That was my impression too - that the Nancy Grace show tossed some things together that don't actually go together.
I don't know the name of the woman on the show who made the comment about a sex offender buying donuts, she made the comment in a sorta off hand sarcastic manner without providing sources and actual info.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1101/17/ng.02.html
<snipped>
GRACE: To Jean Casarez, give me the significance on this gas station, this 7-11 convenience store video, and I want to talk about potential person of interest buying donuts that day. What does this video mean to me? What`s the significance of buying donuts and why was the storage facility searched, Jean Casarez?
CASAREZ: All right. The video is significant because she would have walked by that Shell gas station on the way home. It was just released, Nancy, this surveillance video. And there were some unknown people that they were trying to find. One man stepped forward and said, I was just passing through town, but I still think they have not been able to identify some of the other people in this video.
As far as the donuts, there have been five search warrants executed in this case, Nancy. They are fascinating to read, and I say that on a legal sense, but the donuts come from a man who voluntarily allowed people in his home, law enforcement, but probable cause that he had been dealing in child *advertiser censored* on his computer. And he said that he had gotten donuts on the day that Lindsey Baum went missing.
GRACE: But he`s diabetic.
CASAREZ: But he`s diabetic.
GRACE: He got donuts for whom?
CASAREZ: For the children.
GRACE: What children?
CASAREZ: What children? I don`t know.
I just read the transcript of the show.. it looks as if the woman (not Nancy Grace) put two search warrants/POIs together. RG was the one who had his house/car/storage unit searched and was shown in the video of the Shell station leaving with some beer (and walking with a dog). And Patterson was the one who is a diabetic who bought donuts and had *advertiser censored* on his computer.
As far as I know it has never been said that Patterson was anywhere near McCleary the night Lindsey went missing.