EVERYDAY STRANGE - The Patterson Disappearance

EL PASO, TX - William, 52 and Margaret Patterson, 42 were last seen on the night of March 5/6, 1957 at their home in the 3000 block of Piedmont Avenue in Kern Place, El Paso, Texas. Nobody knows what happened to them, they simply vanished from one day to the next. Their car was left in the driveway and the family cat was left to fend for itself. William owned a photography shop in town (Patterson Photo Supply)and it must have been an eerie sight for those that knew the couple had disappeared to see the shop sitting empty and unopened day after day.

Early on, a “business associate” claimed that the couple had gone on a sudden extended vacation to Florida. When the Pattersons still hadn’t returned after five months Cecil Ward, a friend and neighbor filed a missing persons report with the police.

A neighbor, Jeri Cash told police that she had been by the Patterson place the night they disappeared. She didn’t know the couple very well, but she said that Margaret seemed upset to her and William made it clear that he was annoyed that Mrs. Cash was there. Jeri and her family noticed “unusual activity” at the house later that night, but when Mrs. Cash told the police about what she had seen, they didn’t seem to care very much about her story.

Later, a letter appeared, alleged to be from a W.D. Patterson arranged to have William’s properties divided between Doyle Kirkland, a friend and manager at Doyle’s Photo Supply, his business auditor Herb Roth and a 24-year old employee at Patterson Photo Supply named Art Moreno. The letter seems strange because William had at least two known relatives, including his father and a sister. The signature on the letter was challenged. It’s unknown whether the letter was authenticated and honored.

Kirkland was also seen at the house the night the couple disappeared. He was in the garage with William working on a boat. In 1984, a man named Reynaldo Nangaray came forward claiming he had washed blood out of the Patterson’s  garage soon after the couple disappeared and that he’d found pieces of scalp on the propeller of the boat’s motor. In 1957 he was an illegal immigrant, he hadn’t come forward sooner because he’d feared deportation.

It wasn’t enough to take to a Grand Jury, however and the case remains open to this day.

Sources:

El Paso Times

El Paso Times II

The Doe Network

The Charley Project

EVERYDAY STRANGE - Teresa Butler

"The lady said she answered the phone and said 'Hello' a couple times," Stevens explained. "There was nothing on the other end that she could ever hear, so she hung up."

-from the Daily Dunklin Democrat (July 23, 2006)

Teresa Butler [Image Source]

[Image Source]

RISCO, MO - 35-year old wife and mother of two, Teresa Butler disappeared from her home on the night of January 25, 2006. She was discovered missing when her husband Gary returned home from work at 10 a.m. to find their sons, two and four years old, respectively, alone in the house and apparently undisturbed. A video camera, playstation (with games), large Mag-lite flashlight, Nintendo Game Cube and digital camera were missing as well as Teresa’s purse and cell phone, but her jacket and wedding ring were left behind and her Jeep was left sitting in the driveway with its stereo missing. There were no signs of a struggle but part of a key was broken off in a lock in a door. She was last heard from the night before the disappearance when her sister-in-law came to visit. She hasn’t been seen since, but she may have been heard from.

Two calls were made from her cell phone the night she disappeared. The first was at 3:16 a.m. to a man in Gideon, MO. who did not answer. When police investigated they discovered that the man had no connection to Teresa or anyone in her family.

The second call was made after her disappearance to a home in Clarkton, MO where two elderly women lived together. When they answered the phone, they couldn’t hear anything, not even breathing. Like the first call, this second one seemed to be random as the two women had no connection to Teresa, either.

The Butler family residence [Image Source].

Police did discover that Gary’s ex-wife had made threatening phone calls to Teresa while at work. No connection has ever been established to Gary’s ex-wife but then Sheriff Terry Stevens said he was “positive foul play was involved”. Teresa’s mom also supported the theory, saying "I felt fear gripping the home down there. I knew someone was watching the house, I could feel it."

Teresa Butler was one of several missing persons honored in a ceremony at the Missouri state capitol in 2011. By that time, 5 years had passed since her disappearance but tips were still flooding in to the New Madrid County Sheriff's office on a better than weekly basis. They come from all across the country. The tips range from the location of where her body may be buried, to where she may be living. The Sheriff's office takes every one of those calls seriously and investigates every lead but so far to no avail. About half of the tipsters believe Teresa to still be alive. No trace of her has ever turned up, not the missing items, not even a piece of clothing. Teresa's fate remains a mystery.

SOURCES:

The Charley Project
Find Teresa Butler
The Daily Dunklin Democrat

KFVS News

KFVS News story 2