Patricia Meehan

Real Name: Patricia Meehan
Nicknames: Patty
Location: Circle, Montana
Date: April 20, 1989

Bio

Occupation: Ranch Hand
Date Of Birth: November 1, 1951
Height: 5'3"
Weight: 117 lbs.
Marital Status: Unrevealed
Characteristics: Green eyes, strawberry blonde hair, freckles with fair complexion and mild Eastern accent with a soft, low voice as if almost a whisper.

Case

Details: At around 8:15 pm on April 20, 1989, on Highway 200 in Circle, Montana, Peggy Bueller and her parents were driving to Great Falls, Montana, to visit her sister. Behind them was Carol Heitz, an off-duty police dispatcher. Out of nowhere, a car driving the opposite direction came onto their side of the road. Peggy swerved out of the way, barely missing a head-on collision with the wrong-way car. Carol pulled off to the side of the road, but the other car still collided with her. Carol exited the car without any serious injuries. The woman driving the wrong-way car also exited her vehicle. She looked at Carol for several seconds, but said nothing. The woman then walked away from the accident scene. Peggy and her parents went to the accident scene to make sure everyone was alright. Peggy then noticed the woman; she was standing on the other side of a fence, a few yards from the accident scene. According to Peggy, the woman was looking at the accident as if she was a bystander and not involved. The woman then walked into the field and vanished.
Within half an hour, police traced the car to its owner, thirty-eight-year-old Patricia Meehan; she was the wrong-way driver. Immediately, police began to search for her; however, they had no idea if Patricia was injured or if she was purposefully hiding from them. Shoe prints were found in the field near the accident scene that went on for several miles; by 3 am, the tracks disappeared and the search was suspended until the next morning. The search continued for five days, but no trace of her was found. Two theories emerged as to how Patricia eluded her trackers. The first theory was that she had stowed away on a hay truck parked about a half mile from the accident scene. The other theory is that she just hitchhiked out of the area.
Since her disappearance, she has been spotted multiple times throughout the United States. At first, it seemed as though she vanished to avoid prosecution for leaving the scene of an accident. However, eyewitness reports of her increasingly strange behavior suggest that she may be suffering from a rare and dangerous form of amnesia.
Patricia was originally from Pennsylvania but had moved to Oklahoma to attend college and prepare for a career in daycare. She worked in that field until 1985 when she decided to move to Montana to work on a ranch. Before her disappearance, her family and friends had noticed that she had become depressed and withdrawn. Psychiatrists believe that she sustained a head injury from the crash and that this injury combined with her previous problems may have caused her amnesia.
Since her accident, Patricia has been spotted at least one-hundred times between Montana and Seattle, mostly at truck stops. However, she has apparently been able to hitchhike out of the areas before her family could find her. One of the confirmed sightings of her occurred in May 1989, in Bozeman, Montana, which is just a few miles from her home. She went to a restaurant and behaved strangely around both the hostess and the waitress that served her.
Unfortunately, based on the sightings, it does not appear that Patricia's condition is improving. If she is not treated soon, then the damage to her mental state could be severe and irreversible.
Patricia Meehan remains missing.
Suspects: None known; at the time, foul play was not suspected in the case.
Extra Notes: This case first aired on the November 1, 1989 episode.
Results: Unsolved. In 2011, police released a composite of a woman found in British Columbia, who Web Sleuth bloggers recognized her as possibly being Patricia. One of the bloggers sent in the tip to the police, but it was later revealed that this was not her.
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Patricia Meehan

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