Ray Burssie Collins, 57, left Winter Haven, Florida, in the summer of 1987 for a three-month prospecting trip to the Salida, Colorado, area with friends Dave Caffey and Richard Birth. About three weeks into the outing Birth returned to Florida because of a family emergency, leaving Collins and Caffey alone. A few days after Birth left, Caffey told family he had driven Collins to a bus station in Colorado Springs because Collins wanted to visit the Grand Canyon. Collins, who had already been to the Grand Canyon in earlier years, never contacted his family again and was never seen or heard from after that claim.

Caffey later returned to Florida driving Collins’ Toyota pickup, with Collins’ clothing and mining equipment inside. Investigators found that before the Colorado trip Caffey had taken out a life insurance policy on Collins, and after Collins was declared legally deceased Caffey collected the policy. Caffey also accepted $5,000 from Collins for a purported land lease that turned out to be unnecessary because the site was public land. The case was reopened in 2008 and Chaffee County investigators re-interviewed Birth and Caffey; Birth cooperated, Caffey did not. The disappearance remains unresolved and questions about Collins’ fate persist.

Did anyone who knew Ray or who was in the Salida area in 1987 see his pickup or recall his movements after Birth left?