Account
Nov 05, 2010
Jul 15, 2019
Bernice
Gray
56
23
65 inches
70 inches
140 lbs
White / Caucasian
Female
On the morning of December 26, 1991, 23-year-old Bernice Charlotte Gray was last seen in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, after dropping off her young daughter at a daycare center around 6:30 a.m.. A resident in the area later reported hearing a sound resembling a firecracker around the time she vanished. Bernice, a dependable employee at a medical records office with aspirations of attending nursing school, never arrived for her 8:00 a.m. shift. Concerned, her employer contacted her ex-boyfriend, Robert William Pann, who claimed she had spent the night at her mother's house. A few weeks prior to her disappearance, Bernice had moved out of the home she shared with Pann and their daughter to live with her mother, though they continued to date. Just two days before she went missing, she had rejected a marriage proposal from Pann, after which he allegedly threatened to kill her. Four days after Bernice Gray was last seen, her blue Pontiac 6000 was discovered abandoned on the east side of Detroit. The car was unlocked with the keys on the floor, and the driver's side window was partially rolled down. Inside the vehicle, investigators found bloodstains, later confirmed to be Bernice's through DNA analysis, and two shell casings. A blood spatter expert concluded that the evidence was consistent with someone being shot in the head while in the driver's seat before being moved to the passenger side. Bernice's purse was also found on the evening of her disappearance near an interstate in Detroit. Despite extensive searches, her body has never been recovered. In January 1995, Bernice Gray was declared legally dead. The investigation into Bernice's disappearance soon focused on her ex-boyfriend, Robert Pann, who had a history of violence against women who rejected him. Authorities theorized that he had attacked and shot her in her car on the morning she went missing. Despite the absence of a body, prosecutors moved forward with a murder charge against Pann, building a case on circumstantial evidence. This marked the first time in Michigan that a murder conviction was secured without a body or a confession. In 2001, a jury found Robert Pann guilty of first-degree murder after thirteen hours of deliberation. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The case stands as a somber narrative of a young mother's life cut short, and while legal closure was achieved through the conviction of her killer, the continued absence of her remains leaves her family without a final resting place for their loved one.
Dec 26, 1991
Saint Clair Shores
Michigan
Macomb County
48081
9320
St. Clair Shores Police Department
St. Clair Shores
Michigan
Macomb County
48081
27665 Jefferson Ave, Michigan
5864455305
Local
Law Enforcement
91-46547
St. Clair Shores Police Department
Blond/Strawberry
Green
Green
06/26/2026
