I really doubt she'd be working as a nurse with a mental health or drug issue in her past. "At risk" often simply means the person otherwise would not normally go missing so the disappearance is suspicious.
I believe that’s correct the vast majority of the time. But like everything else, there are outliners, IMO:
Updated Jan 20, 2019; Posted Jan 24, 2014
By
Julie Mack | jmack1@mlive.com
“KALAMAZOO, MI -- During a press conference Wednesday about the disappearance of
Dr. Teleka Patrick, Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller was very careful not to label Patrick as mentally ill. In fact, Fuller said, Patrick --
a first-year psychiatry resident in the Western Michigan University School of Medicine -- has never been diagnosed with a mental disorder.
But in detailing the
circumstances of her Dec. 5 disappearance, the sheriff and Detective Sgt. William Sparrow, the lead investigator in the case, noted Patrick has experienced delusions and was acting ‘strangely,’ ‘confused’ and ‘erratic’ just before she went missing.
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Patrick's story
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After earning her bachelor's degree, Patrick entered a program at Loma Linda University in California that allowed her
to earn both a medical degree and a doctorate in biochemistry.
Patrick was viewed as a brilliant student and received tens of thousands of dollars in research grants from the National Institutes of Health.
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Last spring, Patrick graduated from Loma Linda with a medical degree and doctorate in biochemistry. In June, she came to Kalamazoo to start her residency in psychiatry.
Patrick told WMU officials she applied to their program to be close to her fiance. She appeared to be referring to Marvin Sapp, a Grand Rapids minister and gospel singer.
She and Sapp had never met, but Patrick thought God was telling her that Sapp,
a widower with three children, was her future husband.
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In September,
a judge granted Sapp a personal protection order against Patrick, and his Lighthouse Full Life Center Church board sent her a letter banning her from the church because of her ‘inappropriate’ behavior.
Patrick continued to write Twitter messages detailing her obsession with Sapp.
The posts indicate
she was convinced the two had a telepathic communication and he was secretly in love with her.
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In Teleka Patrick case, mental-health complexities put in spotlight
Three months later:
Updated Jan 20, 2019; Posted Apr 10, 2014
By
Julie Mack | jmack1@mlive.com
“KALAMAZOO, MI -- Exactly four months ago to the day after issuing its first press release about a missing-person investigation for
Dr. Teleka Patrick, the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office declared the case closed Wednesday, with the discovery of Patrick's body in northern Indiana.
It now appears the 30-year-old Kalamazoo medical resident
accidentally drowned in a pond a few hundred feet from where her car was found abandoned, Sheriff Richard Fuller said at a Wednesday morning press conference.
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In the weeks before her disappearance, Patrick was increasingly despondent about her decision to move to Kalamazoo, according to her social media posts.
On Dec. 5, Patrick worked a shift at Borgess Medical Center. She was last seen leaving the parking lot at 8 p.m.
Her car was found two hours later in a ditch alongside westbound I-94 near Porter, Ind., about 110 miles from Kalamazoo. Her wallet was inside, but Patrick had disappeared.
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Patrick seemed fine during her work shift at Borgess on Dec. 5, Fuller said Wednesday.
But after work, she left her cellphone and all other property owned by WMU and Borgess in her locker. She asked a co-worker to drive her downtown, although her car was in the Borgess parking lot. She also told the co-worker that she had lost her wallet, and he loaned her $100 cash.
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1. What was Patrick's mental state the night of Dec. 5?
It now appears Patrick may have had longstanding mental-health issues dating back to her college years. It's also apparent she successfully kept those issues largely hidden from family and friends.
Indeed, most people knew Patrick as a brilliant, high-functioning professional.
The same week she disappeared, she received a glowing mid-year evaluation about her psychiatric residency.
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Teleka Patrick case: 6 things we know and 4 questions still unanswered
The reporter who wrote the two articles above also wrote a story about the disappearance of Teleka, but with a focus on the “amateur sleuths,” who were following her case here on Websleuths at the time:
Teleka Patrick case has amateur sleuths taking lead role in public disclosures
https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2014/04/teleka_patrick_case_4_things_w.html
This was one of the first cases I followed on WS, and to this day, one of the saddest. I’m glad that Ashley has been found unharmed.
