Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Disappearance of Patty Vaughan Part 1

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The Disappearance of Patty Vaughan Part 1 · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

0:01
Speaker 1: If you're experiencing domestic abuse, please get help. One of
0:06
Speaker 1: the most accessible ways to do that is by calling
0:09
Speaker 1: the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at eight hundred seven nine
0:13
Speaker 1: nine Safe or eight hundred seven nine nine seven two
0:17
Speaker 1: three three. You can also text Start Start to eight
0:23
Speaker 1: eight seven eight eight. At the hotline dot org, you'll
0:27
Speaker 1: find other resources available to you. Again, if you are
0:32
Speaker 1: experiencing domestic abuse, please get help by calling eight hundred
0:37
Speaker 1: seven nine nine Safe or eight hundred seven ninety nine
0:41
Speaker 1: seven two three three.
0:44
Speaker 2: The Gone Cold podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
0:48
Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. Violent crime in Texas is often
0:54
Speaker 1: thought of as a big city problem Houston, Dallas, San Antonio.
1:00
Speaker 1: When associating violent crime with Texas cities, those come to
1:04
Speaker 1: mind almost effortlessly. It's doubtful places like Floresville, Stockdale, Lavernia,
1:11
Speaker 1: or anywhere else in Wilson County would even make the list.
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Speaker 1: Situated just southeast of San Antonio, Wilson County was home
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Speaker 1: to about twenty five thousand residents in the mid nineteen nineties,
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Speaker 1: a far cry from the number of people living in
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Speaker 1: the big city at the time, which was around one million.
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Speaker 1: Made up primarily of working class folks. Homes in Wilson
1:34
Speaker 1: County were spread out, and most properties there could be
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Speaker 1: considered rural, certainly not the kind of place you'd expect
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Speaker 1: to find random crimes like abduction murders, for instance. However,
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Speaker 1: Wilson County was an exempt from violent crime, particularly cases
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Speaker 1: of domestic violence. Rarer are unresolved missing persons cases, cases
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Speaker 1: in which questions perpetually linger. Was the disappearance a result
2:04
Speaker 1: of a crime of opportunity, the missing person a victim
2:08
Speaker 1: of a random act of violence, or did they vanish
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Speaker 1: as the result of the most extreme form of domestic violence.
2:17
Speaker 1: These are only a few of the questions The family
2:19
Speaker 1: of Patty Vaughan, who disappeared on Christmas Day in nineteen
2:23
Speaker 1: ninety six, continued to grapple with to this day.
2:48
Speaker 3: The misnomer is that most women think that once they
2:51
Speaker 3: get out of that relationships or say it's good now,
2:55
Speaker 3: that's when things were the absolute scariest for Patty.
2:59
Speaker 4: I mean, you think that you're safe, it's the scariest time.
3:27
Speaker 1: Patty Andez Brightwell was born in Dawson, Georgia, on August seventeenth,
3:32
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty four. To parents Patsy and to Billy Brightwell.
3:37
Speaker 1: Patty's cousin Kathy told us about their slightly unconventional childhoods.
3:43
Speaker 5: She and her mother and her brother lived with us
3:45
Speaker 5: off and on, and her mother and father got divorced
3:49
Speaker 5: at a young age. Our parents got divorced at a
3:51
Speaker 5: young age, so our mothers lived together. So we were
3:55
Speaker 5: all raised like siblings. We did everything together, the four
3:59
Speaker 5: of us did.
4:00
Speaker 1: They moved around a lot, but the family wasn't what
4:03
Speaker 1: you'd call nomadic.
4:05
Speaker 5: Rather, you know, we were the kids of two very
4:07
Speaker 5: young single moms, and it was it was fun.
4:12
Speaker 2: I mean, we had a lot of fun.
4:14
Speaker 1: Patty was close to her cousins and aunt Jean, and
4:18
Speaker 1: particularly close to Kathy. As another one of her cousins, Barb,
4:23
Speaker 1: told us Patty.
4:24
Speaker 6: And Kathy were like twins. I mean, we were raised together,
4:29
Speaker 6: all of us. I was the older one and those
4:31
Speaker 6: two were only six months apart. So Kathy and Patty
4:34
Speaker 6: were the best, best, best of friends.
4:38
Speaker 5: Like Barb said, we were six months apart, so Patty
4:41
Speaker 5: and I we were like little Irish twins. But the
4:46
Speaker 5: four of us did everything together. And she was usually
4:50
Speaker 5: the most likable one because she just had a gentle
4:54
Speaker 5: thing about herself.
4:56
Speaker 1: Later, when Patty's mom got remarried to an Air Force man,
4:59
Speaker 1: the family ended up in Okinawa, Japan. There she attended
5:04
Speaker 1: Kubasaki High School, where she became involved in the band
5:08
Speaker 1: and choir. In fact, she sang on Kubasaki's class of
5:12
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty two graduation song composed by schoolmate Ann Coop.
5:20
Speaker 1: Singing would remain a passion of Patty's and she only
5:24
Speaker 1: honed her talent and skills. After moving back to the States,
5:30
Speaker 1: Patty settled in the San Antonio area, where she met
5:33
Speaker 1: and hit it off with a guy named Gary. Things
5:37
Speaker 1: got serious between the two, but after a few months
5:40
Speaker 1: of dating something came up.
5:42
Speaker 7: Gary had had an ex girlfriend he had just broken
5:45
Speaker 7: up with before Patty and Gary had met, and then
5:48
Speaker 7: the girlfriend came back around pregnant, and so Gary did
5:52
Speaker 7: the right thing and he married her.
5:55
Speaker 1: Patty was heartbroken, but there was another romance around the corner.
6:01
Speaker 1: While working as a waitress, she met a man named
6:04
Speaker 1: Jerry Ray Vaughn, also known as Jr Jr. Swept Patty
6:09
Speaker 1: off her feet, and in no time their casual romance
6:13
Speaker 1: developed into something more. They married in May of nineteen
6:17
Speaker 1: eighty five, and she became Patty Vaughn. After that, Patty
6:22
Speaker 1: and Jr. Moved around some, once landing in Maine, then Georgia,
6:27
Speaker 1: followed by Virginia. During this time, Patty gave birth to
6:31
Speaker 1: a daughter and two sons. Jr. And Patty's frequent moving
6:36
Speaker 1: was perhaps a byproduct of her moving around as a child,
6:40
Speaker 1: but in nineteen ninety the family finally planted roots in
6:44
Speaker 1: a ranch style house on five acres of land in
6:48
Speaker 1: Wilson County, Texas. There, Jr. Established himself as a construction
6:53
Speaker 1: contractor while Patty took care of the kids.
6:57
Speaker 5: She loved to make her kids clothes. She was She
7:00
Speaker 5: made their Halloween costumes, she all of their I mean,
7:05
Speaker 5: she was just a mother. When she threw a birthday party,
7:09
Speaker 5: she didn't just throw it for the child that's birthday
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Speaker 5: that it was.
7:13
Speaker 8: She threw it for all the kids that came. Everybody
7:16
Speaker 8: got their own personalized bucket, everybody got little to go
7:19
Speaker 8: gifts before it was popular. She was just she was
7:23
Speaker 8: pretty awesome. She was an awesome mother. And she was
7:26
Speaker 8: very quiet. She was like not quiet like around us
7:30
Speaker 8: at all, but very soft spoken and just goodness, just goodness,
7:35
Speaker 8: you just met her and you could just tell she
7:37
Speaker 8: was a really good person, and she was absolutely beautiful.
7:41
Speaker 8: But it came from the inside.
7:44
Speaker 1: Patty became heavily involved in church at Lavernia United Methodist,
7:49
Speaker 1: where she eventually found herself as the lead singer in
7:52
Speaker 1: a Christian folk rock group called Prism.
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Speaker 5: Very involved in her church. We weren't raised in a church.
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Speaker 5: That something that she did on her own for herself
8:02
Speaker 5: and her children.
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Speaker 1: She has a compassion that is second to none. Jr.
8:07
Speaker 1: Later Said of Patty, she would do anything for her kids,
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Speaker 1: from taking them to Christian youth soccer and basketball games
8:15
Speaker 1: to raising a four h lamb or pot bellied pig
8:18
Speaker 1: out back. That's the way we live our life from
8:22
Speaker 1: the outside looking in. The life Patty and Jr. Had
8:25
Speaker 1: created was archetypal, as close to perfect as families come,
8:31
Speaker 1: but beneath the surface was something else. Entirely after moving
8:46
Speaker 1: back to the Greater San Antonio area, Patty Vaughan's cousins
8:50
Speaker 1: began noticing that something wasn't quite right. Her husband, Jar
8:55
Speaker 1: seemed controlling, a problem that presented itself in various ways.
9:00
Speaker 2: There's something a little off about him.
9:03
Speaker 1: Patty loved to dance. Kathy and Barb told.
9:06
Speaker 2: Us she and I would.
9:08
Speaker 5: We always had a lady's night as long as our
9:10
Speaker 5: you know, our schedules would allow it with our kids
9:13
Speaker 5: and my job, and we would go out and have
9:16
Speaker 5: ladies' nights at a country and Western club, just to
9:21
Speaker 5: get out for a couple of hours. She that was
9:24
Speaker 5: about the extent of her social life outside of home
9:27
Speaker 5: in the church, which was not very often.
9:30
Speaker 1: Barbara recalls the last time she and Patty went dancing
9:34
Speaker 1: and Jr's behavior that night.
9:37
Speaker 2: Jr.
9:38
Speaker 4: Was there and he ended up leaving her at the
9:41
Speaker 4: bar because she danced with me. She was not allowed
9:44
Speaker 4: to dance with any female, but not even Kathy or myself,
9:48
Speaker 4: and we're like sisters. He got mad and said, if
9:53
Speaker 4: you dance with her, I'm leaving you here, and I'm like, oh,
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Speaker 4: screw that, Let's go dance.
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Speaker 1: They danced to their favorite song, Neon Moon by Brooks
10:03
Speaker 1: and Dunn, and Jr. Left Patty there thirty miles from home.
10:08
Speaker 1: Barb drove her back that night.
10:10
Speaker 2: He was very controlling, but.
10:13
Speaker 1: It didn't end there. There were also telltale signs of
10:17
Speaker 1: physical abuse since she'd come back. The family celebrated Thanksgiving
10:23
Speaker 1: every year at Jr. In Patty's house in Wilson County.
10:27
Speaker 1: During the nineteen ninety five holiday, Patty's arm was in
10:31
Speaker 1: a sling.
10:32
Speaker 4: Every Thanksgiving, we come over the night before and we
10:35
Speaker 4: all spend the night and step cooking all night and
10:38
Speaker 4: drinking wine and you know, being silly, having a great time.
10:42
Speaker 4: And that year was a little bit different. But the
10:45
Speaker 4: next morning, she and I went for a walk and
10:47
Speaker 4: I asked her what happened to her arm, and she
10:49
Speaker 4: said she fell, and we both knew she was lying,
10:52
Speaker 4: and but she, you know, made it very clear she
10:55
Speaker 4: want to talk about it. There were lots of incidents
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Speaker 4: like that that there were injuries or bruises, and I
11:03
Speaker 4: think she knew that we would we would have something
11:06
Speaker 4: to say to him, and she really wanted to avoid
11:09
Speaker 4: that because she told me it just makes things worse
11:12
Speaker 4: for me.
11:13
Speaker 5: I do know that as far as abuse goes, like
11:16
Speaker 5: Bart said, there were telltale signs, there was always accidents.
11:20
Speaker 5: And she wasn't a clumsy person, all right. As children,
11:22
Speaker 5: we were both clumsy, we did some pretty stupid, daring things,
11:25
Speaker 5: but as an adult, I don't think she was completely clumsy.
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Speaker 1: Patty was happiest when she was around her children, taking
11:33
Speaker 1: care of them, or running them to school and taking
11:36
Speaker 1: them to their extracurricular activities. Simply being with them at
11:41
Speaker 1: home gave her great comfort. They were her center, the
11:45
Speaker 1: thing that kept her going.
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Speaker 5: Everything was great. She was always happy. It was great
11:49
Speaker 5: with the kids. I mean, it was butterflies and rainbows
11:51
Speaker 5: and then and then the minute he walked in the room,
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Speaker 5: and it was awful.
11:56
Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: By the fall of nineteen ninety six, thirty two year
12:00
Speaker 1: old Patty Vaughan was finally ready for a change. In
12:05
Speaker 1: October of that year, she and Jr. Began a six
12:08
Speaker 1: month trial separation. Patty, along with the three kids, stayed
12:13
Speaker 1: in the rural Wilson County home while he moved into
12:17
Speaker 1: an apartment in San Antonio.
12:19
Speaker 5: Something I did notice, and I know what happens to
12:23
Speaker 5: a lot of women that did go through a divorce.
12:25
Speaker 5: But you can also tell, you know, when women are
12:28
Speaker 5: unhappily married, they become unhappy with themselves because they take
12:32
Speaker 5: the blame for the failure of the marriage, you know,
12:34
Speaker 5: and internalize it a lot. And so Patty she just
12:38
Speaker 5: kind of let things go, you know, and as soon
12:43
Speaker 5: as she asked Jr. To move out of the house.
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Speaker 5: It was like everything just lightened.
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Speaker 1: Patty straightened her naturally curly hair, something Jr. Wouldn't let
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Speaker 1: her do. She began working at an electrical contracting company
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Speaker 1: near the house called Quinny Electric. There seemed to be
13:03
Speaker 1: a great sense of relief, and Patty, her cousins told us,
13:07
Speaker 1: began taking care of herself again.
13:10
Speaker 5: And it wasn't the it wasn't the divorce, I want
13:13
Speaker 5: to find a man thing. It was just she just
13:16
Speaker 5: felt happier. She didn't have that constant pending doom darkness
13:21
Speaker 5: over her because there was no happiness outside of her children.
13:24
Speaker 5: There was no happiness really in her relationship with Jr.
13:29
Speaker 5: And you know, you kind of look at those and think, well,
13:33
Speaker 5: you know, it's that seven year age. It's that, you know,
13:36
Speaker 5: But there hadn't been for a long time. There was
13:38
Speaker 5: a lot of turmoil.
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Speaker 1: Although Patty wasn't looking to get out there and play
13:43
Speaker 1: the field, she was pitched something unexpected. The once love
13:48
Speaker 1: of her life, Gary fell back, fell back into the picture.
13:53
Speaker 1: She and her cousins ran into Gary while at the
13:56
Speaker 1: Texas State Rodeo, and he and Patty proceeded to talk
14:00
Speaker 1: out in the rain for about forty five minutes. It
14:02
Speaker 1: was evident that a spark remained between the two.
14:06
Speaker 7: I don't know exactly where they ran into each other,
14:09
Speaker 7: that they ran into each other again and just rekindled things.
14:14
Speaker 7: I mean, they things were, things were really good between them.
14:18
Speaker 2: You know.
14:19
Speaker 7: However, many ten years before, so when Gary broke up
14:25
Speaker 7: with her, you know, to marry his girlfriend or the
14:29
Speaker 7: you know, his child's mother, because she was pretty heartbroken
14:33
Speaker 7: over Gary. Well, then after she and you know, after JR.
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Speaker 7: Moved out, she ran into Gary again and they just
14:39
Speaker 7: it's like they picked up where they left off.
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Speaker 1: Gary, a canine officer in Bear County Sheriff's Office. Corporal,
14:46
Speaker 1: began coming around Patty and the kids often, and the
14:50
Speaker 1: couple seemed to be making up for lost time.
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Speaker 7: She did not take motherhood lightly, so for her to
14:55
Speaker 7: bring him around her children was something pretty big. So,
15:00
Speaker 7: I mean, they weren't talking marriage or anything, but they
15:03
Speaker 7: were just really happy being together, being around each other.
15:07
Speaker 1: Patty had finally confided in her cousins, telling them about
15:11
Speaker 1: Jr's abuse, likely were leaving her burden further.
15:15
Speaker 5: It was after Thanksgiving, but before Christmas, and they were
15:19
Speaker 5: already separated, and then she started to divulge a little
15:24
Speaker 5: bit about one of the last fights they had had,
15:29
Speaker 5: and then she did admit that he did hurt her,
15:33
Speaker 5: but one of the kids walked in at that point,
15:36
Speaker 5: so we dropped the conversation. But she did finally admit
15:39
Speaker 5: that she was physically assaulted by him.
15:43
Speaker 1: Still, and although a heavy weight had been lifted from
15:46
Speaker 1: Patty's shoulders, things were not necessarily going smoothly. Jr. Wasn't
15:52
Speaker 1: taking the separation well, and.
15:55
Speaker 5: He was not taking the separation very well at all,
15:57
Speaker 5: because he was worried about what the church would do
16:00
Speaker 5: of him and what other people would think of him
16:03
Speaker 5: not being able to keep his wife controlled.
16:07
Speaker 3: The misnomer is that most women think that once they
16:10
Speaker 3: get out of that relationship or safe, it's good now.
16:15
Speaker 2: That's when things were the absolute scariest for Patty. That's
16:19
Speaker 2: when the stalking.
16:20
Speaker 4: And the incessant phone calls to her job and showing
16:25
Speaker 4: up at her house and.
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Speaker 3: Sneaking around in the middle of the night listening to
16:30
Speaker 3: phone calls, showing up at her work stalking her.
16:35
Speaker 2: That's not us reporting it. That was her coworkers, her
16:39
Speaker 2: friends at church.
16:41
Speaker 1: Patty needed to put an end to the stocking and
16:44
Speaker 1: asked Barb if she knew how to file a restraining
16:47
Speaker 1: order because of her separation from Jr. Because Patty had
16:51
Speaker 1: asked him to leave the house.
16:53
Speaker 5: The church turned their back on her. They basically cut
16:57
Speaker 5: Patty off from the church. I mean, like she sin,
17:00
Speaker 5: they trend their backs. We don't see you. You're no
17:02
Speaker 5: longer part of this, which just blew my mind because
17:05
Speaker 5: it broke her heart. She absolutely loved that church.
17:10
Speaker 1: Patty could no longer represent the church through her Christian
17:13
Speaker 1: folk rock group Prism. They told her, though, she'd be
17:17
Speaker 1: allowed to perform one last time at the church's upcoming
17:21
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve celebration. Though it wasn't her favorite holiday, that
17:27
Speaker 1: was Easter, Patty Vaughan looked forward to spending Christmas with
17:31
Speaker 1: her kids, even considering she'd invited Jr. Over so for
17:36
Speaker 1: the children's benefit, they could celebrate as a family. On
17:41
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve, a Tuesday, Patty, her three kids, and Gary,
17:46
Speaker 1: who she'd been casually seeing along with his son, spent
17:50
Speaker 1: the evening with family at her cousin Kathy's house. That night,
17:54
Speaker 1: Kathy noticed something different about her cousin. She knew Patty
18:01
Speaker 1: though the church had hurt her and her estranged husband
18:04
Speaker 1: was making the separation difficult. To put it lightly, Gary
18:08
Speaker 1: seemed to make Patty happy.
18:11
Speaker 7: I had met him one time before and immediately liked him,
18:16
Speaker 7: but you know, it was, you know, I'm more of
18:19
Speaker 7: a distance person until I get to know you type thing.
18:23
Speaker 7: And then he did come to the house Christmas Eve,
18:26
Speaker 7: and that was the first time that we had spent
18:28
Speaker 7: a lot of time with him, and it was probably
18:33
Speaker 7: the lightest I had seen her, mood wise and stress wise.
18:39
Speaker 1: The gathering ended late after midnight, and at that time
18:43
Speaker 1: Gary and his son headed out to his vehicle and left,
18:46
Speaker 1: while Kathy and Barb helped Patty load her light blue
18:50
Speaker 1: Dodge caravan. She was taking home leftovers and the HGB
18:55
Speaker 1: grocery store gift cards Kathy had gotten her to help
18:58
Speaker 1: out with the current situation. The separation had Patty on
19:02
Speaker 1: a tight budget. The kids scored two her daughter who
19:07
Speaker 1: was nine years old, and two sons, ages eight and six.
19:11
Speaker 1: Kathy had made them all gift buckets with stickers and
19:14
Speaker 1: other things inside, all of which was also loaded into
19:18
Speaker 1: the van. Then Patty drove off into the night. They
19:23
Speaker 1: had no way of knowing, but it was the last
19:25
Speaker 1: time her family would ever see her again. On Wednesday,
19:41
Speaker 1: December twenty fifth, nineteen ninety six, j R. Vaughan, Patty's husband,
19:46
Speaker 1: who was living in a San Antonio apartment, drove to
19:50
Speaker 1: Wilson County to spend Christmas Day with the estranged couple's
19:53
Speaker 1: three children. Patty, always putting the welfare of her kids
19:58
Speaker 1: first and foremost, had to that no matter their differences
20:02
Speaker 1: and the current volatility between them, it would be best
20:06
Speaker 1: for the children to have the family together as a whole.
20:10
Speaker 7: Patty wanted to keep it as normal as possible for
20:12
Speaker 7: the kids be in the first year that you know,
20:14
Speaker 7: they had just they were newly separated by just a
20:16
Speaker 7: few months.
20:18
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, according to Jr. Things didn't work out as Patty
20:22
Speaker 1: had intended, and instead they spent the day arguing. In fact, Jr.
20:28
Speaker 1: Later admitted that it was the maddest he'd ever been.
20:32
Speaker 1: The fight centered around a few specific points, he later testified. First,
20:37
Speaker 1: they argued about what he perceived as infidelity on Patty's part,
20:42
Speaker 1: her newly rekindled romance with Gary. Jr. Also wanted to
20:47
Speaker 1: reclaim the house and take custody of their daughter. And
20:50
Speaker 1: two sons. His plan, he said, was to make Patty
20:55
Speaker 1: so angry that she left, leaving him to take control
20:58
Speaker 1: of the property and the children. According to him, his
21:03
Speaker 1: plan worked. The arguments became so heated that Patty did
21:08
Speaker 1: something that was completely anesthetical to her character. She stormed
21:12
Speaker 1: out of the house, upset and crying and left the kids.
21:17
Speaker 1: It was something no one who knew Patty could ever
21:20
Speaker 1: imagine her doing. Jr. Then contacted his sister to come
21:25
Speaker 1: get the children and apparently tried to get a locksmith
21:28
Speaker 1: out to change the locks on the house. That evening,
21:32
Speaker 1: Patty was supposed to have dropped the kids off at
21:34
Speaker 1: her cousin Kathy's house while she and Gary went to
21:37
Speaker 1: the movies.
21:39
Speaker 7: She never showed up, so we just assumed, yeah, this
21:41
Speaker 7: is back before you sent text and everything back and forth,
21:45
Speaker 7: and everybody just let the phone go to the answering
21:48
Speaker 7: machine and we didn't hear from her and she didn't answer,
21:52
Speaker 7: so we just assumed, you know what, everything went really well,
21:56
Speaker 7: She's just celebrating Christmas with the kids, and we weren't
21:59
Speaker 7: going to be intrusive again, never thinking anything like that
22:03
Speaker 7: would happen, so it wasn't until the next day that
22:09
Speaker 7: I never spoke to Patty again. After Christmas Eve, she
22:14
Speaker 7: went with the kids in the car, came back, she
22:16
Speaker 7: forgot something, She came back up, gave her big o' hug,
22:19
Speaker 7: and she left and that was it. And I never
22:23
Speaker 7: spoke to her again after that. It wasn't until Jr. Called,
22:26
Speaker 7: you know, let me know she was missing.
22:29
Speaker 1: So at seven fourteen pm on Thursday December twenty sixth
22:34
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, Jr. Called Kathy, asked her what time
22:38
Speaker 1: it was, and then told her Patty was missing, but
22:42
Speaker 1: her van, Jr. Said, had been found. At around one
22:47
Speaker 1: thirty pm that day, Dell Quinny of Quenny Electric, Patty's employer,
22:52
Speaker 1: discovered the light blue Dodge Caravan on the side of
22:56
Speaker 1: the road at FM nineteen thirty seven and Loop sixteen
23:00
Speaker 1: in South Bear County, about fifteen miles from her Wilson
23:04
Speaker 1: County home on Oak Park Road and approximately five miles
23:08
Speaker 1: from Quinney Electric. Because he couldn't reach Patty, Quinny had
23:13
Speaker 1: called Jr. To let him know he had found the van,
23:16
Speaker 1: of which one of the front tires was flat. Jr.
23:20
Speaker 1: Declined to come get the vehicle.
23:23
Speaker 2: JR.
23:23
Speaker 7: Said, well, I'm in Wilson County. He was filing for divorce,
23:28
Speaker 7: he said, And he said that he refused to meet
23:31
Speaker 7: him at the van because he didn't want his fingerprints anywhere,
23:35
Speaker 7: but would meet her boss with the keys so he
23:39
Speaker 7: could move the van.
23:42
Speaker 1: It's unclear exactly when the van was abandoned. At eight
23:46
Speaker 1: am that morning, Patty's coworker, Terry, had driven by that
23:50
Speaker 1: spot and it wasn't there. Another coworker, Manuel, had also
23:56
Speaker 1: driven past some time that morning and had not seen
23:59
Speaker 1: the van. When Quinnie and Manuel returned with the keys
24:03
Speaker 1: to change the tire and move the vehicle, the exhaust
24:07
Speaker 1: was still warm to the touch. Manuel climbed inside without
24:11
Speaker 1: having to adjust the seat or mirrors, and drove the
24:15
Speaker 1: Dodge Caravan to Quinny Electric.
24:18
Speaker 5: So I'm five foot one and Patty was a couple
24:20
Speaker 5: of inches taller than me, So let's say Patty was
24:22
Speaker 5: five foot four. The seat was pushed all the way back,
24:26
Speaker 5: so there's no way Patty was the last person to
24:28
Speaker 5: have driven that van to that location.
24:31
Speaker 2: There's just no way.
24:33
Speaker 5: I'm not all the way back with her being five
24:36
Speaker 5: foot four five foot five.
24:38
Speaker 1: The inside of the mini van was spotless, at least
24:41
Speaker 1: on the surface, which seemed unusual considering Patty had just
24:45
Speaker 1: had the kids their Christmas Eve presence and leftover food
24:49
Speaker 1: in the vehicle less than forty eight hours before. After
24:54
Speaker 1: Jr's call to Kathy, she phoned the Sheriff's office to
24:57
Speaker 1: report Patty missing, but they were really at first to
25:01
Speaker 1: create a report.
25:03
Speaker 5: Another family friend and I we went immediately to where
25:07
Speaker 5: they told us they found the van, and we started looking.
25:10
Speaker 5: We were looking for a purse, we were looking for
25:11
Speaker 5: a shoe, we were looking in Colberts. I mean, we
25:14
Speaker 5: were looking anywhere for some sign of what happened to her.
25:17
Speaker 5: So the next day I called and explained everything, and
25:20
Speaker 5: I knew that it is definitely not a law that
25:23
Speaker 5: you have to wait twenty four hours. It's what they
25:25
Speaker 5: would prefer, because you know, adults can adult. But given
25:29
Speaker 5: the circumstances, they actually accepted my complaint of missing person.
25:36
Speaker 1: The following day, Friday, December twenty seventh, nineteen ninety six.
25:40
Speaker 1: The first search for Patty Vaughan took place. Because Kathy
25:45
Speaker 1: had lived near the home of eleven year old Heidi
25:47
Speaker 1: Seamen when she went missing from San Antonio in nineteen ninety.
25:52
Speaker 5: We had already been familiar with the Heidi Semen Search Center.
25:59
Speaker 5: We reached out to them, and all of a sudden
26:01
Speaker 5: we had this huge search group going on.
26:03
Speaker 2: I mean we had over two hundred people.
26:06
Speaker 1: The Heidi Search Center sent out tracking dogs as the
26:09
Speaker 1: Bear County Sheriff's Office utilized a helicopter In the initial search,
26:13
Speaker 1: in which hundreds of volunteers combed the tall grass and
26:17
Speaker 1: narrow dirt paths in the area surrounding where Patty's van
26:21
Speaker 1: was found. Deputy Tom Ackroyd insisted that there was no
26:26
Speaker 1: physical evidence to suggest foul play, not yet, but and
26:31
Speaker 1: although they were treating the case as a standard missing
26:34
Speaker 1: person's case, he said the Sheriff's office was giving the
26:38
Speaker 1: search priority. Using items taken from Patty's closet, A team
26:43
Speaker 1: of tracking dogs led officers to a small pond on
26:47
Speaker 1: a ranch about two miles from where Patty Vaughan's van
26:50
Speaker 1: was found abandoned, and a dive team was called in
26:53
Speaker 1: to drag the pond. The following day, nothing was found.
26:58
Speaker 1: Patty's family, friends and volunteers continued searching through Saturday, the
27:04
Speaker 1: twenty eighth, combing the surrounding properties on ATV's horseback and
27:09
Speaker 1: on foot. Notably missing from the searches was Jr, who
27:14
Speaker 1: briefly spoke with reporters as he sat in a wooden
27:18
Speaker 1: swing dangling from a large tree at he and Patty's
27:21
Speaker 1: Wilson County home. Everybody I talked to has a different
27:25
Speaker 1: theory of what's happened to her. Not knowing is the worst,
27:29
Speaker 1: he told them, adding if we could just find a purse,
27:32
Speaker 1: a coat or something, but the searches turned up nothing. Jr.
27:39
Speaker 1: Insisted he and Patty's marital problems were reconcilable until she
27:43
Speaker 1: started seeing Gary and freely admitted to the arguments they
27:48
Speaker 1: had had Christmas Day. Detectives had already questioned him several times.
27:54
Speaker 1: I've been scrutinized, and I've come out okay, he told
27:57
Speaker 1: reporters for the San Antonio Express News. Searches of the
28:03
Speaker 1: area surrounding where Patty Vaughn's light blue Dodge Caravan had
28:07
Speaker 1: been found began a decades long search for her and
28:11
Speaker 1: for justice that continues to this day. We'll continue Paddy's
28:17
Speaker 1: story on the next episode of Gone Cold, Texas True Crime.
28:23
Speaker 1: If you have any information about the disappearance of Patty Vaughn,
28:27
Speaker 1: please contact the Bear County Sheriff's Office at two to
28:30
Speaker 1: one zero three three five six thousand. We'd like to
28:36
Speaker 1: thank Barb and Kathy for taking the time to speak
28:39
Speaker 1: with us about Patty's case. If you'd like to join
28:44
Speaker 1: gon Cold's mission to shine a light on unsolved homicides
28:48
Speaker 1: and missing persons cases, get the show at free and
28:51
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Speaker 1: choose to support Gone Cold, we appreciate you. Thanks for listening, y'all.