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True Murder with your 32 00:01:30.040 --> 00:01:33.239 host journalist and author Dan Zufanski. 33 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:46.560 Good evening. On an unseasonably warm winter evening in Pennsylvania, 34 00:01:46.920 --> 00:01:50.200 fifteen year old Paddy Desmond sneaked out through the basement 35 00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:53.079 of her house. She had a history of running away, 36 00:01:53.239 --> 00:01:55.799 and that, combined with an argument with her mother, gave 37 00:01:55.840 --> 00:01:58.680 police reason to suspect she'd come home in a week 38 00:01:58.959 --> 00:02:02.799 or two. The year was nineteen sixty five. That night 39 00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:06.599 was the last time her family ever saw her. Conrad 40 00:02:06.760 --> 00:02:10.639 Eugene Miller was well known to local law enforcement. An older, 41 00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:14.240 married man with a child, Miller's association with Patty was 42 00:02:14.360 --> 00:02:17.639 questionable at best, yet he was the last person known 43 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:20.280 to have seen her alive. And the suspect who Leice 44 00:02:20.319 --> 00:02:24.479 continued to circle back toward After nothing but false sightings 45 00:02:24.520 --> 00:02:28.199 and rumors, the case was moved to the backburner, where 46 00:02:28.240 --> 00:02:32.319 it stayed as decades crept by reality sunk in Paddy 47 00:02:32.439 --> 00:02:36.719 Desmond was never coming back. Then a tiny crack unleashed 48 00:02:36.759 --> 00:02:39.759 a flood of information and a mystery that had never 49 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:43.240 quite been forgotten was solved. The book that were featuring 50 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:47.520 this evening is Last Child Scene The Search for Paddy Desmond, 51 00:02:47.560 --> 00:02:51.639 with my special guest, journalist and author Maureene Boyle. Welcome 52 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:53.400 back to the program, and thank you very much for 53 00:02:53.439 --> 00:02:54.039 this interview. 54 00:02:54.400 --> 00:02:57.000 Maureene Boyle, oh Dan, thank you very much for having 55 00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:59.479 me on. I really appreciate it. It's always fun to 56 00:02:59.479 --> 00:02:59.960 be on your show. 57 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:04.080 Thank you so much. Now, let's talk about the Desmond family. 58 00:03:04.520 --> 00:03:08.800 Anna Desmond and her husband and Patty and her five 59 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:13.719 other siblings in Renfrew, Pennsylvania. You say about thirty miles 60 00:03:13.759 --> 00:03:14.680 from Pittsburgh. 61 00:03:14.800 --> 00:03:15.400 Tell us a. 62 00:03:15.439 --> 00:03:17.639 Little bit more about the family and how it came 63 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:20.000 to be that Anna was a single mother. 64 00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:26.719 It's really quite tragic for the family. Anna's husband died 65 00:03:27.400 --> 00:03:32.120 when he hit his head on a block of cement 66 00:03:32.479 --> 00:03:36.000 in a tussle, and he died en route to the hospital. 67 00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:40.840 That left Anna a single mother of six children in 68 00:03:40.879 --> 00:03:45.120 the nineteen sixties when this was a time when there 69 00:03:45.319 --> 00:03:49.159 weren't a lot of jobs for women, well paying jobs 70 00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:52.719 for women. But she would work very hard in anything 71 00:03:52.759 --> 00:03:56.280 that was available to put some food on the table 72 00:03:56.639 --> 00:03:58.879 and pay the rent for the children. It was a 73 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:04.280 very difficult time the family. Clearly, Patty's older brothers had 74 00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:07.280 gone into the service, and at the time of Patty's 75 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:11.159 disappearance was just her and her younger brother who was 76 00:04:11.199 --> 00:04:15.879 at home. Patty was a very shy girl. Her people 77 00:04:15.960 --> 00:04:20.199 described her as sometimes being bullied when she was in school. 78 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:23.480 He was a bit quiet. She was a type of 79 00:04:23.560 --> 00:04:27.360 girl that people felt sorry for, but they also described 80 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:29.120 her as a very lovely girl. 81 00:04:29.240 --> 00:04:32.759 You talk about December fifth, nineteen sixty five, and you 82 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:36.600 talk about the last night that Anna ever saw her daughter. 83 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:41.199 What was that night spent doing between the two? 84 00:04:41.439 --> 00:04:47.199 Patty's mother strongly disapproved of a young man who Patty 85 00:04:47.279 --> 00:04:51.920 had been seeing. The man was nineteen, Patty was just fifteen, 86 00:04:52.399 --> 00:04:55.319 He was married, and he had an infant child. There 87 00:04:55.480 --> 00:04:59.800 is she felt that this individual, Conrad Miller was too 88 00:04:59.800 --> 00:05:03.279 old for her high school daughter, Patty was just a 89 00:05:03.319 --> 00:05:06.360 sophomore in high school, and he had a reputation in 90 00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:09.519 the community, and not a very good reputation, and she 91 00:05:09.639 --> 00:05:12.959 really wanted one her daughter to stay as far away 92 00:05:13.319 --> 00:05:17.040 as possible from this married man. And Patty was having 93 00:05:17.519 --> 00:05:20.199 an argument with her daughter, I mean with her mother 94 00:05:20.600 --> 00:05:23.879 and Patty later that evening snuck out of the house. 95 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:26.759 Patty slipped out of the house. She chopped in the 96 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:30.360 car with Conrad and his three friends who were there. 97 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:32.600 One of them was an individual by the name of 98 00:05:32.680 --> 00:05:37.199 Stormy Miller who was a distant relative of Conrads, and 99 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:40.399 she got in the car with him. Miller dropped off 100 00:05:40.439 --> 00:05:43.720 his friends at one of their homes and they were 101 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:46.360 going to hook up later on, and he took Patty 102 00:05:46.680 --> 00:05:49.800 else to a coal mine where they were going to 103 00:05:49.879 --> 00:05:53.360 quote unquote talk. This was an area well known by 104 00:05:53.759 --> 00:05:56.600 young people in the area where people would go drinking 105 00:05:57.199 --> 00:06:01.279 or neck and that was the last time anyone other 106 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:06.079 than Conrad Miller had seen her. Later, Conrad had made 107 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:10.000 some statements to a number of people about what happened next. 108 00:06:10.399 --> 00:06:14.319 Now, two people from Butler Township police questioned him and 109 00:06:14.519 --> 00:06:17.920 asked him about details about saying that he was the 110 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:20.959 last person to see her, and he gave details about 111 00:06:21.160 --> 00:06:24.879 who he was with that night, which was Charlie Ladik 112 00:06:25.079 --> 00:06:28.839 and Larry Haskins. And like you had mentioned, his cousin, 113 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:34.639 Stormy Miller. What were the statements by those three individuals 114 00:06:34.680 --> 00:06:37.519 that were with Miller as to what happened that night. 115 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:41.000 The three of them again had said that they picked 116 00:06:41.040 --> 00:06:44.480 up Patty, they dropped Conrad had dropped them off to 117 00:06:44.519 --> 00:06:46.800 their vehicle, and they were going to meet up with 118 00:06:46.839 --> 00:06:50.560 them later. They never did meet up with Conrad, and 119 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:55.120 afterwards Conrad had said that he had. Initially he told 120 00:06:55.199 --> 00:06:59.319 them that he had dropped Patty off at a fire 121 00:06:59.399 --> 00:07:03.199 hall and Patty was in another community and Patty was 122 00:07:03.240 --> 00:07:05.839 going to go to the home of a friend of hers. 123 00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:09.199 At another time, he sort of expanded on the story, 124 00:07:09.639 --> 00:07:13.000 but no one quite took him seriously because he had 125 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:16.480 been drinking when he would tell different stories, and they 126 00:07:16.600 --> 00:07:19.800 didn't think that some of the suggestions that he had 127 00:07:19.879 --> 00:07:23.519 made about something happening to Patty were true. They thought 128 00:07:23.560 --> 00:07:25.040 that was an exaggeration. 129 00:07:25.879 --> 00:07:30.600 Regarding Mary Rice, you write that Conrad Miller knew Mary 130 00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:33.079 Rice because there were neighbors at one time when there 131 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:37.160 were children, and so the way that Patty met Mary 132 00:07:37.439 --> 00:07:41.199 was that Miller would bring Patty over to Mary Rice's home, 133 00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:44.720 and she said that usually typically that she would be 134 00:07:44.759 --> 00:07:48.120 applied with alcohol when he did bring her over to 135 00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:50.879 Mary Rice's. The idea that she would have stayed at 136 00:07:50.879 --> 00:07:53.639 Mary Rice's, that she wanted to stay at Mary Rice's. 137 00:07:53.720 --> 00:07:56.319 Mary Rice said she never came over. But it was 138 00:07:56.360 --> 00:08:00.399 also very interesting you write that Mary Rice he had 139 00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:04.079 only stayed at Mary Rice's home one time for a sleepover. 140 00:08:04.639 --> 00:08:08.879 Yes, that was Mary Rice was supposedly the house that 141 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:12.240 Patty was going to be going to the night that 142 00:08:12.279 --> 00:08:16.639 she disappeared. Sometimes Conrad would take her over to Mary's 143 00:08:16.680 --> 00:08:19.120 house because keep in mind, this is a very small 144 00:08:19.160 --> 00:08:22.560 community where everyone knows everyone, so he in the past 145 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:25.560 had taken her over to Mary's house. Mary had a 146 00:08:25.759 --> 00:08:30.160 sister that was about Patty's age. Police went to Mary 147 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:34.679 Rice's house after Patty was reported missing, and Mary told 148 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:38.080 them Patty never showed up at her house. She wasn't 149 00:08:38.120 --> 00:08:41.840 expecting her, and after police came to talk with her, 150 00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:45.159 Conrad had come to her house and said, I dropped 151 00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:47.879 Patty off down the road and she was coming to 152 00:08:47.960 --> 00:08:51.399 your house and Mary said, nope, she didn't come here, 153 00:08:51.679 --> 00:08:53.639 and that was the last time she said, kind of 154 00:08:54.200 --> 00:08:55.399 discussed Patty with her. 155 00:08:55.759 --> 00:09:00.080 Now, this case is frustrating for police because they have 156 00:09:00.159 --> 00:09:04.080 no body, they have no evidence that there has actually 157 00:09:04.440 --> 00:09:08.159 anything happened to Patty Desmond. But of course they are 158 00:09:08.279 --> 00:09:11.159 very very suspicious, but they can't do much. But what 159 00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:14.039 they hear, the rumors that they do here is that 160 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:18.120 he likely buried her in one of these strip minds. 161 00:09:18.120 --> 00:09:22.399 He's abandoned coal strip minds that are everywhere in the area. 162 00:09:22.600 --> 00:09:25.600 Now we have to fast forward ahead two years later 163 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:29.480 and the parole officer, Conrad Miller's parole officer is a 164 00:09:29.480 --> 00:09:32.120 man named Jack Wagner, and he happens to be at 165 00:09:32.120 --> 00:09:36.360 the Butler State Police barracks and he's talking to a 166 00:09:36.399 --> 00:09:41.320 trooper named Richard Balish about the disappearance because he had 167 00:09:41.320 --> 00:09:45.559 spoken to Patty's sister. Veronica tell us about this conversation 168 00:09:46.120 --> 00:09:50.360 and what Jack Wagner and this trooper want Conrad Miller 169 00:09:50.519 --> 00:09:51.000 to do. 170 00:09:51.440 --> 00:09:55.279 And they well, initially, as you said, Patty's sister had 171 00:09:55.600 --> 00:09:59.559 approached the parole officer saying, you know, it's been at 172 00:09:59.679 --> 00:10:03.080 three years since my sister went missing? What's going on? 173 00:10:03.279 --> 00:10:06.519 Where is she? And he went to the state police 174 00:10:06.519 --> 00:10:09.000 barracks and talked to people there saying, you know, the 175 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:12.039 family is still wondering, you know, what's the story. So 176 00:10:12.279 --> 00:10:16.600 they did bring Conrad in and because he was on parole, 177 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:19.200 they were able to bring him in because his paro 178 00:10:19.360 --> 00:10:25.519 officer requested it, and they interviewed him. Initially, he was 179 00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:28.960 it was a standard, just straight interview where he stuck 180 00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:32.080 to the story that he had picked Patty up at 181 00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:36.120 her house, that they went to the Strip mine, that 182 00:10:36.279 --> 00:10:40.559 he dropped her off at a fire hall, and that 183 00:10:40.679 --> 00:10:43.320 Patty was supposed to be going to her friend's house, 184 00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:48.279 Mary Rice. Mary of course knew Patty because her sister 185 00:10:48.360 --> 00:10:51.600 was also the same age. Conrad used to bring Patty 186 00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:56.440 to Mary Rice's house. Mary's sister said that Mary didn't 187 00:10:56.679 --> 00:11:00.480 like him bringing the teenage girl over. He would to 188 00:11:00.519 --> 00:11:04.000 give her alcohol and try to make her do things, 189 00:11:04.039 --> 00:11:07.360 you know, fact stupid for lack of a better word. 190 00:11:07.720 --> 00:11:12.200 So they were familiar with Patty. So when they say 191 00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:15.960 police are know what's going on there, they've already spoken 192 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:19.759 to Mary Rice. When they bring him in and he's 193 00:11:19.799 --> 00:11:23.159 telling the same story that he told before when Patty 194 00:11:23.200 --> 00:11:27.320 first went missing, and clearly they don't believe him, but 195 00:11:27.399 --> 00:11:30.200 they have to figure out ways to get him to 196 00:11:30.360 --> 00:11:34.600 keep talking. So they're sort of choking around with him, 197 00:11:34.960 --> 00:11:39.159 trying to get his guard down, telling him, well, you know, 198 00:11:39.480 --> 00:11:41.559 we don't want to get quote unquote get you on 199 00:11:42.120 --> 00:11:46.240 having any type of sexual relations with the underage girl. 200 00:11:46.759 --> 00:11:49.080 We're just trying to find out where she is and 201 00:11:49.159 --> 00:11:52.360 what happened to her. But he stuck to his story 202 00:11:52.639 --> 00:11:55.679 that he did not know where she was, that he 203 00:11:55.799 --> 00:11:59.120 dropped her off there. He did finally agree to a 204 00:11:59.159 --> 00:12:06.200 polygraph to and the findings of that was inconclusive based 205 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:10.639 on his mental capacity. They could not prove or disprove 206 00:12:11.120 --> 00:12:13.879 his story based on the polygraph. 207 00:12:14.159 --> 00:12:18.399 It's very interesting how he talks about the victim. It's 208 00:12:18.600 --> 00:12:21.559 actually deplorable, but they get him to talk, as you say, 209 00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:24.399 and he says, you know, she wasn't a very good 210 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:27.960 looking girl, so we were going to play a trick 211 00:12:28.200 --> 00:12:32.440 on my friend. And then, as you say, the trooper 212 00:12:32.639 --> 00:12:36.840 did a brilliant job. Lash I believe in saying that, listen, 213 00:12:36.919 --> 00:12:40.519 we don't care about that. Fooling around really disarmed Miller. 214 00:12:41.039 --> 00:12:44.519 Into admitting that, yeah, I was. I did mess around 215 00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:47.320 with her. You're right, and but you know, we were 216 00:12:47.320 --> 00:12:49.000 going to play a trick, but she was there, I 217 00:12:49.039 --> 00:12:51.320 was left alone with her, and then we were messing around. 218 00:12:51.840 --> 00:12:55.000 And then and then he asked a really salient question though, 219 00:12:55.039 --> 00:12:57.720 He said, did she say that she was pregnant? Did 220 00:12:57.720 --> 00:12:59.799 she say she was going to frame you? Did she 221 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:02.240 say she was going to do something? And then the 222 00:13:02.279 --> 00:13:05.799 story of she said she was pregnant to him that 223 00:13:05.919 --> 00:13:08.600 she had told them that she was pregnant, that she 224 00:13:08.759 --> 00:13:10.600 was with some guy she wanted to get married, but 225 00:13:10.840 --> 00:13:13.639 he was so afraid because he had been accused before, 226 00:13:13.720 --> 00:13:15.759 he said, so he was just going to drive her 227 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:19.600 right home. It's very telling how he talks about this 228 00:13:19.759 --> 00:13:24.399 victim and sort of can't help partially the truth creeping 229 00:13:24.440 --> 00:13:27.200 out in his very conversation with these troopers. 230 00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:30.600 That's a very good point there. He had his wife 231 00:13:30.679 --> 00:13:35.200 was sixteen, by the way, and he had fathered another 232 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:41.120 child that was about the same age as his child 233 00:13:41.279 --> 00:13:46.000 with his wife, and he makes reference to that child 234 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:50.600 in the interview. Thing he was, you know, kind of 235 00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:55.120 tricked into paying child support and that it wasn't his child, 236 00:13:55.720 --> 00:13:58.279 and he claimed in the interview with the police that 237 00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:01.440 Patty told him that she was pregnant, and he insisted 238 00:14:01.480 --> 00:14:04.440 it was not his but and he said that she 239 00:14:04.759 --> 00:14:07.759 had a boyfriend and she was going to run away 240 00:14:07.799 --> 00:14:11.879 with him, and that was it. That was one way 241 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:15.919 of probably in his mind, of steering police away from him. 242 00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:19.840 After that, he claimed that he dropped her off. Initially, 243 00:14:19.879 --> 00:14:23.000 he had also told the police that he was going 244 00:14:23.080 --> 00:14:25.879 to quote unquote fix her up with some of his 245 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:28.639 friends for sex, and that was something that she had 246 00:14:28.759 --> 00:14:33.159 absolutely no idea if that it was his intention, she 247 00:14:33.240 --> 00:14:36.759 had no idea of any of that, and clearly she 248 00:14:37.039 --> 00:14:40.360 thought that he was her boyfriend for lack of a 249 00:14:40.360 --> 00:14:40.879 better word. 250 00:14:41.039 --> 00:14:45.320 You're right that investigators spoke to the three people that 251 00:14:45.399 --> 00:14:48.960 were there, but they spoke specifically to Charlie Ladik, and 252 00:14:49.120 --> 00:14:53.600 he relayed some fascinating again you call his circumstantial evidence, 253 00:14:53.639 --> 00:14:57.000 but evidence where he said that a year after this, 254 00:14:57.120 --> 00:15:00.519 in nineteen sixty six, that Miller had threatened in a bar, 255 00:15:00.840 --> 00:15:03.840 he had this bizarre dream that his wife was fooling 256 00:15:03.879 --> 00:15:07.799 around with Leydick, that Miller's wife was fooling around with Leydick, 257 00:15:07.879 --> 00:15:10.480 and he saw it in a dream and then confronted 258 00:15:10.559 --> 00:15:14.000 him and said, kill you just like I killed that girl. 259 00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:18.399 So that statement was with the investigators. Then they spoke 260 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:22.759 to Larry Haskins, and Larry Haskins had said that Miller 261 00:15:22.799 --> 00:15:25.320 had said that he had killed Patty with a tire arm. 262 00:15:25.480 --> 00:15:29.879 So they had this very incriminating evidence that came from 263 00:15:29.919 --> 00:15:33.519 these two people. But still what they had said was 264 00:15:33.639 --> 00:15:36.159 is that Miller had said that he had buried her 265 00:15:36.200 --> 00:15:38.480 in a strip mine, and he had also said to 266 00:15:38.519 --> 00:15:41.759 another investigator that he would never find the body. So 267 00:15:41.879 --> 00:15:46.080 investigators were stymied, even though they had all this circumstantial evidence, 268 00:15:46.080 --> 00:15:48.960 even though they knew that he was a likely suspect, 269 00:15:49.240 --> 00:15:52.039 that they couldn't do anything. And in that time, you 270 00:15:52.120 --> 00:15:57.360 write this, Miller's criminal resume was growing in leaps and bounds, 271 00:15:57.679 --> 00:16:00.759 first in nineteen sixty seven with a Burger glary conviction 272 00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:04.639 where he did got two years and he did ended 273 00:16:04.679 --> 00:16:07.440 up doing a year. And you say that his criminal 274 00:16:07.480 --> 00:16:11.679 record expanded and continued over those ensuing years that this 275 00:16:11.799 --> 00:16:12.840 case was cold. 276 00:16:13.320 --> 00:16:17.159 His record each year seemed to have gotten grew and 277 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:20.799 grew and grew, and the primes became much more serious 278 00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:24.159 as he got older. The good point that you made 279 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:28.159 was that police just did not have any evidence that 280 00:16:28.600 --> 00:16:32.440 a crime had occurred, that Patty was dead. The statements 281 00:16:32.519 --> 00:16:37.840 that Miller made to his friends were suggested, and it 282 00:16:37.960 --> 00:16:41.919 involved a lot of drinking, and some of his friends thought, 283 00:16:42.039 --> 00:16:47.000 you know, it's it was just fraggy and because or 284 00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:49.279 that he was saying this to threaten them. But there 285 00:16:49.440 --> 00:16:52.879 was a feeling that, yes, he had something to do 286 00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:56.320 with her disappearance, but no one could prove it. And 287 00:16:56.360 --> 00:17:00.240 that was a big element of this crime. No one 288 00:17:00.279 --> 00:17:03.039 could prove that Patty was dead. Is we're talking about 289 00:17:03.080 --> 00:17:07.599 the nineteen sixties. We don't have surveillance cameras, we don't 290 00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:10.519 have cell phones. All of the things that we would 291 00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:14.359 use today to track someone who is missing just did 292 00:17:14.400 --> 00:17:18.680 not exist in the nineteen sixties. And during the nineteen 293 00:17:18.759 --> 00:17:22.359 sixties a lot of teenagers went missing and were runaways 294 00:17:22.440 --> 00:17:26.000 and then would eventually return home, although that was not 295 00:17:26.119 --> 00:17:30.799 the case involving Patty. The stories that circulated, or should 296 00:17:30.799 --> 00:17:34.359 say the rumors that circulated of where Patty's body might be. 297 00:17:34.799 --> 00:17:37.359 One of them was that she was in the mine. 298 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:42.279 It was another theory that she was buried under one 299 00:17:42.319 --> 00:17:45.200 of the highways that was under construction at the time, 300 00:17:45.400 --> 00:17:48.160 and of course they wouldn't be able to dig up 301 00:17:48.519 --> 00:17:51.960 the highway for her body, especially since her body wasn't 302 00:17:51.960 --> 00:17:55.400 there even if they had done that, so they were stymied. 303 00:17:55.720 --> 00:18:00.440 Everyone thought and were convinced in law enforcement that he 304 00:18:00.480 --> 00:18:03.160 had something to do with her disappearance and likely death, 305 00:18:03.240 --> 00:18:05.640 but no one could prove it. There was no body, 306 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:10.440 and there was no clear and concise confession. His quote 307 00:18:10.519 --> 00:18:14.240 unquote confessions were a little bit squishy for lack of 308 00:18:14.240 --> 00:18:17.759 a better word. He would suggest that except for one 309 00:18:17.799 --> 00:18:19.839 where he said he hit her with tire iron, the 310 00:18:19.920 --> 00:18:22.400 other people he would talk to say, well, they'll never 311 00:18:22.480 --> 00:18:27.319 find her, so there wasn't enough evidence without a body 312 00:18:27.640 --> 00:18:29.680 to tie him to the murder at that time. 313 00:18:29.920 --> 00:18:32.160 That Jesus has an opportunity to stop for a second 314 00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:33.039 for these messages. 315 00:18:33.319 --> 00:18:35.640 Hello, it is Ryan, and we could all use an 316 00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:37.960 extra bright spot in our day, couldn't we just to 317 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:40.880 make up for things like sitting in traffic, doing the dishes, 318 00:18:41.039 --> 00:18:43.599 counting or steps, you know, all the mundane stuff. 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Then in nineteen seventy five another 330 00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:21.000 rape which is described as barbaric, he was sentenced to 331 00:19:21.079 --> 00:19:26.720 ten to twenty years. He was released after eleven years. 332 00:19:27.480 --> 00:19:32.720 And this is nineteen eighty seven, I believe. And you 333 00:19:32.759 --> 00:19:37.359 introduce a central figure in this, a corporal Danny McKnight, 334 00:19:37.440 --> 00:19:40.319 who had joined the Pennsylvania State Police when he was 335 00:19:40.359 --> 00:19:43.839 twenty one years old, and he was the head of 336 00:19:43.920 --> 00:19:48.440 the criminal investigative Unit. And in nineteen eighty seven he 337 00:19:48.640 --> 00:19:52.119 got a very very interesting phone call. Tell us about 338 00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:54.079 this phone call he received. 339 00:19:54.440 --> 00:19:58.039 Danny was in his office at the time. Danny, at 340 00:19:58.039 --> 00:20:01.279 that time, he was ahead of his times, ahead of 341 00:20:01.279 --> 00:20:05.359 his time. In the law enforcement circles in the eighties, 342 00:20:05.400 --> 00:20:09.680 a lot of law enforcement agencies, particularly those that were 343 00:20:10.440 --> 00:20:14.000 set up in some of the more rural areas were 344 00:20:14.039 --> 00:20:17.839 not using a lot of them weren't using computers. The 345 00:20:17.880 --> 00:20:21.559 internet was not a thing. A lot of databases that 346 00:20:21.599 --> 00:20:24.920 we now take for granted just did not exist. But 347 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:30.799 he saw the importance of computerizing things and creating databases, 348 00:20:31.279 --> 00:20:34.720 and he would use that in investigations. So he always 349 00:20:34.799 --> 00:20:36.640 liked to think out of the box, so to speak. 350 00:20:36.759 --> 00:20:40.319 He always wanted to try something different when it came 351 00:20:40.440 --> 00:20:44.519 to investigations. So he's sitting in his office. This is 352 00:20:44.519 --> 00:20:47.039 the type of investigator he is. But he's sitting in 353 00:20:47.079 --> 00:20:50.759 his office and he gets a phone call is transferred 354 00:20:50.759 --> 00:20:55.599 to him, and it is a young woman and the 355 00:20:56.200 --> 00:21:00.920 woman asks gives him a specific date and asks if 356 00:21:01.559 --> 00:21:05.079 if a woman went a teenager went missing on that date, 357 00:21:05.240 --> 00:21:09.119 And Danny said, well, I'll get back to you. And 358 00:21:09.720 --> 00:21:13.359 he checks around with some of the other investigators, particularly 359 00:21:13.400 --> 00:21:16.920 some of the old timers there, people with more time 360 00:21:16.960 --> 00:21:20.240 on the job, and one of the troopers comes up 361 00:21:20.279 --> 00:21:25.680 with a answer right away, saying, Patty Desmond. He goes 362 00:21:25.799 --> 00:21:28.359 gets back to the woman who called, and it turns 363 00:21:28.359 --> 00:21:32.039 out that the woman he called was the daughter of 364 00:21:32.519 --> 00:21:37.200 the suspect Conrad Miller, and he asks her some more information, 365 00:21:37.599 --> 00:21:40.359 and she, of course was an infant when all of 366 00:21:40.400 --> 00:21:44.640 this happened, but she tells him where Patty's body likely was. 367 00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:48.759 She eventually tells him where Patty's body likely was and 368 00:21:49.640 --> 00:21:53.599 how she obtained the information with someone else in her 369 00:21:53.640 --> 00:21:57.839 family who told him that Conrad had confessed to her 370 00:21:58.200 --> 00:22:02.200 years earlier in the nineteen sixties when the murder happened, 371 00:22:02.400 --> 00:22:05.880 so that gave them a very good idea of where 372 00:22:05.920 --> 00:22:10.160 to now move the case. However, this is the nineteen eighties, 373 00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:14.000 so they have to go back in time and reinterview 374 00:22:14.119 --> 00:22:17.640 some of the earlier suspects, I mean, so the earlier witnesses, 375 00:22:18.160 --> 00:22:23.799 and also check the story that Conrad's daughter has told 376 00:22:23.839 --> 00:22:28.519 them the location of where Patty's body might be. Who 377 00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:31.839 owns a property, who owned the property? Would Conrad have 378 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:34.720 known about this property? And it turns out yes he 379 00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:39.759 did because it was a family owned property. What they 380 00:22:39.759 --> 00:22:44.519 were told was that Conrad had killed Patty and it 381 00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:48.160 brought her body to an abandoned house and set the 382 00:22:48.160 --> 00:22:54.240 house on fire. The investigators, Danny McKnight and gun Hall 383 00:22:54.440 --> 00:22:58.279 State Trooper gun Hall then went to the volunteer fire 384 00:22:58.319 --> 00:23:02.240 department in that area to check their fire records and 385 00:23:02.440 --> 00:23:05.680 found that yes, there was a fire at that house, 386 00:23:06.039 --> 00:23:09.519 but it was because it was abandoned. They just basically 387 00:23:09.640 --> 00:23:16.519 let it burn. And they checked the real estate records 388 00:23:16.680 --> 00:23:21.880 of the property and discovered yes, the property was owned 389 00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:26.839 by one of Conrad Miller's relatives, so that the daughter's 390 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:32.680 story did hold up on as they checked the records. 391 00:23:33.240 --> 00:23:35.640 And then they went back and talked to her again 392 00:23:35.839 --> 00:23:39.319 and then talked to the person that gave her the information. 393 00:23:39.599 --> 00:23:44.319 And as a result of that and talking reinterviewing earlier 394 00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:48.599 witnesses from the nineteen sixties in seventies, they were able 395 00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:51.759 to get a search warrant for the property to do 396 00:23:51.839 --> 00:23:56.640 an archaeological dig to see if there were human remains 397 00:23:56.960 --> 00:23:59.759 in what was once an abandoned house. 398 00:24:00.039 --> 00:24:03.759 Let's Maureen talk about because we didn't go over this. 399 00:24:03.759 --> 00:24:10.200 This is a horrifying revelation that Connie, his daughter was given. 400 00:24:10.880 --> 00:24:14.599 Conrad Miller's daughter gave up this information, but we didn't 401 00:24:14.599 --> 00:24:19.119