Gray was last seen when she dropped her one-year-old daughter off at a day care center in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, left the center, and drove west on Gordon Street. She has never been heard from again. People in the area reported hearing a noise that morning that sounded like a firecracker at about the time she disappeared. On December 30, four days after Gray's disappearance, her Pontiac was found abandoned in Detroit's east side. The vehicle had two .25-caliber bullet casings inside, and was soaked with Gray's blood.

Police suspected that Gray's boyfriend, Robert Edward Pann, killed her. A photograph of Pann is posted below this case summary. Two days before Gray's disappearance, he had proposed marriage and she rejected him. Later that night Gray called a friend, upset, saying that Pann had threatened to kill her. They had lived together for two years, but Gray stated that she was unhappy with the relationship. She had moved out of Pann's residence by the time of her disappearance, but continued to date him.

Pann has a criminal record for a least a dozen various offenses, including filing a false report and attempted murder of his ex-wife. While he was in prison for the attempted murder, prosecutors charged him with murdering Gray. They theorized that he attacked her in her car while she was sitting at a stop sign and shot her twice in the head at about 6:30 a.m. on December 26. Prosecutors alleged that Pann had a history of attacking women who rejected him. Pann's attempted murder of his ex-wife had a similar pattern in that he hid in the back seat of her car and attacked her while she was driving.

While investigators were unable to locate a body and had no physical evidence linking Pann to the crime, they believed they had enough circumstantial evidence to prove that he had murdered Gray. The jury convicted him of first-degree murder after deliberating thirteen hours. Pann faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Gray has never been located, but foul play is suspected in her case due to the circumstances involved. She was employed as a medical records clerk at the time of her 1991 disappearance, with plans to go to school for nurses' training.

Above: Robert Pann in 2008