Found Deceased NJ - Patricia Viola, 42, Bogota, 13 Feb 2001

[SurfieTX]

Saw the show last night - wished they would have mention what happened to sister-in-law (I think that's who she was) after the argument.... did she leave, stay???
Did she have key to home, know alarm code?
Did she drive a car?
Not accusing, just curious and wishing show would ties up lose ends, so to say...

I agree, that was a big gaping hole that left the viewer to wonder many things. At the end, they threw in the triple homicide across the street, but never really clarified anything about the smokin' sister (we saw a lot of burn holes over and over in that blanket though).

 

[menna]

I agree, that was a big gaping hole that left the viewer to wonder many things. At the end, they threw in the triple homicide across the street, but never really clarified anything about the smokin' sister (we saw a lot of burn holes over and over in that blanket though).

I agree too... what happened to the sister-in-law? was she in the house after the argument? did she leave? it was a huge gaping whole in the show. Also, I wonder what Pat wanted to talk to Toinette about. It just doesn't seem to add up.
I really hope one day the family will have answers.

 

[Sleuthster]

I am also suprised there was no mention of whether the sister was still there on the 13th and if she was at the home during that day. The fact that she had left her bf or husband and was staying there. I would be concerned about the sister's ex bf/husband coming over there causing problems or trying to get to the sister. Also, the fight between them if it was uncharacteristic of Pat then was it simply the cigarette burns that made her blow up or something else?

Where was sis during the afternoon of 13th?
Where was her ex?
Did they check bank records and cellphone records?

Lots of pertinent info left out IMO.

BTW< I dont buy that there is a link to the triple homocide a few years before. Too far fetched IMO.

 

[cluciano63]

What an unusual disappearance. Pat seems to have been very much in crisis leading up to her disappearance; the situation she could not talk about with her friend but was serious enough to ask her to cancel her vacation; her health issues with the recent severe seizure; the incident with her sister-in-law within that 24-hour period. Not really sure if the house alarm fits in or is one of those uncomfortable coincidences. She did not seem to be in a good place at all, emotionally or physically.

It is very odd that the sister-in-law did not take part in the show.

Why would she ask her best friend the night before, to look after her children?
This is a terrible mystery, I hope some little clue comes from the show. How sad that more than 10 years have passed.

 

[Tristan]

I agree with everything you said, Cluciano.

I kept wondering why the husband's sister wasn't interviewed...something strange about that.

Also, to me, the most telling aspect of this case, is the cryptic conversation Pat had with her best friend. She said "she needs to talk with her in private, but it's kind of complex, so let's do it later."
Her friend said she sounded VERY stressed, and even scared.

IMO, either someone was after her (ex boyfriend etc)
or she was having a mental breakdown and this was part of it.

(Keep in mind, the very next day, Pat "dissmissed" the conversation and changed the subject to "Valentine's presents. Hmmmm!
Very strange.

 

[OldSteve]

Loose ends left by the show and left me wondering about:

She left her purse at home (was this something she did in the past or was this something completely out of the ordinary.)

Meds left on kitchen table (again, was this something she did in the past or was this something completely out of the ordinary.)

Any significance to key to backdoor that was normally left in lock so door could be opened from inside was not in lock? Could key have been used to open that door from the outside, triggering the false alarm earlier that day? Could someone sister-in-law have had that key and used it to enter home that morning? (see next question)

Sister-in-law: did she have key to home, know alarm code?

Sister-in-law: where was living at that time - still in Pat's home?

Sister-in-law: did she drive a car?

Any corroboration of what friend said Pat told her about looking after children, wanting to get away...

Part about store clerk recognizing Pat buying the stuffed animal - what day/time, how far is store from home. How did she pay for it?

How was it that Pat surrendered(?) her drivers license - did doctor somehow report her to state? Did she simply volunteer not to drive?

The PI of volunteered to work on case - only thing he came up with was the murder in house across the street?

Okay, anyone have more to add to this list?

 

[cluciano63]

Loose ends left by the show and left me wondering about:

She left her purse at home (was this something she did in the past or was this something completely out of the ordinary.)

Meds left on kitchen table (again, was this something she did in the past or was this something completely out of the ordinary.)

Any significance to key to backdoor that was normally left in lock so door could be opened from inside was not in lock? Could key have been used to open that door from the outside, triggering the false alarm earlier that day? Could someone sister-in-law have had that key and used it to enter home that morning? (see next question)

Sister-in-law: did she have key to home, know alarm code?

Sister-in-law: where was living at that time - still in Pat's home?

Sister-in-law: did she drive a car?

Any corroboration of what friend said Pat told her about looking after children, wanting to get away...

Part about store clerk recognizing Pat buying the stuffed animal - what day/time, how far is store from home. How did she pay for it?

How was it that Pat surrendered(?) her drivers license - did doctor somehow report her to state? Did she simply volunteer not to drive?

The PI of volunteered to work on case - only thing he came up with was the murder in house across the street?

Okay, anyone have more to add to this list?

I don't think it was clear that she bought the stuffed monkey, only that she had been in the store...could be wrong. She may just have been looking at it.

I really can't see someone coming in and taking her, and nothing else. Home invasions are generally robberies...at the least her purse should be gone, as well as any smaller valuables, and nothing seems to have been missing except Pat.

There are too many unusual circumstances here...this woman seemed to be in severe distress, quite possibly suicidal no matter what her friend says; no one knows what another person might do. But where on earth is her body, if so? Usually suicides are not able to hide themselves for long...unless she did manage to go off a bridge unseen, or down that rocky area they showed...but the same goes if she was taken and murdered...where on earth is she?

 

[Missing Budweiser]

Great post, had many of the same questions.

Loose ends left by the show and left me wondering about:

She left her purse at home (was this something she did in the past or was this something completely out of the ordinary.)

Meds left on kitchen table (again, was this something she did in the past or was this something completely out of the ordinary.)

Any significance to key to backdoor that was normally left in lock so door could be opened from inside was not in lock? Could key have been used to open that door from the outside, triggering the false alarm earlier that day? Could someone sister-in-law have had that key and used it to enter home that morning? (see next question)

Sister-in-law: did she have key to home, know alarm code?

Sister-in-law: where was living at that time - still in Pat's home?

Sister-in-law: did she drive a car?

Any corroboration of what friend said Pat told her about looking after children, wanting to get away...

Part about store clerk recognizing Pat buying the stuffed animal - what day/time, how far is store from home. How did she pay for it?

How was it that Pat surrendered(?) her drivers license - did doctor somehow report her to state? Did she simply volunteer not to drive?

The PI of volunteered to work on case - only thing he came up with was the murder in house across the street?

Okay, anyone have more to add to this list?

 

[webrocket]

I saw the episode last week. I am very familiar with Bogota although I never knew the Viola family.

suffice it to say there are not many places a person without transportation can go to commit suicide without being found. the show mentioned the George Washington Bridge but there is no way she took a bus there and jumped off. anyone jumping (unless it is under cover of darkness) would be seen attempting to jump off the bridge.

there is another river which borders Bogota and that is the Hackensack River. Route 80 goes over the river but it would be very difficult to jump off that highway into the river and she would have been seen. however, there is at least one railroad track that goes over the river where person might not be seen. that goes behind Olsen Park in Bogota and crosses over into Hackensack. it is not a heavily used freight train line.

the river however is not a very wide or deep one. it is rather muddy at the bottom and at very low tides there is not all that much of a river there. it is possible for a person to jump off the train tracks and go into the muck but whether a person's body would be embedded in the muck for this length of time is questionable. I doubt anyone explored that possibility.

 

[OldSteve]

I saw the episode last week. I am very familiar with Bogota although I never knew the Viola family.

suffice it to say there are not many places a person without transportation can go to commit suicide without being found. the show mentioned the George Washington Bridge but there is no way she took a bus there and jumped off. anyone jumping (unless it is under cover of darkness) would be seen attempting to jump off the bridge.

there is another river which borders Bogota and that is the Hackensack River. Route 80 goes over the river but it would be very difficult to jump off that highway into the river and she would have been seen. however, there is at least one railroad track that goes over the river where person might not be seen. that goes behind Olsen Park in Bogota and crosses over into Hackensack. it is not a heavily used freight train line.

the river however is not a very wide or deep one. it is rather muddy at the bottom and at very low tides there is not all that much of a river there. it is possible for a person to jump off the train tracks and go into the muck but whether a person's body would be embedded in the muck for this length of time is questionable. I doubt anyone explored that possibility.

They also showed in the show the Palisades, looked like the cliffs around one of the scenic lookouts - but that too would be very difficult to reach by bus - going along 9W...

There are so many buses in the area, I wonder how possible it was to really check with drivers to see if she took one. But then where would one go - if it was suicide and not be found, or why would one not want to be found? Strange.

 

[webrocket]

the cliffs are even more difficult to get to than the GW Bridge. she would have to walk a considerable length before getting to those cliffs.

p.s. I don't think there really are that many buses to talk about that go through Bogota. I scrolled through the NJ Transit website and if I got it right there is the 155 (peak hours only), 178, and the 182. so mid-day there probably were not more than 2 or 3 buses on each line that she might have gotten onto.

http://www.njtransit.com/sf/sf_servlet.srv?hdnPageAction=BusTo

 

[Sleuth Mom]

Is anyone familiar with doctors requesting someone not to drive? I'm very ignorant here, but if she didn't have any seizures for three months, why would the doctor require three more as opposed to maybe just one? It seems incredibly extreme to take a mother's driver's license and cause her to be immobile. Could the doctor play a role in her disappearance? Did he have her driver's license? If you want to harm someone, it would certainly make it easier if you took their wheels away?

I found it a little ironic that the man who said he "killed that old girl" claimed to have her license? IMO at would be pretty easy to confirm so I wouldn't offer up that info as proof that I was telling the truth...unless I really did have the license, right? Did the police locate her driver's license to confirm he was lying? If all he wanted to do was cause trouble for his ex leaving town for another man, using Patricia's disappearance is awfully specific. Wouldn't a bomb scare or anonymous tip of a "most wanted" or something be a lot easier and probably even faster? Was there ANY link between the doctor and the guy who called in the tip? If they talked to his ex, I'm sure they were able to verify who and where caller was.

I know this could be way off, but is there any chance Pat's husband was having an affair with the woman on the bus? The husband (boyfriend?) found out and thought maybe if he made it difficult for Pat's husband to be away from the house, since wife needed him as her wheels, then the relationship wouldn't continue? Maybe when/if it didn't end, he extended another 3 months and then decided to get revenge by taking Pat since her husband took his girl? He would have her address.

Additionally, the key on the counter was a big red flag. I'm intrigued by the above post about the sister-in-law using the key to let herself in. However, even if she used the key, she would know about the alarm. The only reason I can think of to take the key out of a deadbolt to an exterior door, is if you want to be certain the person on the inside can't get out. Could the person (doctor?) who triggered the alarm, secured e doors behind him/her AND removed the bolt key so Patricia couldn't run out the other door? Why set the alarm when leaving with her though?

I can certainly understand if maybe she wanted to run to a neighbors or somewhere very quickly, and knew she was leaving her purse,etc on the counter, she should set the alarm. Since she wasn't taking her keys, maybe that's why she took the bolt key out. However, what if she accidentally forgot to grab the key on her way out the door and the doors self-lock? Or did she decide not to lock the doors, set the key down, and chose to set the alarm instead?

Either way, the key, the driver's license restriction, the caller knowing to say he had her license, and the lack of information around the sister-in-law (obviously bold and disrespectful) hiding out from the abusive boyfriend, tells me there's an answer somewhere amongst these loose ends.

Please forgive me for suggesting anything negative about Pat's husband, but there can't be any bias when searching for a missing person. You've got to look at everything. If he is as good as he seems, he too respects this and understands e necessity.

I really hope something triggers the answer to where Patricia might be. I truly hope she can be one of those miraculous stories who survived whatever came her way and then eventually suffered a stroke leading to amnesia which could possibly lead to her living a life with a new name not knowing that she is the missing Patricia Viola. Maybe a medical database for epilepsy medications could be compared to ID photos and someone might make a match. You never know.

 

[kittenista]

I know in my state, Maryland, if you have any kind of seizure disorder you lose your license for a predetermined amount of time. (I want to say its 6 months minimum without subsequent seizures and there is still the possibility they can take away the privilege completely-I am not absolutely sure about that time frame though)

It might be worth looking into NJ law concerning seizures and suspension. I don't think the doctor was nefarious from the perspective of someone who lives in a state who has laws concerning seizures.

Hope this helps!

 

[OldSteve]

Here's a link to something about NJ law:
http://www.epilepsylifelinks.com/services-driver-seizure-new-jersey.php

 

[Sleuth Mom]

Thanks OldSteve. I guess we can rule out the doc. Based on what I just read, it is a mandatory 6 months; especially since she had suffered several seizures. Why can't they just give us the accurate information? What's the point of saying she was expecting to get her license back after three months and therefore was upset about having to wait another three months? Does it make for a better story or something? At least now we can assume she knew she wasn't getting her license after three months, so her depression must have been from other circumstances.

 

[webrocket]

I don't know what to say about this case. something was going on in Patricia's head based on things she said to her friend (as depicted in the TV show).

I really don't think she was abducted nor do I think she was murdered. Bogota is not without crime but I can't ever recall there being an adult abduction and stranger murders in town are exceedingly rare.

did they ever say what town she was supposedly in buying that stuffed monkey or whatever it was?

 

[lucymoosey]

I watched the episode last night on demand, and had a few questions myself:
1) Did they ever find any Valentine's cards or presents from Pat to her husband? Whether or not it was the monkey, etc.
2) Did Pat seem to have left any type of dinner out to defrost, i.e. showing that she had any plans of being home to cook dinner? (if she left to commit suicide, I doubt she would have left dinner ingredients out to defrost, etc)
3) Did the cops use tracking dogs from the house leading out? Where did the dogs scent trail lead??
My husband watched this episode with me, and he really feels it was a suicide.....

 

[EdinburghLass]

Does anyone know where I can watch this episode online? I am in Australia and we seem to only get random episodes of Disappeared here.

 

[webrocket]

I watched the episode last night on demand, and had a few questions myself:
1) Did they ever find any Valentine's cards or presents from Pat to her husband? Whether or not it was the monkey, etc.
2) Did Pat seem to have left any type of dinner out to defrost, i.e. showing that she had any plans of being home to cook dinner? (if she left to commit suicide, I doubt she would have left dinner ingredients out to defrost, etc)
3) Did the cops use tracking dogs from the house leading out? Where did the dogs scent trail lead??
My husband watched this episode with me, and he really feels it was a suicide.....

1) not sure.
2) good question but depending on what she might have been planning, she might not have had to thaw anything.
3) I seriously doubt the Bogota PD used tracking dogs.

it could well have been suicide but what baffles me is not so much where she did it, but how could a body from a suicide remain unfound after all these years? this is a highly densely populated area and when you factor in her lack of mobility, it does not lead to many possibilities other than the Hackensack River, which as I mentioned in an earlier post is not all that deep.

the river is so mucky that a person probably could get stuck just walking in it, which no one in their right mind would do.

 

[txsvicki]

A site online said that Patricia's Dad had suffered from Alzheimer's for 13 years before passing away, and that she had been forgetting everyday things and worried that it might be early onset Alzheimer's. That worry along with worsening seizures could have been the reason for what she wanted to speak with her friend about, and could make a wife and mother feel like she couldn't take care of her family. Not being able to drive for awhile, possibly never again, would be depressing. Hopefully, Patricia left and is working in some other state, but the triggered alarm seems like such a red flag. I wonder if LE thoroughly checked everyone who could have gotten hold of the door keys. My first thought was that someone may have gotten in and was hiding in the home for the right time to abduct Patricia. She had been walking for several months due to the seizure and someone could have spotted her, followed her daily routine, and that of the neighbors for the right time to not be seen. Or, if she did leave then someone helping her could have let themselves in to wait for her. If she left on her own (if she didn't have some money socked away) then she must have had help because she took nothing according to her family, not even her medication.