Unsolved Mystery: Woman Gone Missing in 13 Minutes
To this day, no one knows exactly what happened to Patrice.
Regular Morning
On April 15th, 2004, Patrice Endres was having a very normal morning. She woke up her fifteen-year-old son, Delves Wade “Pistol” Black by running on the treadmill, like every morning. She and Pistol argued a little bit because he was in a rush to get to school to talk to his girlfriend. Despite that when Patrice dropped him off at school, she told him she loved him and that she would see him that afternoon. He told her he loved her, but little did he know, he would never see her again.
Patrice went to her salon, Tamber’s Trim ‘n’ Tan in Cumming, Georgia that morning, but things seemed off right from the start. One client said that Patrice seemed very distracted while doing her hair and was not very attentive. Another said that when she called to reschedule her appointment, Patrice was very short on the phone, which was unlike her usual self. The call lasted approximately two minutes ending at 11:37 am. When a woman came for her appointment at 11:50 am, Patrice was nowhere to be found.
The cops were called and when they arrived on the scene, nothing seemed out of place. There was no blood, no overturned furniture, no drag marks on the floor, nothing. The cash register was emptied out and her purse looked like it had been rummaged through. However, it didn't seem like anything was stolen, including the cash she had on her.
Something else that was unusual was that her untouched lunch was by the microwave, the door of which wasn’t even open. Her keys were also still in the salon, but her car was parked in a different spot than normal.
The police could not find any trace of her, no fingerprints, footprints, fibers, or anything. They obviously found some hair, but it was a salon, so that was to be expected, and besides, there was no way to tell whose hair it belonged to or how long it had been there.
It seemed like she had upped and left in the middle of the day.
The police went to Pistol at school and asked him if he had spoken to her. When he said he hadn’t they asked if he could contact her. Pistol called her and she did not answer the phone. He called her two more times, and nothing Pistol said that when this usually happened, she would call back right away. He knew right then that something was wrong.
Patrice’s husband, Rob Endres was contacted at work at around 2 pm.
Family Drama
Patrice had met Rob when he came to get his haircut when she was thirty and he was fifty. They fell in love and were married in 1997. Patrice had already had Pistol from a previous relationship, and according to Pistol, Rob was pretty nice to him… for the first year of their marriage. After that, Pistol claims that Rob changed into a completely different person and started being incredibly rude to Pistol.
Friends and family of Patrice say that Rob was incredibly overprotective when it came to Patrice. He would apparently hover over her and was jealous of her relationships with anyone else, including Pistol.
Loved ones also say that Patrice and Rob would fight constantly and that she was not happy in the marriage for the past several years. Pistol said that he witnessed them fighting multiple times and that whenever they were fighting about Pistol, Patrice never backed down. It was clear that she loved him more than anything.
Rob denies that they ever fought. He agrees that they had some difficult times eventually, but considers the seven years they were married to be the happiest of his life. Rob also denies that Patrice wanted to divorce him, but Pistol states that Patrice had spoken about divorce in the weeks before her disappearance. She had also asked Pistol if she disappeared, where would he go? He told her he would probably go to his dad’s house, but at the time, he didn’t think much of her question, and she never explained why she had asked.
The Investigation Goes Cold
The police looked for any evidence they could find of Patrice but continued coming up empty. They searched the woods for hours, but they could not find any trace of her.
Pistol held out hope that his mom was finding a place for them, away from Rob, that she would come back for him when it was all ready. The police were inclined to think that Patrice really did leave of her own accord, but the family and friends wouldn’t hear of it, they knew she would never leave Pistol behind.
There were two witnesses who said they had seen her at around 11:45 am. One of them, Tammy Fincher, said that she saw Patrice’s car and another car pulled up outside the salon that morning. She said that the front door of the salon was open and that Patrice was near the door and an older woman was on the passenger side. Fincher said that the scene looked odd, with both women having their hands on each other, but it was unclear what was going on; whether one had tripped and fallen, or one was pushing the other, she couldn’t tell. The second witness was driving by at around the same time and said to have seen a different car in the parking lot and a man with shoulder-length hair. Both witnesses are thought to be credible because of the detail that each gave.
Other than those two witnesses, the police had nothing. They continued to have nothing for months.
They suspected two serial killers at the time, Jeremy Bryan Jones and Gary Michael Hilton. Jones confessed to the crimes, but only knew information that was public knowledge, and her body wasn’t found where he said he left it. As far as Hilton, they had no evidence tying him to the crime.
For over a year, the police had nothing. No idea what happened to Patrice, or where she had gone.
Prime Suspect
Initially, Rob had been a prime suspect for the disappearance and possible murder of his wife. Rob seemed to understand this as husbands are always suspects in wife’s disappearances. Rob said that it was physically impossible that he did it, showing receipts of getting gas and clocking into work during that morning. And while police eliminated him as the sole suspect, they still remain unclear about whether or not he was involved.
Pistol on the other hand is sure that Rob had something to do with it. It is not impossible that Rob couldn’t have committed the crime, but it is unlikely according to the police. However, something odd is that the day after Patrice disappeared, Rob changed all the locks to the house. He refused to let Pistol in to get any of this stuff and said that he did it for his protection because his wife had just disappeared.
This was extremely suspicious to Pistol and other loved ones of Patrice. It seemed like Rob kept Pistol out of the house to possibly hide any evidence that might have been there.
Rob believes that it was someone who knew her and her routine who got her. This does seem likely, possibly that someone asked for a jumpstart, which would explain why her car was moved and was able to lure her away.
There is some information that the police have not released because it is things that only the police and killer know and can be used to determine if a confession is true or not.
Finding Patrice’s Remains
On December 6th, 2005, Patrice’s remains were found.
She was found only 10 miles away from her salon when someone stumbled upon her skull and called the police.
She was later cremated and Rob got the ashes. He says he slept with them every night for a year and that they were like a teddy bear. Pistol never got anything of hers, including her ashes.
To this day, no one knows exactly what happened to Patrice. Some are adamant that Rob was involved in some way, others are unsure. It is important to note that Rob has since gotten remarried, which is interesting considering the unhealthy attachment that he seemed to have with his former wife.
Something that could help the police find out who killed Patrice would be to find her missing wedding ring. It was nowhere at the scene where her body was, meaning that the killer probably still has it. If anyone ever finds that ring, they will also likely find the killer.