Name: Michael Wayne Grimes
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: January 18, 1999
Location Last Seen: Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas
Date of Birth: May 30, 1968
Age: 31 years old
Race: White
Gender: Male
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 200 lbs.
Hair Color: Unknown
Eye Color: Brown hair, blue
Nickname/Alias: Mike, Hammer
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Reconstructive plates and screws in the upper right side of his face. He has tattoos on his right upper shoulder, upper left arm, left forearm, right forearm, chest and abdomen. Scars on his face and right wrist.
Dentals: Unknown
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Available
Clothing: A shirt, blue jeans and boots.
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Michael Grimes, a Nacogdoches man, was last seen alive in 1999 at Ken's Wrecking Yard on U.S. Highway 59 north of Lufkin. Grimes went missing on January 18, 1999 after leaving his mother's house with a man. Grimes' mother contacted local authorities after Grimes didn't return home.
Initially reported as a missing person, Grimes' disappearance later turned into a murder investigation.
Rodney Wayne Cearley, was charged March 15, 2006 with the alleged murder of Michael Grimes. Cearley said he'd been doing rat poison and drinking alcohol to get high with Grimes, at the wrecking yard property, when a fight broke out between the two men. Cearley stabbed Grimes, and later dragged the body into the woods behind the house. Cearley left, returning to load the body in a car, burying Grimes in the woods near the river.
Grimes' body and a murder weapon have never been recovered.
Rodney Cearley was found guilty of murdering Grimes, in December 2007, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Agency Name: Texas Department of Public Safety
Agency Contact Person: N/A
Agency Phone Number: 512-424-5074
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: M0604003
Texas Department of Public Safety
Lufkin Daily Archives
TDCAA
Added: 8-11-2008; Last Updated: 11-13-2021 - By: Htmlcnvtr
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
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