You are listening to the Already Gone podcast, sharing stories of the missing, the murdered, the mysterious, and the lost.

Listeners, be aware that this episode contains adult language. As always, listener discretion is advised.

As we reach the end of October, you can sense the holidays coming. First Halloween, then Thanksgiving,

and immediately after that is the messy shopping frenzy that paves the way to Christmas.

Then the year glides to an end, with the long-awaited New Year's Eve party or event to say farewell to the old and welcome a new year with all of its possibilities.

Of course, I'm simplifying things. The holidays can be messy, stressful. We've all been there,

making our way through a tense or awkward holiday meal or family gathering. Christmas is often

equated with a family dinner and a glittering holiday tree laden with gifts from Santa,

but with those gifts come expectations and sometimes disappointment.

This case starts with someone not getting what they wanted for Christmas, someone not meeting

their expectations. But before we arrive at the holidays, we need to talk about Bernice Gray,

and how a stressful Christmas led to her disappearance.

Bernice Gray is the only daughter of parents Jean and Tom Gray. She has a brother, Earl, and in 1989, she became the mother of a daughter, who we will call Lindsay. Lindsay was fathered by Bernice's

boyfriend, Robert Pan. Standing five foot, ten inches tall and weighing about 140 pounds,

Bernice has long brown hair and big green eyes. She's a striking young woman, tall and

smiling, her hair long and curly. She and her boyfriend,

Robert, have been together almost four years. When she became pregnant with their daughter,

the two moved in together, sharing Pan's canal front home on Alexander Street in St. Clair Shores.

Once she was living with him, Pan suggested that they get married, that they make things

official, but Bernice wasn't ready for marriage, not to him and not at that time.

She had concerns, one of them being that he was about ten years older than she was.

Once Lindsay arrived, the pair had their ups and downs,

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