Post by Graveyardbride on Aug 26, 2014 20:28:26 GMT -5
Strange Disappearance in Texas
El Paso residents William and Margaret Patterson (above) were quiet, unassuming people, certainly not the sort one would expect to be Russian spies. Or UFO abductees. Or ghosts. But they’ve been accused, at various times and by various people, of being all three. Unfortunately, they cannot set the record straight themselves because one day, the couple stepped out the door and, for all intents and purposes, fell right off the face of the earth. “It’s like they went out for a walk and never came back,” El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego told the El Paso Times. Samaniego (who died in 2007) is just one in a long string of lawmen who spent many a fruitless hour trying to figure out what happened to the couple.
It all started – or, from the Pattersons’ perspective, ended – March 5 or 6, 1957. That was the last time anyone recalls having seen Patterson, 52, or his 42-year-old wife, either at their home in the 3000 block of Piedmont or downtown business, Patterson Photo Supply. There wasn’t much concern at first because the two had mentioned a trip to Florida, but weeks went by without a word. Finally, in August, a family friend, Cecil Ward, filed a report with the sheriff’s office concerning the disappearance. The couple’s house was searched, but nothing appeared to be missing or out of place. Even their cat was still hanging around the property. Stymied by a lack of evidence, investigators determined the duo had simply lit out for parts unknown. But which parts?
Of interest, a mysterious letter, purportedly written by William Patterson, soon turned up with instructions that his photography business and other property be divided among three of his employees. Authorities suspected the letter was a forgery.
Almost any theory seemed plausible. Some thought the Pattersons were snatched by kidnappers or abducted by a UFO. Others were certain they had left for Mexico, specifically, Guaymas, where they were believed to have owned property. Because the Cold War was in full swing, there was also a contingent who were convinced the pair were Russian agents who had suddenly been called home. Ironically, the Russian agent theory is still widely accepted in certain circles. “I think they were spies,” Sheriff Samaniego told the Times. “The way they got up and just walked away and left everything behind. The Russians, or whoever sent them, probably told them to drop everything and go back.” There were reports that the Pattersons photographed Fort Bliss and military shipments that came through El Paso on trains.
Perhaps they were enemy agents. Or perhaps, as others believe, they simply went someplace to begin new lives. Back in the 50s, some of those who contended the Pattersons had gone to Florida also claimed they later sent word to El Paso that they weren’t coming back. Others insisted they had seen the couple in Mexico. During the early days of the investigation, even William Patterson’s father seemed to think his son and daughter-in-law had simply relocated without bothering to tell anyone. “I always knew Pat and Margaret would take off like this some day, but I figured it to be four or five years away,” he told an El Paso court of injury. “They’re not dead. ... My boy has done things like this before ... He made his living doing sleight-of-hand tricks.” (This seems an odd thing for Patterson’s father to have said because Patterson was known to have made his living operating a photography shop.) But throughout the years, Patterson’s father never got so much as a birthday card and finally, even he began to suspect the two were dead.
Not surprisingly, the Patterson home (above) quickly acquired a reputation for being haunted, a reputation it retains to this day. Those who have lived in the house since the disappearance constantly report disturbances, but not of a paranormal nature. The problems they experience result from teenagers and other thrill seekers who trespass on the property in search of ghosts. Actually, the ghost-hunters may have a point. A certain segment of the local population has always believed the Pattersons never went anywhere and are still on – or rather beneath – their property. In an interview, former El Paso County Sheriff R. I. “Bob” Bailey told the El Paso Herald-Post that “at one time, Frank Morning, the deputy in charge of the 1950s investigation, thought maybe the bodies were buried right there in or under the house, but he could never find any evidence of it.”
Almost three decades after the disappearance, a man named Reynaldo Nangaray contacted local law enforcement in 1984, claiming he had been hired to search for the Pattersons shortly after they vanished. In his official statement, he claimed he had found blood in the garage and a piece of human scalp on the propeller of the couple’s boat, which was stored on the premises. (One of Patterson’s employees was observed working on the boat shortly before the couple disappeared.) Even more revealing, he said he witnessed a friend of the couple’s removing bloody sheets from the house and stashing them in the trunk of a car. “He did not come forward to talk to the police sooner because he was an illegal immigrant at the time, but when he came to see us, he was a US citizen,” reported former El Paso homicide detective (and now private investigator) Freddie Bonilla. Unfortunately, Nangaray won’t be furnishing any additional information concerning the matter because he died in a motor vehicle accident two years after telling his curious tale.
This leaves investigators exactly where they were in 1957 – without a clue. Every few years, El Paso police haul out the dusty files and take another swing at the case. But as the decades pass, the trail gets colder and colder, just as the story of the Vanishing Pattersons has become a legend.
But the case is by no means forgotten. As recently as last year, a woman named Jeri Cash came forward and revealed she was probably the last person to see Mr. and Mrs. Patterson before they disappeared. “I tried telling the police back then what we saw, but they just blew us off,” says Ms. Cash, who was in the Patterson home the last night the couple apparently spent in the house. “It was Girl Scout cookie season,” she recalls, “and we had hundreds of boxes of cookies that didn’t all fit in our house, so we put some of the boxes on the front porch and I stayed up most of the night to guard the cookies. I took some cookies to Mrs. Patterson and she seemed very upset. It was the only time I had talked to her. The couple tended to keep to themselves. The husband seemed unhappy that I was in the house and I left soon after leaving the cookies with her. She was a tiny woman and he always came across as mean and unfriendly.” According to Ms. Cash, she and her family noticed unusual activities at the Patterson house later that night.
Where did the couple go? Maybe they’re in Mexico or Russia or on another planet .... Or perhaps they didn’t go anywhere at all. Perhaps they’re still in or near their home, waiting to be found. Only one thing is certain: Until new evidence is discovered, the case will continue to haunt El Paso. The Patterson disappearance is still considered the city’s most iconic and baffling missing persons’ case.
Sources: Suburban Legends: True Tales of Murder, Mayhem and Minivans by Sam Stall, and The El Paso Times.
