Family members of a missing Ohio woman are hoping for answers, more than 23 years after she left on a trip with her boyfriend and never returned.
According to the Union County Sheriff’s Office, Patricia “Patti”Adkins left her job at Honda of America Manufacturing plant in Marysville on June 29, 2001, for a secret vacation to Canada with her boyfriend. When July 8 came around and Adkins failed to pick up her daughter, her sister, Marcia, became worried and reported her missing.
While Adkins’ boyfriend remains the main suspect, per UCSO, he has denied any involvement in her disappearance, according to NBC News.
Adkins and her boyfriend worked together and frequently spoke with each other at the auto plant. He was reportedly married, so they kept their relationship a secret until he could leave his wife, according to what she told family members.
“At the time, he was married to someone else. [He] allegedly told Patti he was going to leave his wife for her,” Union County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Jeff Stiers said
Adkins was last seen clocking out just after midnight from Honda and heading to her boyfriend’s truck.
“When she left Honda that night, the plan was for her to get under the tarp cover [in the bed of her boyfriend’s truck] because another co-worker was going to be in the car, and the boyfriend didn’t want other people to know he and Patti were seeing each other,” Lt. Stiers said.
Marcia said when she reached out to the boyfriend, he denied the vacation and that he even knew her.
Lt. Stiers said, “Marcia called him, and he played it off like he didn’t even know who Patti was.”
Law enforcement was able to track down Adkins’ boyfriend, who allowed them to search his home.
“There was not a search warrant. He gave us permission to search the property,” Lt. Stiers said. “There were a couple of items found there at the house that circumstantially validated the story we were getting [from other people] about their relationship.”
The boyfriend’s truck was also searched, and no DNA was in the truck or in the bed of the truck, where Adkins was going to hide.
During the investigation, Lt. Stiers said $90,000 was given to her boyfriend months before the trip.
Patti Adkins would be 52 years old today.
At the time of her disappearance, Adkins was approximately 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weights 120 pounds. She has pierced ears, a pierced belly button, and a lower back tattoo of a bluish-green flowers.
Central Ohio Crime Stoppers has offered a cash reward for any information that leads to Adkins.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS (8477) or submit a tip online at www.stopcrime.org.
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[Feature Photo: Patti Adkins/Facebook]