The Christmas Vanishing of Patty Vaughan

On Christmas Day 1996, Patty Vaughan drove away from her Texas home and vanished, leaving behind a trail of blood, an abandoned van, and one of the state’s most haunting unsolved mysteries.

(As heard in the Weird Darkness podcast episode, ‘Twas The Mystery Before Christmas)

Something terrible happened on Christmas Day in 1996, in a small town in La Vernia, Texas. Thirty-two years old and mother to three kids, Patty Vaughan left her house and never came home. No one knew at the time that it would soon become one of Texas’s most enigmatic mysteries.

Patty was struggling with some tough changes in her life. She and her husband, J.R. Vaughan, had separated two months before she vanished. Patty was seeing a new guy, she was trying to have a new beginning. But on Dec. 25, after she drove away from her house in her blue Dodge Caravan, Patty appeared to disappear.

Patty’s van was discovered the following day abandoned on the shoulder of a highway approximately 15 miles from her home. Something didn’t look right. One of the van’s front tires was deflated, and someone had recently vacuumed the inside carpet of the van. The blood, a red work uniform with the letters “JM” on it, and a heap of clothes were discovered by police. Oddly, Patty’s keys and purse were missing;

Investigators made even more disturbing discoveries when they searched Patty’s house. They discovered blood in several locations — on the walls and the floor of her bedroom, inside her closet, and in the bathroom. Someone had attempted to clean up the blood before the police arrived. Tests conducted later indicated that the blood was Patty’s.

In 2012, years later, scientists tested more things from Patty’s van and found DNA from another woman. The police believe they know the identity of this woman, but they require more evidence before they can look into her further.

Speculation started to circle around Patty’s husband, J.R. as being the focus on this case. The same day cops discovered Patty’s van, J.R. filed for divorce. He returned to their house soon after Patty went missing, but then left Texas and moved to Colorado. He maintained that he had nothing to do with Patty’s disappearance and that he believed she had left on her own accord.

Patsy Wallace, Patty’s mother, became so convinced of J.R.’s involvement that she got herself into serious trouble. In February 1997, she was arrested for trespassing into J.R.’s home and attacking him with a baseball bat. She was distraught over her daughter’s disappearance, and the charges against her were later dropped.

The inquiry dragged on for years. That was when police cleared an intriguing location – the concrete foundation of a school in Natalia, Texas where J.R. had worked at the time Patty vanished. They searched behind the school gymnasium, where they thought Patty’s remains might be buried in the concrete, but didn’t find anything.

No one knows what happened to Patty Vaughan on that Christmas Day more than 25 years ago. The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office continues to search for answers. They are offering a $3,000 reward for someone who can give information that helps them solve the case. Anyone with information about Patty’s case is asked to call the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office at 210-335-TIPS (210-335-6000).

SOURCES LIST: https://weirddarkness.com/christmasmysteries/