Patricia Ann Adkins, age 29, went missing from Marysville, Ohio on June 29, 2001.
Patricia, commonly known as Patti, was last seen when she left the Honda plant where she worked an evening shift, seconds after midnight. The plant would be closed for the following week in observance of the Fourth of July holiday.
Patti told her family and friends that she would be going on a trip to an unknown location, though likely a remote part of Canada, with a married male co-worker that she was romantically involved with. Prior to leaving for work that afternoon, she made arrangements for the care of her daughter and pets. She packed a duffel bag. She got a ride to work from a friend, as she and her co-worker were to leave for their trip directly from work.
When Patti did not return from her trip as scheduled, and her family began searching for her, a string of convoluted inconsistencies began to develop.
The first thing Patti’s family did was contact the co-worker. Patti’s sister began to panic when the co-worker acted confused as to who exactly Patti was, and claimed he knew nothing about a trip.
Now at a heightened level of concern, they contacted Patti’s friend who had driven her to work on the afternoon of June 29. She revealed additional details that Patti had told her about her plans. Patti had said that the co-worker had told her that there would be no phone service where they were going, so her family should not expect to hear from her. He’d also told her that she should not bring anything, because they could buy everything they needed when they got there. Patti had confessed to her friend, however, that she didn’t completely follow those instructions. She did, indeed, pack a small duffel bag with, among other things, something blue (his favorite color) from Victoria’s Secret.
It also came to light that Patti had been told that she’d need to hide in the bed of his pick-up truck until he dropped another co-worker off at home.
Hearing these bizarre accounts, of course, sent red flags flying everywhere. The police were contacted.
Upon further investigation, it was found that Patti had loaned this co-worker tens of thousands of dollars, wiping out savings accounts, and dipping into her 401k. She was led to believe that this co-worker planned to leave his wife, and that he and Patti would then become a couple – but that he would need funds to buy out her share of the family business before he could leave her. The 401k loans Patti took out were due, and Patti had told her co-worker that he would need to start paying back the loans soon. This conversation took place only weeks before he mentioned the idea of going on a trip.
Upon confrontation by police, he claimed that he worked with Patti, barely knew her, and added that he’d floated her money for lunch a couple times. He and his wife both adamantly denied that there was any affair going on.
While police were at the residence speaking to him, they noticed a freshly poured area of concrete. It was dug up, but nothing was found.
They also discovered a new looking bed cover for his truck. It was found that he’d purchased this cover only days prior to the supposed trip. He explained to police that he purchased it to cover fishing equipment. Inspection of this cover revealed cat hair, and a tiny speck of blood. The cat hair was positively matched to Patti’s cat by her veterinarian. The speck of blood is still pending testing.
When asked about his whereabouts on the night in question, he explained that he and his male co-worker had left the plant, driven approximately 30 miles toward their homes, and decided to stop at Burger King. He said they waited in line for 45 minutes, got their food, and then he dropped his buddy off and went home.
His wife stated that he had arrived home at approximately 2:30am, which is the usual time he would arrive home from work.
His commuting buddy backed up his statement, that they had gone to Burger King and waited 45 minutes.
The manager of Burger King told police that there was no way they waited 45 minutes, as they are never busy in the wee hours of the morning.
The married co-worker, whose name has not been officially released, has been named a person of interest by law enforcement.
I think the “waited 45 minutes at Burger King” statement is the most useful. If he did indeed harm her, I don’t think 45 minutes was a random number, but rather, the amount of time he needed to account for.
There are several possible scenarios, considering that we know she was in the truck, based on her cat’s hairs found on the newly purchased bed cover:
a) The co-worker left the Honda plant alone, with Patti waiting in the truck bed, and his buddy was asked to cover for him while they ‘hooked up’ by saying they’d been at Burger King.
b) His buddy was dropped off at home, with Patti still in the truck bed and covered for his friend by saying they went to Burger King.
c) The co-worker left the plant with his buddy, and with Patti hiding in the back, and both the co-worker and his buddy had a part in harming her.
d) She somehow suffocated while hiding in the covered bed, and he felt he couldn’t report it without admitting to the affair.
I don’t think c) is particularly plausible, as his buddy had no motive or reason to get involved in something like this, even though his statement that they waited at Burger King for 45 minutes was not considered to be truthful.
b) makes the most sense to me.
If scenario B were what actually happened, the timeline would have gone something like this:
12:00am: Patti clocks out and goes to his truck, and hides in the bed.
12:15am: Co-worker comes out with his buddy, they get in the truck and start driving.
1:00am: Buddy is dropped off and truck pulls away.
1:05am: Truck pulls over so Patti can get into the cab.
1:05am-2am: ???? (drives to someplace, act is committed)
2:30am: Co-worker arrives at his own home.
Based on this hypothetical scenario, I don’t think Patti would be more than 30 minutes away from his buddy’s home.
In all fairness, Patti’s co-worker has not been convicted of a crime, and he is innocent until proven guilty. So I’d like to explore a couple possible scenarios in which he is innocent.
It is worth noting, however, that every scenario I can think of that meet this criteria would be one in which he lied when he said there was no affair, and that no trip was planned. The theory of “I don’t know anything about a trip, I hardly know the girl” does not pan out, due to the loans, the cat hair in the truck, the fact that Patti herself had told multiple people about the relationship, the newly purchased bed cover being discovered after Patti had told others that she would be hiding in the bed…
It could be possible that a trip was planned, and that Patti hid in the bed while he took his buddy home, and somehow ended up suffocating. He could have discovered her after dropping off his friend, panicked, and buried her somewhere. I do not know exactly what type of cover it was, or if there would have been sufficient ventilation.
It could be possible that a trip was planned, and after Patti got into the cab, an argument ensued and Patti got out of the car.
I’m looking forward to the day when they can test the speck of blood found on the bed cover. It is apparently a speck similar to one that would be found with a squished mosquito, and therefore there is only one opportunity to test it without the dna being destroyed. So, they are waiting for further technology advances.
Patti’s duffel bag has not been found.
Sources:
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The only thing I can say is that in the mid 90’s, long story involving a hurricane and being stuck at Cape Hatteras, my friend and I rode 15 hours under a truck cover with no deliberate ventilation. However there was a enough “cracks” where we had plenty of O2. My point being the risk of suffocation is extremely unlikely. This guy, which you can easily find on other posts about this, is very guilty of something sinister.
And there has to be more to this story for them not have tried to convict him. That is a ton of evidence!!!
What evidence? All they have is the cat hair for physical evidence. That’s IT. They can’t even prove if that one speck of blood is hers and there’s ZERO proof he ever received any money. I’m confused… what evidence that proves murder?
The guy who killed her is probably related to the local police chief, sheriff or district attorney who is helping to cover it up. If that happened to my sister that guy would also have disappeared a long time ago….
There is actually not a lot of evidence. Some DNA on the truck cover that may or may not be degraded. I don’t recall Brian Flowers being related to law enforcement.
Coworker is GUILTY. He deserves death. Lowest of low. Totally innocent girl.
Saw this case years ago on the show, Disappeared. I’ve never stopped thinking about it. I think the boyfriend very carefully planned this all out…the truck cover purchase, ‘no cell phone reception’ where we are going, don’t bring ANYTHING with you, we’ll get it there, climb in the bed of the truck, etc.
Could he have rigged the exhaust to go into the bed of the truck and she died of carbon monoxide? No ‘deed’ to be performed, just disposing of the body. I remember reading on some site that his wife said the only place he went over that vacation week was to go fishing, I think overnight…I wonder where he fishes? Is that where Patti may be?a
I think your right he had this all planned out. The rigging of the exhaust pipe going back into the bed of truck, I never thought of that, I think wifey helped. They said she gave him lots of money over a period of time and that she had told him that it was time to pay up. I think that’s when everything hit the fan. More than likely she never left the city.
This was a well laid-out plan on the side of the “boyfriend” in my opinion. Patti told multiple people that she was heading to a remote cabin in Canada w/ this guy, he told no one. The trip was planned by him (IMO) and of course, she went for it. He didn’t tell his wife he was going hunting or fishing or somewhere for the week to cover for his absence, because he had no plans to be gone. The wife’s response would have been totally believable to LE.
Also the boyfriend’s wife never questioned a late arrival home on the night before one week off (4th of July). I realize that she said getting home at 2:30am was normal, but if you’re off work at midnight, and you’re not home until 2:30am, that is a lot of time, however I’m guessing the wife assumed he’d gone out w/ the guys for a couple of beers, so her response to LE was that it was normal, which I think is stretching the truth. Of course, it’s possible that that could have been Patti and the boyfriends time together to conduct the affair and possibly could have been “normal”, but I am a wife and if my husband got off at midnight and routinely came home at 2:30am, I’d be curious as to where he was at… every night! I wonder whether he called the wife that evening to say he was going to be a couple of hours late because he was waiting in the drive-thru at BK, lol.
But on a more serious note, I think there is more to it than owing her the money. There was something that sealed the deal for him as far as making her disappear. My opinion is that even though he owed her a ghastly amount of money, he still could have strung her along w/ a little pay-back here and there (seems to me that she was madly in love w/ him, and she’d have done anything to keep him such as riding in the bed of his truck…). What about the possibility that she may have been pregnant w/ his child and the two of them were the only ones that knew yet? That would put an end to keeping the affair a secret for too long. That would be a reason for a homicide to happen. That is one of the oldest motives in the book. Any thoughts?
Thank you for commenting!
I actually had many of the same thoughts at the time that I wrote this article, however the recent Crime Watch Daily episode on Patti’s Case really confused me and made me have to rethink some things.
Her sister stated in that video that this was going to be her first time seeing him outside of work. I doubt that much could have gone on in the workplace, so it almost made it sound like there really wasn’t an affair in the sense that we’d all been led to believe.
I still think he was responsible for her disappearance though.
Okay, so I watched the CWD episode that you mention in the above post and have been pondering over it for a bit.
I don’t know that there would be any reason for family to say that they never saw each other outside of work hours except that they simply didn’t/don’t know. Yes, the trip was the first time that they were going together somewhere (another country at that) so that she could be with him in a somewhat normal setting and this is what she told her sisters and friend. However, that doesn’t mean that they never did. Also, her being a supervisor, she would possibly have had her own private office or some place in their place of work in order to be alone. It’s clear that a number of people that she worked beside knew of the relationship according to her friend that worked w/ her. I’m not believing that she gave him all that money and had visions, and in fact plans, to get married to him, have more children and live happily-ever-after if they just had a flirtatious relationship and nothing more. I just can not wrap my brain around that scenario, esp. since Patti seemed to have a really good head on her shoulders. Long-term employment w/ a good company and a substantial amount of savings for someone so young. He promised her something. I may think differently had she not had a young child at home, but she did, and a mother would not sacrifice all her financial security while having to support a child unless there was a very clear and beneficial reason.
Also, in my earlier post, I mentioned “well thought out plan”. I say that because he asked that she bring nothing along on the trip and they’d purchase whatever they needed when they got there. Got where? A secluded cabin somewhere that doesn’t even have a phone or I don’t know what else, but I do know that it would be difficult to get things you need in a place like that. He set it up to look like she wasn’t going anywhere. No bags packed (w/ the exception of the lingerie), nothing to suggest she was going on a trip. I’m sure he told her not to tell anyone as well, but she did.
I wonder if they know whether she brought along a passport that night. Is it missing? I know there was a time that you could enter into Canada w/out one, but not sure when that changed. Possibly after 9/11/2001 in which case she may not have needed it. Just a curiosity.
On another note, the small speck of blood that is too tiny to test for DNA, I thought there was a new thing now where they are able to duplicate the sample to make it large enough to test, and in fact, I know it’s possible. Hope they’re (LE) onto that.
I completely agree that he planned it out ahead of time, and I also agree that his motive was more than just money.
I had long thought it was to keep his wife from finding out about the affair (which would include the pregnancy possibility) but that episode made me wonder if there was an actual affair, I guess you can fall in love with someone and believe their lies without a sexual relationship.
A lot of people think his wife was in on it, but I’ve never really felt that she was. Although she has to know now.
I’m also not 100% convinced that they have a sample. I’ve wondered if they just said that trying to get a confession. It seems that even a tiny sample could have been tested a long time ago.
Wow!
This is the best response I have seen in terms of possible motives.
This story caught my attention because it very well could have been me. I can also shed light on her possible state of mind.
Backstory: I used to work in the Japanese auto industry in a high-level position. I was about her age when I met the “perfect” guy who was in a high position at another company. Like Patti, at his requests, I would clock out as soon as possible (seconds after the shift ended) and go on a rendezvous with him. I don’t believe in s** before marriage (in hindsight, I believe that he was hoping that I would cave during these trips, but I didn’t). I was very naïve and while he didn’t take money, he would create circumstances where I had to pay for the flights, etc. while he paid for nothing. Being in love and naïve, I would do it.
I always told a few friends about the clandestine visits because he had proposed. He, as it turns out, told no one. THIS could have ended very badly, as he told me to move to a remote area and wait for him to come and marry me. I still believed him, but lies were starting to come out about other things. I moved to a well-populated place near the remote area instead. He was upset that I didn’t go to the remote area and upset that I told a few people about our plan. Instead of murder, he simply set in motion all of the plans for the wedding and then ghosted me at the high point – leaving me devastated.
Who knows what would have happened had I gone to the remote area?
Apparently, getting tired of clandestine relations and killing the person is a thing that guys are doing!
I really hope that this case is solved!
Thank you so much for commenting. I am so glad you got away from him, even if it was devastating at the time.
It bothers me so much that this creep Patti got mixed up with is still out there living his life, and hasn’t been made to repay any of the money either.
Yes, I was thinking of that “sample” too. Wondering how it is that there was only one itsy-bitsy little spot and no more. How is that possible? It’s common practice in LE to lie to the suspect to try for the confession for sure. Good thought. The whole thing is strange, starting from the point in which she agreed to crawled into the back of the truck, I mean, to even think of talking about that, the two of them, must have been surreal. Speaking of which, they had this whole thing planned out, so when did they do that? On the phone? At work? Hmmmm. That alone is bizarre, I mean, a grown woman hiding out in the back of this guys truck while they go eat at BK. It sounds like he had her under his thumb to me.
Sadly, these types of guys are very manipulative. Given that she was naive and in love, he probably threatened to end the relationship every single time that she questioned something. He probably asked her to hide in the truck and she probably refused at first and then he threatened to end things, so she did it. I was in a similar relationship and he would do this. If I wanted to do an activity and he didn’t, he would just act uninterested or leave the room until I agreed to do what he wanted to do. If he asked me to “make out” (which was something that I wasn’t comfortable doing), he would give me a look as if he was angry if I refused. If I refused to meet him somewhere because I questioned the situation or questioned the amount of money that I would have to use to do it, he would act as if he was about to end things or simply drop off of the face of the earth for days and leave me wondering if he were still alive (when he was actually hiding on purpose to see my reaction to teach me a lesson).
If the police want to get into Patti’s head, they really should interview other women who have gone through similar things. Looking back, my ex manipulated me so much that I probably would have hidden in a truck bed after initially refusing. I also don’t doubt the amount of planning that Patti’s boyfriend did to pull off the crime. Think about it: he told her to tell her family that she would be away for seven days and that they should not expect to hear from her. This was likely so that he could kill her on the first day and have six extra days to hide evidence, clean, get rid of her scent, and tie any loose ends that he didn’t think about at first. My ex would tell me that he was going away and that he would not have cell phone service, but I would later find out that the place in which he was vacationing indeed had cell phone service, but he wanted to hide and do whatever illegal actions, etc. that he had going on at the time and not be bothered or caught in the middle by my phone call. He also wanted his family to believe that he didn’t even have a girlfriend/fiancee. These psychopaths plan years in advance about how they want to get rid of someone and a normal person simply cannot compete with their super forward thinking.
As far as the leftover cement, did they ever even confirm that there was indeed a first cement job that was work-related or was the first job when he allegedly killed Patti and used it to cover her body? My guess is that he had a grave already dug in remote Marysville and cement already waiting and he simply choked her unexpectedly, dropped her in, and instantly covered her with the cement. The tools used for the deadly cement job were probably also used in the second job at his house, which caused the dogs to think that she was there.
He also immediately called Honda after the shutdown and requested time off for disability, but never returned. What disability? This man was 30 years old and outside pouring cement. He was fine.
I really appreciate you sharing your story, it does help to understand the situation she was in at the time. A lot of people have theorized that his reason for killing her was to avoid having to repay the nearly $100K she had loaned him. I am not sure though, it seems to me that he wouldn’t have had to kill her over that, he could have just kept giving her excuses and she would have accepted them. My feeling is that either he wanted to end the relationship, or she threatened to tell his wife. Those are just guesses, though.
Thanks for reading my comments.
One last thing that I have to say is that I wish that the police and maybe even her family members understood the dynamic of the workplace.
Patti was a Team Leader. Her boyfriend was a Designated Hitter. At those kinds of plants, there are “levels” to hiring and promotion. All normal operators who work on the assembly line are called “associates”. These are usually people who have no college background and they are trained to do a few hands-on manufacturing jobs. A Designated Hitter is still just another associate who knows how to do most jobs in that zone, so he/she is used to relieve other people or to train, but the level is the same as any other associate. A Team Leader is considered an “associate” but he/she is still a part of management. Normally, this would not be significant. However, Patti was about to get a promotion. This changes things.
If Patti would have gotten promoted, she would have been a Team Manager or Production Manager. This is considered “level 2”. Level 2 is the position that is basically coveted by all and it is dangled in one’s face like a carrot the moment that one is hired by the company. Most people want this position but few people ever get it. There are only two ways to get it. The first way is to enter the company having an engineering degree already. This would place a person at “Level 1” from the start and then he/she just has to work to “Level 2”. The second way, which would have been Patti’s way, is to start all of the way at the bottom as “associate”, work to Team Leader which is still “associate”, and then skip over Level 1 (which is usually an entry-level engineer) to Level 2 (it is a weird promotion by design). This was about to happen to her and it would have severely affected the dynamic between her and her boyfriend.
You see, the reason that Level 2 is so coveted (especially by production more so than engineers) is because the person moves from Team Leader, which is an hourly management position to Production Manager which is a salaried position paying significantly more with enhanced mobility. A Production Manager could stay at MAP (where Patti worked) or stay for a year and move to the headquarters (a few miles away in Raymond, Ohio) for a very cool career of traveling and training others around the globe. She could have worked in other local plants (ELP, Anna, etc.) or basically made a move to anywhere to work. Anything would have been possible in one year as a production manager, while her boyfriend would have still been a Designated Hitter. Even if he had also gotten a promotion, his next level would have been Team Leader which is still very limited compared to Production Manager. With the options that she would have had and the power, he would not have been able to control her as much. She could have simply transferred if she felt that he was up to no good. She could have even asked him to leave her zone if things were getting bad.
Promotions of these type are usually announced immediately before or after shutdown. This may have been the last straw in his decision to harm her. He could not have her working with so much power over him.
That’s something to think about. I really didn’t look at it at thank angle. Here another one: Could she have just up and left, leaving a daughter behind. Her so called boyfriend just helped her get out of town to start anew life somewhere else. Thinking out loud.