, really?

[Daphne]

Oh, what the fuck?

[Heath]

Who the hell is that?

[Daphne]

How did we miss that?

[Heath]

Okay, who the hell is that?

[Daphne]

They're just. They're standing in the background with their arms crossed. Okay, I gotta, like, blow this up. Hold on. We're gonna do this like, live?

[Heath]

Yeah, we're doing this live because we gotta see what's going on here.

[Daphne]

Okay, so, yes, they're shirtless.

[Heath]

Okay. So the person looks kind of muscular. He's wearing shorts. He's shirtless. He's. It looks like he's wearing a necklace of some sort. He's got dark hair that looks kind of in a slight mullet cut.

[Daphne]

He's just standing behind. I mean, you know, when we were describing it earlier, this is how it was described in the research was.

[Heath]

What is that next to him, though? What is it? Looks like he's holding something.

[Daphne]

I don't know.

[Heath]

Like, what is it? Is that a camera?

[Daphne]

Like a bag?

[Heath]

Is that a bat? Oh, that looks like a bag, like, hanging from a little limb.

[Daphne]

You know what? You know what? I think I'm going to post this one and I'm just going to blur out Keith's head so you can at least see the back of him and see this person. Let's do that.

[Heath]

I think that this is completely relevant to the case.

[Daphne]

Yeah, absolutely. That's just so weird. Like, who is that? I can't believe we didn't see that. Because he really. Because the images are black and white. Like, he really does blend in. And I thought that was a tree until I really just clicked on it and started zooming into it to look for him. Like, I can't believe we didn't even think to do that before, but yet these were posted on the official site by the family to really. It really changes things when you can see the pictures. It makes everything feel a lot airier.

[Heath]

And I'm actually really curious to know whether or not police have identified this person in that photo. Like, do they know who this guy is?

[Daphne]

Well, knowing that there was before we saw it ourselves, knowing there was a shirtless guy in the picture, I did look into this and I tried to find a picture of Mark Finley online. I tried to find a Picture of Rodney Kendall. And I did not find a photo of any of them that we now could compare to this image that we have. But I also couldn't find any information, like, online. It just says that the shirtless man has never been named or officially identified. So I imagine that it's not Rodney and probably not Mark Finley, because then Mary and Sherry would know that, and they would say, that's blank. But if they don't even know who it is, it could have just been a neighbor. As we know, the scene was not roped off. This could be somebody who lives in the neighborhood or somebody who is on a run. Maybe they're shirtless because they were on a. A run, not because they gave up their clothes to Keith.

[Heath]

Well, that's definitely very interesting. Also the fact that police said that these were official crime scene photos, then. Yeah, I could see how your assessment would be correct.

[Daphne]

Yeah, like, it's not somebody suspicious, Especially because they. That now that we can see it, they are standing there very casually. His arms are crossed. He's just looking at him. If he was involved, he probably would not be standing there as photos were being taken of the body.

[Heath]

You know, still a very, very eerie thing to stumble upon, 100%.

[Daphne]

And we definitely want to know who this is. But let's get back to Mary, because after she received these photos, she did go to police and show them, hey, I received these images in an envelope on my doorstep with no return address. And they acknowledged that they were official crime scene photos, like I said. But they also said that they somehow didn't find anything suspicious about the delivery, which is fake. Freaking nuts to me.

[Heath]

How? Like, literally, how is that not suspicious?

[Daphne]

A mysterious, unknown person put these on your doorstep with a note that said, mark Finley and blank will be next. And then Mark Finley dies. And they also did not explain the clothing discrepancy. So they didn't say, oh, yeah, he was found in those. And here's. Here's why we gave you back different clothes. Like, they're not explaining anything.

[Heath]

How do you screw up the. This badly?

[Daphne]

Well, at this point, Mary feels like she has to launch a campaign of her own to advocate for her son, because police clearly were not reopening an investigation. She got local grassroots organizations and women's clubs involved. She made and distributed posters and pamphlets sharing Keith's story and begging for answers. And she went door to door to talk to people in the community, just hoping that this would encourage somebody to come forward. And one local organization called Clams, or the Chatter, Laughter and Mingling society. They took a very particular interest in Keith's case and wanted to assist Mary in her quest for answers. So to help, they raised thousands of dollars which covered for the exhumation of Keith's grave and the subsequent autopsy many years after it should have been done by law enforcement.

[Heath]

Clams. You guys are some real ones for doing this amazing work. Cause it was only then when Mary started pulling apart the original investigation that she realized that there were more inconsistencies than she possibly could have fathomed. According to EMT Dallas Lip, the account that she was given of the young woman happening upon Keith's body while out walking her dog was actually completely falsified by Dallas account. He was actually called to a townhouse in Keith's neighborhood located on Heinwyk Drive, after being told that someone had hung themselves in the basement.

[Daphne]

The basement.

[Heath]

Interesting. So Dallas remembers that they knocked on the door multiple times but received no response, which he found odd, given the urgency of the situation. Now, inside, they found the resident of the home, a guy named Chip Wynne, along with his girlfriend, Claudia Lawson, who went by Michelle, and also a third unnamed resident. Michelle had actually been the one to make the call in the first place. But when paramedics asked to be shown to the basement, she walked back her story and told them that the decedent was actually in the woods behind the.

[Daphne]

House, which is obviously very different from in the basement. So how did that get messed up? Or, of course, is she lying?

[Heath]

Kind of seems like she was lying. Well, Dallas requested to be led there by the two men present in the home, but they both declined.

[Daphne]

So she's saying there's a body hanging in a tree behind the house in the wooded area, but we're not going to show you where it is.

[Heath]

Yeah, and they actually did ask Michelle, who again made the 911 call, to lead them to the body, but she also refused to take them. And that was when she changed her story, claiming that she had actually been walking her dog in the woods and came upon Keith's body, which was the story that Keith's family was told. So she had two very different story changes, and no one could explain why. When they arrived at the scene, Dallas concluded, this does not look like a suicide.

[Daphne]

Yeah, as we know, AMT Dallas was suspicious from the jump.

[Heath]

Yes, he was. Mary later claimed that she had reason to believe that Officer Leverett knew both Keith and Chip and that maybe he was covering for them. Though how they were connected was still unclear.

[Daphne]

Well, let's get back to 1994 when Keith's body was exhumed with the fundraising help of CLAMS and that autopsy was finally performed, forensic pathologist Dr. Isidor Mialocis performed this autopsy and he concluded, I believe that Keith Warren's death being listed as suicide is medically not supportable. In his toxicology report, Dr. Mia Lakis determined the presence of multiple toxic chemicals, including a fatal amount of TCE or trichloroethylene, which is a potentially deadly substance primarily used for degreasing car parts. Also present were toluene, methylene chloride, chloroform, dichloroethane and ethylenedichloride. But when Maryland's Chief Medical examiner, Dr. John Smialek reviewed the autopsy report, he wrote off the presence of chemicals as a byproduct of the embalming process. So basically Dr. Smialek wrote in his report of the findings, after careful consideration of this information, together with the autopsy findings as well as information gathered in the past investigations of the death of Keith Warren, it is my opinion that the toxicologic findings are consistent with the effects of the embalming and body preparation process. The absence of any physical injury on the body supports the conclusion that Keith Warren hanging was a self inflicted act. Now a couple things I want to say. First of all I want to say he's saying, oh, there's absence of any physical injury. Yeah, he's been buried for years and years at this point. So anything that maybe you would have found if you had done an autopsy originally is not going to be there unless it was like a gunshot wound or something that would affect the bone.

[Heath]

Right.

[Daphne]

But also Dr. Mialokis took issue with this report that Dr. Smialik did because the preparer at the funeral home did not mention using any of these chemicals in his report of the embalming process. And two of the chemicals were actually inconsistent with the embalming process altogether.

[Heath]

So yeah, that doesn't make any sense. That's not a good explanation for why there would be these chemicals in Keith Warren's body.

[Daphne]

Yeah, it's almost like does feel like a blanket statement of oh, those are just embalming chemicals. But there's no, there's no report stating that any of these chemicals were included. And then particularly those two that are not used in the embalming process. How do you explain those? So this gave even more credibility to Mary's theory that perhaps drugs or the local drug trade was involved in her son's death along with Keith's new group of friends. Like maybe Keith overdosed and they panicked and they staged the hanging in order to cover for themselves. Or maybe he was actually poisoned by the people that he went to see on that fateful Tuesday, which most likely included the three people who reported his death, because unfortunately, we don't have any information, information about drugs in the body because the autopsy was not done in a timely manner.

[Heath]

Yeah, I agree with this. I think Chip and Claudia and this other unnamed resident are very, very suspicious. Well, in 1999, Montgomery County State's Attorney Doug Ganzler took an interest in the case and convened a grand jury to hear the evidence compiled over the past 13 years. But the jury deemed the case to be inconclusive. Mary pursued justice in her son's case for the rest of her life because she sadly passed away on May 26, 2009, at the age of just 61, following a very brief illness. So her daughter Sherry has taken up the cause in her mother's absence. She admitted that the lack of support from her father has significantly strained their relationship, though, although investigators did speak with him after the suicide ruling. Keith and Sherry's father, Cleo, apparently embraced the ruling of suicide and didn't even question the evidence that was left behind. Though he and Keith were known to have a tough relationship. He did, however, admit that the police could have done a better job, but also concluded that police action, or lack thereof, does not change the facts of this case. Cleo also said, I want him to be allowed to rest in peace. I wish my daughter would go on with her life. Well, according to Cleo, Keith suffered a mental health episode the year prior to his death, which he believed laid the groundwork for the eventual conclusion of suicide. So here's what happened with that. The year before his death, he had been visiting his father in North Carolina when they had gotten into such a bad argument that Keith reportedly suffered some sort of breakdown episode that landed him at Duke University's medical center. But whether or not the situation was blown out of proportion and he was forced to stay when things weren't even that bad, or if things really were that bad, we can't say for sure, though Sherry does maintain, I saw my brother every day, and if he was depressed or contemplating suicide, I would have known it. Former Montgomery County Police Department Chief J. Thomas Manger actually apologized privately to Sherry for the mishandling of Keith's case in 2020. She wrote on her website, Keith Warren, justice site. For the first time, it smacked me in the face that policing is an institution and they are more concerned about protecting the brand and protecting the institution. My disappointment is not so much for my brother and mother, but for the generations behind me. It is a sad state of affairs when facts, scientific documentation and medical information don't matter in decision making in law enforcement in Montgomery County, Maryland. Now Sherry does continue to champion her brother's case in the wake of her mother's death. Keith was laid to rest next to Mary in their family cemetery in North Carolina. And actually as recently as 2024 there are updates to report. On March 21, 2024, Keith's cause of death was amended to undetermined. However, officially the case remains closed. Justice still awaits Keith and his loved ones, but according to Sherri quote they picked the wrong family.

[Daphne]

Foreign thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West.

[Heath]

Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. Make sure you head on over to our socials to look at the photos from this case. Please share this story because he's family is still to this day looking for answers.

[Daphne]

I imagine so many of you out there feel exactly as Heath and I do, which is just like flabbergasted at this. Especially if you feel comfortable looking at the photos again, we're just going to post the one, but we are going to blur out the back of Keith's head because it is from behind him where you can see the shirtless guy. But there are five photos total available on Keith Warren justice site.blogspot.com and again, these were released by Sherry. So she, she wants these to be out there. She really wants to share Keith's story and the outrage for Keith's story. So if you want to go check them out.

[Heath]

Also make sure you let us know what you think about this case. We have a discussion group on Facebook where you guys can talk about the cases that we cover. Let us know your thoughts and just how dumbfounded you are about this case.

[Daphne]

Yeah, I do not want to stop talking about this. So please, please, please comment. We also are on Instagram at Going west podcast. Go comment and please share Keith's story.

[Heath]

All right, guys, so for everybody out.

[Daphne]

There in the world, don't be a stranger. Sam SA.

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[Daphne]

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