WEBVTT

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This podcast contains intense subject matter.
Listener discretion is advised. I'm just worried

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that there's a lot of things that
I don't remember well. The case number

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of nine one six five four.
At or about four o'clock PM, September

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seventh, nineteen seventy six, Sergeant
Rigney and myself went to the Ralph Otto

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residence thirteen oh eight twenty ninth Street
to question him concerning the disappearance of his

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wife, Patricia Otto. Ralph wasn't
home when we arrived. While we were

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at the residence, we observed and
examined a large tarp to the west side

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of the residence spread out in the
lawn. We looked at the tarp to

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determine whether they or not there were
any signs of blood, hair, or

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other physical evidence where a body could
have been transported in the tarp. Lewis

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and Idaho police detectives were looking into
the disappearance of twenty four year old Patricia

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Lee Otto, a married mother of
two young girls. The first voice you

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heard belongs to retired police detective Tom
Selene. Then you heard a portion of

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his actual nineteen seventy six police report
read by one of our colleagues. Patty,

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as most people called her, was
reportedly last seen alive by her husband,

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Ralph, late in the evening of
August thirty first, nineteen seventy six.

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He told people the two had a
heated argument and went to bed in

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different rooms to cool off. Neighbors
didn't hear this particular fight, but they'd

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heard plenty of fights before. Patty
and Ralph's young daughters woke the next morning

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and began looking everywhere for their mom. She was nowhere to be found.

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Ralph didn't report Patty missing, though, he told everyone that Patty had threatened

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to leave the kids with him before, just so he would know what it

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was like to raise them on his
own. He said Patty had simply walked

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into the night without packing a bag, leaving a note, or even taking

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her car, which was parked right
outside. The youngest daughter remembers seeing part

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of a scuffle between her parents that
night. Her sister told her it was

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just a bad dream. This is
the story about the decades long search for

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the girl's mother. It's a story
about outlaws and in laws, police detectives,

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suspects and potential accomplices, blatant lies, conspira theories, reams and reams

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of circumstantial evidence, and a mind
boggling lack of concrete proof. Ralph found

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out that she was working as a
prostitute. I think they put it into

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humage, having real received information that
there was a secret room in the basement

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that was all paneled off. I
think that we broke up the mafia rain

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in this city. But it was
common knowledge that they were running a call

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girl Rady, you know East Tember
where you want the big deal here at

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very dangerous people. What happened to
Patricia Lee Otto? This is also the

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story of a woman whose body was
found almost exactly two years after Patty disappeared.

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Her remains are still waiting to be
identified. It's the mystery of who

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that woman was, what happened to
her, and whether or not she could

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be Patty Otto. In the age
of DNA, how can we not be

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sure? And if it's not Patty, then who and who killed her?

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And why? A cadre of volunteer
researchers and people who loved Patty are all

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asking those same questions. More than
forty five years later. They're still waiting

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for answers, still waiting for justice, still waiting for peace from the pages

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of the reporter's notebook. This is
still season two. I'm your host,

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Arie Anderson. I don't believe she
left at all. I believe that he

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somehow killed her, and then somehow
by himself or with others, and something

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with her body. Everything else after
and in between is him trying to protect

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his lebrities. That's retired Detective Tom
Selene again. He was the primary investigator

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looking into Patty's disappearance. He's convinced
that Patty's husband, Ralph Otto, killed

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her that night. Throughout this season, you'll hear from Selene. You'll also

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hear the text from many of his
and other investigators reports, and you'll listen

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in as my colleagues and I,
Christine Hughes and Karen Shaw Anderson read through

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transcripts from taped police interviews and portions
of handwritten notes from some of the people

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surrounding this investigation. Most importantly,
you'll hear the actual voices of Patty's family,

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people connected to Ralph, and the
volunteer sleuths who have devoted years of

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their lives to solving these cases.
We couldn't have put this season together without

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the tireless work and relentless determination of
so many people. We will carefully comb

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through the documented facts and let you
mentally sift out half truths, rumors,

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concealed circumstances, and seemingly far fetched
theories. Most of the facts lead us

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straight back to Ralph as the cause
of Patty's disappearance the night of August thirty

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first, nineteen seventy six. But
some of the details of this case also

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appear to contradict our assumptions. It's
certain that some of the information we've been

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given was designed to send us scurrying
after shadows. How much of it should

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we actually believe? After you hear
this tangled story, will be curious to

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know what you think. You may
come to a different conclusion than we did

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we first learned about this case.
Actually these two cases. In the summer

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of twenty twenty one, Patty Auto's
youngest daughter, the one who remembers seeing

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her parents fighting that night in nineteen
seventy six, was scrolling through social media

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late one evening. She froze after
seeing an image that looked an awful lot

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like herself. I sat straight up
in my bed and I'm like, that's

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my mother. This guy drew my
mother. Who is this guy? Can

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I start messaging like crazy? Who
are these people? How did they get

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my mother's picture? Who is this
missing person? The image was posted by

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volunteer investigators trying to identify a Jane
Doe found in nineteen seventy eight in a

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remote area of Oregon. The image
was a forensic anthropologist's rendering of what that

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woman may have looked like based on
her skeletonized remains. Law enforcement working on

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the case back then estimated she had
been dead for at least two years when

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she was found. It appeared that
she had been strangled. Elk hunters hiking

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through a wooded trail had stumbled across
her shallow grave. Animals had helped unearth

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her skull. In the grave,
pieces of clothing were found, scraps of

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cloth seemed to be from a pair
of red pants and a white top.

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Law enforcement spent months comparing her clothing, hair color, body size, and

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teeth to records of missing women from
across the Northwest, but they still had

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no idea who she was. Records
indicate that they did compare her to Pattiotto

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and ruled her out as a match, but there are questions about how those

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comparisons were made, which will discuss
in detail later. If it was indeed

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Pattiotto, the mystery remains how she
got there. The location where she was

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found is a treacherous three hour drive
from her home in lewis And, Idaho.

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In the taped interview Ralph gave to
police investigators on September seventh, he

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said that Patty disappeared sometime between eleven
pm August thirty first and mid morning September

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first, nineteen seventy six. Her
parents know that she was alive shortly before

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eleven pm. That's when she left
their house, so that time is confirmed.

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We also know Ralph started telling people
the next afternoon that Patty had left

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him. Ralph told police that Patty
came home with the children. He and

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Patty fought, and she left.
He said he heard her leave after he

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went to bed, and he didn't
go up to check on her, but

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he did say he looked in on
his daughters, who were sleeping in a

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basement bedroom. At about one thirty
the next afternoon, Ralph called Patty's younger

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sister, Alice Mills, and told
her he couldn't find Patty. He asked

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Alice if Patty was there with her, and then he asked Alice to watch

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his daughters while he searched for his
wife. The girls were much too young

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to be left home alone. Natalie, the oldest, hadn't even turned five

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yet, Dlice, the younger daughter, was still just two years old.

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At about two that afternoon, Ralph
dropped the girls off at Alice's house and

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said he was going to drive to
the town of Winchester, Idaho, about

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forty minutes southeast of Lewistown, to
look for Patty. When he arrived at

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Alice's house, it was apparent to
Alice that Ralph had been drinking, and

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he was complaining that he couldn't find
one of his handguns. In the recorded

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interview with police, Ralph later described
going to Winchester that day and looking for

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Patty at a bar called the wood
Shed because he believed Patty hung out there

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often. He said he didn't find
her there, but did he really even

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look. Each time Ralph talked to
police about what happened in the minutes before

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Patty's disappearance, the specifics changed a
little, usually with new details. In

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the earliest versions of his story,
Ralph said they had simply argued. He

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said he suggested that they go to
bed in different rooms to cool down.

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Later, he said Patty slapped him, but he denied hitting her. Sometimes

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he mentioned hearing a horn honk outside
and a door slam as Patty left the

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house. Other times he said he
didn't hear anything at all, or that

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he wasn't sure how far away the
car was that honked. It could have

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been in a nearby park, and
he wasn't certain what he heard was even

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that night. In his first statement
to police, Ralph said she took her

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purse with her. In a later
account, he said he saw five one

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hundred dollar bills in her purse shortly
before she disappeared. Ralph's family said she

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packed a suitcase, but there's no
reference in official reports about belonging she may

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have taken other than her purse or
the clothes she was wearing red pants and

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a white sleeveless blouse. Ralph Otto
was requested to come to the Lewiston Police

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Department to be questioned concerning the disappearance
of his wife, and that was done

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at five o'clock PM. A statement
was taken from Otto. The statement ended

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approximately five thirty or shortly thereafter.
President in the office is one Ralph s

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Otto and myself Sergeant Selene. This
conversation is being recorded by dictaphone. During

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that interview, Ralph didn't explain to
police his rationale for believing his wife would

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hang out at a bar forty minutes
from their home, but we do know

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that his story about going to Winchester
was a lie. He also told police

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about going to a different bar in
Lewiston called Van's Club that day. Police

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were able to verify that he did
indeed go to Van's Club, but his

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visit there was actually on August thirty
first, a few hours before Patty vanished,

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not September first, as he had
told detectives. The bartender had called

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police after Ralph showed up there with
a handgun tucked into his waistband and demanded

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to see a man named Randy.
Ralph believed that the man he was looking

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for worked at the bar. We'll
talk more about that storyline soon. I

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will tell you, though, that, aside from making a number of phone

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calls in the weeks that followed,
we are certain that Ralph never physic he

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searched for Patty beyond his own yard. I'll also tell you now that the

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tarp police saw in Ralph's yard didn't
reveal any clues. That first day of

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September, instead of actually driving southeast
to the bar in Winchester, Idaho,

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Ralph headed west, taking a bridge
across the Snake River. He then drove

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a few miles south to the small
town of a Sotan, Washington, to

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visit a woman named Bonnie's shop.
Beell, we heard from Bonnie, and

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you'll hear what she told us as
the story unfolds, Ralph had been spending

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quite a bit of time with Bonnie
in recent days, including on the day

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of his wife's disappearance. We learned
that Ralph had spent most of the day

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on August thirty first with Bonnie before
he went to Van's Club in Lewiston with

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a gun, and he took his
daughters back to Bonnie's house the morning of

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September first, before calling Alice that
Patty had left him. We have to

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wonder if a man who had just
murdered his wife would expend so little effort

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concealing his lies. Did he really
think investigators wouldn't check his story. Ralph

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had spent the better part of a
week helping Bonnie finish packing up her house

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she was moving away to California.
After spending the morning with her and then

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dropping his daughters off with Alice,
sometime in the afternoon of September first,

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Ralph went back and picked up Bonnie
to take her shopping to buy a new

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outfit. He also had dinner with
her and her parents that evening, and

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returned to Bonnie's parents house for breakfast
the next morning. On September second,

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he stayed and visited with the family
before Bonnie followed him back to his house.

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On the way out of town.
At Ralph's house, he checked her

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car's fluid levels, and then she
drove away for California. Late in the

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evening on September second, Patty's sister, Alice Mills, and her parents Tom

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and artist O'Malley, who everyone called
Toots, contacted police to report Patty missing.

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Ralph still hadn't returned to Alice's house
to pick up his daughters. If

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Ralph had indeed killed Patty sometime overnight
between August thirty first and September first,

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he didn't have much time to hide
the body. We do know, though,

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that he called at least two friends
that night saying he was in trouble

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and needed help. Both friends said
no, but didn't ask what sort of

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trouble Ralph was in. Did he
call someone else who did agree to help.

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We'd really like to know that answer. Toasty out here. It's getting

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warm, isn't it. My colleagues
and I met Patty's sister, Alice at

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her home in Idaho to talk about
Patty's disappearance on what would have been Patty's

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sixty ninth birthday, August fourth,
twenty twenty one. This is my uncle

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Van Nier Rank you, Garry,
Christine and Alice. Hi. Hi,

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I'm Karen. Alice still lives in
Lewiston and hasn't changed her phone number in

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case Patty is somehow still alive and
wants to reach out. This is Alice

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talking in a recorded phone call weeks
after that first meeting. We were asking

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about Alice's relationship with her sister and
Patty's life before she disappeared. She said

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they talked every day and usually saw
each other too. Alice said that Patty

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never left the girls in Ralph's care
because he would often drink until he passed

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out. Oh no, I had
the kids a lot. It's not messing

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Babyson. I would just she'd come
up with the kids. There weather a

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lot of when she went to school. When with Babyscorse, she never believed

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the kids of rap by himself.
He never he never watched the kids.

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So she had an appointment or something. First moment Mom was and so I'd

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watched him. But it was always
usually family, Yeah, watching him mom,

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dad or me. According to documentation
we've obtained, Ralph was also taking

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more than twice the standard maximum dose
of valum. The valume was prescribed by

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a Lewiston doctor who was trying to
help Ralph with nervousness and trouble sleeping while

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attempting to quit drinking, but Ralph
often swallowed the valume with whiskey. Alice

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told us that Patty was fed up
with Ralph's drinking, which had led to

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him more than one separation for Patty
and Ralph. Ralph had gone into treatment

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for alcoholism several times, but he
hadn't successfully sobered up. There was also

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the issue of Ralph's involvement with other
women. Patty knew he was seeing that

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Bonnie. We've seen him together.
She had seen him together, and then

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when Matt Bonnie had that baby,
but he thought it could be his,

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and he was always wanting to buy
things and go visit Stephanet really bothered Patty.

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Do you think that's part of what
the fight was about the night she

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00:20:27.960 --> 00:20:34.680
disappeared, was Bonnie? No,
I don't think so. It could be

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just everything coming up. I think
the night that the last night I got

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into I think for the last drive, Ralph knew that Patty had went out

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was Randy, and there's no way
anybody's going to have anything that belongs to

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Ralph. Patty and Ralph met while
she was still in high school. She

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00:21:23.240 --> 00:21:30.119
was eighteen when they married in nineteen
seventy. He was a divorced thirty five

210
00:21:30.200 --> 00:21:34.119
year old who had worked as a
mechanic and owned heavy road equipment, which

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00:21:34.119 --> 00:21:40.559
he sometimes leased out. Ralph's income
was good when he earned contracts from the

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00:21:40.599 --> 00:21:45.160
state or Forest Service to clear roads
covered by mudslides, but he had also

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00:21:45.279 --> 00:21:49.880
lost money on other business ventures,
including a plan to crush rock into gravel

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00:21:51.039 --> 00:21:56.039
on a Clearwater River island he and
a business partner had purchased. Ralph and

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00:21:56.079 --> 00:22:00.039
Patty's marriage was having ups and downs
too. They went through their longest split

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00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:06.160
in late nineteen seventy five, while
they were separated, Patty hooked up with

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00:22:06.160 --> 00:22:18.319
a man named Randy Benton. Randy
is a musician whose bands sometimes played at

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00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:26.160
Vans Club. You'll hear from Randy
in an upcoming episode. Ian Patty knew

219
00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:29.400
each other from school, and they
saw each other again when he was playing

220
00:22:29.400 --> 00:22:33.640
one night at Vans. Truth Be
Told. It sounds like Patty seduced Randy

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00:22:33.680 --> 00:22:38.640
that night to get back at Ralph
for his relationships with other women. Patty

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00:22:38.680 --> 00:22:42.359
told Ralph about her one night's stand
with Randy when she and Ralph decided to

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give their marriage another try in the
spring of nineteen seventy six, Ralph said

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00:22:48.680 --> 00:22:52.920
he forgave Patty, but he couldn't
forget about that tryst. Ralph later admitted

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00:22:52.960 --> 00:22:56.559
to police that he intended to kill
Randy when he went to Van's Club with

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a gun the night Patty disappeared.
He told police that he was the only

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00:23:02.680 --> 00:23:07.599
man Patty had ever been with before
she hooked up with Randy. Ralph said

228
00:23:07.640 --> 00:23:12.039
Patty's affair with the musician was more
about her desire for new sexual experiences than

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00:23:12.119 --> 00:23:19.079
revenge for his unfaithfulness. Patty and
Ralph had often argued about Randy. They

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00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:25.799
also argued about Ralph's history with other
women and his drinking. Occasionally, the

231
00:23:25.880 --> 00:23:30.200
squabbles turned violent, and not just
on Ralph's part. He had hit and

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00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:36.480
choked Patty. She had fired a
gun into the ceiling. It was the

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00:23:36.519 --> 00:23:41.960
same gun Ralph had threatened to kill
Randy with. This is Ralph's sister Marcy

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00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:48.319
Smith talking about Patty and Ralph's relationship. Marcy ended up raising Patty's daughters after

235
00:23:48.400 --> 00:23:56.160
she disappeared. She was a sweet, loving person. She could have a

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00:23:56.240 --> 00:24:03.960
temper, and Ralph tried it more
than once. You know, Marcy said,

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00:24:03.960 --> 00:24:07.440
Patty would get upset about the other
women in Ralph's life, past and

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00:24:07.640 --> 00:24:14.720
present. Patty knew about all of
them. He was always up friend and

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00:24:15.319 --> 00:24:23.559
they had a good marriage. As
the longer it went, there were ups

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00:24:23.599 --> 00:24:30.880
and downs, and some of them. I wasn't proud of my brother.

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00:24:30.039 --> 00:24:37.000
He was married and had children,
but he just thought that was a privilege

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00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:42.839
and he never felt guilty for it. Marcy said Ralph had a temper.

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00:24:44.799 --> 00:24:51.680
She remembers two specific childhood incidents that
could have ended tragically. The first time

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00:24:51.920 --> 00:24:55.000
was when Ralph threw an axe and
hit Marcy in the head with it.

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00:24:55.559 --> 00:25:00.960
She was severely injured. Another time, Ralph and his older brother Jerry went

246
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:06.319
after their younger brother Ray. He
liked to pick on Ray, and I

247
00:25:06.440 --> 00:25:11.319
was spending most of my life defending
Ray and protecting him from I stopped him

248
00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:17.559
INtime one time, and they were
My two older brothers were going they were

249
00:25:17.599 --> 00:25:22.279
playing cowboys and Indians, and they
were going to hang Ray. And I

250
00:25:22.359 --> 00:25:26.599
was terrified because I knew that it
might happen. I went in and got

251
00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:30.759
Daddy so fast, and I thought, boyd now the boys are going to

252
00:25:30.839 --> 00:25:37.440
beat up on me. But I
didn't care. And I think if it

253
00:25:37.480 --> 00:25:42.640
would have been left up to Ralph, I don't know. So this was

254
00:25:42.759 --> 00:25:48.119
Ralph and Jerry. Yeah, Ralph
and Jerry. Yeah, I don't know.

255
00:25:48.160 --> 00:25:52.599
I think Jerry might have stopped him. But to this day I knew

256
00:25:52.160 --> 00:26:07.000
that Ray's life was in danger.
In the hours before Patty and Ralph fought,

257
00:26:07.039 --> 00:26:10.799
the evening of August thirty first,
Patty had gone to a night class

258
00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:14.319
at the Valley Business School, a
little more than three miles from her in

259
00:26:14.440 --> 00:26:21.359
Ralph's house. Patty had been taking
classes at the school for more than a

260
00:26:21.440 --> 00:26:25.519
year and a half and She had
registered for a new daytime class that would

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00:26:25.519 --> 00:26:33.759
start on September seventh. She was
training to become a secretary. Was she

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00:26:33.880 --> 00:26:40.559
taking steps to start a new life. Ralph's family thinks so and earnestly believes

263
00:26:40.839 --> 00:26:47.000
she's still alive. They have many
theories about why she hasn't been found.

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00:26:48.559 --> 00:26:57.519
On the other hand, Patty's family
is certain that Ralph killed her. Before

265
00:26:57.640 --> 00:27:02.519
going to school that night, Patty
had dropped off her daughters at her parents

266
00:27:02.599 --> 00:27:07.119
house after class. She made a
quick stop at Alice's house before going to

267
00:27:07.240 --> 00:27:12.720
her parents' place to pick up the
girls. Patty stayed at her parents' house

268
00:27:12.920 --> 00:27:18.559
to talk and sit beer for an
hour or two before heading home. We

269
00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:22.279
know Patty made it home with the
girls after leaving her parents' house at about

270
00:27:22.319 --> 00:27:26.440
eleven pm. The girls were safe
in their basement bedroom when the sun rose

271
00:27:26.519 --> 00:27:33.319
on September first. This is Patty's
sister Alice again. She came to our

272
00:27:33.359 --> 00:27:36.920
house after she got done with school. She came by to tell me she

273
00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:41.279
was going to make my birthday cake. And she didn't stay long because mom

274
00:27:41.319 --> 00:27:42.599
and dad had the kids, so
she was going to go get the kids

275
00:27:42.599 --> 00:27:48.880
and go home. And that is
the last. I mean, she probably

276
00:27:48.920 --> 00:27:52.640
wasn't there more than ten minutes,
but she wanted to make sure that.

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00:27:52.799 --> 00:27:55.480
She told me she was going to
make my birthday September second, So she

278
00:27:55.559 --> 00:28:00.039
was going to make my birthday cake, and she was going to go kids

279
00:28:00.039 --> 00:28:07.039
at for mom and dad and go
home. And that's that was a last

280
00:28:07.279 --> 00:28:11.319
right there that I saw. And
then he called me the next morning and

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00:28:12.319 --> 00:28:15.119
asked me where Patty was. Did
I know where Patty was? And I

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00:28:15.160 --> 00:28:19.519
said no, And I just started
this. I can still remember this feeling,

283
00:28:19.720 --> 00:28:25.400
that just feeling inside myself, and
I'll never forget that feeling. I

284
00:28:25.480 --> 00:28:29.480
knew something was wrong. And as
soon as I got off the phone,

285
00:28:29.599 --> 00:28:32.960
I called my dad and I said, I know something's wrong. I said,

286
00:28:33.039 --> 00:28:36.559
Rolph's going to bring me the girls. Would you come over you watch

287
00:28:36.599 --> 00:28:40.640
the kids so I can go down
and look at the house. With nerves

288
00:28:40.720 --> 00:28:45.079
on edge, Alice quickly walked through
the house, looking for any signs of

289
00:28:45.119 --> 00:28:48.799
what may have happened after Patty arrived
home the night before. So there was

290
00:28:48.839 --> 00:28:53.200
nothing in the house that made the
hair on your name, nothing I could

291
00:28:53.240 --> 00:28:56.400
see. But then I get said, I was very nervous. I'm not

292
00:28:56.559 --> 00:29:00.160
so I was looking for, but
I did not see any blood. I

293
00:29:00.200 --> 00:29:06.279
did not see any furniture overturned like
they were got in a big sight like

294
00:29:06.359 --> 00:29:11.519
that. She doesn't recall many of
the details today, but in nineteen seventy

295
00:29:11.559 --> 00:29:15.880
six, Alice told police that the
cushion from the living room couch was missing

296
00:29:15.920 --> 00:29:22.079
when she walked through the house.
Patty had only recently reopholstered the living room

297
00:29:22.079 --> 00:29:27.599
furniture. That was another thing about
Patty that when they did, she had

298
00:29:27.720 --> 00:29:32.240
never done very much silly and or
anything. And they had got to fill

299
00:29:32.319 --> 00:29:34.039
pouch and she decided she was going
to reopholster it, and he said,

300
00:29:34.079 --> 00:29:38.480
go for it, and it turned
off really nice. She wasn't afraid to

301
00:29:38.519 --> 00:29:44.079
try something new like that. She
did it all herself, yes, all

302
00:29:44.119 --> 00:29:48.680
herself. He bought her an extra
duty some machine thing, and she did

303
00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:52.920
the whole couch and cushions and everything
all by herself. And it really turned

304
00:29:52.920 --> 00:29:56.279
out nice, the kind of it. But when she says to her mind,

305
00:29:56.319 --> 00:29:59.759
the trythons and knew like that she
could do it. She'd loved to.

306
00:30:00.200 --> 00:30:07.319
She'd paint things red, the furniture, repaint furnishures. Why would the

307
00:30:07.319 --> 00:30:12.000
cushion from a couch that had recently
been recovered be missing from the living room.

308
00:30:14.440 --> 00:30:18.240
Lewiston police detective Tom Selene wondered the
same thing, and he asked Ralph

309
00:30:18.319 --> 00:30:23.960
about it during their interview a few
days later. Ralph told detective Selene that

310
00:30:23.960 --> 00:30:30.279
the cushion was at an upholstery shop
for repairs. If the cushion had been

311
00:30:30.359 --> 00:30:33.720
soiled or damaged by the kids or
a rowdy house guest, couldn't Patty have

312
00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:41.000
repaired it herself. Ralph's story doesn't
really add up. It's not clear if

313
00:30:41.039 --> 00:30:45.319
detectives were aware that the living room
furniture had only recently been reupholstered, but

314
00:30:45.440 --> 00:30:52.079
we don't have a record about them
probing further about the missing cushion. The

315
00:30:52.119 --> 00:30:56.839
upholstery shop Ralph mentioned is still in
business. It specializes in custom car,

316
00:30:56.200 --> 00:31:03.200
aircraft and boat interiors, although employees
also recover household furniture. The man who

317
00:31:03.279 --> 00:31:07.200
runs the shop now is the son
of the original owner. He said.

318
00:31:07.279 --> 00:31:19.519
All the business receipts from nineteen seventy
six are long gone. I want to

319
00:31:19.559 --> 00:31:23.559
give you an overview of the town
where Ralph and Patty lived and the terrain

320
00:31:23.680 --> 00:31:30.599
that surrounded them. It's important to
keep in mind what Patty would have encountered

321
00:31:30.839 --> 00:31:33.240
if she had decided to wander out
on her own in the middle of the

322
00:31:33.359 --> 00:31:41.759
night. If Patty really wanted to
disappear, Idaho was a great place to

323
00:31:41.839 --> 00:31:48.920
do so. Even today, you
can travel miles without encountering a single human.

324
00:31:51.599 --> 00:31:56.640
The majority of the state isn't populated. It's truly wild, untouched by

325
00:31:56.720 --> 00:32:05.319
roads and inaccessible by most passenger vehicles. More than four and a half million

326
00:32:05.400 --> 00:32:10.400
acres of wilderness stretch out across the
state. Much of it is densely forested,

327
00:32:10.599 --> 00:32:15.960
but larger swaths are scrubby deserts interrupted
by canyons, streams, and rivers.

328
00:32:19.200 --> 00:32:22.920
Virtually every mile of the state is
hilly, and thousands of acres are

329
00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:30.519
ridged by mountains. The six US
states that touch the Potato capital are also

330
00:32:30.680 --> 00:32:37.279
mostly unpeopled in the areas that bump
up against Idaho, And of course there's

331
00:32:37.319 --> 00:32:46.440
Canada to the north. Well you
get the picture. Keep in mind also

332
00:32:46.519 --> 00:32:51.960
that this was the mid nineteen seventies, a time when the United States seemed

333
00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:57.839
to be teeming with serial killers.
Gary Ridgeway, often known as the Green

334
00:32:57.960 --> 00:33:01.759
River Killer, Ted Bundy, and
Robert Yates Junior, all proud for victims,

335
00:33:01.880 --> 00:33:07.039
not far from the spot where Patty
was last seen alive. But Bundy

336
00:33:07.119 --> 00:33:10.799
was in police custody when she vanished, and it doesn't seem as though Ridgeway's

337
00:33:10.920 --> 00:33:16.240
killing career had begun yet. Yates
was working as a correctional officer in Walla

338
00:33:16.319 --> 00:33:21.759
Walla, Washington, and his known
victims were all sex workers in the Spokane

339
00:33:21.799 --> 00:33:27.599
area. Walla Walla and Spokane are
both about a two hour drive from Lewiston.

340
00:33:28.880 --> 00:33:32.519
It's certainly possible that another predator could
have grabbed Patty if she left her

341
00:33:32.519 --> 00:33:37.440
house in the dark that night.
In a later episode, we'll discuss a

342
00:33:37.480 --> 00:33:42.920
couple of potential suspects who are known
to have actually been in Lewiston, Idaho,

343
00:33:43.079 --> 00:33:49.720
around this time. Lewiston itself sits
on the western edge of the Idaho

344
00:33:49.759 --> 00:33:54.680
Panhandle, about one hundred and eighty
miles south of the Canadian border. Back

345
00:33:54.680 --> 00:34:00.160
in nineteen seventy six, about twenty
seven thousand people called Lewiston home. The

346
00:34:00.279 --> 00:34:06.200
city's population and land mass had more
than doubled seven years earlier, when an

347
00:34:06.240 --> 00:34:09.760
area called the Orchards on the south
end of town was annexed by the city

348
00:34:10.920 --> 00:34:16.119
Patty's sister and parents lived in the
orchards. Patty and Ralph's house, which

349
00:34:16.159 --> 00:34:22.079
originally belonged to Ralph's parents, sat
about halfway up a steep hill on twenty

350
00:34:22.159 --> 00:34:27.280
ninth Street. The family lived less
than a mile south of the Clearwater River,

351
00:34:27.480 --> 00:34:32.000
which forms the city's northern boundary.
The Snake River flows northward along the

352
00:34:32.039 --> 00:34:38.360
city's western edge. The west flowing
Clearwater joins the Snake River at Lewiston's northwest

353
00:34:38.440 --> 00:34:45.440
corner. From there, the Snake
veers sharply to flow westward into Washington State.

354
00:34:52.840 --> 00:34:57.400
Ralph's rand Bonnie, recalled to us
that Spokane, Washington, was where

355
00:34:57.480 --> 00:35:00.840
Ralph took her shopping for a pair
of hot hants and white Go Go boots

356
00:35:00.920 --> 00:35:08.960
on September first, nineteen seventy six. However, police records and check registers

357
00:35:09.079 --> 00:35:15.360
indicate that on that day Ralph actually
purchased a woman's pantsuit, a necklace,

358
00:35:15.519 --> 00:35:21.599
and other items from the Vogue shop
in Lewiston. The boots came from another

359
00:35:21.679 --> 00:35:29.880
nearby store. A store clerk initially
identified Ralph's shopping companion as Patty, based

360
00:35:29.880 --> 00:35:36.480
on photos of Patty and the clerk's
recollection. Ralph's family touted that as proof

361
00:35:36.599 --> 00:35:42.960
that Patty was alive and well.
The clerk was considered a reliable witness because

362
00:35:42.960 --> 00:35:47.719
she was married to a former Lewiston
police officer. Patty was petite and blonde,

363
00:35:49.000 --> 00:35:52.519
so was Bonnie. It's easy to
see how a store clerk looking at

364
00:35:52.519 --> 00:35:59.360
a photo of Patty could confuse the
two, according to police reports. Bonnie

365
00:35:59.360 --> 00:36:04.000
herself later confirmed that she was the
woman shopping with Ralph and Lewiston on September

366
00:36:04.039 --> 00:36:10.000
first, more than four decades later. Bonnie's memory is understandably a bit fuzzy.

367
00:36:10.760 --> 00:36:17.760
Perhaps Ralph took her shopping for new
clothes more than once. Another potential

368
00:36:17.800 --> 00:36:22.239
clue that Patty might have covertly slipped
out of town came from a check register

369
00:36:22.320 --> 00:36:29.320
found in the auto home. It
showed that a check for sixty one dollars

370
00:36:29.320 --> 00:36:35.559
had been written to Greyhound Bus Lines. Could Patty have been planning to vanish

371
00:36:35.639 --> 00:36:39.000
that night or soon afterward, and
actually purchased a bus ticket for herself in

372
00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:45.039
advance. After learning that a check
had been written at a bus depot,

373
00:36:45.480 --> 00:36:51.159
Ralph's brother Ray went down to the
bus station to ask questions. He learned

374
00:36:51.159 --> 00:36:58.440
that Greyhound did not accept checks for
bus tickets. However, the bus line

375
00:36:58.480 --> 00:37:04.639
did accept checks to pay for freight
shipped on the bus. Ray later conceded

376
00:37:04.719 --> 00:37:07.039
that Ralph had been the one to
write the check and it was for freight.

377
00:37:09.079 --> 00:37:14.400
It's not clear if Ralph was receiving
a shipment or instead was paying to

378
00:37:14.440 --> 00:37:24.320
send a bulky or heavy package to
someone else next time. On Still,

379
00:37:25.079 --> 00:37:30.920
he came out to the shop one
day and it was just scared me.

380
00:37:30.960 --> 00:37:35.119
I'd never seen him like that before, and it was just hitting mad.

381
00:37:38.239 --> 00:37:45.239
Anyone with information pertaining to the disappearance
of Patricia Otto should contact the Leoston Police

382
00:37:45.239 --> 00:37:51.719
Department's tipline at two zero eight to
nine eight three nine three nine. Anyone

383
00:37:51.800 --> 00:37:55.199
with information pertaining to the identity of
the Finland Creek Jane Doe, or other

384
00:37:55.239 --> 00:38:01.119
information related to that case should contact
the Union County Strict Attorney at DA at

385
00:38:01.199 --> 00:38:07.480
Union hyphen County dot org. If
you, or anyone you know is a

386
00:38:07.559 --> 00:38:13.119
victim of domestic abuse, please contact
the National Domestic Violence Hotline at eight hundred

387
00:38:13.320 --> 00:38:21.840
seven nine nine. Safe Still is
a production of The Reporter's Notebook and Grayson

388
00:38:21.920 --> 00:38:28.760
Shaw Media. You can connect with
us online at The Reporter's Notebook dot com

389
00:38:29.400 --> 00:38:37.599
or via email at info at the
Reporter's Notebook dot com. STILL was researched,

390
00:38:37.719 --> 00:38:44.400
written and produced by Karen Shaw Anderson. Additional research and script editing provided

391
00:38:44.440 --> 00:38:51.840
by Christine Hughes. Original music by
Smith Yuosso. Additional narration provided by b.

392
00:38:52.000 --> 00:38:59.000
J. Blackburn. I'm your host
and associate producer Gary Anderson. Special

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00:38:59.079 --> 00:39:04.760
thanks to everyone who graciously provided interviews
and help with our research. We would

394
00:39:04.840 --> 00:39:08.360
specifically like to thank the advocates for
Patricia Otto and the Findlay Creek Jain Dooe

395
00:39:08.440 --> 00:39:16.760
Task Force Like Follow and subscribe to
STILL on your favorite podcast platform, and

396
00:39:16.960 --> 00:39:25.760
follow us on Facebook or Twitter to
join the conversation. Ezekiel thirty four sixteen.

397
00:39:27.320 --> 00:39:30.280
I will seek the lost, and
I will bring back the stray,

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00:39:30.719 --> 00:39:34.159
and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak