The Disappearance of Patti Adkins
This story resonates with me because I think many women can say they have been in a similar position as Patti Adkins, I at least understand what it is like to love someone, and be so encapsulated in that love that you don’t see the concerning warning signs and clear red flags that the person you have given your heart to is a liar. I’ve listened to a couple of podcasts on this case. Every time the same thing resonated, Patti loved the wrong person, and everything surrounding her disappearance is just plain sinister and strange.
Our story begins in Marysville, Ohio a city about 27 miles away from Columbus, Ohio. A pretty small population of 23,000 people and known for being one of those “Picture Perfect America” places. I googled “what to do in Marysville, OH?” and was greeted with gleaming faces of young white women smiling with horses, a photo of a go lucky police officer, and various vegetables. Because famers markets are huge in Marysville. The city has Friday night movies, and the high school sports are a national treasure. It gives me the feeling that it is one of those cities where everyone knows everyone.
I wonder what that close knit environment was like for 29 year old Patti Adkins. Patti was simply gorgeous, there isn’t much way around it. Her long full blond hair going well past her shoulders. She had piercing blue eyes and a ski lope nose. Patti was a kind outgoing young woman. She loved her family including her mother and sisters, and most importantly her daughter Michaley from a previous relationship, who was 7 years old at the time. It was 2001 and Patti was living a fulfilling life. She worked at the Honda Power Plant and had been there for a little over a decade. She enjoyed her job and had no plans of leaving any time soon, she was expected to have another promotion in the near future.
June 29, 2001 was a regular day, except for one special fact: The Honda Plant was shutting down for a week so employees could celebrate the 4th of July Holiday. Patti was understandably excited for the vacation, but not just because she could enjoy some fun in the sun and time off. Patti was going on a romantic cabin getaway with her boyfriend. They were going to spend a week in Canada, a secluded time where the two of them could focus on their relationship.
They needed this time, because honestly the relationship was complicated to say the least. For example, I legally am not allowed to say her boyfriend’s name in this story, that is if I could even find it, it’s been omitted from every article I have researched. See, Patti’s boyfriend also worked at the Honda Power Plant. They got a long really well. Patti recalled telling her sister that she loved this man. They talked daily and she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. The only issue being that he was married with children of his own. He told Patti he planned on leaving his wife and they would be together permanently eventually. Due to the complications in this relationship, the couple had decided to keep it a secret at work. Outside of Patti’s sister and best friends, most people had no idea the relationship was going on. I figured this made sense, Patti had a younger daughter of her own after all, and though she and her ex husband had a comfortable co parenting relationship, Patti probably preferred to keep things private until they could really be outwardly together.
The morning of the 29th Patti was obviously excited, she got her things in order before leaving for the week. She dropped her daughter Michaley off at her ex husband’s house and was due to collect her at her sister Marcia’s at the end of the week on Sunday when she returned home. She got a ride to her job with the plan of leaving with her boyfriend in his truck. Once Patti got to work she instructed her team to make sure the assembly line was clean before midnight so that everyone could leave directly at midnight. At midnight Patti left almost immediately she closed out at 12:19am and ran to the parking lot, a few employees saw her leave in her normal uniform.
A week later, it’s Sunday July 8th and Marcia is sitting waiting for Patti to pick up Michaley at noon. The sisters hadn’t spoken all week, but Marcia didn’t think much of it. Patti was in a cabin in the woods with little reception and this was a getaway that Patti hadn’t really experienced before. Marcia assumed it was a romantic time which explained the lack of reach out. By the time 12:30pm rolled around Marcia called Patti’s house phone, maybe Patti had gone home instead of picking up Michaley first. There was no answer. Marcia called again “ring ring ring” nothing, she called every half hour, and then every 10 minutes, with zero answer. By the evening came, in a panic Marcia called Patti’s boyfriend’s home: his wife answered. Patti asked if he was home, and it isn’t clear what the exchange was like. It is important to note that Patti’s married boyfriend also did occasional mechanic work, so calls to the home were probably not obscure or strange.
By 5pm with no sign of Patti, Marcia called the boyfriend again. The exchange was cryptic when the man answered. Marcia asked where her sister was, and was followed by silence, he quietly replied he didn’t know anything about Patti, and that they just worked together. Marcia asked the man “what did you do to my sister?”
Can you imagine how fucking terrifying that is. This person who Marcia had heard so much about, knew about this getaway, completely acts like he doesn’t know Patti or what Marcia is talking about.
Something straight out of a movie.
Marcia called the police that night.
Around 3am Marcia, being the bomb ass, down ass sister she is, called Patti’s boyfriend back, because this isn’t the movies, this is real life. She was going to confront him. When Marcia called, the wife answered. Marcia told the wife about the entire affair. After about 15 minutes the wife gave her husband the phone. He again claimed he had no idea what Marcia was talking about.
With no help or communication from Patti’s boyfriend, it was going to be up to Patti’s family and the police to locate her.
Police searched Patti’s house and noticed everything seemed untouched. Clothes hadn’t been disturbed, the room looked the way she left it as if she was going to go home after work, not on a trip. Before her disappearance, Patti informed her sisters some concerning news about the trip. At the time it may have seemed loving and innovative to Patti, when truthfully it was terrifying. She was told not to bring any clothes to Canada, and that the boyfriend said they would buy clothes when they go there. “a whole new wardrobe” Patti also said she was going to have to hide in the bed of his truck after work, their relationship was a secret after all. Patti was to stay in the back while he dropped off a co-worker, and then they would leave for their trip.
There were no clothes, no paper trail, and no witnesses.
There was no proof the trip ever occurred.
The police took financial records from Patti’s computer. They discovered that Patti was giving this man money. The amount of money that Patti withdrew was about $90,000 in a span of a year. Her sister’s also remember that Patti told them about the loan. They were annoyed, Patti had spent 10 years saving and was giving her boyfriend the money on the preface that he would be paying her back. The paper trail seemed to reach a dead end. There wasn’t a bank account where the deposits were found in the boyfriend’s name. So, what the boyfriend did with the money is not clear.
By July 13th, 2001 Patti had been missing for 2 weeks. Budding evidence was growing against the boyfriend. They knew that Patti had loaned him money, and she had given him a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt. Police obtained a warrant to search the man’s home and business, in a nearby town. During the search they also found a phone that Patti had bought him. The boyfriend admitted to a birthday card and letters that were found from Patti expressing her wanting to be together. The boyfriend explained he only knew Patti through work.
The police interviewed the man, his wife, and his co worker. The wife explained he had come home around 2:30am on that Friday of June 29th. She also said he was home all week, except for a fishing trip with some of his friends. The man’s co-worker, who he had dropped off after work said the two of them went to Burger King that night and then he was dropped off. Everything about this panned out except for a couple of things, the co worker said they left the plant and drove over 30 miles towards their hometown. On the way they stopped at Burger King waiting in line for 45 minutes ate and went home. When the police officers interviewed the burger king manager, the manager explained that during that time of night (between 12:00am and 2:00am) there would not have been a long line. The time is inconsistent.
Police also discovered that the boyfriend had picked up a Tonneau cover aka a tarp the morning of June 29th. The tarp had been removed from the truck a week later, the boyfriend claiming that he needed it for his fishing trip. The cover was sent off for testing. Blood and cat hair was found under the side of the cover. The lab tested the animal DNA and confirmed it belonged to Patti’s cat. Police believe it may have been on her clothes as she laid underneath the tarp. The blood sample was incredibly small. So small that if it were tested it wouldn’t be able to be retested, or give conclusive results so the lab suggested waiting for better forensic technology.
Police brought cadaver dogs to the boyfriends home, and they went crazy when walking by freshly poured and dried concrete slab in the backyard. However when it was dug up they found nothing.
In 2006 the courts declared Patti Adkins deceased. The Union County Sheriff’s station is working on this open homicide case- they believe Patti is no longer missing, but was murdered.
Police have never revealed Patti’s boyfriend’s name or officially made a statement about him, but he is considered the primary suspect. The motive being that the affair could ruin his marriage, lose his job, and he would eventually have to pay back the money he owed her. No arrests have ever been made in connection to Patti’s disappearance. To this day it seems everyone has had to return to their somewhat normal lives, without Patti.
In my opinion, I believe that Patti was murdered by her boyfriend and that the co worker was in on disposing of the body. I believe the wife was made aware of this too and simply looked the other way. Patti was probably murdered by strangulation to minimize the DNA trail and ease any clean up or disposing of the body. The police don’t have enough concrete evidence, but time has a funny way of catching up to people the moment they slow down or stop running.
In the meantime I feel for Patti’s family and friends including Marcia and her beautiful daughter Michaley. Michaley is an innocent victim in this and would be around my age. If Patti were alive today she’d be 46 living her life maybe in Ohio supporting her daughter, she probably would have met someone else who would value her for the beautiful soul that she is. She and her family deserve justice and to know what happened to their mother, sister, daughter, and friend. Patti fell in love with a person who convinced her they had a future together, and was able to manipulate to get everything he wanted and dispose of her existence and their relationship. If there is one takeaway we all can get from this, its that sometimes people aren’t who they seem even if we really want them to be.
If you have any information on this circumstance surrounding Patti’s case, please call Lt. Jeff Stiers 937- 647-4126
