She Loaned Her Married Boyfriend $90,000 And Then She Disappeared While He Told The Police He Barely Knew Her

The last time anyone saw 29-year-old Patricia "Patti" Adkins was just after midnight on June 29, 2001. She was leaving the Honda of America automotive plant in Marysville, Ohio, where she worked.

She had worked at the plant for nearly 10 years and had become a supervisor on the assembly line. She was expecting to receive a promotion when she disappeared. That night, the plant closed down for the week to celebrate the Fourth of July. After she left the plant, she was never seen again.

At the time of her disappearance, Patti had been having an affair with a married coworker. They had dated on and off for years.

The boyfriend's name has not been released to the public. Patti's family and friends knew about the relationship. She told them that the man planned to leave his wife to be with her.

Over the course of several years, Patti gave him approximately $90,000 so that he could buy out his share of his and his wife's business when they divorced.

Patti drained her savings and borrowed against her 401k retirement fund to provide the money. Shortly before she went missing, she had told her boyfriend that she would need to start repaying the 401k loans soon.

Patti and her boyfriend had planned a vacation in Canada during the week they were off for the Fourth of July. They were going to stay in a cabin in a remote area without phone service. She put her pets in a kennel and made arrangements for her sister, Marcia Pitts, to watch her seven-year-old daughter.

Patti and her boyfriend were supposed to leave together right away after work on June 29. A female coworker gave Patti a ride to work that day so that her car wouldn't sit abandoned in the Honda parking lot all week.

When Patti left the plant that night, the plan was for her to hide under the tarp cover in the bed of her boyfriend's truck, according to Patti's friends.

Union County Sheriff's Office - pictured above is Patti

Another coworker was in the vehicle, and the boyfriend didn't want anyone to know about his relationship with Patti.

Patti's boyfriend also instructed her not to pack anything because they would buy whatever she needed once they arrived. But Patti packed a small teal duffel bag anyway. It contained a blue Victoria's Secret item. The bag and its contents were never found.

Patti had an appointment with her hairdresser after her vacation, but she never showed up to it. When she failed to pick up her daughter on the agreed-upon day of July 8, her sister, Marcia, became concerned.

Marcia called Patti's boyfriend, but he acted like he didn't even know who Patti was. He claimed that they weren't in a relationship and never made vacation plans together. Marcia reported Patti missing on July 8.

A couple of days later, police tracked down Patti's boyfriend at his home. He told them that he had nothing to do with Patti being missing and maintained that he was not romantically involved with her.

He and his friend left the plant together on June 29 and drove 30 miles in the direction of their hometown of Canton, Ohio. They stopped at a Burger King and waited in the drive-thru line for 45 minutes.

After they got their food, they went home. The boyfriend's wife said her husband arrived home at his usual time of 2:30 a.m. She didn't know anything about an affair.

However, the manager at the Burger King restaurant they went to said that they weren't busy in the early hours of the morning, and no one would have to wait that long for their food at that time.

The boyfriend gave the police permission to search his home. They found a new truck bed cover in his garage. The cover was taken for analysis, which revealed some cat hairs and a small bloodstain. The hair came from Patti's cats, but the bloodstain was too small to test for DNA.

Some other items found at the boyfriend's house contradicted his story that he and Patti barely knew each other. The items included a phone and a T-shirt that Patti had gifted to him. There was even a letter that Patti had written to him.

The boyfriend failed a polygraph test about the case. Shortly after Patti's disappearance, he quit his job at the Honda plant. Patti was declared legally dead in 2006. Her family believes that she was the victim of homicide. They hope the case will be solved one day.

At the time of her disappearance, Patti was 5'8" and weighed 120 pounds. She had pierced ears and a pierced belly button, as well as a tattoo of bluish-green flowers on her lower back.

Anyone with information about Patti's disappearance can contact Lieutenant Jeff Stiers at 937-645-4126.

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