Defrosting Cold Cases

The Texas Bexar County Sheriff’s Office could use your help in two cases:

In 1986, Tracy Allen (18) was found dead in Hondo Creek, Texas. Cause of death: strangulation.

She disappeared after September 9 and was found on September 13, 1986.

At the time that she disappeared, nothing was out of order. Tracy’s room was as she left it with all her personal items and belongings in place. Nothing pointed to her running away or even that an attempt had been made to pack bags. This led people to believe that she had every intention to return home later that day.

The person responsible for her death knew the area well. Just look at the video and you can see the location where she was found. It was very close to her home. A stranger would not dare to take the risk to be seen so close to Tracy’s home.

I have not been able to find out yet whether Tracy died where she was found.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 210- 224-STOP.

Another case they are struggling with is the disappearance of Patty Vaughan.

The case of Patty Vaughan is a most complex and confusing one. There is a lot of information on the web but much of it contradicts itself or leaves huge gaps in the time lines.

On Dec. 25, 1996, Patty disappeared from her home and has never seen again.

Patty’s blue 1991 Dodge Caravan was discovered on December 26, 1996, one day after she was last seen. It was abandoned on the shoulder of Loop 1604, just west of Highway 37 in South Bexar County, with the driver’s side front tire deflated. This was about 15-20 miles from her home and 5 miles from her office at Quinney Electric.

The newspaper articles stated that the caravan was cleaner than usual. The driver’s seat was pushed back, blood was found under, near, and around the backseat, and one of the tires was flat. Tests revealed that the tire had been intentionally deflated. DNA tests confirmed that the blood found in the caravan, belonged to Patty.

Luminol is often used by crime scene investigators to locate blood evidence because of its reaction to hemoglobin, which causes the chemical to give off a blue glow. After preliminary Luminol tests in the home, strong blood reactions were found in the bedroom, the master bath, and master closet area. They also discovered blood on a mop inside the house. DNA testing proved that blood found inside the house, was Patty’s.

On May 15, 2008, after Bexar County investigators had taken over the cold case, they decided to investigate a pile of clothes found inside Patty’s caravan. They found a red workman’s jumpsuit inside a pile of men’s clothing on which Vaughan’s blood was found back in 1996. “What jumped out is that this jumpsuit seemed to be a worker… automotive repair or plumbing,” Officer Ramirez said. Of course, that pile of clothing should have been scrutinized long before these officers decided to take over the case and it makes you wonder what else was in the caravan…

 Back to the jumpsuit…

“JM” could be a person, a company, a brand or, a personal abbreviation. I’d like to know what the quality of that jumpsuit was, the brand, where it was sold, how the stitching of the emblem was done (by machine or by hand), was there anything else on the shirt such as written initials on the tag or any other biological residue that can be tested for DNA?

Many questions remain in Patty’s disappearance. Question that can be answered. Vidocq hopes that people will come forward to tell the truth.

Patty left three children behind who are now all in their twenties. I bet they would want to know exactly what happened to their mother.

If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: Bexar County Sheriff’s Office 1-210-270-6070.

There are more cold cases posted on their website, click here.

Categories: Cold Case News, Forensics, Help the Cops!, Missing Persons, Unsolved

Tags: Autopsy, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, FBI, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Missing Person, Police, Texas, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses