Patrick Lee Ghering, 20, of Campbell County, Wyoming, was last seen in Gillette on October 19, 1997. Six days earlier, on October 13, 1997, his 14-year-old girlfriend, Amanda Gallion, disappeared while walking to school; her family did not realize she had not arrived until roughly 6 p.m. that evening. Gillette Police questioned Ghering about Amanda's disappearance; he told investigators he had last seen her around 7:15 a.m. the day she vanished, and he was released after being briefly detained. On October 19, Ghering's red pickup truck was found abandoned, parked facing the wrong direction on a road behind a business on Second Street in Gillette. The driver's seat was positioned closer to the steering wheel than Ghering typically sat. Two watches and a handwritten letter, identified as being in Amanda's handwriting, were found inside the truck. Ghering has not been seen or heard from since. He is described as 5'5", 160 lbs, with brown hair and brown eyes; his right ear is not fully developed and he has a one-inch scar on his right temple.
The Campbell County Sheriff's Office holds jurisdiction over Ghering's case (he resided in the county), while the Gillette Police Department holds jurisdiction over Amanda Gallion's related case; the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation has assisted both. Investigators have pursued numerous leads over more than two decades, including a 2007 claim by a South Dakota inmate that a man on trial for murder had confessed to killing Amanda; that inmate was later charged with and associated with providing false information, and the claim was not substantiated. A side-scan sonar search of Keyhole Reservoir turned up no evidence tied to either case. Several unidentified remains cases have been checked against Ghering's dental records over the years without a match. Neither Ghering's nor Gallion's Social Security number has shown activity since 1997. Both cases remain open and unsolved. Ghering's case is catalogued with NamUs as MP7508 and with NCMEC as case #1143733. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Campbell County Sheriff's Office at (307) 682-7271 or the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation at (307) 777-7181. Case Number 977437.
