Overview

Last Seen: Public records conflict. The Charley Project and several other sources give October 19, 1997, in Gillette, Campbell County, Wyoming. NCMEC currently gives October 13, 1997, also in Gillette.

Age at Disappearance: 20

Date of Birth: May 28, 1977

Classification: Endangered Missing

Main Circumstances: Patrick disappeared within days of 14-year-old Amanda Gallion. Investigators had questioned Patrick about Amanda’s disappearance. After Patrick vanished, his vehicle was reportedly discovered abandoned and positioned unusually on the roadway. Neither Patrick nor Amanda has been found, and foul play has not been ruled out in public case summaries.

Detailed Case Breakdown

Patrick Lee Ghering: The Unsolved 1997 Disappearance from Gillette, Wyoming

Twenty-year-old Patrick Lee Ghering disappeared from Gillette, Wyoming, in October 1997, just days after 14-year-old Amanda Dawn Gallion vanished on her way to school. Nearly three decades later, neither Patrick nor Amanda has been located, and the circumstances surrounding their disappearances remain unresolved.

Patrick’s case has long been intertwined with Amanda’s because investigators believed the two knew one another closely and initially considered the possibility that they had left the area together. The discovery of Patrick’s abandoned vehicle, however, added another layer of uncertainty to a case that has never produced a publicly announced resolution.

Brief Case Summary

Last Seen: Public records conflict. The Charley Project and several other sources give October 19, 1997, in Gillette, Campbell County, Wyoming. NCMEC currently gives October 13, 1997, also in Gillette.

Age at Disappearance: 20

Date of Birth: May 28, 1977

Classification: Endangered Missing

Main Circumstances: Patrick disappeared within days of 14-year-old Amanda Gallion. Investigators had questioned Patrick about Amanda’s disappearance. After Patrick vanished, his vehicle was reportedly discovered abandoned and positioned unusually on the roadway. Neither Patrick nor Amanda has been found, and foul play has not been ruled out in public case summaries.

Amanda Gallion Disappears

Amanda Dawn Gallion was 14 years old when she disappeared in Gillette on the morning of October 13, 1997. She was reportedly walking to school but never arrived for classes. Her family did not realize she had failed to reach school until later that day. Amanda had moved to the Gillette area only several weeks earlier.

Patrick, who was 20 at the time, was described in subsequent case records as Amanda’s boyfriend. When questioned about her disappearance, Patrick reportedly told investigators he had last seen Amanda at approximately 7:15 a.m. on the morning she vanished. According to later public case summaries, police suspected Patrick knew more about Amanda’s whereabouts than he was revealing.

Patrick Ghering Vanishes

According to the Charley Project and Wyoming case information subsequently reproduced by other missing-person resources, Patrick disappeared six days after Amanda, on October 19, 1997.

After he vanished, Patrick’s vehicle was found abandoned. Public accounts describe the vehicle as being positioned on the wrong side of the road and facing the wrong direction. Patrick was not with the vehicle and has not been seen since.

The abandoned vehicle is one of the most important publicly known pieces of evidence in Patrick’s disappearance because its condition raises questions about who last drove it and why it was left where it was found. Publicly available law-enforcement information does not provide a definitive explanation.

Some later community accounts contain additional claims about objects reportedly found inside the vehicle. Those details have circulated in discussion forums and case write-ups, but because they are not consistently documented in primary law-enforcement records, they should be treated as unconfirmed rather than established evidence.

Did Patrick and Amanda Leave Together?

Investigators initially considered the possibility that Amanda and Patrick had voluntarily left together. That possibility has never been conclusively established.

The Charley Project reports that neither Patrick’s nor Amanda’s Social Security number showed subsequent activity associated with employment, credit cards or driver’s licenses. The absence of an obvious documented life after October 1997 contributed to concerns that something more serious may have happened.

Although some records historically classified Amanda as a runaway, later summaries acknowledge the possibility of foul play. Patrick is generally classified as endangered missing. There has been no publicly announced evidence establishing that Patrick harmed Amanda, that Amanda harmed Patrick, or that either was responsible for the other’s disappearance. Their relationship and close disappearance dates make the cases relevant to one another, but they do not establish what happened.

Patrick’s Description

Patrick was a white male with brown hair and brown eyes. NamUs-derived records list him at approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall and 150 pounds, although older secondary records have published slightly different height and weight measurements.

Two particularly distinctive physical characteristics are consistently reported: Patrick’s right ear was not fully developed, and he had an approximately one-inch scar on his right temple. He reportedly wore his hair in a crew cut when he disappeared.

NCMEC has released an age-progressed image depicting what Patrick could have looked like at approximately age 44.

Conflicting Disappearance Dates

One important issue for anyone researching Patrick’s case is the disagreement between major databases.

The Charley Project lists Patrick as missing since October 19, 1997, consistent with the narrative that he disappeared six days after Amanda. The current NCMEC poster, however, states that Patrick has been missing since October 13, 1997. NamUs-derived listings have also used October 13 as his date of last contact.

Because official and established missing-person resources do not currently agree, both dates should remain attached to the case unless the investigating agency publicly clarifies the record.

Latest Public Information on the Investigation

Patrick remains publicly listed as missing. NCMEC continues to maintain an active poster for him, identifying the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office as the law-enforcement contact and displaying NCMEC case number 1143733. The poster also carries NCIC number M078839902.

A Wyoming missing-person compilation published in 2025 continued to list Patrick as missing after approximately 28 years and described his case as unresolved.

Public attention continued into 2026. A Gillette-area missing-person awareness project organized by WyoFind included Patrick among the Wyoming missing people featured on specially printed coffee sleeves intended to generate renewed recognition and possible tips. The campaign was covered by the News Letter Journal in April 2026.

Patrick and Amanda’s disappearances also received renewed attention in a 2026 episode of the Wyoming-focused podcast Dead & Gone in Wyoming, titled Six Days Apart. The program again examined the fact that the two disappeared only days apart and that their fate remains unknown.

As of August 2026, the publicly accessible sources reviewed for this article contain no announced recovery of Patrick, arrest in connection with his disappearance, identification of a confirmed suspect, or publicly announced resolution of the case. That does not mean investigators have no nonpublic leads; cold-case investigations frequently contain information that agencies do not release.

Why Patrick Ghering’s Case Remains Important

Patrick’s disappearance cannot be separated easily from the unresolved disappearance of Amanda Gallion. A teenage girl disappeared on October 13, 1997. Patrick was questioned about what he knew. Within days, Patrick himself was gone, and his abandoned vehicle became one of the central mysteries surrounding the two cases.

What happened during those six days remains unclear.

They may have left together. They may have encountered another person. Something may have happened independently to each of them. Foul play is also among the possibilities acknowledged in public case summaries. None of those possibilities has been proved.

After almost three decades, the most important evidence may still be information held by someone who knew Patrick or Amanda in Gillette in 1997. Even a detail once thought insignificant could help investigators reconstruct their final movements.

Anyone with information concerning Patrick Lee Ghering should contact the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office at 307-682-7271 or submit information through the appropriate law-enforcement or missing-person channels.