The Disappearance of Patricia Adkins

By Pete Dove

'Kiss, Kiss – love you sis,' the goodbye that Patti Adkins shared with her sisters. How could they know that, at the end of June 2001, they would hear it from their younger sibling for the final time?
'You don't think that the worst is going to happen. You don't think it will be the last time you speak to your little sister,' Jeanine Laurie recalled the shock of hearing of Patti's disappearance. Within just a few hours of receiving the appalling news, Jeanine had no doubt in her own mind that Patti knew her attacker.  
'There's something wrong here. It just makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.' Detective Jeff Stiers was involved in Patti's case. As he and his colleagues dug deeper, it became apparent that Patti's life was more complicated than it might seem from a distance.
Investigators searched her accounts, found her papers and determined that she had not run off. Friends and relatives could have told them this. They knew that nothing would drag Patti away from her daughter. Seven year old Michaley and her mom shared a bond as strong as any between mother and child.
What happened to Patti Adkins?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trellis Publishing
• Release date: Jul 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201986902

Book preview

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF PATRICIA ADKINS

PETE DOVE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DISAPPEARANCE OF PATRICIA ADKINS

ROBYN LINDHOLM

KILLER SEDUCTRESS

PAMELA SMART

DANIELLE STEWART

MARY WINKLER

TRACEY GRISSOM

TED BUNDY

DAVID CARPENTER

TOY BOX KILLER

DISAPPEARANCE OF PATRICIA ADKINS

Waiting for a Conclusion

‘Kiss, Kiss – love you sis,’ the goodbye that Patti Adkins shared with her sisters.  How could they know that, at the end of June 2001, they would hear it from their younger sibling for the final time?

‘You don’t think that the worst is going to happen.  You don’t think it will be the last time you speak to your little sister,’ Jeanine Laurie recalled the shock of hearing of Patti’s disappearance. Within just a few hours of receiving the appalling news, Jeanine had no doubt in her own mind that Patti knew her attacker. 

‘There’s something wrong here.  It just makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.’  Detective Jeff Stiers was involved in Patti’s case.  As he and his colleagues dug deeper, it became apparent that Patti’s life was more complicated than it might seem from a distance.

Investigators searched her accounts, found her papers and determined that she had not run off.  Friends and relatives could have told them this.  They knew that nothing would drag Patti away from her daughter.  Seven year old Michaley and her mom shared a bond as strong as any between mother and child.

They lived in Marysville, Ohio.  It’s a small, pleasant enough community of just over twenty thousand, a little way north east of Columbus.  All seemed good with Patti’s life, until June 29th 2001 became the catalyst for unpleasant truths to break the surface. 

It was the final Friday before July 4th, and the Honda factory where she worked as a production line leader was due to close for a holiday. Normally, this would be a chance for Patti to spend some quality time with Michaley, a chance to catch up with all those things that slip away from a busy, working, single parent. But this holiday would be a little different.  Michaley was due to spend time with her father,  and Patti was going to take advantage of the freedom that offered by heading away herself on a short holiday.

Patti told another sister, Marcia Pitts, that she and her boyfriend had plans for the break.  They had been seeing each other for a couple of years, although it was a relationship about which Marcia had some doubts.  Patti, though, appeared to be very much in love.  Nevertheless, it would be unusual for her to head off without Michaley.  But the girl’s domestic arrangements meant that things were different on this occasion, and the thought of spending time with her boyfriend was appealing.  He had suggested that they go together to Canada for the week.  It was a trip to which she was looking forward.

‘She was excited about her trip with her boyfriend.  She was head over heels in love with this man,’ Jeanine confirmed. 

The boyfriend – we are unable to print his name – was a co-worker at Honda.  Patti’s role there was a little unusual, since there were few women doing her job in such a blue collar, masculine world. This was particularly so back at the turn of the millennium when attitudes were different to now.  She’d been employed there for a number of years, starting when she was just nineteen.  Patti had made steady progress up the career ladder, and was looking forward to another promotion in the next couple of months.

She was a good employee, with strong people skills and a willingness to take on training to advance herself. 

But if work was important to Patti, it shrank into insignificance when compared to her daughter.  Like any mum, Patti doted on Michaley – and the feeling was returned.  ‘She adored her, she loved her so much.  And Michaley loved her mum,’ remembered Marcia..

Patti was an independent woman. Perhaps being the youngest of five – two brothers and two sisters – helped her to learn to fight for what she wanted.  She knew where she was going, and was clear about what she wanted to offer to Michaley. 

On that June day, before heading off for her final shift before the break, Patti packed a bag for her daughter, but not for herself.  She took the seven year old to her ex-husband’s home and said her goodbyes.  On the one hand, it would be tough to be out of touch with her daughter for a week; on the other, she knew that she should take the opportunity to put herself first for a few days.  Every parent needs to do that once in a while

Michaley would be staying with her dad for the best part of the week, and then her Aunt would look after her for a couple of days until Patti’s return the following Sunday. 

She took the family pets to the vet for boarding, and phoned Marcia one last time.  The two were close – as indeed were all the siblings – and Patti would speak with her sister every day. However, for the week ahead it seemed likely that there would be no contact.  Patti and her boyfriend were headed for a remote part of Canada, and in all likelihood phone signals would be poor, maybe even non-existent.

Patti’s shift ended at midnight.  Nineteen seconds later, she was recorded as clocking out.  She and the other associates, as Honda calls their employees, were keen to get away and start their holiday.  Patti’s plan was to drive straight to Canada with her boyfriend, using his pick up truck. 

Nothing was heard from Patti over the following week – that was no cause for worry.  But on Sunday July 8th, Marcia was expecting her sister to turn up to collect Michaley.  She did not arrive.  Marcia was mildly concerned. On the one hand, she assumed that her sister was running late.  On the other, Patti was a reliable mom.  If something had held her up, she would normally call to report the problem.

As the minutes turned into hours, Marcia became increasingly worried.  In the end, she called her sister’s boyfriend.  The phone was answered – but by a woman who was not her sister.  Marcia asked about Patti’s whereabouts, and the response added to her growing concerns.  This woman had no idea who Patti was – she had never heard of her.

But then, that was not too surprising.  The call was tricky, and Marcia would not have made it unless she was extremely worried about her sister’s whereabouts.  Because she knew who the woman who answered the phone was – the boyfriend’s wife.  Marcia was as tactful as she could be.  She claimed to be a customer, one who needed to speak to Patti or the boyfriend as soon as possible regarding an order they had placed.  If the wife was suspicious she did not let on, saying that her husband was due back later that afternoon.

Patti had been open with her sisters about her developing  relationship with a married man.  To begin with, it had been just a genuine, platonic friendship.  The two found they could talk to each other, as soul mates rather than lovers.  Then, that had changed. 

The boyfriend’s marriage was struggling; Patti saw her future very much with this man.  They wanted children of their own, brothers and sisters for Michaley. 

‘I don’t think that if they had a good marriage, Patti would have pursed it,’ Jeanine said.  But for all their understanding, neither she nor Marcia approved of their younger sibling’s relationship.  It seemed to be fraught with risk and danger.  If his marriage was breaking down, why, two years on, was the boyfriend still with his wife?

Was he simply after the best of both worlds?  Love can blind people to the truth; a truth that was extremely visible to the two older sisters. 

A year earlier, in the early summer of 2000, Patti had visited Jeanine at her home in Florida.  She wanted to get the boyfriend a gift – a T shirt from the Hard Rock Café – and it was while they were travelling there that she told Jeanine of her boyfriend’s plans. If alarm bells were already tinkling annoyingly in the back of Jeanine’s mind, when she heard about these plans they started to ring with unabandoned fury.

The co-worker in fact owned a business with his brother.  He was going to sell his half share, and that would be the catalyst for him leaving his wife.  They would then have the cash they needed to start the new life together that they had planned.

But, she told Jeanine, that business had needed an injection of capital to make it a saleable attraction.  The boyfriend didn’t have that cash at the time, and so she had helped him out.  To the tune of $20000.

The money was so that he could sell his share of the business more quickly, and then they could be together more quickly. The logic was clear to Patti.  From the outside, such a scheme reeks of suspicion, but Patti was in love.  Her vision was misted by her emotions.  Jeanine was horrified.  That was the nest egg her sister had been saving for years.  But now it was mostly gone.

Patti would not listen.  She was convinced that the man was to be trusted, that all the money she had loaned him would be returned, with interest, when he divorced.  Close families know when they have said enough.  Patti might be the youngest, but she was strong willed and determined.  She had made her decision, and neither Marcia nor Jeanine could influence her.  Jeanine accepted that, and said no more. 

‘It was shocking the amount of money she was helping him out with,’ she later observed. ‘But it was totally characteristic of Patti to help someone out.  To Patti, relationships were more important than materialistic things.’  Her sister could be extremely generous as well as extremely obstinate. 

By the early part of 2001, perhaps even Patti was beginning to become a little worried.  She told Marcia that she had set a deadline for beginning to get her money back.  And the start date of that repayment process was July 2001.

At 5.00 pm on 8th July Marcia rang the boyfriend once more.  It was now five hours past the hour Michaley was meant to be collected.  This time, though, the boyfriend picked up.  His response sent shivers through the older sister.

He denied having any but the most fleeting awareness of Patti – ‘Oh, the girl from Honda?’ he is claimed to have asked.  Marcia described him as suddenly changing tune; of stuttering, pausing and stammering.  He denied any knowledge of where his alleged lover might be.  Wherever that was, it was not with him, and he had not seen her over the past week.  There was, he implied, no reason why he should.

Marcia became deeply, deeply worried by his response.  She immediately called her sister, who happened to be visiting their mom in Indiana.  Jeanine told her mother that her youngest was missing.  They knew straight away that something was seriously wrong.  Call it familial instinct.  Patti would definitely have phoned to speak to Michaley the moment that she could.  But she hadn’t. This could only mean that such a call was impossible for her to make.

The reasons for that were too horrific to contemplate. 

At 7.00pm there was still no news.  Marcia knew that she had to do something, and called the Marysville police department to report Patti as missing.  Sleep was impossible, and at 3.00 in the morning Marcia made the difficult decision to call the man once more.  It was his wife who answered and this time Marcia was up front. She told her that Patti had been lending her husband substantial amounts of money, and had planned to go away with him over the previous week. 

Eventually, the phone was handed once more to the man, and again he denied everything.

Jeff Stiers and Jaime Patten were the detectives assigned to Patti’s case, and they began investigations.  There was nothing in Patti’s home to suggest any reason for her disappearance.  Everything was in order, the doors were locked, her clothes hung neatly in her closet, the home tidy and clean.  The only information Stiers and Patten could deduce was that if Patti’s disappearance was the result of foul play, it was a crime that had happened elsewhere. 

For Lt. Patten, it was not clear that a crime had indeed been committed.  All that the police had to go on was a missing person report, filed by the sister of the possible victim.  But soon questions began to rear up.  The police took away Patti’s financial records and her computer for assessment.  In addition, the detectives interviewed her co workers at Honda.  The story they told made it clear that Patty had something different on after her shift that June night.  Usually happy to check up after her team, she had stressed to her shift that everything had to be cleaned and ready so she could be away promptly at midnight.  Nineteen seconds after her shift ended, we know, she was gone.  Normally she would be the final person out.  Clearly, she had something planned.

Her associates also reported that Patti would speak with the man she claimed to be her boyfriend.  However, this was not unusual.  As team leader, it was Patti’s job to talk to people, and nobody saw anything suspicious in this particular relationship.  Indeed, it