Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Disappearance of Patty Vaughan Part 3

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The Disappearance of Patty Vaughan Part 3 · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

0:01
Speaker 1: Gone Call podcasts may contain violent or graphic subject matter.
0:05
Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised.
0:09
Speaker 2: After becoming ill at a friend's party in Lubbock, Texas,
0:12
Speaker 2: on May thirteenth, nineteen ninety one, Roger Dunn, who went
0:16
Speaker 2: by Scott, vanished. Upon his father reporting him missing, the
0:22
Speaker 2: Lubbock Police visited his apartment, where they were met by
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Speaker 2: his living girlfriend, Lesha Hamilton. She claimed to have come
0:30
Speaker 2: home from work to find Scott gone, and also to
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Speaker 2: find that a large portion of carpet was missing from
0:36
Speaker 2: beneath the couch. When police searched the rest of the apartment,
0:40
Speaker 2: they found that a large piece of carpet had also
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Speaker 2: been cut out in the bedroom and then replaced with
0:46
Speaker 2: the carpet taken from under the couch. Underneath that, police
0:51
Speaker 2: found blood soaked carpet padding. The baseboards looked as though
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Speaker 2: they'd been washed of blood as well. Luminol later lorest
1:00
Speaker 2: on those spots, and on a massive portion of two
1:04
Speaker 2: walls on which cleaning motions and spatters glowed in the dark.
1:09
Speaker 2: Something terrible had taken place there. To Scott's father, Lesia
1:14
Speaker 2: implicated a man who lived in an apartment near them
1:17
Speaker 2: named Tim Smith, who had fallen in love with her.
1:21
Speaker 2: When they went to question Tim, investigators discovered he was moving.
1:26
Speaker 2: They found and confiscated a roll of duct tape he'd
1:30
Speaker 2: attempted to hide from them, which was later shown to
1:33
Speaker 2: be consistent with duct tape used to hold down the
1:36
Speaker 2: patch of carpet at Scott and Lesia's place. The cops
1:40
Speaker 2: had put two and two together, but what they didn't
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Speaker 2: have was a body. Frustrated with the fact that the
1:47
Speaker 2: district attorney was unwilling to take the case, Scott's father
1:52
Speaker 2: contacted the Vedock Society, a group founded by forensic experts
1:56
Speaker 2: to assist law enforcement agencies with cold came. It would
2:01
Speaker 2: take some time, but the organization resurrected Scott's case. After
2:06
Speaker 2: sending the facts of the case and crime scene photographs
2:10
Speaker 2: to Scotland Yard in London, it was determined that Scott
2:14
Speaker 2: Dunn had been brutally slain in the corner of his bedroom,
2:18
Speaker 2: the result of multiple and severe blunt trauma injuries at
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Speaker 2: least four. The crime scene Scotland Yard reported was inconsistent
2:28
Speaker 2: with life. DNA had shown that there was a one
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Speaker 2: in ten billion chance the blood belonged to someone other
2:35
Speaker 2: than Scott done. The Vedock Society later convinced the Lubbock
2:40
Speaker 2: County District Attorney that it could be argued the blood
2:44
Speaker 2: was connective tissue, meaning they had a body part. On
2:49
Speaker 2: November twenty first, nineteen ninety six, Lesia Hamilton and Tim
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Speaker 2: Smith were arrested and charged with the murder of Roger
2:57
Speaker 2: Scott Dunn. Both were convicted in May of the following
3:01
Speaker 2: year based upon the blood evidence and some circumstantial evidence,
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Speaker 2: including a motive. It turned out that Scott was keeping
3:10
Speaker 2: a fiance secret from Alicia, who, according to many others,
3:15
Speaker 2: wasn't exactly monogamous to him either. These nobody murder trials
3:21
Speaker 2: were happening at the same time the Christmas Day nineteen
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Speaker 2: ninety six disappearance of thirty two year old Patty Vaughan
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Speaker 2: was playing out. Patty's case also has blood evidence a
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Speaker 2: body part. According to precedence set by the Scott Dunn case,
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Speaker 2: it also appears Patty's case has far more circumstantial evidence.
4:01
Speaker 3: I told that family I was gonna I was gonna
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Speaker 3: solve it. You know, we're going to solve it. My
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Speaker 3: partner and I am, and we would do whatever it takes.
4:11
Speaker 3: Then we got that unit taken away from us, and
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Speaker 3: there's nothing we could do.
4:43
Speaker 2: Things were heated between Patty's family and her estranged husband Jr.
4:47
Speaker 2: Since her disappearance. Patty's mother Patsy distraught and desperate for answers.
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Speaker 2: She believed Jr. Had entered de von residence through the
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Speaker 2: back door. In the early morning hour of February ninth,
5:01
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety seven, Patsy confronted Jr. With a baseball bat
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Speaker 2: and was later arrested and charged with burglary of a
5:10
Speaker 2: habitation and assault with a deadly weapon. Though it's difficult
5:14
Speaker 2: to deny the seriousness of the ordeal, it is perhaps
5:18
Speaker 2: just as easy to relate and sympathize. Regardless it was
5:23
Speaker 2: blown out of proportion in the press.
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Speaker 4: Please understand that this woman literally was five foot two
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Speaker 4: in maybe ninety pounds.
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Speaker 1: She was very tiny.
5:34
Speaker 2: What wasn't reported on nearly as much was Jr's assault
5:38
Speaker 2: on Patty's aunt Jean. One afternoon, while driving down Oak
5:43
Speaker 2: Park Road, Jean and a friend passed the Vaughan house
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Speaker 2: before deciding to turn around and drive past it again.
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Speaker 2: Things quickly took a turn for the worse.
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Speaker 4: They was passed the house and pulled into a driveway
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Speaker 4: and was going to turn around and drive back down
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Speaker 4: Oak Post Road, and on Jr. Pulled up behind him
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Speaker 4: and blocked him, and he got out and came up
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Speaker 4: to the side of the car and he told my
6:07
Speaker 4: mom to put harassing him in stalking him, and She's like,
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Speaker 4: I've just missed her, I just miss her. And he
6:14
Speaker 4: touched my mom in the side of the head to
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Speaker 4: the window. My mom had a friend with her and
6:21
Speaker 4: so they immediately called the police and they arrested him.
6:24
Speaker 2: After being freed on a seven thousand dollars bond, Jr.
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Speaker 2: Failed to show up for a hearing concerning the charge
6:31
Speaker 2: on June twenty third, nineteen ninety eight. Patty's mom, Patsy,
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Speaker 2: was out on a significantly higher bond, fifty thousand dollars. Ultimately, Jr.
6:42
Speaker 2: Vaughan was given probation and ordered to pay a fine
6:45
Speaker 2: and court costs that totaled around one thousand dollars. The
6:50
Speaker 2: charges against Patsy for attacking Jr. Vaughn with a baseball
6:54
Speaker 2: bat were officially dropped in twenty thirteen, after the case
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Speaker 2: got buried and was long forgotten about. After the first
7:04
Speaker 2: anniversary of Patty's disappearance, Television, news segments and newspaper articles
7:10
Speaker 2: slowed to an almost complete halt, perhaps mirroring the case itself,
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Speaker 2: which had gone cold. But tips were still coming in sporadically,
7:20
Speaker 2: including one that might have slipped through the cracks near
7:23
Speaker 2: the beginning of the investigation. On Tuesday, October fifth, nineteen
7:29
Speaker 2: ninety nine, almost three years after Patty Vaughan went missing,
7:33
Speaker 2: four law enforcement agencies and an archaeologist gathered off farm
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Speaker 2: to Market Road thirteen oh three, on the western edge
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Speaker 2: of Wilson County, not far from the winding bends of
7:45
Speaker 2: the San Antonio River, on a piece of property. There,
7:49
Speaker 2: officers combed the trees and bushy terrain for six hours,
7:53
Speaker 2: working on a tip they'd received from a man the
7:56
Speaker 2: week before, the day Patty vanished. This man had seen
8:01
Speaker 2: a light blue Dodge caravan parked near the area being searched.
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Speaker 2: It's likely he'd never have thought another thing about it
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Speaker 2: if it wasn't for what he saw. The next day.
8:12
Speaker 2: While driving to San Antonio, he saw what he believed
8:16
Speaker 2: was the same mini van parked along Loop sixteen oh four,
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Speaker 2: the spot Patty's van was later found, which, of course,
8:24
Speaker 2: had been the subject of many search efforts beginning later
8:28
Speaker 2: that evening, when the missing woman's aunt and cousins began
8:31
Speaker 2: looking around the area. Upon seeing the vehicle, the witness
8:36
Speaker 2: returned to where he'd seen it the day before and
8:39
Speaker 2: found what appeared to be a freshly dug and covered
8:42
Speaker 2: gravesite on a privately owned six acre lot. Since the
8:46
Speaker 2: Heidi Search Center had become involved the following day, the
8:50
Speaker 2: man reported what he'd discovered to them, but that information
8:54
Speaker 2: apparently never made it to police. Officials with the Heidi
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Speaker 2: Search Center that they had a note in their file
9:02
Speaker 2: of the Patty von case that indicated that particular area
9:05
Speaker 2: needed to be searched, but admitted that they had no
9:08
Speaker 2: idea if the information ever made it to police or
9:12
Speaker 2: if the area was even searched at all, though there
9:16
Speaker 2: were likely tips here and there in between. The next
9:19
Speaker 2: piece of news about Patty's case didn't come until December
9:23
Speaker 2: two thousand and three. There was nothing new to report.
9:27
Speaker 2: It was just an article in the San Antonio Express
9:30
Speaker 2: News announcing that Patty would be one of several missing
9:33
Speaker 2: people featured on a new effort put forth by the
9:36
Speaker 2: Texas Department of Public Safety called Project Find Me. The
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Speaker 2: Project A top ten Texas Missing Persons poster featuring cases
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Speaker 2: where foul play is evident was distributed statewide. It's unknown
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Speaker 2: if it resulted in any new leads. A few missteps
10:06
Speaker 2: by investigators in the Patty Von case occurred in the
10:10
Speaker 2: first few days when investigators searched her home. Jr. Vaughn's sister,
10:16
Speaker 2: Marylyn continually interrupted the Bear County crime scene technicians as
10:20
Speaker 2: they processed the scene, a scene where the presence of
10:24
Speaker 2: blood had not only been observed a couple days before
10:27
Speaker 2: but was now gone, but also a large part of
10:30
Speaker 2: which had reacted to the chemical luminol, which showed apparent
10:34
Speaker 2: footprints and mop swab marks. It's unclear why they allowed Jr.
10:40
Speaker 2: And Maryland to remain in the house while they worked.
10:44
Speaker 2: Marylynd distracted the investigators so much, in fact, that a
10:48
Speaker 2: later warrant to obtain blood samples told of the links
10:51
Speaker 2: they went through to keep her away, describing how Deputy
10:55
Speaker 2: Sergeant Daniel Sanchez took she and Jr. In the other
10:59
Speaker 2: room to get another round of statements so the scene
11:02
Speaker 2: could continue to be processed. During this statement, Jr. Admitted
11:07
Speaker 2: He'd threatened Patty personally, though claimed not to remember what
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Speaker 2: he'd said, Even though they returned the following day to
11:15
Speaker 2: do the same thing again. Officers didn't take photographs either time,
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Speaker 2: which was confirmed by former Bear County investigator Adrian Ramirez.
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Speaker 3: And we didn't have the right equipment to take photographs
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Speaker 3: of it, so we didn't take photographs of it.
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Speaker 2: After completing the second scene processing on December thirtieth, nineteen
11:39
Speaker 2: ninety six, the officers involved all followed Jr. To his
11:43
Speaker 2: southeast San Antonio apartment. Investigators with the Bear County Sheriff's
11:48
Speaker 2: Office found several items of interest at the apartment, though
11:53
Speaker 2: they have only expounded upon one of those. In a
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Speaker 2: warrant AFFIDAEPHIT. Sergeant salm Mayer described finding a calendar. There
12:03
Speaker 2: On it, Maren said were several pornographic phrases, which Jr.
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Speaker 2: Explained was from a joke. Also on the calendar was
12:12
Speaker 2: a list as follows one change mind, two quickly, three children,
12:20
Speaker 2: and four Gary Jr. Told investigators that the list was
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Speaker 2: what to do if Patty changed her mind about the divorce,
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Speaker 2: but to act quickly if she didn't, with children meaning
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Speaker 2: the number one priority, and the fourth line indicating that
12:37
Speaker 2: problems would always persist. As long as Gary was in
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Speaker 2: the picture. However, Jr. Could not provide a reason as
12:44
Speaker 2: to why the word Christmas was written several times in
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Speaker 2: red ink on the calendar. He also said that when
12:51
Speaker 2: he found out Patty had been seeing Gary, he gave
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Speaker 2: notice to move out of his apartment complex. Known to
13:00
Speaker 2: the Bear County Sheriff's Office was the stalking of Patty
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Speaker 2: by Jr. In the two weeks leading up to Christmas.
13:08
Speaker 2: Co workers were called Jr. Calling Patty daily. They described
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Speaker 2: her as extremely upset and crying after getting off the
13:16
Speaker 2: phone each time. At some point, several years after Patty's disappearance,
13:23
Speaker 2: a friend of Jr's sold their car. In that vehicle,
13:27
Speaker 2: the new owner found tapes hidden in the trunk's wheel
13:30
Speaker 2: well that turned out to be recordings of Patty's phone
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Speaker 2: calls and turned them over to authorities. The car belonged
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Speaker 2: to the wife of Jr's lifelong best friend. The implication
13:43
Speaker 2: was obvious, and investigators believed from the start that if JR.
13:48
Speaker 2: Was responsible for Patty's disappearance, he had help. The way
13:53
Speaker 2: Marilyn attempted to distract crime scene investigators working the case
13:58
Speaker 2: at the Von home put her at the top of
14:00
Speaker 2: the list of persons of interest in that regard. According
14:05
Speaker 2: to sources, the loan set of fingerprints found on the
14:08
Speaker 2: wheel well above the purposefully flattened tire on Patty's Dodge
14:13
Speaker 2: caravan matched Jar's teenaged nephew. On January twenty fifth, two
14:20
Speaker 2: thousand and five, Wilson County Judge Marvin Quinney signed off
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Speaker 2: on paperwork filed by JR. Vaughan. With this signature. Patty
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Speaker 2: was legally deceased. Since he'd withdrawn his divorce petition against
14:35
Speaker 2: his estranged wife in January of nineteen ninety seven, less
14:39
Speaker 2: than a month after she disappeared, and because seven years
14:43
Speaker 2: had passed since she was last seen, it was Jr's
14:47
Speaker 2: lawful right to have Patty declared dead. It was also
14:51
Speaker 2: his right to make a claim on her life insurance.
14:55
Speaker 2: When he did make a claim, Patty's mother, Patsy, quickly
14:58
Speaker 2: filed a lawsuit against Jr, resulting in District Judge Martha
15:03
Speaker 2: Lyttleton ordering the money stay in the hands of the
15:06
Speaker 2: court until the suit could be resolved one way or
15:09
Speaker 2: the other. Patsy had no interest in the money, she
15:14
Speaker 2: told reporters, but instead wanted it all to go to
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Speaker 2: Patty's three children. In court, Jr. Was once again forced
15:22
Speaker 2: to give a statement describing what happened the day Patty
15:25
Speaker 2: went missing, and at least one detail differed from his
15:29
Speaker 2: initial statements to police. Then, he told Bear County Sheriff's
15:33
Speaker 2: Office Sergeant Salmarn that after Patty left the house on
15:37
Speaker 2: Christmas Day nineteen ninety six, between the hours of six
15:41
Speaker 2: thirty and nine pm, that he called a locksmith to
15:45
Speaker 2: come change the locks, before visiting his mother and telling
15:48
Speaker 2: her to call the Wilson County Sheriff should Patty show
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Speaker 2: back up. In his court appearance during the lawsuit hearing, Jr.
15:56
Speaker 2: Said he called the locksmith the following day. Less than
16:02
Speaker 2: a week after Patty was declared deceased, her boyfriend Gary
16:06
Speaker 2: died in an auto accident alongside his ex wife and son.
16:12
Speaker 2: In early two thousand and six, Bear County Sheriff's deputies
16:16
Speaker 2: and Texas rangers, with cadaverdogs by their side, searched a
16:20
Speaker 2: property in Pleasanton after the land's owner told authorities that
16:24
Speaker 2: j R. Vaughan had dug a pit there in December
16:27
Speaker 2: of nineteen ninety six. By this time, Jr. And the
16:31
Speaker 2: kids had long since moved to Colorado. The canines couldn't
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Speaker 2: isolate a cent there, likely since the Peace of Land
16:40
Speaker 2: sat adjacent to a cemetery. The rangers said they didn't
16:44
Speaker 2: have enough of a lead to attempt a dig. Several
16:48
Speaker 2: months later, in June two thousand and six, cadaverdogs suggested
16:52
Speaker 2: the presence of human remains twice at Natalia High School
16:56
Speaker 2: in Divine, about fifty nine miles from patty home in
17:00
Speaker 2: Wilson County. At the time of her disappearance, the school
17:04
Speaker 2: was being constructed and Jr. Was the project manager of
17:08
Speaker 2: diggin' poor sites. The search of the school came after
17:12
Speaker 2: a man who'd worked with jar at the site said
17:15
Speaker 2: that the week Patty went missing, he noticed a material
17:19
Speaker 2: difference in the ground. Soon after he did, JR. Led
17:23
Speaker 2: a team of construction workers as they poured a concrete
17:27
Speaker 2: slab over the area. After the cadaver dogs picked up
17:31
Speaker 2: a scent, ground penetrating radars showed anomalies beneath the cement. Ultimately, however,
17:38
Speaker 2: nothing was found. Similarly, in March twenty fourteen, when the
17:44
Speaker 2: eighty first Judicial District Attorney's Office financed an excavation on
17:48
Speaker 2: the property where Patty lived, and from where she disappeared.
17:52
Speaker 2: They came up empty handed. Trash burn pits were dug up,
17:57
Speaker 2: but no sign of Paddy could be found. Neighbors had
18:01
Speaker 2: reported that Jr. Was operating a backo there early on
18:05
Speaker 2: the day she was reported missing, in the pre dawn hours. Also,
18:10
Speaker 2: some of the excavations took place where aerial photos taken
18:14
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety seven showed area that appeared to have
18:17
Speaker 2: been recently disturbed. Interestingly to test investigators, a false grave
18:24
Speaker 2: was dug and covered up on the Vaughan property shortly
18:27
Speaker 2: after Paddy vanished, but authorities never found it. It was
18:32
Speaker 2: the Bear County Sheriff's Office's failure to take crime scene
18:35
Speaker 2: photographs of the blood evidence at the house that began
18:39
Speaker 2: the family's distrust in the investigation, but things like that
18:43
Speaker 2: only strengthened it. Since the March twenty fourteen dig on
18:48
Speaker 2: the Vaughan's former property, there has been little movement as
18:51
Speaker 2: far as official searches in the case, though it wasn't
18:55
Speaker 2: for a lack of trying on behalf of Bear County
18:58
Speaker 2: Sheriff's Office cold case investigation. Adrian Ramirez, who worked the
19:02
Speaker 2: case as a crime scene technician in the beginning, he
19:07
Speaker 2: and investigator Louis and two had uncovered several witnesses never
19:11
Speaker 2: before interviewed, and had managed to find the DNA of
19:15
Speaker 2: an unknown female in Patty's van, though that's never been
19:19
Speaker 2: elaborated on. When cold case Detective Adrian Ramirez was feeling
19:35
Speaker 2: confident in the case he and his partner had built,
19:38
Speaker 2: he was determined to take it to the next level.
19:42
Speaker 1: So Adrian's been with us, He's had several different partners
19:45
Speaker 1: through the years, and he got really close to taking
19:49
Speaker 1: this to the DA. One time.
19:51
Speaker 5: He wouldn't tell me why, but he said, I'm going
19:54
Speaker 5: to the DA. We're going to take this trial. And
19:58
Speaker 5: this is three years before his retirement. He was taken
20:02
Speaker 5: off of the cold case. It got demoted immediately when
20:07
Speaker 5: he went over. He went over Whoever's head and was
20:11
Speaker 5: going to the DA with Patty's case.
20:13
Speaker 2: The cold case unit was disbanded. Interestingly, the Bear County
20:18
Speaker 2: Sheriff's Office assistant chief was a lifelong friend of J. R. Bonds,
20:23
Speaker 2: who grew up in Lavernia and Wilson County.
20:26
Speaker 3: You know, never asked us about the case, never talked
20:30
Speaker 3: about the case. We never went up to him and
20:33
Speaker 3: talked about it or nothing. You know, he never was
20:36
Speaker 3: interested in it, never never show any interest in it.
20:39
Speaker 3: And we don't know what happened why they disbanded our unit.
20:45
Speaker 3: They were just our unit, you know, we until today
20:48
Speaker 3: I stood. I don't understand. We know it had something
20:52
Speaker 3: to do with the finances. But they said they were
20:54
Speaker 3: going to do it to other units too, and they
20:56
Speaker 3: didn't do it to the units, they did it to us.
20:59
Speaker 2: The same assistant chief deputy once set up a meeting
21:03
Speaker 2: with Patty's cousin, Barb. Barba asked him repeatedly for a meeting,
21:08
Speaker 2: and she told us he ignored.
21:10
Speaker 5: Her until I went on the news and said, we
21:13
Speaker 5: can't get the police to call us back. We can't
21:15
Speaker 5: get the sheriff's apartment to call us back. Nobody will
21:17
Speaker 5: tell us what's going on. I do know there's been
21:20
Speaker 5: some movement in the case, but nobody is talking to
21:22
Speaker 5: the family.
21:23
Speaker 2: The next day, Barb got a phone call from the
21:26
Speaker 2: assistant chief deputy.
21:28
Speaker 5: And he said for me to come to Spare County
21:30
Speaker 5: Sheriff's office on a Sunday. He had me come down
21:33
Speaker 5: there on a Sunday. It's the same building that you
21:36
Speaker 5: go in to visit people in jail, and he came down,
21:39
Speaker 5: picked me up in the lobby, took me up to
21:42
Speaker 5: a big.
21:42
Speaker 1: Conference room with nobody on the whole floor.
21:45
Speaker 5: It was a Sunday have a conversation about Patty.
21:49
Speaker 1: And he told me, you just need to let it go.
21:52
Speaker 1: Let it go. She's been gone, she's not coming back.
21:56
Speaker 1: Nothing's going to happen with it. You look stupid. Just
21:59
Speaker 1: let it go.
22:00
Speaker 2: Yuh Jr's best friend was also a reserve Bear County
22:04
Speaker 2: Sheriff's deputy. Throughout the years. Decades now, Patty Vaughn's family
22:11
Speaker 2: has been the driving force for answers and for justice.
22:15
Speaker 2: Her cousin Kathy explained they.
22:17
Speaker 6: Never followed through because basically, without a body, there isn't
22:21
Speaker 6: a crime, which is not true in the state of Texas.
22:23
Speaker 6: There's multiple people that have been found guilty and they're actually,
22:27
Speaker 6: you know, still serving time for murder without a body present.
22:32
Speaker 6: A lot of the leads where we actually hired back
22:37
Speaker 6: hose and people, we did that on our own because
22:41
Speaker 6: law enforcement would not follow through on and you get
22:47
Speaker 6: a lot of tips, you know, with something like this,
22:51
Speaker 6: because everybody wants their five minutes of fame.
22:53
Speaker 1: You'll get the tips of the psychics, and.
22:57
Speaker 6: You know, the little lady looking through her blinds because
22:59
Speaker 6: she wants to know what all the neighbors are doing.
23:01
Speaker 6: And you get all these tips, but you have to
23:05
Speaker 6: rule them out, you know. So we spent a lot
23:08
Speaker 6: of time and money, and I'm not complaining about it,
23:10
Speaker 6: because every time we spent was worth at least knowing
23:15
Speaker 6: that that wasn't where she was. We spent a lot
23:20
Speaker 6: of our own efforts looking in places that law enforcement
23:24
Speaker 6: wouldn't look. We had people looking over the city dump
23:28
Speaker 6: because they said, and I know everybody has a budget,
23:31
Speaker 6: but they said that it would cost too much money
23:34
Speaker 6: to look through the dump.
23:37
Speaker 2: The pain caused by Patty's disappearance is palpable, and her
23:41
Speaker 2: cousin's memories are bittersweet. Remembering her as difficult on one hand,
23:46
Speaker 2: but on the other the fond recollections keep Patty alive.
23:51
Speaker 6: And you know a lot of people paint deceased people
23:54
Speaker 6: as saints, and I'm not trying to do that here.
23:58
Speaker 6: But she was our person. You know, Patty was very
24:02
Speaker 6: much our person. She was like our sister. She's the
24:04
Speaker 6: mother of three beautiful children. She was very much a
24:09
Speaker 6: very important part of us. The first Easter after Patty disappeared,
24:13
Speaker 6: nobody wanted to eat out of bed. So, you know,
24:15
Speaker 6: I loaded everybody up when we went to the beach
24:16
Speaker 6: and we had Easter there. But I think that's the
24:18
Speaker 6: last time that, you know, everybody really wanted to celebrate
24:22
Speaker 6: it because that was such her holiday.
24:24
Speaker 1: Easter, her Mother's Day. She loved Mother's Day.
24:27
Speaker 6: Yeah, but yeah, she was just a really cool person.
24:31
Speaker 6: And even almost you know, oh my gosh, one hundred
24:36
Speaker 6: years later, it seems like just yesterday. But even after
24:41
Speaker 6: all this time later, there's still so many things that.
24:44
Speaker 1: I want to share with her. The three of us girls,
24:48
Speaker 1: Patty was the mildest. She had the mildest, meekest personality.
24:54
Speaker 1: Well Kathy can attest to this. It doesn't ever go away.
24:58
Speaker 7: The way you respond to it and the way you
25:02
Speaker 7: think about it, it changes, but you still think about
25:07
Speaker 7: her all the time. Her house, her picture still hangs
25:11
Speaker 7: in all of our houses, you know, great memories of
25:14
Speaker 7: when we were kids and teenagers and in young adults.
25:20
Speaker 1: So it's it's it doesn't It's not easy. I wouldn't
25:25
Speaker 1: wish this on anyone.
25:26
Speaker 2: Absolutely, the case is tragic. On virtually every conceivable level
25:32
Speaker 2: from the guilt her family still carries.
25:35
Speaker 1: And I would tell her, You've got to get out
25:38
Speaker 1: of this. He's going to hurt you one of these days.
25:40
Speaker 1: You've got to get out of this. This isn't healthy.
25:42
Speaker 1: This is not healthy. I spend a lot of time
25:46
Speaker 1: feeling pretty guilty about that after this happened to her,
25:49
Speaker 1: because I was so proud of her when she left him.
25:53
Speaker 1: I was so completely proud of her for standing up
25:55
Speaker 1: for herself and her children.
25:57
Speaker 2: To the fact that Patty wasn't the only one taken
26:00
Speaker 2: away from them. From the moment she disappeared, Jr. Kept
26:05
Speaker 2: his and Patty's three children away from her mother, Patsy,
26:08
Speaker 2: her siblings, her aunt Jean, and her cousins, all of
26:12
Speaker 2: whom were extremely close before to this day, After all
26:17
Speaker 2: these years, they yearned for a relationship with them. While
26:23
Speaker 2: Kathy and Barb would like justice to be served, the
26:27
Speaker 2: most important thing to them is finding Patty so they
26:30
Speaker 2: can give her a proper burial. Like former cold case
26:34
Speaker 2: detective Adrian Ramirez among many others in law enforcement, they
26:39
Speaker 2: believe whoever caused Patty's disappearance had help. Someone likely knows something.
26:46
Speaker 2: If not everything. Patty Vaughan's family begs for those individuals
26:51
Speaker 2: to come forward. Not solving the case still haunts Adrian Ramirez.
26:58
Speaker 3: I told that family I was going to solve that.
27:02
Speaker 3: You know, We're going to solve that. My partner and
27:05
Speaker 3: I am and we would do whatever it takes. Then
27:09
Speaker 3: we got that unit taken away from us, and there's
27:12
Speaker 3: nothing we could do.
27:14
Speaker 2: Both Patty's mother, Patsy and father Billy died never knowing
27:18
Speaker 2: what happened to their daughter. Her aunt, Jean, has also passed.
27:25
Speaker 2: In recent years.
27:26
Speaker 3: J R.
27:27
Speaker 2: Vond legally changed his name. He cited family genealogy as
27:32
Speaker 2: his reasoning, though we were unable to find any ancestors
27:36
Speaker 2: with the name or even just surname. He now uses
27:42
Speaker 2: Roger Scott Dunn, whose case we referenced at the top
27:46
Speaker 2: of the episode, was ultimately found after twenty one years.
27:51
Speaker 2: In May of twenty twelve. His remains were discovered wrapped
27:55
Speaker 2: in a blue vinyl material similar to that of a waterbed,
27:58
Speaker 2: a bed sheet, and a not one hundred feet from
28:02
Speaker 2: his apartment. He was buried in a shallow grave about
28:06
Speaker 2: one and a half feet deep. If you have any
28:10
Speaker 2: information about the disappearance, of Patty Vaughan. Please contact the
28:14
Speaker 2: Bear County Sheriff's Office at two to one zero three
28:17
Speaker 2: three five six thousand. We'd like to thank Kathy Barb
28:23
Speaker 2: and former Bear County Sheriff's Office investigator Adrian Ramirez for
28:28
Speaker 2: taking the time to speak with us about Patty's case
28:31
Speaker 2: and their contributions to the episodes. If you'd like to
28:37
Speaker 2: join Con Cold's mission to shine a light on unsolved
28:40
Speaker 2: homicides and missing persons cases, get the show at free
28:44
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28:48
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Speaker 2: the show by leaving a five star rating and written
28:55
Speaker 2: review on Apple Podcasts or wherever else you listen. However
29:00
Speaker 2: you choose to support Gone Cold, we appreciate you. Thanks
29:05
Speaker 2: for listening, y'all.