WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.960 --> 00:00:04.280 Hi, this is Sarah Morgan, one of the voices you've heard on STILL. 2 00:00:04.839 --> 00:00:08.080 We hope this story moves you, but more than anything, we pray 3 00:00:08.119 --> 00:00:12.359 someone will come forward to help solve these tragic cases. Spread the word by 4 00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:16.920 posting about Patricia Otto and the Finlay Creek Jane Doe on social media. You 5 00:00:16.960 --> 00:00:20.839 can find links to their advocacy pages in our show notes. It's not too 6 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:24.440 late to help these women. The truth is out there, and please take 7 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:27.719 a moment to rate and review us on your favorite podcast app, which helps 8 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:31.839 more people learn about these cases. If you'd like to leave us direct feedback, 9 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:35.479 contact us on Twitter, find us on Facebook, or send an email 10 00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:40.119 to Info at the Reporter's Notebook dot com. And please, if you know 11 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:45.520 something, come forward now. Get ready for the next episode of Still. 12 00:00:48.000 --> 00:01:00.359 This podcast contains intense subject matter. Listener discretion is advised. At the end 13 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:04.519 of the last episode, we learned that Ralph Otto had paid a hitman to 14 00:01:04.599 --> 00:01:11.799 kill police Captain Duane Ayler, one of the detectives investigating Ralph for Patty Otto's 15 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:26.079 disappearance. Ralph reportedly believed Ayler was also having an affair with Patty. The 16 00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:30.719 man Ralph paid to kill the police captain turned out to be an undercover agent 17 00:01:30.760 --> 00:01:37.159 for the Idaho State Police. Ralph had believed that the proprietor of Lewiston's Long 18 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:41.519 Branch Saloon was connected to the mafia and would know a hitman or two. 19 00:01:42.519 --> 00:01:49.319 Ralph approached him about hiring someone to have ailer rubbed out, but the proprietor 20 00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:55.400 called Lewiston police to report the incident. Lewiston cops then contacted state police, 21 00:01:55.560 --> 00:02:00.359 who set up a sting operation. This is Ralph's friend on Roadie. It 22 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:04.599 was just a bad deal the whole time. You know, the cops harassed 23 00:02:04.680 --> 00:02:07.360 him so bad that they drove him. They kind of frightened him on that 24 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:14.840 contract that he put out on ailor. Ralph was recorded offering to pay the 25 00:02:14.919 --> 00:02:20.039 undercover cop. Stephen Watts, who described the encounter in an autobiography he wrote 26 00:02:20.120 --> 00:02:24.759 years later, He said Ralph was one of the most foulmouthed individuals he had 27 00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:30.039 ever met. He said he dropped f bombs every third word during their initial 28 00:02:30.039 --> 00:02:36.360 meeting, all the while declaring that he was being unfairly harassed by police for 29 00:02:36.479 --> 00:02:43.159 his wife's disappearance. Watt's impression was that Ralph had definitely killed Patty, even 30 00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:49.000 though he never actually admitted it. During their taped conversation, Ralph was also 31 00:02:49.080 --> 00:02:53.280 secretly recorded as he followed the instructions for paying the fake hitman, placing the 32 00:02:53.400 --> 00:02:58.960 envelope of cash inside a cup in a truck parked outside the Long Branch saloon. 33 00:03:00.759 --> 00:03:05.400 Ralph told Watts that he would take his daughter's Natalie and Dallas to Disneyland 34 00:03:05.560 --> 00:03:10.039 while the hit was carried out to give himself an alibi. On October twenty 35 00:03:10.039 --> 00:03:15.719 seventh, the day after making a payment to the undercover cop, Ralph called 36 00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:19.680 his friend Bonnie's shopbell and said that he was planning to take his daughters out 37 00:03:19.680 --> 00:03:25.400 of town. Lewiston police arrested him that afternoon on a charge of attempted murder. 38 00:03:29.240 --> 00:03:34.599 It was Natalie's fifth birthday. She and Dallas now had one parent missing 39 00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:59.080 and the other in jail. From the pages of the reporter's notebook This is 40 00:03:59.199 --> 00:04:42.199 Still Season two, I'm Your Host, Gary Anderson, Ralph's sister in law, 41 00:04:42.279 --> 00:04:46.639 Dodi, shared with us a manuscript she wrote about the ordeal her family 42 00:04:46.680 --> 00:04:51.879 went through during this time. She titled the nearly two hundred page document Victims 43 00:04:51.920 --> 00:04:57.600 of Human Cruelty. In it, she wrote, Ralph did tell Ray he 44 00:04:57.759 --> 00:05:00.720 knows a guy that knows a guy that would waste a person for about five 45 00:05:00.839 --> 00:05:06.199 hundred dollars. The cash Ralph gave the cop posing as a hit man was 46 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:12.000 a two hundred and fifty dollars down payment. He promised to pay another seven 47 00:05:12.079 --> 00:05:17.319 hundred and fifty dollars once ailer was dead, even after he previously admitted that 48 00:05:17.399 --> 00:05:21.360 he wanted to kill Randy Benton, the musician who had gone out with Patty 49 00:05:21.480 --> 00:05:26.959 while she and Ralph were separated, and with proof in hand that Ralph also 50 00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:30.279 tried to have a police captain killed, Doughty swore that Ralph was just a 51 00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:35.160 fall guy. When it came to Patty's disappearance, She and Ray hired a 52 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:41.600 private investigator and placed ads in a money savers circular in a quest to find 53 00:05:41.639 --> 00:05:47.680 Patty alive and prove Ralph's innocence. Hang down your head, Tom Duly, 54 00:05:48.519 --> 00:05:56.759 Hang down your head. If you recall from the last episode, we told 55 00:05:56.800 --> 00:06:00.319 you that the day after Patty disappeared, Ralph had started telling his friends and 56 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:05.879 family that he no longer wanted Patty to come home. Right to her line, 57 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:10.480 he said he changed the locks on his house and the car she left 58 00:06:10.519 --> 00:06:15.680 sitting in the driveway. Stopped her with my knife. His behavior, though, 59 00:06:15.839 --> 00:06:24.000 told another story. Here's retired detective Tom Selene talking about a conversation he 60 00:06:24.040 --> 00:06:30.079 had with Ralph on September seventh, six days after Patty vanished. In our 61 00:06:30.319 --> 00:06:39.639 interrogation of him, he was obviously extremely The thought not like a guy that 62 00:06:39.759 --> 00:06:44.160 would have a wife to run off on him. It was like a guy 63 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:49.399 that had done something with her. And then he made comments like I'm I'm 64 00:06:49.439 --> 00:06:53.639 so low, I feel like I'm a snake calling around on the ground, 65 00:06:54.600 --> 00:07:02.879 and then h But he just wouldn't He just wouldn't tell us. And that's 66 00:07:02.879 --> 00:07:14.360 the problem with the whole business of working faces in the American society. You 67 00:07:14.439 --> 00:07:17.959 know, we want to perfect people's rights, not force them to talk or 68 00:07:18.040 --> 00:07:24.079 not course them in anyway. And I'm doing that, and once they turney 69 00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:31.680 up, you better have the evidence to support your conclusions. Patty's sister Alice 70 00:07:31.720 --> 00:07:35.879 told us that when Patty left Ralph in nineteen seventy five, he seemed to 71 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:41.680 have trouble accepting the end of their marriage. She said he did everything he 72 00:07:41.720 --> 00:07:45.920 could to convince Patty to return to him, staying married to rape. She 73 00:07:46.040 --> 00:07:50.720 did. She kept thinking she took her marriage very serious, so that's her 74 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:56.639 place to help him. And then I think when she finally got you know, 75 00:07:56.759 --> 00:08:00.879 why is it to leave? I wish it never went back. And 76 00:08:00.959 --> 00:08:03.680 she knew when she went back two men was wrong, but that he'd went 77 00:08:03.720 --> 00:08:07.959 to that rehab place, and they told her it was her place as his 78 00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:13.680 wife to go back and help him. And I think within a week she 79 00:08:13.759 --> 00:08:16.519 knew was wrong, that it wasn't going to work out. He's not going 80 00:08:16.600 --> 00:08:20.480 to change unless he wants to change, you know, because she actually finally 81 00:08:20.480 --> 00:08:26.959 got a place to live, she got a job, and I know he 82 00:08:26.040 --> 00:08:37.039 kept coming around, but it wasn't it wasn't long enough. Did so you 83 00:08:37.080 --> 00:08:39.639 said he kept coming around. He so he wanted her back. Do you 84 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:43.679 think, Oh, yes, yes, he wanted her back. That was 85 00:08:43.720 --> 00:08:48.039 a thing. He didn't leave her alone. In early October of seventy six, 86 00:08:48.519 --> 00:08:52.120 after his wife's disappearance and before he tried to hire a hit man and 87 00:08:52.200 --> 00:08:56.720 landed in jail on a charge of attempted murder, Ralph again made a point 88 00:08:56.759 --> 00:09:01.399 of telling Ray that he didn't want Patty back and that he had changed the 89 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:05.200 locks on the house. He stopped Ray as he was leaving Ralph's house one 90 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:09.879 day and gave him what he said was a new key to the house so 91 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:15.639 Ray could get inside if he needed to. On October thirtieth, after Ralph 92 00:09:15.679 --> 00:09:18.799 was arrested, Ray's wife, Dody, and the private investigator Jack Primm, 93 00:09:20.440 --> 00:09:24.000 used that key to go into Ralph's house and search for evidence to prove that 94 00:09:24.039 --> 00:09:31.000 Patty had planned her disappearance. Dody went into a bedroom closet, reached into 95 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:35.200 the pocket of Ralph's suit jacket, and found Patty's wedding rings tucked inside. 96 00:09:37.320 --> 00:09:41.480 Convinced that someone had planted the rings in Ralph's pocket to make him look guilty, 97 00:09:41.639 --> 00:09:46.320 Dody gave them to Jack Prim, who then gave them to Ralph's lawyer, 98 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:50.519 Jim Gibbons. The lawyer sealed them in an envelope, which he stashed 99 00:09:50.519 --> 00:09:56.440 in his desk drawer. This is Karen asking Tom Selene about Patty's wedding rings. 100 00:09:58.840 --> 00:10:01.039 First of all, I had read and some of the reports that Ralph 101 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:09.399 claimed that Patty threw her rings at him during the fight, and that she 102 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:15.039 took her purse with her when she left. Do you recall when he first 103 00:10:15.279 --> 00:10:18.919 said to police. Were told people that about the rings was that after the 104 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:24.080 rings were found, or before the rings were found. After the rings were 105 00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:30.960 found, he never mentioned it until after no no, and we never found 106 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:35.000 those rings either. They were in the closets and his foot pocket, as 107 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:43.000 they recall right, a family member found them and made the inquiry. Dody 108 00:10:43.080 --> 00:10:48.639 wrote in her manuscript that on October thirty first, she went back to Ralph's 109 00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:52.159 house and saw pieces of ferns on the living room floor that appeared to have 110 00:10:52.200 --> 00:10:58.519 been tracked inside by someone who had walked through a wooded area. Then, 111 00:10:58.679 --> 00:11:03.600 on November first, when the private investigator's wife drove by Ralph's house, she 112 00:11:03.679 --> 00:11:07.399 saw someone inside. She said the lights were on and she saw a figure 113 00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:13.919 move behind the curtains. The back of the Otto's home was illuminated by tall 114 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:18.360 poles at Sunset Park, which was down a steep embankment from the home's back 115 00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:22.879 patio. Missus Prim rushed to Ray and Dodie's house to tell them what she 116 00:11:22.960 --> 00:11:28.559 saw. In a flurry, Dody, Ray and the Prims all drove back 117 00:11:28.600 --> 00:11:33.600 to Ralph's house to look the property over again. When they arrived, they 118 00:11:33.639 --> 00:11:37.320 found a key under a doormat. It was an old key, but it 119 00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:43.440 still worked to open the front door. That's when they realized that Ralph had 120 00:11:43.519 --> 00:11:48.879 lied about changing the locks. They also found the ignition key to the station 121 00:11:48.919 --> 00:11:52.559 wagon under a floor mat inside the car. It still worked, too, 122 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:58.360 despite Ralph's lies. Doughty told us she and raised to believed Ralph was being 123 00:11:58.360 --> 00:12:03.399 set up by someone. All of the stuff tights together. You guys have 124 00:12:03.519 --> 00:12:09.080 some work to do seriously, so I could say, I just I do 125 00:12:09.159 --> 00:12:16.000 believe that Dayne had our arch detective in most of us her sugar daddy and 126 00:12:16.120 --> 00:12:22.519 I graduated with Dwayne, and I know, I know his record. I 127 00:12:22.679 --> 00:12:28.320 think I think that we broke up the mafia ring in this city, you 128 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:33.559 know, because they're just wanted to shut us down so bad that everywhere we 129 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:37.480 went through his cuffs on our tail. They told my husband, who worked 130 00:12:37.519 --> 00:12:39.600 for the guard, that hed better watched out what he was doing because he 131 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:46.039 made his job. That didn't stop us. Inside Ralph's house in November nineteen 132 00:12:46.120 --> 00:12:50.360 seventy six, Dodie said it appeared that some of the furniture was a skew 133 00:12:50.759 --> 00:12:54.919 and a candle had been moved. Dodie also told us an empty cigarette package 134 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:58.519 was on the ground, and a key for a Portland, Oregon hotel room 135 00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:03.360 was on the floor of the basement, next to a chess style freezer. 136 00:13:03.639 --> 00:13:07.480 She swears the key wasn't there when she and the private investigator searched the house 137 00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:13.120 before for the second time that day, Ralph's family called police to the house 138 00:13:13.320 --> 00:13:20.360 to take a report. Dody wrote in her notes quote Ralph had told us 139 00:13:20.600 --> 00:13:24.759 Patty had been very interested in a sixty minutes television program titled How to Change 140 00:13:24.840 --> 00:13:31.399 One's Identity. Dodie gave us a cigarette package she said was just like the 141 00:13:31.480 --> 00:13:35.759 one she found on the floor of Ralph's house. She said the one she 142 00:13:35.879 --> 00:13:41.120 gave us was found later by Jack Primm in her front yard. She believes 143 00:13:41.159 --> 00:13:46.840 they were left by the same person. She said. A police officer kept 144 00:13:46.879 --> 00:13:52.720 the mysterious hotel key as evidence. Selene didn't mention a hotel key in his 145 00:13:52.840 --> 00:13:56.200 report. He noted, however, that the locks to the house and car 146 00:13:56.639 --> 00:14:03.679 did not appear to have been changed, as Ralph had claimed. I want 147 00:14:03.720 --> 00:14:05.879 to point out here that a lot of the information we have learned about this 148 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:13.480 case came from copies of police reports we've obtained but current Lewiston police officials have 149 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:20.519 not talked to us on the record about Patty's case. I'm dat I want 150 00:14:20.559 --> 00:14:24.440 her pace close. I have my mom, my mom's sister, and my 151 00:14:24.600 --> 00:14:28.879 uncle with me, my cousin, and then I have an equal case reporter 152 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:37.720 with me my mom's sister. In the summer of twenty twenty one, we 153 00:14:37.879 --> 00:14:43.000 sat in on a meeting with Patty's family and two Lewiston Police officers, but 154 00:14:43.159 --> 00:14:48.519 police didn't permit us to record the meeting. I want to charge des action 155 00:14:48.559 --> 00:14:56.159 today. Captains. Now, he's one of the media, so this is 156 00:14:56.240 --> 00:15:03.120 not a year I have. That's literally the chiefest abnegation and all of our 157 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:09.919 captains throughout that. We followed up with multiple emails and phone calls, but 158 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:16.440 a police spokesman has yet to respond. There is some interesting background that could 159 00:15:16.519 --> 00:15:22.879 explain why the department was hesitant to talk about this case in particular. We'll 160 00:15:22.919 --> 00:15:33.240 get to that thread in a later episode. Now back to what was happening 161 00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:43.000 at Ralph's place. In early November nineteen seventy six, Ray and Dodi began 162 00:15:43.159 --> 00:15:48.879 hunkering down there and writing down license plate numbers of every unfamiliar car that drove 163 00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:56.840 by Their stakeout, which they documented in extreme detail, went on for days. 164 00:15:58.639 --> 00:16:02.960 During that time, he said, people were repeatedly calling Ralph's house and 165 00:16:03.039 --> 00:16:08.200 either hanging up or asking for someone who didn't live there. Ray and Dodi 166 00:16:08.320 --> 00:16:14.200 also started feeling responses to an ad they placed in the local money saver seeking 167 00:16:14.320 --> 00:16:19.720 information about Patty's whereabouts. Then it seemed like police got a break in the 168 00:16:19.799 --> 00:16:23.879 case on November second, when they were alerted that a check written to Patty 169 00:16:23.919 --> 00:16:27.840 by her sister had been cashed at a Portland, Oregon bank, more than 170 00:16:27.919 --> 00:16:34.279 three hundred miles from Lewiston. Police noted that the check was processed after Patty's 171 00:16:34.360 --> 00:16:38.559 last known sighting, but there's no record of who actually cashed the check. 172 00:16:41.159 --> 00:16:47.960 Their hope of a valuable lead simply evaporated. Around this same time, Dodie 173 00:16:47.960 --> 00:16:52.080 and Ray went to a pawn shop and purchased a pistol for protection. Dodie 174 00:16:52.120 --> 00:16:57.399 said they had started receiving threats to stop their search for Patty. She said 175 00:16:57.519 --> 00:17:03.200 Jack prem the private investigator, told her that Patty had gotten involved in organized 176 00:17:03.279 --> 00:17:07.680 crime. It blows your mind to think the people you trust, you know 177 00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:11.559 and look forward to helping you out and they're doing all this stuff. It's 178 00:17:11.599 --> 00:17:18.519 just unbelievable. It's like, I don't believe anything's happening. Yeah, I 179 00:17:18.680 --> 00:17:22.680 think some of her are involved with the MOBI are. Yeah, it was. 180 00:17:22.880 --> 00:17:27.160 I mean, I think we had attorneys and cops and everything around here. 181 00:17:30.880 --> 00:17:34.680 We just kind of broke it up. Nobody's around here anymore. They're 182 00:17:34.680 --> 00:17:41.799 all moved. They're gone except for Thomas Lane, and I think he knows 183 00:17:41.880 --> 00:17:47.960 something myself, I really do. By this point, in November nineteen seventy 184 00:17:48.039 --> 00:17:52.440 six, Lewiston Police Captain Duane Aylor had stepped back from any involvement in the 185 00:17:52.519 --> 00:17:59.920 Patty Otto investigation as law enforcement and prosecutors mounted their case against Ralph for hiring 186 00:18:00.119 --> 00:18:06.079 a hitman to kill Ayler. But evidence against Ralph for Patty's murder was sketchy 187 00:18:06.119 --> 00:18:11.559 at best, and Ralph's closest allies were remaining tight lipped if they knew anything 188 00:18:11.599 --> 00:18:23.559 that would incriminate him. It's not directly related to this case, but it's 189 00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:29.720 worth mentioning that on November seventh, a woman came forward to Lewiston Police to 190 00:18:29.839 --> 00:18:34.279 say that Ralph had raped her in nineteen seventy The woman said he was quote 191 00:18:34.480 --> 00:18:41.119 all the while laughing like a crazy person. The woman knew Ralph because her 192 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:45.559 brother was married to Marcy Otto, Ralph's sister. She told police she had 193 00:18:45.599 --> 00:18:51.759 previously told Ralph's mother about the rape, and missus Otto reportedly attributed the assault 194 00:18:51.880 --> 00:18:56.240 to Ralph's jealousy of his brother in law. A few weeks after that woman 195 00:18:56.319 --> 00:19:00.839 told police about the rape, Sleen contact that Ralph's first wife, Joy to 196 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:07.920 learn more about his history of domestic abuse. In previous interviews with police, 197 00:19:07.400 --> 00:19:11.200 Ralph had admitted that he had no qualms about hitting a woman and had once 198 00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:17.839 knocked Joy unconscious during a fight. When Celine called her, Joy said she 199 00:19:17.960 --> 00:19:22.680 only remembered Ralph hitting her once, and she characterized it in milder terms than 200 00:19:22.759 --> 00:19:29.039 Ralph himself used to describe the incident. Patty's family said they had never seen 201 00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:33.400 Ralph hit Patty, but they had seen bruces on her face and neck that 202 00:19:33.519 --> 00:19:38.680 Patty said had been inflicted by Ralph. Bonnie Shopbell, the woman Ralph was 203 00:19:38.720 --> 00:19:44.319 spending time with in the days surrounding Patty's disappearance, told us that Ralph was 204 00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:48.480 uncomfortably pushy and seemed to believe their relationship was more serious than she did. 205 00:19:49.839 --> 00:19:53.640 She also told us that when he drank too much, he talked crazy. 206 00:19:56.279 --> 00:20:00.759 We think she's specifically referring to a conversation she and Ralph had in December of 207 00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:08.359 nineteen seventy six. He called Bonnie late one night and started rambling with alarming 208 00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:37.799 details about the night Patty vanished. On November seventeenth, Ralph was released from 209 00:20:37.880 --> 00:20:44.559 jail while awaiting trial for the attempted murder of Duane Ayler. His family had 210 00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:48.880 sworn to a judge that they would forfeit their houses if Ralph didn't show up 211 00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:55.880 for trial. The property bond totaled one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. While 212 00:20:55.920 --> 00:21:00.799 he was out on bond, Ralph bought Bonnie and her five children tickets so 213 00:21:00.960 --> 00:21:03.759 they could fly back from California to visit their family and friends for the Christmas 214 00:21:03.839 --> 00:21:10.119 holiday. On December twenty eighth, Ralph went over to have dinner with Bonnie's 215 00:21:10.160 --> 00:21:15.440 parents, Helen and Wayne Bartlett. They lived in a soutan Washington, across 216 00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:21.279 the river from Lewiston. During dinner, Ralph appeared physically ill and said he 217 00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:25.920 needed to go home. As he was leaving, he complained that he was 218 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:30.119 having a problem with his truck. He said some kind of wire was stuck 219 00:21:30.200 --> 00:21:33.880 in the wheels. Puzzled, Bonnie's dad looked the truck over and saw no 220 00:21:34.039 --> 00:21:38.640 trace of the wire Ralph was describing. It seemed to Wayne that Ralph was 221 00:21:38.720 --> 00:21:47.200 hallucinating. Ralph then climbed into his truck and drove home. Later that evening, 222 00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:49.720 while Bonnie was at her cousin's house, Ralph called there to talk with 223 00:21:49.839 --> 00:21:56.119 her. Selene called Bonnie later to ask what Ralph had told her that night. 224 00:21:56.319 --> 00:22:03.200 This is a portion of his report about what Bonnie told the shop Bell 225 00:22:03.359 --> 00:22:07.200 indicated that in a normal or what appeared to be a normal sounding voice from 226 00:22:07.279 --> 00:22:11.519 Ralph, he made the remark that Patty's body had been found. Shopbell inquired 227 00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:15.160 as to where, and Ralph indicated that it was found between the shop and 228 00:22:15.279 --> 00:22:22.519 the house. Shopbell advised that she considered this hallucinations. Shopbell advised that Ralph 229 00:22:22.599 --> 00:22:26.759 made the remark that Patty had come after him with a gun, so he 230 00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:32.279 stabbed her. Shop Bell indicated that Ralph had also spoken with Shirley two Shop 231 00:22:32.519 --> 00:22:34.599 and had told her to be sure to get Bonnie out of town, or 232 00:22:34.680 --> 00:22:41.000 else they would hang both he and Bonnie I inquired from Bonnie if she had 233 00:22:41.039 --> 00:22:45.319 been at Ralph's house, and she advised she had and that she knew perfectly 234 00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:51.000 well that Ralph was bothered with something. She advised he talked about Patty's disappearance, 235 00:22:51.319 --> 00:22:56.000 but had not said anything concerning her whereabouts until the telephone conversation. On 236 00:22:56.079 --> 00:23:00.960 the evening of December twenty eighth. After her late night conversation with Ralph, 237 00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:06.359 Bonnie called his brother Ray to tell him what Ralph had told her. Ray 238 00:23:06.400 --> 00:23:10.480 asked her to keep quiet about it. That same night, Ray went and 239 00:23:10.559 --> 00:23:14.839 got Ralph and drove him to a mental hospital in Orthino, Idaho, about 240 00:23:14.839 --> 00:23:19.119 an hour east of Lewistown. Here's Tom Selene. Well, let's just put 241 00:23:19.160 --> 00:23:30.559 it this way. My opinion was that Ralph had killed her, either premeditated, 242 00:23:30.279 --> 00:23:36.680 with a foe thought, or in a heat of rage. We don't 243 00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:41.480 know. All we know is that, in my opinion, he had killed 244 00:23:41.559 --> 00:23:49.599 her and then had by himself or what assistance, had disposed of her remains. 245 00:23:51.559 --> 00:23:56.680 And he never gave us any information. But we do know that he 246 00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:03.160 at times at a loose nations than his brother took him out of town. 247 00:24:04.240 --> 00:24:08.279 We believed so he wouldn't have access or we would not have access to him. 248 00:24:10.039 --> 00:24:14.319 When Selene interviewed Bonnie, he asked her about the nature of her relationship 249 00:24:14.359 --> 00:24:18.119 with Ralph. She indicated that it had been years since they had been intimate, 250 00:24:18.440 --> 00:24:22.400 although she did spend the night with Ralph on December seventeenth, the day 251 00:24:22.519 --> 00:24:27.880 she arrived in town for the holidays. Bonnie also said that Ralph had been 252 00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:33.240 very generous to her over the years. He had given her approximately three thousand 253 00:24:33.319 --> 00:24:38.559 dollars in cash. That last Christmas, while he was out on bond, 254 00:24:38.920 --> 00:24:44.480 he had lavished her whole family, including her parents, with expensive gifts. 255 00:24:45.119 --> 00:24:51.599 He also started telling Natalie in Dallas that Bonnie was their new mom. Bonnie 256 00:24:51.680 --> 00:24:53.759 said she made it clear to him that she was not going to step into 257 00:24:53.839 --> 00:24:59.440 that role. She said that after Ralph rambled on the phone that night about 258 00:24:59.519 --> 00:25:03.519 killing Pa Pattie, he asked Bonnie to call his lawyer. Here's more from 259 00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:11.640 Selene's report. Bonnie shop Bell did make the remark that Ralph said that Patty's 260 00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:17.119 not never coming back. I asked Bonnie if Ralph had made any remarks concerning 261 00:25:17.200 --> 00:25:21.200 what had been done with Patty, and Bonnie indicated she could only speculate that 262 00:25:21.400 --> 00:25:26.119 Patty would have been taken to the ranch of Ralph's in Weipe. I asked 263 00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:30.240 Bonnie how she could speculate this, and she advised it several years ago when 264 00:25:30.319 --> 00:25:33.559 she was going with Ralph, that they had been on the ranch in the 265 00:25:33.640 --> 00:25:38.079 Weeipe area where there are numerous stumps pulled from the soil. Ralph made the 266 00:25:38.119 --> 00:25:41.240 remark at this time that if he was ever going to get rid of anyone, 267 00:25:41.440 --> 00:25:47.880 he would bury them in one of these holes. Weipe is a small 268 00:25:47.960 --> 00:25:52.880 town in Clearwater County, Idaho, about seventy miles east of Lewistown. Ralph 269 00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:57.480 lived there for a few years as a child before his family moved to Lewistown. 270 00:25:59.559 --> 00:26:03.279 As an adult, he reportedly bought or inherited some acreage from relatives. 271 00:26:04.279 --> 00:26:10.039 He was an old time cowboy, don't you understand. Ralph kept a herd 272 00:26:10.079 --> 00:26:12.279 of cattle on the land for a while, and he sometimes took women to 273 00:26:12.359 --> 00:26:18.200 the property to show it off. It fit well with the cowboy image Ralph 274 00:26:18.279 --> 00:26:23.559 tried to cultivate. He often wore western clothes and cowboy boots. I knew 275 00:26:23.640 --> 00:26:29.319 I had to ask him about the mysteries of life. He spit between his 276 00:26:29.519 --> 00:26:37.680 boots, and he replied, it's fast the horses yonder women order whiskey more 277 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:42.720 money. The property was only a mile or so from where a petite but 278 00:26:42.960 --> 00:26:48.160 feisty woman lived. We'll refer to this woman as Eve, but that's not 279 00:26:48.359 --> 00:26:55.480 her real name. Eve was married and had kids at home. This is 280 00:26:55.559 --> 00:27:02.799 her ex husband talking well at that time. At that time, Uh, 281 00:27:03.160 --> 00:27:08.519 she was going out on me while I was working in things, and and 282 00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:15.240 uh screwed around with other men, and and she got tangled up with mister 283 00:27:15.440 --> 00:27:22.440 Ralph and uh and all I know, all I know is uh they had 284 00:27:22.519 --> 00:27:29.400 some real uh time together while I was working on one thing another and and 285 00:27:29.799 --> 00:27:34.480 uh, of course the last the last child that was born and my home 286 00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:41.079 was was her name is Patty and that and it ain't my child, it's 287 00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:45.359 his. So many things went on then that you know. I but uh 288 00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:53.640 yeah, but she was having uh awful close get togethers with that guy at 289 00:27:53.759 --> 00:28:00.240 that time. And it just happened to be the the same time that uh 290 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:06.119 Ralph Potto's wife come up missing. We don't have any proof that he's youngest 291 00:28:06.200 --> 00:28:11.319 child was fathered by Ralph. In fact, we've learned that a recent DNA 292 00:28:11.440 --> 00:28:15.559 test indicates that he wasn't her father. Well, they were having get together. 293 00:28:15.920 --> 00:28:19.720 I was, I was working night shifts, saying, gee, she 294 00:28:19.920 --> 00:28:26.079 had half the night to mess around with. I'd come home eleven o'clock a 295 00:28:26.200 --> 00:28:30.440 night from working and uh, they were still a cigarette smoking the house and 296 00:28:30.519 --> 00:28:34.720 everything. And of course he was gone then, you know. But yeah, 297 00:28:34.880 --> 00:28:40.799 like I said, I do know that the that they were, uh 298 00:28:41.039 --> 00:28:45.559 have an affair. I'm sure of that they was having an affair. Uh, 299 00:28:45.039 --> 00:28:48.720 But at that time, like I said, at the same time that 300 00:28:49.160 --> 00:29:00.799 that Ralph's wife disappeared, we could rush this off as mere speculation again. 301 00:29:03.880 --> 00:29:08.759 But in October of nineteen seventy eight, a prosecutor from Clearwater County contacted Lewiston 302 00:29:08.839 --> 00:29:18.119 Police. Clearwater officials had executed a search warrant on Eve's house and discovered a 303 00:29:18.279 --> 00:29:26.799 diary with notes about Eve's relationship with Ralph Otto and a stack of letters exchanged 304 00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:33.839 between the lovers. Police were searching the property after Eve and her husband had 305 00:29:33.880 --> 00:29:41.519 had a serious disagreement there months earlier. During the argument, Eve went into 306 00:29:41.559 --> 00:29:48.799 the house and fetched a gun and shot her husband between the eyes. We 307 00:29:48.920 --> 00:29:53.960 are not naming him or using her real name to protect her ex husband's identity. 308 00:29:56.079 --> 00:29:59.880 Do you think she was trying to kill you? Boy? Thank god 309 00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:06.240 they do one or two more bullet side of the side of the door casing 310 00:30:06.319 --> 00:30:10.640 there. Oh my goodness, she shuck. She's fired more than once. 311 00:30:11.960 --> 00:30:15.759 The bullet that struck the man went through the bridge of his nose, pierced 312 00:30:15.880 --> 00:30:21.160 his left eye, and lodged in his skull. Eve was charged with assault 313 00:30:21.200 --> 00:30:26.000 with the deadly weapon. He's grandson had heard stories about his grandmother's past, 314 00:30:26.599 --> 00:30:32.160 but as he visited her on her property throughout his childhood, he chalked those 315 00:30:32.200 --> 00:30:37.160 stories up to tall tales. Over the years growing up, I mean, 316 00:30:37.240 --> 00:30:41.039 it was always kind of a like a family thing that my grandma had a 317 00:30:41.160 --> 00:30:47.079 dark history, a dark side to her period, that you know, she 318 00:30:47.240 --> 00:30:49.920 could do bad things and everything I thought. I thought it was all made 319 00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:55.640 up to scare at grandkids for messing around at grandma's house. So I thought 320 00:30:55.799 --> 00:31:00.839 none of it was real. Although years everything that we'd heard or I mean 321 00:31:00.960 --> 00:31:04.759 anything just I always thought it was a wee would behave while we were at 322 00:31:04.759 --> 00:31:11.119 Grandmas. I got older and kind of dug into stuff and started adding things 323 00:31:11.200 --> 00:31:15.680 together. I was like, this is actually a real thing, Like the 324 00:31:15.079 --> 00:31:19.960 these situations that my grandma herself used to kind of joke about and play along 325 00:31:21.039 --> 00:31:26.960 with were actually real, live events. And I think it's really I think 326 00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:33.640 it's sick now that I've learned that everything was true, that those things I 327 00:31:33.720 --> 00:31:37.160 thought was fake were real. It's just really sickening to know that she stood 328 00:31:37.240 --> 00:31:42.039 there and joked about it with children. What I need to fill you in 329 00:31:42.200 --> 00:31:47.920 on here is that in early summer nineteen seventy seven, Ralph did go to 330 00:31:48.039 --> 00:31:52.000 trial for the attempted murder of Lewis and police Captain Dwayne Ayler. He was 331 00:31:52.079 --> 00:31:57.880 convicted by a jury and sentenced to ten years in state prison. As police 332 00:31:57.960 --> 00:32:05.599 continued searching for Patty, Ralph's lawyer filed an appeal. Exactly a year to 333 00:32:05.799 --> 00:32:10.359 the day after Patty vanished. Ralph was released on bond pending the outcome of 334 00:32:10.440 --> 00:32:17.480 the appeal. His first day home, Ralph went on a bender and remained 335 00:32:17.559 --> 00:32:25.200 drunk for months. Meanwhile, Doughtie continued documenting Ralph's behavior and her own personal 336 00:32:25.279 --> 00:32:31.960 crises. She wrote that on New Year's Day of nineteen seventy eight, Ralph 337 00:32:32.039 --> 00:32:36.920 threatened to kill her if she ever used anything he told her against him. 338 00:32:37.319 --> 00:32:44.279 Then she said he attempted to seduce her. On January third, Doughtie wrote, 339 00:32:44.519 --> 00:32:47.039 quote, he was trying to get me to submit to him sexually so 340 00:32:47.160 --> 00:32:52.319 I would look bad and raise eyes. I let Ralph know that if I 341 00:32:52.400 --> 00:32:55.400 found one piece of evidence he killed Patty, the mother of his children, 342 00:32:55.720 --> 00:33:00.759 I would turn him in. He is crazy and boy does he need help. 343 00:33:04.759 --> 00:33:08.039 Worried that Ralph's drinking and erratic behavior was going to do something to jeopardize 344 00:33:08.119 --> 00:33:12.519 the property bond they put up for him, his family tried to convince him 345 00:33:12.559 --> 00:33:16.720 to seek alcohol treatment. On March twenty ninth, Ray took his brother to 346 00:33:16.839 --> 00:33:22.440 a detox center in Washington and started discussing arrangements to take into another facility for 347 00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:28.960 intensive treatment. While the family was planning their next move, Ralph crawled out 348 00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:34.200 the window of the detox facility and hiked home. On April second, Ray 349 00:33:34.240 --> 00:33:38.680 and Ralph flew to Seattle to check Ralph into another treatment center. His stay 350 00:33:38.720 --> 00:33:44.000 there lasted less than two weeks. On April thirteenth, he walked out the 351 00:33:44.079 --> 00:33:47.720 front door of the facility. He called his family from a cousin's house and 352 00:33:47.799 --> 00:33:52.200 said the treatment wasn't working out. A few days later, he had a 353 00:33:52.359 --> 00:33:58.039 ride to a Seattle airport, saying he was going home to Lewiston, but 354 00:33:58.200 --> 00:34:04.640 he didn't arrive back in Idaho. The Auto family was now in full panic. 355 00:34:06.519 --> 00:34:09.400 Later they learned that while Ralph was a wall he met up with Eve 356 00:34:09.719 --> 00:34:15.800 and the two may have taken a trip to Las Vegas. Then, without 357 00:34:15.920 --> 00:34:21.039 explanation, Ralph returned home on April twenty second. The next day, he 358 00:34:21.199 --> 00:34:25.199 was arrested for d WI. His family didn't bail him out this time, 359 00:34:25.480 --> 00:34:31.159 and Ralph was sent back to state prison in Boise. It was about three 360 00:34:31.280 --> 00:34:36.360 months after Ralph went back to jail that Eve shot her husband in the face. 361 00:34:37.559 --> 00:34:42.840 Another detail you need to know is that Ralph owned a camper which was 362 00:34:42.920 --> 00:34:46.599 fitted onto the back of a heavy duty Ford pickup. Throughout most of the 363 00:34:46.719 --> 00:34:51.599 seventies, it was parked outside Ralph and Patty's home on twenty ninth Street. 364 00:34:52.039 --> 00:34:57.440 Doughty believes Patty hid inside the camper after she and Ralph fought that night, 365 00:34:57.559 --> 00:35:00.920 and then walked away from home after the sun rose was the next morning. 366 00:35:00.920 --> 00:35:06.280 Dodie believes that while Patty was walking around town, someone picked her up. 367 00:35:07.840 --> 00:35:12.880 Sometime after Patty's disappearance, Ralph parked the camper and an RV storage lot owned 368 00:35:12.920 --> 00:35:17.119 by Ray and Dody. Then before Ralph went back to jail in nineteen seventy 369 00:35:17.159 --> 00:35:22.159 eight, Ralph gave the camper and another vehicle to Eve. To this day, 370 00:35:22.440 --> 00:35:29.000 the camper still sits on Eve's property in Wei. Her grandson described it 371 00:35:29.079 --> 00:35:37.440 to us. Yeah, it's like a nineteen like nineteen fifty eight to nineteen 372 00:35:37.639 --> 00:35:40.480 sixty one somewhere in there. It's got four headlights, got two headlights on 373 00:35:40.559 --> 00:35:45.400 each side. It's like a reddish orange color, and the camper part of 374 00:35:45.440 --> 00:35:52.159 it is white with like a red or orange devin on the side. The 375 00:35:53.360 --> 00:35:58.239 RV part that's on it is actually an old camper put onto a pick up 376 00:35:58.360 --> 00:36:01.400 strame, so it's completely home. So yeah, what did Yeah, my 377 00:36:01.440 --> 00:36:06.119 grandma's always had a serious attachment to that thing. She won't sell it, 378 00:36:06.239 --> 00:36:10.519 she won't give it to nobody. I mean when I started hunting when I 379 00:36:10.559 --> 00:36:13.440 was a young teen, I asked my grandma to give it to me. 380 00:36:13.519 --> 00:36:15.800 That's how I heard Ralph's name, and she always told me absolutely not, 381 00:36:16.079 --> 00:36:22.119 absolutely not that thing that's mine. You know. Oh, she's just always 382 00:36:22.159 --> 00:36:28.920 weirdly weird. When he's grandson first heard her mention Ralph, he didn't know 383 00:36:29.000 --> 00:36:35.639 who Ralph Otto was or that his wife had disappeared. I remember bringing up 384 00:36:35.760 --> 00:36:39.400 Ralph's name, but I didn't know that they were like partners or boyfriend girlfriend 385 00:36:39.519 --> 00:36:44.199 or anything. Because when I was a kid, you know, especially in 386 00:36:44.239 --> 00:36:46.880 my teens, I was into vehicles and cars and all kinds of stuff. 387 00:36:47.000 --> 00:36:50.360 So I used to ask her about the motor home blah blah blah blah, 388 00:36:50.400 --> 00:36:54.119 and she just mentioned Ralph that that's who she got it from. He told 389 00:36:54.199 --> 00:37:00.199 us that his mother, he's second oldest child, remembers playing with that Alas 390 00:37:00.239 --> 00:37:04.599 and Natalie when they were babies. My grandma used to because Ralph's property. 391 00:37:04.719 --> 00:37:09.039 Ralph had property right down the road from my grandma Wi. My grandma used 392 00:37:09.039 --> 00:37:14.519 to watch the two girls, Dallas and Natalie, babysit him and whatnot, 393 00:37:14.639 --> 00:37:20.440 and they actually stayed there for an entire summer one with my grandma. Ralph 394 00:37:20.480 --> 00:37:22.960 will come and go. He would help him on the farm. She would 395 00:37:22.960 --> 00:37:28.039 go over there and help him, you know, just back and forth. 396 00:37:28.079 --> 00:37:31.840 Supposally they were just friends. Well, my mom said that as a as 397 00:37:31.880 --> 00:37:37.079 a younger girl, she remembers going down to Lewiston and with Ben and stop 398 00:37:37.199 --> 00:37:42.119 him by Ralph's house, and then ralphs and go in the back bedroom for 399 00:37:42.360 --> 00:37:45.039 x amount of time while my mom was sitting there on the floor playing with 400 00:37:45.199 --> 00:37:47.960 Dallas and Natalie as they were babies, and then she would remember Grandma coming 401 00:37:49.039 --> 00:38:04.480 back out. Ralph was a busy man next time on still and my mom 402 00:38:04.639 --> 00:38:07.320 just looked at me and she said, I know where she is, and 403 00:38:08.280 --> 00:38:12.400 what are you talking about? Or she told me, she said, you 404 00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:16.039 swear you would never say a word to anybody about this until after awargain. 405 00:38:23.360 --> 00:38:30.320 Anyone with information pertaining to the disappearance of Patricia Otto should contact the Lewiston Police 406 00:38:30.360 --> 00:38:36.800 Department's tipline at two zero eight two nine eight three nine three nine. Anyone 407 00:38:36.920 --> 00:38:40.239 with information pertaining to the identity of the Finland Creek Jane Doe, or other 408 00:38:40.400 --> 00:38:46.199 information related to that case should contact the Union County District Attorney at DA at 409 00:38:46.320 --> 00:38:52.960 Union hyphen County dot org. If you, or anyone you know is a 410 00:38:52.079 --> 00:38:58.599 victim of domestic abuse, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at eight hundred 411 00:38:58.840 --> 00:39:06.960 seven nine nine. Safe Still is a production of the reporter's Notebook and Grayson 412 00:39:07.039 --> 00:39:13.880 Shaw Media. You can connect with us online at the Reporter's Notebook dot com 413 00:39:14.519 --> 00:39:22.400 or via email at info at the Reporter's Notebook dot com. STILL was researched, 414 00:39:22.519 --> 00:39:29.199 written and produced by Karen Shaw Anderson. Additional research in script editing provided 415 00:39:29.239 --> 00:39:36.639 by Christine Hughes. Original music by Smith Uosso. Additional narration provided by b 416 00:39:36.800 --> 00:39:44.480 J. Blackburn. I'm your host and associate producer Gary Anderson. Special thanks 417 00:39:44.519 --> 00:39:50.639 to everyone who graciously provided interviews and help with our research. We would specifically 418 00:39:50.719 --> 00:39:54.159 like to thank the advocates for Patricia Otto and the Finlay Creek Jindoe Task Force. 419 00:39:57.400 --> 00:40:02.360 Like Follow and subscribe to STILL on your favorite podcast platform, and follow 420 00:40:02.480 --> 00:40:10.880 us on Facebook or Twitter to join the conversation. Ezekiel thirty four sixteen. 421 00:40:12.400 --> 00:40:15.840 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and 422 00:40:15.039 --> 00:40:19.280 I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.