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AdvocacyCon. If

1:03

you've never had to deal with having

1:05

a missing loved one, you might

1:07

assume that they're all treated with the

1:09

same amount of care, resources, and

1:11

attention. In reality, the

1:13

process is far more complex and

1:16

varied. There are no rules

1:18

about how long someone will be searched

1:20

for, how many resources will be used,

1:22

or how much time police will spend

1:24

chasing down leads and keeping family informed.

1:27

There is no agreed upon set of

1:29

best practices, and for the most part,

1:31

Each police department tackles these cases

1:33

how they see fit. Unfortunately,

1:36

this also means that some of

1:38

them operate according to their own

1:41

biases regarding race, gender, sexual orientation, homelessness,

1:43

addiction, mental illness, or

1:46

even factors you would never

1:48

believe like location. In

1:50

2018, a 28 -year -old man

1:53

went missing while attending a music

1:55

festival in Michigan. And although there

1:57

were initial efforts and some media

1:59

attention, his family felt

2:01

that biases about his lifestyle

2:03

tainted further efforts. He

2:05

would be discovered deceased in

2:07

late 2024, answering some questions,

2:09

but raising so many others. I'm

2:12

John Lordin, and today we

2:15

will explore the seriously mysterious and

2:17

still unsolved death of Kevin

2:19

Graves. On January

2:21

24th, 1990, the Graves family

2:23

celebrated the birth of their

2:25

youngest child, Kevin Gary Graves,

2:27

in Livonia, Michigan. Although

2:29

he was six years younger, Kevin

2:31

and his sister Kelly were exceptionally

2:33

close and remained that way through

2:36

adulthood. Kevin was kind and

2:38

well -mannered, but with a little

2:40

childhood and teenage troublemaking here and

2:42

there, he loved everybody, said

2:44

his father Gary during an interview with

2:46

MLive in 2023. He loved

2:48

his mother and his sister. They were like

2:50

glue. His father had

2:52

served as a Marine in the Vietnam

2:54

War and owned a mechanic shop before retiring,

2:57

often telling Kevin, There's nothing

2:59

you can't fix while he was

3:01

growing up." Perhaps as a result, Kevin

3:03

was known for his ability to excel

3:05

at things like mechanics and construction. In

3:08

high school, he fell in with a

3:11

crowd that smoked marijuana, and it got

3:13

him in trouble pretty often. The

3:15

officer was always picking on him, his

3:17

father Gary said, regarding the school's

3:19

liaison officer. After graduation,

3:22

Kevin continued to build a record

3:24

of minor, nonviolent offenses and

3:26

even spent a short time in

3:28

jail in 2011 for cannabis related charges. Fortunately,

3:32

the brief time motivated him to work hard and

3:34

stay out of trouble. He got

3:36

a job at his father's mechanic shop and later

3:38

moved on to work in construction. His

3:41

sister Kelly described him as, quote,

3:44

pretty happy go lucky. He was just

3:46

extremely sweet. He had the biggest

3:48

heart. I just want them to remember

3:50

him for his kind spirit and his smile. I'm

3:53

going to miss his smile. Every

3:56

year, it was Kevin's job to lead his

3:58

family in prayer before Thanksgiving dinner, but

4:00

in the years after his disappearance, it

4:02

was eerily silent at the table. If

4:06

you ever had the pleasure of hanging out with

4:08

Kevin, you no doubt know about his intense

4:10

love of music. As a result,

4:12

he was drawn to music festivals. Kevin,

4:15

his girlfriend Kayla, and two friends named

4:17

James and Angel had decided to

4:19

attend the Electric Forest Music Festival in

4:21

their home state of Michigan in

4:24

June of 2018. This annual

4:26

mecca for music lovers takes place

4:28

on a 2 ,000 -acre property called

4:30

the Double JJ Resort in Rothbury,

4:32

a village about five miles from

4:34

Lake Michigan. An estimated 50

4:36

,000 people flock to the

4:38

festival every year. That

4:40

year, the festival ran for two consecutive

4:43

long weekends, and Kevin and his

4:45

friends had chosen the second weekend to attend.

4:47

They arrived Wednesday June 27th to

4:49

set up camp before the festival began

4:52

the following day and they plan

4:54

to leave the morning of Monday, July

4:56

2nd. The Electric Forest

4:58

Music Festival has been described

5:00

as a multi -genre, modern -day

5:02

woodstock in terms of atmosphere

5:04

and, yes, drugs as well. Oakland

5:07

County Sheriff Sergeant David Bach, who has

5:09

been leading the investigation from the beginning,

5:12

said that Kevin struggled with substance and

5:14

alcohol use in the past. His

5:16

family knew that Kevin had a medical

5:18

marijuana card, but weren't aware of him

5:20

using any other drugs specifically. His

5:23

father Gary said, It's

5:36

also worth noting that Kevin was being

5:38

treated for bipolar disorder, but had

5:40

stopped taking his medication two months prior.

5:42

He had been struggling with the lethargy

5:44

his medication caused. Kevin

5:47

checked in with his family via text

5:49

every day. All seemed normal until the

5:51

last morning of the festival, Sunday,

5:53

July 1st. At 7 .55 a

5:55

.m., Kevin's dad received a text that

5:57

didn't make much sense. It said

5:59

something along the lines of, I

6:01

love you so much for your service, dad. Thank

6:03

you for your service. I will be

6:05

able to pay you back some now

6:07

or day. Kevin

6:10

was known to be extremely proud of

6:12

his father and grandfather's service in the

6:14

Marines, and the family assumed it had

6:16

to do with that, but the timing

6:18

and wording felt off. His mom, feeling

6:20

uneasy but not wanting to nag,

6:22

texted Kevin at 12 .08 pm

6:24

asking, how are you guys doing? And

6:27

he responded with only the word,

6:29

nothing. Confused,

6:31

she texted again a few minutes later asking,

6:33

is everything okay? But he

6:35

responded with the same single word, nothing.

6:39

The last text was sent to his

6:41

sister at 1 .55 pm and it

6:43

said, everything's good, I love you the

6:45

most. Reassuringly, the

6:47

phrasing suggests to Kelly that it was

6:50

indeed Kevin who sent the text because

6:52

all their phone calls ended with a

6:54

playful back and forth, I love you

6:56

more, contest, usually ending in Kevin

6:58

saying, I love you the most. Bank

7:01

records show that near the time of this

7:03

text, he withdrew $200 from the bank

7:05

account he shared with his girlfriend, Kayla, This

7:08

was his last bank activity. There

7:11

was some tension in the group before they arrived at

7:13

the festival. It's generally undisputed

7:15

that a verbal altercation occurred between

7:17

Kayla and Kevin. Allegedly,

7:20

Kevin was suspicious of a sexual

7:22

or romantic relationship between Kayla

7:24

and James, which Kayla denied.

7:27

This is where the stories get a little

7:29

muddy and start to differ. Kayla

7:32

initially said that Kevin walked off alone after the

7:34

fight. and when the rest of them returned to

7:36

the camp later, he was nowhere to be found. However,

7:38

their friend James has said that

7:40

he and Kevin walked off together

7:42

after the fight, and that Kevin

7:45

began acting erratically and walked away

7:47

from it. However, a

7:49

witness would come forward telling

7:51

yet another different version of these

7:53

events. In

8:07

an interview from the Missing People in

8:09

America YouTube channel, a witness recalled

8:11

seeing the argument happening between the group

8:13

at camp. She was standing right

8:15

beside their camp because it was the only place

8:17

that she could find cell service. She

8:20

recalls them all yelling horrible things

8:22

at Kevin while he was sobbing and

8:24

saying things like, you promised you wouldn't

8:26

do this again. Her

8:28

impression was that the campmates seemed to

8:30

be on Kayla's side ganging up

8:32

on Kevin. The witness said he

8:34

was even begging them to stop. She

8:37

didn't see him walk away from the

8:39

tent, but things went silent not long

8:41

after. She mentioned explicitly that

8:43

it was dark outside, which is a

8:45

notable difference. Kayla's account was

8:47

of a fight in the afternoon. Kelly

8:49

also mentioned that a witness pointed out that

8:51

the cars could pull up to the

8:53

campsites, meaning it was theoretically possible

8:56

that if Kevin had been harmed

8:58

or subdued during the argument, he

9:00

could have been taken somewhere fairly

9:02

discreetly. The trio claims to

9:04

have searched that evening finding no signs

9:06

of Kevin. The next morning, Kayla

9:08

allegedly drove to pick up her father

9:10

three and a half hours away before

9:13

calling Kevin's family. His family

9:15

finds it strange that Kayla was already back

9:17

with her dad searching by the time that

9:19

they were notified and could make it to

9:21

the grounds. Police were

9:23

soon involved and a formal report was made.

9:26

A volunteer search and rescue team spent

9:28

time looking for Kevin for two weeks

9:30

after his disappearance with dogs and divers. but

9:33

nothing of Kevin's was found. He

9:35

had seemingly left behind most of

9:37

his belongings at the campsite except his

9:39

wallet, phone, and the clothes he

9:41

was wearing. Kevin's sister

9:43

said that his girlfriend Kayla was

9:45

initially helpful and appeared genuinely

9:47

distraught. However, only three weeks

9:49

later, Kayla informed Kelly that she was

9:52

moving Kevin's belongings out of their

9:54

home in Highland Township. Legally,

9:56

the place belonged to her, but the two had been

9:59

living there together at the time of his disappearance. She

10:01

told Sergeant Bach that she thought Kevin had

10:04

walked away from her and she was done. Kevin's

10:07

family asked Kayla for his phone records

10:09

because his phone was on her

10:11

family plan, but she refused to give them

10:13

to them, a choice that's somewhat difficult

10:15

to understand. Soon, Kayla

10:18

cut off all communication from the family

10:20

and even told police that they were

10:22

harassing her. Around this

10:24

time, horrible and accusatory things were

10:26

indeed being said about Kayla online,

10:28

but they weren't from Kevin's family. James

10:32

was allegedly spotted at Kayla's home in

10:34

the weeks following Kevin's disappearance, but

10:36

she claimed it was for protection. Kayla

10:38

also told police that she had found

10:41

syringes in Kevin's things, which led to

10:43

speculation about what types of drugs might

10:45

be involved. However, we don't

10:47

know if these needles were ever proven to

10:49

be his. The family

10:51

thinks that Sergeant Bach and other law

10:53

enforcement officers had largely written Kevin

10:55

off as a drugie. Quote,

10:58

obviously it's no secret that we're disappointed as

11:00

to how it was handled, said his

11:02

sister Kelly. She continued, if

11:05

they just would have checked the phone records or

11:07

pinged the phone, but they didn't do any

11:09

of that. And that was all within their

11:11

power to do. If you

11:13

listen to the vanished podcast's interview with

11:15

Sergeant Bach prior to the discovery of

11:17

Kevin's remains, some of the biases

11:19

we mentioned at the start of this episode

11:21

seemed clear. When speaking about

11:23

music festival culture, he says, You

11:26

go there to listen to music and do drugs

11:28

that's why you go there. He

11:30

also talks about Kevin and Kayla specifically

11:32

saying he's not an executive at general motors

11:34

and she works as a nurse you

11:36

know so that's one of the things

11:38

about this as well. It

11:40

feels as though he's implying that if

11:42

Kevin was someone else things would be

11:45

handled differently. As to investigating

11:47

any aspect of foul play sergeant box

11:49

said in an m live article back in

11:51

two thousand eighteen. I have

11:53

no evidence to support in any way that

11:55

anything nefarious happened to him. My

11:57

feeling is he walked away from there.

12:00

His goal was to be part of the lore

12:02

of that festival of people who disappeared. If

12:06

you've ever been to a festival and

12:08

heard someone yelling, Carl, you

12:10

can thank the Electric Forest for the

12:12

inside joke. There are various theories

12:14

about who the real Carl was and

12:16

what the exact story is, but each

12:18

version has a common core. In

12:21

2008, a man at the music festival

12:23

named Carl had a bad drug

12:25

trip and lost track of his friends.

12:27

They began to yell his name,

12:30

and strangers joined in enthusiastically. In

12:32

most variations of the story, he's

12:34

eventually found some people even claimed

12:36

to be V. Carl. But

12:39

the story feels equal parts

12:41

cautionary tale and inside

12:43

joke. But is the

12:45

sergeant really implying that Kevin intentionally

12:47

went missing to become a spooky

12:49

story? Given the

12:51

comments of Sergeant Bach, the family took it

12:53

upon themselves to investigate. They returned

12:55

to the festival to pass out flyers,

12:57

hoping someone may have seen something. The

13:00

CEO of the festival told them that

13:02

they were welcome to check areas on

13:04

the property and put up a big

13:06

poster at the information center, but they

13:08

needed to stop passing out flyers inside

13:10

the grounds because it reflected poorly on

13:12

the event and it caused litter. They

13:15

investigated theories that came up, like a

13:17

popular one saying that he joined a

13:19

religious cult called the Twelve Tribes. Branches

13:22

of this cult traveled to festivals to

13:24

recruit lost souls to join them

13:26

and work at their businesses. His

13:28

sister said Kevin would have been the type

13:31

to join a cult if he was

13:33

distraught and seeking comfort or escape, so it

13:35

wasn't completely off the table. Another

13:37

popular theory is that he'd left to start

13:40

a new life growing cannabis on a

13:42

farm somewhere, but his sister felt

13:44

strongly that he would call or text

13:46

his family if he was able to. Finally,

13:50

on December 30th, 2024, two

13:52

hunters were clearing a path on private

13:54

property when they came across skeletal

13:56

remains that were soon confirmed to be

13:58

Kevins. cell phone, wallet

14:00

with his ID, and even his

14:03

festival wristband were with him, laying

14:05

in the dense marshland a few hundred

14:07

yards from Southwater Road. Kevin

14:09

and his friends had camped in a

14:12

cleared field less than half a mile

14:14

away from that spot. Kevin's

14:16

father said, with the dogs

14:18

and everything they claim they had running around

14:20

there looking, I can't see how we missed

14:22

him. People

14:24

on the Facebook page, now renamed

14:26

Rest in Peace, Kevin Graves, also

14:29

debated how he could have been so close

14:31

to the camp grounds without being found. One

14:33

commenter named Daniela Zameth

14:35

said, It doesn't get more rural than

14:38

this in the lower peninsula of Michigan. There's

14:40

swamp, thousands of acres of

14:43

farmland, untouched forest. Some

14:45

of this is private land. None of

14:47

this is easy to search. Another

14:50

commenter named Joel Bredrow

14:52

responded, as one of the

14:54

searchers, I can tell you that we were

14:56

not there long enough. The team planned a

14:58

few hours and it simply was not enough

15:00

time. Police have also

15:02

said that there is no evidence of

15:04

foul play even after the discovery of

15:06

his remains, but it's important to note

15:08

that those remains were skeletal. Many

15:11

signs of foul play could easily be lost

15:13

to time. As his

15:15

girlfriend and one of the last people

15:17

to see him, Kayla is still the

15:19

subject of much speculation and suspicion. However,

15:22

what exactly would be her

15:24

motive? What would she

15:26

gain by killing him? She owned

15:28

the home that they lived in. Her

15:30

kids weren't his and they weren't married.

15:32

So there's little to no financial gain to

15:34

be made. If she and James

15:36

really wanted to be together, they certainly didn't have to

15:39

kill Kevin to do so. Of course,

15:41

there may have been an altercation and

15:43

things may have been taken too far.

15:45

Just another one of the many theories

15:47

that are still swirling around this case. We

15:50

also have to consider that there were tens of

15:53

thousands of people at the festival. Would

15:55

any strangers have a reason to hurt Kevin? His

15:58

parents said in the missing people in America

16:00

video interview that there were rumors

16:02

Kevin and another friend named Ashton

16:04

were robbing people's tents. If

16:07

this was true, it would certainly

16:09

give motive, but it's unclear where

16:11

this rumor even came from. Strangely,

16:13

Kevin's dad also commented that

16:15

Kayla's new husband had come to

16:17

their house and shakily told

16:19

him that she knows more than she's saying. He

16:22

even taped this conversation for the police. but

16:25

it said that they never followed up. Kevin's

16:28

sister Kelly received a text from an unknown

16:30

person who claimed Kevin was selling drugs

16:33

and had gone to meet up with someone,

16:35

but that person was intoxicated and accidentally

16:37

hit Kevin with their car. They

16:40

said the person put Kevin in the car to

16:42

drive to the hospital, but it was too late. The

16:45

text refused to answer any of

16:47

her questions, but interestingly, a

16:49

TikTok user claiming to be a friend

16:51

of both Kayla and Kevin's backed up the

16:53

claim that they were planning on selling

16:56

drugs at the festival, and they also echoed

16:58

the sentiment that Kayla knew more than

17:00

she was saying. These

17:02

rumors are unsubstantiated, but

17:04

doesn't it seem worth looking into if

17:06

they could open up new avenues of

17:08

investigation? Would that explain Kayla

17:11

wanting to hide his phone records? It's

17:14

also possible that a distraught Kevin responded

17:16

to the fight with his friends

17:18

by walking away and simply got lost

17:20

and disoriented in the dense marshland. And

17:23

while drugs would certainly explain the

17:25

strange texts he sent to his family,

17:28

so would a mental health episode. He

17:30

was a highly sensitive person

17:32

suffering from bipolar depression

17:34

without prescribed medication, and

17:36

this could have been exacerbated by

17:39

a heated verbal altercation. Although

17:41

wandering off and getting lost seems

17:43

like a decent theory, it doesn't

17:45

explain a lot. Why did

17:47

stories shift? Why didn't Kayla

17:49

want anyone to see his phone records? Why

17:51

did her husband feel the need to go to

17:53

Kevin's family and say those things? Most

17:56

frustratingly is the question, would

17:58

this case have been solved by a simple

18:00

phone ping by the police? Later

18:03

this year, his family will sit down to Thanksgiving

18:06

dinner for the first time, knowing that Kevin

18:08

will never lead the prayer at the table again.

18:11

Instead, the prayers will

18:13

be for Kevin and for the

18:15

truth. Kevin's

18:17

father stated in an interview on

18:19

W -O -O -D -TV, At

18:29

the

18:32

time of his disappearance, Kevin Graves was

18:34

a 28 -year -old white male standing

18:36

at 6 feet tall and weighing 165

18:38

pounds with sandy blonde hair and

18:40

a beard. He was last seen

18:42

prior to his death at the Electric

18:44

Music Festival in 2018. If

18:47

you have any helpful information,

18:49

please contact the Oakland County Sheriff's

18:51

Office at 248 -858

18:53

-4951 and reference

18:55

case number

18:57

1 -80 -124 -834. Do

19:00

you have any insights or a

19:02

case you'd like to suggest? Feel

19:05

free to send it to me.

19:07

You'll find a comment, form, and

19:09

case submission link at lordanarts .com.

19:11

Thank you to theVanishedPodcast, Mlive .com, The

19:13

Detroit Free Press, Fox 17, The

19:15

Independent, Click on Detroit, WXYZDetroit,

19:18

WZZM13, WOODTV,

19:22

Wikipedia, The

19:24

Rest in Peace, Kevin Graves' Facebook page, EDM

19:26

.com, The Danielle Hallen YouTube

19:28

channel, and The Missing People in

19:30

America YouTube channel for information contributing

19:32

to today's case. This episode was

19:34

written by Kira McQueen, edited by

19:36

John Lordin, and produced by Lordin

19:38

Arts. A big thank you

19:41

to everyone that supports our work here at

19:43

Seriously Mysterious, but in particular for this episode, thank

19:45

you B -Jones, Mike W, and Amber

19:47

Rust. Most of all, thank

19:49

you for listening. I'm John Lordin.

19:51

Please join us again next week

19:54

for another case I know you'll find.

19:56

Seriously Mysterious.