Re-Release - Shane Workman

We originally covered the case of Shane Workman in November 2024. In August 2026, his body was found. We have published a short update episode right after this re-release.

“Nobody is doing anything because Shane was a drug addict everybody goes back to that.” 

That was a comment that Mike Hewitt made on a Facebook post about his missing son, Shane Workman. Not only does Mike have to deal with the constant pain of having a missing son, but he does this while believing that no one cares. Mike is not alone. Many family members of missing people who don’t fit the mold of the “perfect victim” experience the exact same thing. But Shane, and all missing people deserve to be found.

On April 25, 2010 at around 10 pm, 31-year-old Shane Workman told his dad he was going to run to Sheetz, a gas station near their home in Lewistown, Pennsylvania. But Shane never made it there. Mike and his partner, Cindy Workman, didn’t realize anything was wrong, and went on a camping trip the next morning. It wouldn’t be until they returned that they realized their son had never come home after his trip to the gas station. A search party was formed immediately, but despite many tips, including people who may have been involved in Shane’s disappearance, Mike says that Lewistown Police quickly lost interest. After seven years, Shane is still missing, but his family is still fighting for Shane and for justice.

Anyone with information regarding Shane Workman’s disappearance is urged to contact Detective Det. Mary Woods at (717) 248-6716 Ext. 427. If you are interested in helping with volunteer efforts, please reach out to voicesforvanished@gmail.com or visit voicesforvanished.com.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody's doing anything because Shane was a drug addict.

[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody goes back to that.

[SPEAKER_01]: That was a comment that my cue it made on a Facebook post about his missing son, Shane Workman.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not only does Mike have to deal with a constant pain of having a missing son, but he does this while believing that no one cares.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mike is not alone, many family members of missing people who don't fit the mold of the perfect victim experience the exact same thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: But Shane and all missing people deserve to be found.

[SPEAKER_01]: On April 25, 2010, at around 10pm, 31-year-old Shane Workman told his dad he was going to run to Sheets, a gas station near their home in Louis, Tom Pennsylvania.

[SPEAKER_01]: But Shane never made it there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mike and his partner, Cindy Workman, didn't realize anything was wrong and went on a camping trip the next morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: It wouldn't be until they returned that they realized their son had never come home after his quick trip to the gas station.

[SPEAKER_01]: A search party was formed immediately, but despite many tips, including the names of people who may have been involved in Shane's disappearance, Mike's as a list on police quickly lost interest.

[SPEAKER_01]: After seven years, Shane is still missing, but his family is still fighting for Shane and for justice.

[SPEAKER_01]: When a person goes missing, there's a special kind of pain in the not knowing.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would just leave the stories of those who never came home.

[SPEAKER_01]: Today, I want to tell you the story of Shane Workman.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Conan Gallagher, and I'll be there for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is, and then they were gone.

[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back everyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for joining us once again.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Kona.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm Ethan.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we're the husband and wife team behind this podcast.

[SPEAKER_01]: Each week I tell you the story of an unsolved missing person's case.

[SPEAKER_01]: Ethan doesn't know anything about the case going into the episode and he's here to provide his reactions and questions in real time, hopefully asking some of the same ones you have at home.

[SPEAKER_01]: This case was suggested to us by Voices for Vanish, a non-profit organization that provides search and recovery services to families of missing persons and to law enforcement.

[SPEAKER_01]: They've been helping out with Shane's case and asked if we could feature it on our show.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that's so cool.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so of course it's said yes, but as you probably gathered from the intro, there isn't a ton of media coverage out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: it doesn't sound like it.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, but she is very clearly loved and missed, so I absolutely want to help get a story out there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Before we get started though, we've had a new member join us over on Patreon, so we want to give a shout out to Serena W. Thank you so much for your support.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much.

[SPEAKER_01]: Remember if you join us there in any level, starting at just $2 a month, you can get these episodes at free and you also get a free copy of the e-book that I wrote.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that out of the way, let's get into the story of Shane Workman.

[SPEAKER_01]: Shane Allen Workman was born on December 19, 1985, to Mike Hewitt and Cindy Workman.

[SPEAKER_01]: Though it doesn't seem as though the pair of her married, they've been together since 1982.

[SPEAKER_01]: Shane grew up in Louis Town, Pennsylvania, a small burrow in Mifflin County, located along the Juniata River about 60 miles northwest of Harrisburg.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so stickology actually does come up a couple times in this episode.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I kind of gathered that it seems like that was a place that a lot of people would go.

[SPEAKER_00]: And for those that don't know, state colleges where Penn State is where I went to college.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was clear early on that Shane wasn't going to live a super conventional life.

[SPEAKER_01]: When he was around 17, Shane and his girlfriend, Alicia, became parents.

[SPEAKER_01]: Though the couple didn't stay together, Alicia called Shane her first love and he was deeply devoted to their daughter, Alexis.

[SPEAKER_01]: As the years went on, Shane started getting involved with drugs.

[SPEAKER_01]: He also had several run-ins with the law, including harassment, aggravated assault, and a DUI.

[SPEAKER_01]: But in 2017, when this is all happening, she was 31 and was trying to turn over a new leaf.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was out of jail and he had a good job.

[SPEAKER_01]: But his father, Mike, did say that she'd still dabble in drugs, and that was how he put it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: there's only been one real news story that I could find that that covered anything but the basics of when he was last seen.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was done by Fox 43.

[SPEAKER_01]: In this interview, Shane's parents recalled the last night that they saw him.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Shane was single at this point and he was known as a bit of a lady's man and apparently frequently had women.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he was living with his parents.

[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, he would have like women coming in and out a lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: And on the night of April 25th, 2017, he was with a woman who has been identified as Kelly P. Now, he and I don't know if they were dating or anything like that, but, you know, they were just hanging out that night.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, he and Kelly were over at his parents' house, where, like I said, Shane was living.

[SPEAKER_01]: They spent time upstairs in Shane's room, before leaving the house.

[SPEAKER_01]: But Shane returned to short-time later and told the staff that someone had been following them down the alley.

[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't seem too freaked out about this though, and a few minutes later, he told Mike that he was running to sheets to get something to eat and asked him if he wanted

[SPEAKER_00]: So what's the distance between the sheets and their house?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like a block and a half.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he walked.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he had like I mentioned to DUI and I'd so I think his license was suspended at the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't think he was driving in general, but it was like a block and a half away.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he probably wouldn't have driven regardless.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you mentioned an alley.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm assuming he lived in downtown, Luston.

[SPEAKER_01]: I guess?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, if there's an alley, one would assume it's in town, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I mean, assuming Lewiston is not a very large town.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's very small.

[SPEAKER_01]: And like I said, it's a burrow.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's, you know, it has like 6,000 people.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, honestly, I've probably been there.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just don't remember specifically going there.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I mean, yeah, again, he's not in a bustling city or anything like that, but he's not out in the woods either.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like he lives a block and a half from his cheeks.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's more of where I was going.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, you know, what was in between how far away was what did area of that sort of thing?

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, nothing like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, yeah, nothing where he could have like wandered off and yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Got lost or falling in a river or something like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he would have really had to like try.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, how do we know that he didn't actually ever make it to sheets?

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, well, I'm going to get to that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: So she was 31 like I mentioned and so his parents weren't waiting up for him or anything like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it was already 10, 10, 30 when he went to sheets.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm guessing that like they just went to bed, you know?

[SPEAKER_00]: and at some point the woman he was with left or he had already left.

[SPEAKER_01]: She had already left so I think when he came back he came back alone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then that's when he told his dad he was going to run to Sheet.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Kelly, you know, she was already out of the picture apparently, you know.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, so like I said, I'm sure Shane's parents were getting ready to go to bed and they weren't going to like wait up for him or whatever.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so they just didn't realize that he didn't come home.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the next morning Shane's parents either thought that, you know, he was in his room sleeping or they expected him to be home shortly because he had a dog that he took care of.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, but either way, he wasn't going on the camping trip.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that was like never the plan.

[SPEAKER_01]: They were leaving on their camping trip.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm assuming they loved relatively early.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, so I think they weren't necessarily expecting to see him that morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, that makes sense.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: But even if Shane had stayed out the night before, like they knew he was going to come back to take care of his dog.

[SPEAKER_01]: So like it didn't matter to them at the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he's an adult.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just because he's living with his parents doesn't mean that he's like a child that needs to come home at a certain hour.

[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: He definitely didn't have a curfew.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Mike and City had this camping trip planned.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they left on the morning of Wednesday, April 26th with no idea that anything was wrong.

[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't find out that anything was a mess until Sunday afternoon when they received a call from their neighbor.

[SPEAKER_01]: The neighbor said that they hadn't seen Sheen's dog outside at all, which was weird.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is, so they got to call on Sunday.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this is five days.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Later.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the neighbor knew that, making Cindy were gone, but they knew that Shane, you know, I guess wasn't going with them.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they had expected to see Shane see the dog, you know, whatever, and they just hadn't seen anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: So fortunately, the neighbor had a key, and so the neighbor was able to get into the house.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I assumed to take care of the dog.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I hope that the dog was okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it seems like nobody mentioned anything, so we're just gonna assume that the dog was doing great.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sheen's parents tried to call their son, but received no response.

[SPEAKER_01]: They left messages, but they went unanswered.

[SPEAKER_01]: At that point, they started calling around Sheen's friends.

[SPEAKER_01]: They ended up reaching one of his ex-girlfriends who went to the home.

[SPEAKER_01]: So she ended up going up to Sheen's room and was confronted with a completely normal scene.

[SPEAKER_01]: Nothing was a mess or seemed to be missing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Shean's house keys were on his bed.

[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't take him because his parents were home, you know, and he's expecting to come back.

[SPEAKER_01]: So his house keys were there, but you know, it also didn't look like anyone had been there in a while.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mike and Cindy return the next day, Monday may first.

[SPEAKER_01]: The ex-girlfriend who was there, you know, checking on everything, didn't move anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Mike says that when he went up to Sheen's room, quote, his house key was laying in the center of his bed, bed wasn't slept in or nothing and quote.

[SPEAKER_01]: Luz town police is a small agency, but at first it seems as though they were helpful.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Sheenworkman Search Party Facebook group was formed two days later on May 3rd, and on May 4th, Mike posted that Luz town police were coordinating with the fire department to get boats to check the Juniata river.

[SPEAKER_01]: Unfortunately, the had recently had a lot of rain, so ultimately the water was too high and they couldn't get the boats in.

[SPEAKER_01]: They continued to monitor the situation, and in the meantime, Shane's friends and family got to work distributing flyers and organizing search parties of their own.

[SPEAKER_01]: Police were eventually able to review the security footage from the sheet, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Where Shane was supposed to go on the night of the 25th, but he never appeared in any of the footage.

[SPEAKER_01]: There were initial reports that Shane had spoken to somebody by phone the next day on the 26th.

[SPEAKER_01]: But that was later determined to have been a mistake.

[SPEAKER_01]: The person actually spoke to Shane on the morning of the 25th prior to his disappearance.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: On May 10, police and fire departments were finally able to take out boats and search the river.

[SPEAKER_01]: They did a sweep from the boat launch off a river access road to the fishing access point at the Juniada County line and back, but no trace of Shane was found.

[SPEAKER_01]: As the weeks went on without word from Shane, people of course began to develop theories

[SPEAKER_01]: So, remember how I said earlier that Shane was still dabbling in drugs?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Unsurprisingly, it started to look as though his disappearance could have been somehow drug-related.

[SPEAKER_01]: On May 12th, about three weeks after Shane was last seen, his father posted in the Facebook group that the police told him that they had information that someone took Shane to Harrisburg and took off without him.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's interesting.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm assuming the police have his cell phone records at this point.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think so.

[SPEAKER_01]: What I do know is that the, um, it was a prepaid cell phone.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, so I don't know how that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't know what they, what they were and weren't able to get.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can't speak on that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have any training and cell phone forensics or anything like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so I'm not sure how useful that was of it all.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, my cares from the police that they received a tip that, you know, these people took Shane to Harrisburg and left him there, basically.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, the police didn't name any names, so my couldn't follow up on his own other than going to Harrisburg and taking to the streets there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, this theory that Shane was like picked up by some people and, you know, kind of left in Harrisburg seemed to kind of be backed up by a friend who said that she had heard that Shane owed a lot of money to the wrong people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Assuming in Harrisburg,

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, or, you know, people who had business there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mike also had someone come out with a bloodhound to track Shane sent.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Mike did this himself, like he literally just like found somebody who had a bloodhound.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think that's because of lack of resources from Louis town PD, or do you think that, I mean, I have to imagine at a certain point, Louis town PD would contact the state police.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, we'll get into all that later.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's an important point they did.

[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, initially, I think they were kind of helping.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like I said, they did coordinate to do the sort of river.

[SPEAKER_01]: But this wasn't something that they were putting a ton of resources into.

[SPEAKER_01]: and in a small department as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you're right.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, they don't have a ton of resources to put into it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it just wasn't their top priority either.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Mike found this guy with the blood hound and the blood hound was apparently able to track Shane sent.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the dog tracked him about a block and a half from his house.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I think near the sheets,

[SPEAKER_01]: but not quite there before he lost the scent indicating that Shane probably got into a car.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, this is all from like the Facebook group that Mike started.

[SPEAKER_01]: So as many people are pointing out in the comments, if someone had just like left Shane and Harrisburg, certainly he would have been able to have made it to a phone by then.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, exactly.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, because this is like two weeks after his disappearance at this point,

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and even if it was a burner for him, he still had a cell phone.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, I mean, even if they took it, like, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, even if they left him with, like, literally nothing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, he could have figured something out in two weeks, you know?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: But if that story was true, the only reason why he couldn't have is if he physically couldn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Many people did speculate though that the reason he hadn't gotten in touch is because he was hiding out

[SPEAKER_00]: Hmm.

[SPEAKER_01]: But as the weeks turned into months, that scenario seemed less and less likely.

[SPEAKER_01]: By late June, Mike said that the Lewis town police had stopped contacting him.

[SPEAKER_01]: So this is about two months into Shane's disappearance.

[SPEAKER_01]: As the summer progressed, several different rumors popped up about Shane being safe.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some said that he was safe and sound, but in hiding, someone else said that he had contacted as its dad, but none of those rumors turned out to be true at all.

[SPEAKER_01]: by August, no actual trace of Shane had been found, and Mike seemed to switch from thinking he was out there, possibly hiding, to he was out there and no longer alive.

[SPEAKER_01]: On August 16th, he posted in part, quote, it's going to be fall before long, and the leaves will fall and cover him up.

[SPEAKER_01]: We all need to get up the side of that mountain and find him, and quote.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it sounds like Mike is thinking that there's a targeted area where Shane might be found.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because he was getting all of these people telling him all sorts of crazy stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was getting tips and people like wouldn't get their names.

[SPEAKER_01]: They wouldn't call him back.

[SPEAKER_01]: They'd like block their number.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I mean, wild things.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this seemed to be happening a lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, in mid-October, Mike got a tip that seemed like it would finally lead him to Shane.

[SPEAKER_01]: On October 16, Mike he posted that he received an anonymous tip regarding his son's location.

[SPEAKER_01]: He put out a call asking for people with boots and chain saws to go to an area with shallow water and clear it out.

[SPEAKER_01]: It sounded as though he believed Shane was in a body of water with trees around

[SPEAKER_01]: Many of the comments urged Mike not to go in immediately and wait for the police to come check it out with the proper equipment.

[SPEAKER_01]: He agreed, but said that the police weren't really getting back to him anymore, which I mean had already become a problem.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thankfully, however, they seemed to take this tip seriously and came the next day to take a report.

[SPEAKER_01]: They also said that they were turning

[SPEAKER_01]: which made Mike and the rest of Shenzhen's family hopeful that there would be more movement in the investigation.

[SPEAKER_01]: But, and this is weird to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's really difficult because I'm piecing this all together through Facebook, because the news was not covering this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there were no news articles that I could go to for, like, clear information.

[SPEAKER_00]: or confirmation on anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so what it sounds like though is the police, you know, they came out and took the report on this tip, you know, of like Shane's location, but they didn't search themselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that's interesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they took the report and said we're turning this over to the state police.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like in the hands of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but they did assist Mike and volunteers in getting like the proper permission to do the search themselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's interesting.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because it was like, I guess in like a public water way or, you know, I know it was near a bridge and so like there are issues there and so whatever it is, um, they help them get the permission to go down there and basically start like chopping and trees down and things like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: just seems weird that they would go to that extent of helping him to get the permission, but not helping him on the search.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know.

[SPEAKER_00]: It sounds like he already organized all of the equipment that they would need.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't you just send a couple of cops up there with them.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, but it doesn't sound like they did.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Mike and, you know, a few volunteers spend about a week clearing out logs and other debris.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, they went back like day after day.

[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, and that's why it doesn't sound like the cops are helping them because Mike was like, okay, like, I need somebody who has a chain saw.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I need somebody who has this that and the other, let's be in the Walmart parking lot and go down there.

[SPEAKER_01]: So after days of back-breaking work, they found no sign of shame.

[SPEAKER_01]: After that disappointment, my continued to receive tips about a son but non-pant-pant out.

[SPEAKER_01]: He later told Fox 43 that he was happy with the state police's work on the case, but that in January 2018, Luztown asked for the case back.

[SPEAKER_00]: let's strange.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_01]: I have no idea.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think Mike knew either.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they didn't take it back to do anything with it because after that, it seems as though any forward progress just stopped.

[SPEAKER_00]: that's really strange to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you know, you would think that if this was somehow linked to another case, that would make sense of them asking for the case back.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, if Shane was somehow involved in somehow somehow some other case, or he was related somehow, that would make sense if he if they asked for the case back, but it just seems odd to me that they

[SPEAKER_01]: just to do nothing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's for it to go nowhere.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's a good point.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it could have been something like that, but again, I have no idea.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Mike didn't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: By the one year in a nursery, morale was pretty low.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mike felt as though police didn't care about his son, and that he was alone in this horrible situation.

[SPEAKER_01]: The news wasn't picking the story up, and Shane's family just couldn't get traction anywhere.

[SPEAKER_01]: years began to pass.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mike and others passed names and tips onto the police with no idea if anything was followed up on.

[SPEAKER_01]: According to Mike, police didn't even canvas the neighborhood in the days after Shane's disappearance to see if any neighbors had seen anything.

[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't even do like the basics of like, no, I mean, they went to the sheets.

[SPEAKER_01]: They got the footage, which I mean, definitely key, like that's a very important thing that they did do,

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, that's wild.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's just like, that's basic policing 101.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I, I, I just, I don't, I don't understand why they wouldn't, that they very least do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've run into this before.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we did what a three-part episode on Ralph G. Marie in Vermont and Barry Vermont and police same thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was involved with drugs.

[SPEAKER_01]: He went missing from a low budget motel.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And police didn't canvas the area, they didn't pull any of the surveillance footage from any of the businesses nearby.

[SPEAKER_01]: It would, I mean, I guess that just happens in these cases sometimes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, like, I can, I can kind of see the whole, like, okay, we're a small department, this guy's an adult, he'll come back on his own mentality.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Which they definitely had.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, except for the fact that he had already been missing for five days before they even picked up the cake.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: That it's not like it was the same day or a couple of hours.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where it's like, ma, he'll come back.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's five days is that he's missing already from the start.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he left his house key, he left his dog like he, you know, left all of his belongings.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they had to go to the sheets to physically get the footage from the cameras.

[SPEAKER_00]: So why didn't they just walk the block and a half in between the houses and knock on a few doors.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, I know.

[SPEAKER_01]: So when Sheen just appeared, his Facebook account went dormant, obviously.

[SPEAKER_01]: No one else had any access to it, so they couldn't go in and see if there are any messages that could potentially yield any clues.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then in January 2019, everyone on Sheen's friends list was shocked when a video was posted to his page.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, this video wasn't of Shane or anything like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I think it was just a random internet video.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was never able to see the actual video.

[SPEAKER_01]: I only saw a screenshot of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: OK. Well, someone dared if it was Shane's way of saying that he was out there in a live.

[SPEAKER_01]: Others wondered if someone who has involved in his disappearance had been able to access this account.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it was posted under Shane.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not like somebody tagged him in.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, it was, yeah, posted on his account.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, wow.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's creepy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's scared to shit out of everyone, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: A Facebook user, reporting to be a police officer, involved with Shane's case, got on the Shane Workbench search party group.

[SPEAKER_01]: And basically said that there wasn't anything that the police could do about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I say purporting to be because his Facebook account like many people in law enforcement like don't have his actual information on it, you know, so either he's just some like weirdo or he's true, yeah, or he's like an actual cop who just doesn't put a lot of identifying information on his Facebook account.

[SPEAKER_01]: Either way, so this person got on there and said, you know, they're, they just really couldn't do anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said they of course needed a warrant in order for Facebook to release any information about the post, including like the IP address from which it came.

[SPEAKER_01]: But since Shane was an adult, he was still just considered to be a missing person who potentially didn't want to be found.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: There is no crime associated with this case.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: So no basis for a warrant.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's unfortunate, but that's, yeah, reality.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why I kind of do believe that this guy's who we study was because like, yeah, that makes sense.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, then in 2023, six years after Shane's disappearance, something else funky happened with his Facebook page, Mike and others have been sending Shane messages over the years, just, you know, as a way of having a one-sided conversation with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: But one day, those messages started popping up as red.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh.

[SPEAKER_01]: might contacted the police and it was eventually determined that someone named Tim had gotten Shane's old phone number.

[SPEAKER_01]: The same one that Shane had used to set up his own Facebook account.

[SPEAKER_01]: When Tim tried to log on to his account, he had a code sent to his phone, but instead of logging him into his account, it walked him into Shane's, which was also associated with that phone number.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now listen I can see your face and when I read that I was like that's not how that works at all like that's insane yeah I was thinking that that's not accurate right but I looked it up and apparently this has happened to a lot of people with recycled phone numbers.

[SPEAKER_01]: like they're I actually linked an article to it because it just happened to some like brand them guy and basically he hadn't logged into his own Facebook account in like a couple of years or whatever so he could remember his password.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he went and this is from the article not this Tim guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: So one of the password recovery options is to have a code sent to your phone.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he put his phone number and they sent him the code and it logged him into a complete stranger's account.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said like everything was in Spanish, like he had no idea what was happening.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's weird.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Huh.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, okay, so I read that and I was like, okay, so I guess this is kind of legit, but it got weirder because it seemed like there was more going on there because Mike was able to get in touch with this Tim guy, which is how we know his name is Tim, and he asked him to go through Shane's messages to see if he found anything, and he was like, hey, you had access to this account,

[SPEAKER_01]: right and you like change the password, give me the password so that I can access it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Which if this is some random recycled phone number issue like I read about in that article, it's it would seem like an amazing stroke of luck.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: That, like, holy shit, you can get into his account.

[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody can help you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, I think anybody who is in that situation on the other end, and they say, and they hear, like, this random account urine is of a missing person that we haven't been able to access.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is, like, six years later.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, anybody who'd be like, yeah, let me change the password.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll give it to you anything I can do to help.

[SPEAKER_00]: You would also think that maybe the police would want to contact him and do the same thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.

[SPEAKER_01]: But that's what would

[SPEAKER_01]: According to Mike, Tim initially agreed to like do that to help him out, but then changed his mind.

[SPEAKER_01]: And at first, I saw that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And again, because I'm piecing all this together from the Facebook group.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I saw that I was like, okay, well maybe he didn't have access to it anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like maybe he like logged in once accidentally.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then he got out and like couldn't get back in or you know, whatever it was, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: But then, other people started reporting that this Tim guy or like whoever it was who had access to Shane's account started replying to their Facebook messages to Shane.

[SPEAKER_00]: What?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like in they posted screenshots and so they'd like send messages to Shane's account be like, hey, like, this is, you know, my friend Shane, who's been missing for six years, we really want to get into his account or whatever, and they would get to reply back telling them to quit and that he wasn't Shane, he just had his phone number and people are like, okay, well, we're not texting you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're Facebook messaging you and you are on his Facebook account messaging us back.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like this isn't we're texting the wrong phone number.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's so weird.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I, like I said, I saw screenshots where this dude, whoever is in Shane's account, was like threatening to call the police.

[SPEAKER_01]: Call the police.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what they said.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're like, okay, good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Please do.

[SPEAKER_01]: We will also call the police.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: And hopefully we can get this figured out.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what's wild is that it doesn't appear that anything ever came of this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, it doesn't seem like the police ever got involved when we're in other.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't seem like they ever got access to Shane's Facebook page.

[SPEAKER_01]: Eventually, people just stopped posting about this.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I have no idea what happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: What the hell?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that is so crazy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, go, this is six years after Shane disappeared that all this is happening.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is crazy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and this guy is responding to messages on a Facebook account that is not his.

[SPEAKER_00]: saying leave me alone stop harassing me I mean how about you just turn over that information and then log out of the account yeah isn't yours it was the most bizarre thing

[SPEAKER_01]: As Shane's friends and family marked seven years without him in 2024, their anger seemed to grow.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is when they started speaking publicly about Kelly P, the woman who Shane was allegedly with that night.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: And at one point I did find out like her actual full name, but I'm not going to put it out there because again, this is just all Facebook stuff, like none of this has been vetted.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: As the years passed, Shane's friends and family seemed to be more and more convinced that not only did this person have information about what happened on the night of April 25, 2017, but that she may have set Shane up.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like talked about this in his interview with Fox 43 saying, quote, she's in jail now, that girl knows something.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know she does, but you can't force it.

[SPEAKER_01]: She can sit on that story for the rest of her life.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know how she can sleep.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know I can't

[SPEAKER_01]: and quote, there are also rumors that Kelly have been talking about what happened to Shane while she was in jail and even bragging about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But a woman named Jessica who claimed to have been in jail with Kelly back in 2020 said that Kelly always swore she had nothing to do with Shane's disappearance.

[SPEAKER_01]: Shane's mom Cindy didn't come out in accused Kelly, but does believe that her son is the victim of a crime and that the perpetrator was someone he knew.

[SPEAKER_00]: if they didn't find anything in the alley or the block and I have between the house and sheets, you would assume that he got into a car willingly.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because that's the thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like Shane was like, you know, a big guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: He knew how to take care of himself.

[SPEAKER_01]: Could he have been like grabbed and put into a car?

[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.

[SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, he would have put up a fight.

[SPEAKER_00]: Uh-huh.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you're right.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think the more likely scenario is that he did get into a car willingly.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's basically what Cindy said.

[SPEAKER_01]: She said, quote, he wouldn't get into a vehicle with someone he didn't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he was a pretty strong kid.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whoever did whatever to Shane, I don't want to know how he died or if he's dead.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I know some people in this town know something.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they ain't talking and quote.

[SPEAKER_01]: And unfortunately, that's what this case seemingly comes down to.

[SPEAKER_01]: People aren't talking.

[SPEAKER_01]: This case doesn't strike me as particularly mysterious.

[SPEAKER_00]: no, not at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: It seems pretty straightforward to me that he got into a car.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then something happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: And his body is out there somewhere.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the people involved are not talking exactly.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the people who know things aren't talking because I'm sure because I do like this is the type of crime that I feel people who were involved probably did tell other people it out.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, my personal belief is that Shane's parents are right.

[SPEAKER_01]: His disappearance is likely drug-related.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if that's the case, he probably did owe the wrong people money.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if, you know, somebody's going through all this trouble to harm him, they're not doing it for no reason.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: But regardless of the circumstances around his disappearance and the possible motive behind it, it doesn't make Shane a bad person and it certainly doesn't make him unworthy of being found.

[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.

[SPEAKER_01]: I went through seven years of anguished Facebook posts from Shane's father and other people who love him.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can say with absolute certainty that Shane is deeply loved and deeply missed.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's also obvious to me that the combination of Shane's family not having the resources to hire PIs and hold press conferences and do all of those things that you see in a lot of these missing person's cases.

[SPEAKER_01]: means that they couldn't force the police to actually take this case seriously.

[SPEAKER_01]: And there's also the stigma surrounding drug users and like I think those two things combined like the fact that his parents didn't have resources and the stigma around drug users are the reasons why this case hasn't been solved.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and you also have to think, he's known to the Loosen PD.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, for sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not to, not to ever say that, you know, police officers would be like, all right, one less person I have to worry about that kind of thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, it kind of feels that way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, okay, this guy was a trouble maker.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was involved in drugs.

[SPEAKER_00]: We knew him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He spent time in jail.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's kind of out of our hair.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not going to put a whole lot of resources to this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what it sounds like.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even if they do believe that something nefarious happens, I think there's also the possibility that a lot of cops genuinely think he just took off, too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it seems unlikely, but that is also a real possibility.

[SPEAKER_01]: So somebody did post like, because that was a big theory, especially early on, that he was just in hiding.

[SPEAKER_01]: And one of his friends was like, no, because he actually had kind of done that before.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: He had like taken off.

[SPEAKER_01]: And she was like, yeah, but he came to my house and didn't stay out of touch with certain people.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like the people he could trust, he got in touch with during that time.

[SPEAKER_01]: So like it was a very different situation from whatever happened on April 25th, 2017.

[SPEAKER_01]: Louis town is a small burrow.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the type of place where people know each other and they know each other's secrets.

[SPEAKER_01]: I fully believe that there are multiple people out there walking among Shane's heartbroken family who have the ability to answer their questions.

[SPEAKER_01]: They just need to be brave enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: As Cindy told Fox 43, quote, you start thinking about it and you cry.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't want to think about it because it hurts too much.

[SPEAKER_01]: I pray every night for him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Shane workmen has been missing from Louis Town Pennsylvania since April 25, 2017.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is a white male with black care and brown eyes.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is between five foot 10 and six foot two and 170 to 175 pounds at the time of his disappearance.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was last seen wearing a red hoodie, a dark colored large t-shirt, size 3432 or 3430 baggy blue jeans, a black curly cap, solid color boxer shorts with an elastic band, size 12 sneakers, black socks, and a silver neck chain with a silver cross pendant.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was 31 when he went missing, he would be 38 today.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anyone with information regarding Shane Workman's disappearance is urged to contact Detective Jeremy Pof with the Lewis-Tam Police Department at 814-445-41-04.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can see all the sources for this episode along with photos and videos at our website and then they were gone.com.

[SPEAKER_00]: And be sure to follow us on social and then they were gone pod on Facebook and at ATTWG pod on Instagram and TikTok.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you like what we're doing, please subscribe and consider leaving a five-star review on Apple Podcasts.

[SPEAKER_00]: It will help new listeners find us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the more people let listen, the more chances we have of bringing someone home.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we'll see you here next week for a brand new episode.

[SPEAKER_00]: See you next week.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then they were gone as hosted by Kona Gallagher and Ethan Flick, a research writing and editing is done by me, Kona Gallagher.

[SPEAKER_01]: The music is the stork by Ketsa.

[SPEAKER_01]: Additional music is provided by Kai Engel.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then they were gone is a little monster production.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, you're good going!