Casefile True Crime - Case 69: Gary Patterson

Episode Date: December 2, 2017

On the morning of May 3 1997, 33-year-old Gary Patterson woke up early at his home in Waco, Texas. Gary was excited, as he was flying out to El Paso to complete the final stage in a series of job interviews. He had an appointment with the company’s CEO and by the end of the day, he hoped to be the new head of a large housing development project. ---  Episode narrated by the Anonymous Host Researched and written by Anna Priestland For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-69-gary-patterson

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To you, the difference. Or on our website. On the morning of Saturday, May 3rd, 1997, 33-year-old single father Gary Patterson woke up before dawn in his home in Waco, Texas. He got dressed in black jeans and a white shirt and boots. He didn't need to wear a suit to his final job interview. He had already met with one of the business partners, and they had got to know each other pretty well over the previous three weeks.

That morning, the 7.30am flight from Waco to El Paso was the last step in the process. He would meet the company's CEO and would hopefully return home that night, the new head of a large housing development project. After a tough few years, things were starting to look up. The majority of the Chihuahuan desert's 200 million acres lie south of the United States border in the central Mexican highlands. As it sprawls north into the US, it crosses the far western corner of Texas into the south of New Mexico.

The majority of the Chihuahuan desert's 200 million acres lie south of the United States border in the central Mexican highlands. It crosses the far western corner of Texas into the south of New Mexico and Arizona. It is vast and its landscape ever changing, one of the most biologically diverse deserts in the world. Long sweeping valleys of sandy scrub, agave and yucca trees morph into huge experiences of flat, hard and dry land dotted with desert grass and cacti. Virtually no rain falls until the summer monsoon season between July and October.

The habitat is resistant to extreme conditions, only the strongest survive. The Chihuahuan is well known for its rocky mountain ranges which form long and sometimes overlapping silhouettes. Searing daytime temperatures drop away to freezing nights due to the lack of humidity and cloud cover, and it can be a hot day in the lowland regions while the surrounding mountains are capped in snow. Out in the desert you would have more luck coming across a native wild animal than you would another human being. People don't stay out in the desert at night, there is nothing out there except for the biting temperatures and the animals who use the cover of darkness to cross the desert plains and valleys in order to stay hidden from predators. The Chihuahuan desert contains over 250 species of butterflies,

20 amphibian species, 100 mammals, 250 birds and 100 reptiles. Snakes slither their way in the low-lying desert scrub, lizards and scorpions hide around the rocks and crevices. It's a mix of extremes, it's harsh, it's not a place you can survive on your own. Hundreds of miles east of the West Texan desert, in Waco, Gary Patterson was starting to feel like life was getting back to normal. He had only recently gained full custody of his daughter after a long and stressful divorce and custody battle. With the support of his family and friends, he was through the worst of it. He and Lisa Urik had married back in 1984 when Gary was 21, having their daughter five years later. For most of their marriage, Gary and Lisa worked for Lisa's father, Sam Urik.

Sam opened a few different businesses, including a marina and an insurance agency. Every now and then, Sam would appear, take the profits and disappear again, often for weeks or months at a time, leaving Gary and Lisa to deal with the customers. They never seemed to be a clear business model and things weren't sitting right with Gary. It was after an incident at the insurance agency in the early 90s that Gary got fed up with the lifestyle and told Lisa he wanted out. He was sick of Sam's get rich quick schemes. Lisa was working the reception desk, holding their baby, when two men stormed in and demanded to know where Sam Urik was. They were angry and threatening, and like always, Sam was nowhere to be found.

Following that incident, Sam Urik returned and abruptly closed the business, only to open a completely new company, a trucking business called Southern Sales in Conroe, two and a half hours southeast of Waco. Gary told Lisa he didn't want to work for her father anymore. He wanted to make his own way in the world. He suggested they should distance themselves from her family and get on with things alone, away from the wheeling and dealing of Sam. Gary took a job as a draftsman with Brazos Environmental and Engineering, and soon after, his marriage with Lisa broke down. Sam Urik had grown critical of his son-in-law, and a rift was created in the family. Sam began suggesting to his daughter that she should file for divorce. Lisa sided with her father, and in 1992, after eight years of marriage, and when their daughter was two years old, the divorce was settled.

Lisa was granted custody, with Gary granted liberal visitation rights. By this time, Sam and Gary had completely fallen out, and Sam was not happy that his son-in-law was granted any visitation rights at all. He didn't want Gary to have anything to do with his family. In the autumn of 1994, Lisa disappeared with their daughter. She just got up and took off. Her father, Sam, had been in her ear. He'd got it into Lisa's head that if she and his granddaughter weren't around, then Gary wouldn't be able to see them. Sam wanted to get at Gary, and this seemed like a strong message and good payback. For the next two years, Lisa and their daughter moved from Texas to Nevada to Alaska and onto California. Along the way, Lisa would tell different stories as to why she had to escape Texas.

To some, she told stories of abuse, and to others, she said Gary was dead. People bought the stories, but Lisa never stayed long enough for any real questions to be asked. Gary and his family hired a private investigator in California to track Lisa down, and after being on the run for almost two years, she was found living in Oregon. She visited in August 1996 and returned to Waco, where she was charged with parental kidnapping. After three court appearances, Gary was granted sole custody, with Lisa being allowed supervised visits. Gary focused hard on getting his life on track as a single father and helping his daughter settle back into a normal routine and a normal life. Eight months later, in early April 1997, the month before Gary Patterson's life-changing interview, Lisa was sentenced to five years probation for her parental kidnapping charge, and she was ordered to pay child support. It wasn't amicable, but when Lisa called Gary's parents and asked if they could give her a photo of Gary so she could put it in a locket for their daughter, it seemed like things were going to be okay.

With the stress of the court proceedings and custody battles over, Gary could finally focus on building a life. He had a new girlfriend, and he was happy to be finally moving on. Just days later, the opportunity of a lifetime came Gary's way. It was a normal day at the Brazos office. The environmental engineering company had a strong team and a respected presence in Waco. That morning, a man arrived at the front reception desk. He had arrived by taxi, so the receptionist knew he must have been from out of town. He was tanned, graying, and smartly dressed. The man introduced himself as Ned Wright. He was a real estate developer from Florida, and he was in Waco to look for engineers to partner up on a multi-million dollar project they were starting, a large development of modular homes in Waco. He said he and his partner had heard great things about Brazos, and seeing as he was in the area, he thought he would drop in and introduce himself.

Ned met with the engineers and explained a little more about himself and the project. He was from one of Florida's Fortune 500 companies, so joining forces with this caliber of property developer would be an extremely lucrative partnership for Brazos. Ned Wright thought Brazos seemed like a perfect fit. He asked if he could review the team's resumes and meet everyone in the office, saying, I'd like to shake a man's hand and look him in the eye before I hire him. There was a buzz in the office that something big and exciting was about to happen, but it was followed by disappointment. A few days later, Ned phoned Brazos and said the bank wanted them to partner with a bigger firm, so he wouldn't be able to follow through with their negotiations. Later that week, a man phoned Brazos and asked to speak to Gary Patterson. When Gary answered the call, he found that it was actually Ned Wright on the other end. Ned had given the receptionist the false name, as he didn't want anyone to know it was him calling. Ned explained that although they wouldn't be able to partner with Brazos, they were in a position to hire someone to head up part of the operation, and they wanted to speak to Gary about coming on board. Ned had been impressed with him, but didn't want other staff at Brazos to know until they could negotiate something.

Over the next three weeks, Gary took several calls from Ned at his desk. It became a bit of a joke with the receptionist. She knew it was the same person, but she couldn't work out why he was giving a different name each time he called. She'd buzz through to Gary saying, Gary it's that strange man from Florida on the phone who doesn't want me to know who he is. Ned Wright explained to Gary that they were willing to offer him a higher position with a better salary if he joined them. It was a great opportunity, and Gary was excited, but he kept his cool. He had kept the offer on that download, only telling his girlfriend, his parents, and a few of his trusted workmates. Ned had returned to Florida, and he wanted to know if Gary would consider flying out there for a few days to meet Ned's partner, the CEO of the company. Gary said he'd think about it.

When they next spoke, Gary agreed to go to Florida, and he was thinking he would take his girlfriend and they'd make a trip of it, a getaway after all the stress of the last couple of years. Ned explained that they only had a quick back and forth trip in mind, and were hoping it would just be Gary, as things were so busy with the company. But he said he would try and work something out and get back to Gary when he did. When Ned called back, he said there was a change of plans, and he could now meet Gary at Waco Airport. Ned had to fly out unexpectedly for the development project, and he was actually there right now. But Gary couldn't make it, and the plan fell through. But Ned found another opportunity. He explained to Gary that the CEO was going to be in El Paso in early May to survey a new development site over there, and it would be the perfect opportunity for the three of them to finally meet.

Ned offered to fly Gary to the far west Texas city, where they would finalize his employment contract and get acquainted. If the CEO was happy, and Gary was still interested, they were planning to make him the head of the new operation. If Gary agreed to take the job, they could even arrange his new company car straight away, the Chevrolet Suburban, and he could drive it back home to Waco. If he decided not to take the job, there would be no hard feelings, and they would fly him home on their company jet. They would even make the meeting on a Saturday, so as not to disrupt his current position. Gary felt he had absolutely nothing to lose. It was the type of opportunity that didn't come around every day, and he was prepared to see what came of it. If he didn't go, he would always wonder, what if?

Gary's family and the few who knew about the job offer were happy for him. His dad was a little skeptical, but he knew that Gary was right. If he didn't go and see what it was all about, he would always wonder. His only advice to Gary was, don't give them any money. On the morning of Saturday, May 3rd, 1997, Gary left his daughter with his parents and took a 7.30am American Eagle flight from Waco to El Paso. The flight took him right over the Chihuahuan Desert, touching down into the fourth largest city in Texas, just before noon. El Paso is located in the far western corner of Texas, in a region of the desert known as the Transpecos. El Paso borders New Mexico to the north and west, and Mexico to the south.

Its close proximity to Mexico brings a Mexican flavour to everything from cuisine to the landscape and the architecture. Compared to many other parts of the state, the El Paso region is arid and mountainous. The Franklin Mountains loom over the city like a wave. The Rio Grande River runs smoothly down towards Mexico, where it forms part of the border between the two countries. Outside El Paso, the Chihuahuan Desert is sparsely populated. The mix of dry desert conditions and mountains make for some of the harshest weather extremes imaginable, and May is usually the beginning of the most severe weather of the year. El Paso has always been associated with its high levels of poverty and low median income level,

a factor which statistically can contribute to high crime rates. But El Paso has defied the odds and remained one of the safest cities in America. El Paso has been ranked in the top three safest large cities in the US since 1997, and it has gone on to win the safest city four years in a row in more recent times. After reaching El Paso, Gary called his father to let him know he had arrived safely. He got his dad's answering machine, so he left a message. The following day was when Gary was either due to fly back to Waco, or if he had accepted the job, drive back in his new work car.

But no one had heard from him. As night fell on that Sunday evening, Gary's parents were worried. Gary wasn't the sort of person to not stay in touch, especially given everyone back home was waiting for the big news on whether he had the new job or not. After everything Gary had been through to get his daughter back, they knew that it was totally out of character for him not to contact them and let them know what was going on. He was due back at work on Monday morning, and he wasn't the type to not show up without calling in. When Monday came around, and Gary still hadn't been in touch,

his father filed a missing person report with the Waco Police Department. He knew something was wrong. He told the officer on duty that he was sure something had happened to his son. At first it was like most other adult missing person reports. There were concerned loved ones adamant that something must have happened to Gary, and there were the police officers who were looking for more logical explanations. After their cursory checks on Gary came up with nothing. Waco investigators, Detective Steve January and Detective Christina Woodruff,

went to Brazos to find out more about the job Gary was going for, and the Fortune 500 company who was poaching him. When staff at Brazos put together all of the information they had on the mysterious Ned Wright, it became clear that they didn't know very much. They had his description, some brief info on his company's intentions, and they knew who was from Florida. That was about it. Back at the station, the detectives put together what they had and began to look for Ned Wright.

He was described as, suntanned, white male, approximately 50 years of age, 5 feet 8 inches tall, 180 to 200 pounds. The receptionists had seen Ned Wright come and go in a taxi, and Detective Christina Woodruff knew there was only one taxi company in the area, Yellow Cab Waco, Texas, and they only had seven cars at the most operating. By law, taxi drivers had to keep a logbook detailing where they picked each passenger up

and where they dropped them off. Down at the Yellow Cab office, a logbook showed that a ride that went to Gary's work the day Ned Wright arrived had come from a hotel in downtown Waco called the Fairfield Inn. When they spoke to the driver, he remembered picking up the fare, but he couldn't really give them any further info about Ned Wright. So the detectives went to the hotel. They asked to see the records of people staying there in the days surrounding Ned's arrival at Brazos.

There were plenty of check-in records, but no one registered under the name Ned Wright. The next thing they checked was the hotel's phone records, looking for outgoing calls to either Gary's home or work. After searching pages and pages of records, they finally got a hit. Room 125 showed a series of calls to Brazos Environmental and Engineering. Room 125 was paid for in cash. The room was registered to a man from Florida named Ted Young. Ted Young had to leave a photo copy of his passport with the hotel staff,

and detectives realized the similarities between the description of Ned Wright and the passport photo of Ted Young. Detective January took a copy of the passport photo and made a photo lineup to take to the Brazos office. One of Gary's co-workers immediately identified the photograph of Ted Young as being Ned Wright. With the mystery businessman identified, they got to work tracking Ted Young down. There was no surprise when they found out that he had no ties to any Fortune 500 development companies in Florida.

For the past two and a half years, Ted Young had actually been a federal fugitive. He had been convicted in South Carolina in a $26 million fraud case, and he was sentenced to 52 months in a federal prison. Only Ted never showed up to serve his sentence, and he had been on the run ever since. Waco Police had no idea why Ted Young would target a single father with no particular wealth. There was nothing to extort. What did he have to gain? It didn't make any sense.

They began contacting everyone close to Gary, hoping for some answers. They phoned Gary's ex-wife, Lisa Urik, for she wouldn't return their calls. They looked into Lisa further and learned about the complex custody battle she had with Gary. They also learned that just a few days after Gary went missing, Lisa hired an attorney and filed for full custody of their daughter. It was clear she was trying to use Gary's disappearance to her advantage. Next on the list was Sam Urik, Lisa's father. The detectives were aware of his falling out with Gary and also of his possible shady business deals.

They gave him a call at his trucking company, two and a half hours southeast of Waco, to see if he could set some light on any shady deals his ex-son-in-law may have been involved in. Detective January picked up the phone and set up a tape recorder to tape the conversation. Detective Steve January has quoted on the investigators TV show. I placed a call to him at his trucking company in Conroe in hopes of setting up an interview. I tried to persuade him to come to Waco to talk to us, but he insisted I come there. He made it clear he wanted me on his turf. And then, toward the end of the conversation, he began to say some really strange things.

He started talking about my kids, my boys, even knew their names. I've had you checked out, he said, and I know how much you love your kids. And then he hung up. Detective January had no doubt that Sam Urik was trying to intimidate him. January hung up the receiver and rewound the tape in his recorder to play back the threat. But when he pressed play, he realized the tape hadn't recorded. He kicked a rubbish bin across the room in disgust. Something wasn't right.

It was obvious that Sam Urik wanted the police to back off, but they didn't know why. Detective January sought the advice of local Texas Ranger, Sergeant Matt Cawthon. Texas Rangers are a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction. They fulfill the role of the State Bureau of Investigation and can assist local law enforcement agencies, especially when there are jurisdictional issues or the investigation is complicated. They have certain pull and power that local law enforcement don't have. Together, Ranger Cawthon and Detective January decided that the best thing to do would be to make a surprise visit to Sam Urik at his trucking company in Conroe. But they drove three hours to find the warehouse empty.

Sam Urik had cleared out and disappeared. The trucking company showed little evidence that it was a legitimate business at all. The business name, Southern Sales, had operated under six different names and company bosses. There were no tax listings and the only activity on the phone records were thousands of long distance phone calls to El Paso, Mexico and Honduras in Central America, as well as numerous other locations. The investigation, with the help of the Texas Rangers, now focused on Sam Urik. They had absolutely no idea how he could possibly be linked to Ted Young or even the disappearance of Gary Patterson, but it seemed like the right direction to go.

Gary's father told investigators the rumors and stories he had heard about Sam Urik. How he would sometimes brag about the old days when he was a CIA hitman. There was the time Sam went to a Waco bank with $100,000 in cash wanting to open an account. The bank requested a disclosure agreement citing where the money had come from. But rather than tell them, Sam left the bank furious. Lisa Urik was eventually called in for questioning. She had no idea where her father was and she had no idea where Gary was either. She didn't look worried at all about Gary, but the detectives didn't know if that was because they weren't on speaking terms,

or she knew something they didn't. Detective January. Do you have any suggestions or thoughts on why he might have disappeared? Lisa. I really don't. I can't imagine what has happened to him. What do you think happened to him? Like I said before, I don't know. I mean, it's just totally out of character. Do you think your father could be involved? No.

Why not? Because my dad is not like that. That's why. Gary's father passed over the details of the private investigator they had hired to track Lisa down. Hoping that he might have some information for the police. And he was right. He did. The San Diego Private Investigator told Detective January that while trailing Lisa, he had a hunch that her father Sam was involved. And it turned out that Sam had actually been funding Lisa to stay hidden for the two years she was on the run. It was clear to the PI that Urik hated his former son-in-law because of the custody battle, and it was not a man to forgive or forget very easily.

The PI confirmed that Urik was involved in money laundering schemes and different business scams. Any sniffing around his business by the cops was a sure way to get him to run, because he wouldn't want to jeopardize his money over an investigation into the disappearance of his ex-son-in-law. The PI also disclosed that he had managed to get his hands on a leather-bound day planner owned by Urik. It was sitting on the front seat of Urik's Lincoln, and it just happened to fall into his hands and get photocopied. The PI gave Detective January a copy. When January received the pages, he saw it was a large list of contacts. They weren't in alphabetical order like a phone book. It was just a list of around a thousand names and phone numbers written randomly. January got to work going through the list, and after getting through around 500 names, he finally found the one he was looking for.

Ted Young But both Sam Urik and Ted Young had vanished, and detectives from the Waco Police Department didn't have the capabilities to track them down. They were faced with major jurisdiction issues. Gary Patterson was from Waco in McLennan County, but he disappeared in El Paso, which is in El Paso County. Ted Young was a federal fugitive who could be anywhere, and Sam Urik got around. Further background checks on him revealed he had been either charged, indicted, or served time in 22 different states. Texas Ranger Cawthon went to the Waco Police Department and went over the entire case with Detective January and Woodruff. They spent a whole afternoon outlining everything they knew before Cawthon suggested that the only way to help with the jurisdiction issues was to get everyone in the same room.

He organized a meeting of local, state, and federal agencies, believing they might be able to put together some sort of strategy. The meeting was attended by the McLennan County District Attorney, the Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, representatives from the FBI, and members of the U.S. Marshals Office. They went over all the details of the case and decided that the only chance they had of finding out what happened to Gary Patterson was to locate the last known person to have seen him alive, Ted Young. What the Waco detectives didn't know was that the U.S. Marshals had been following Ted Young already. The U.S. Marshals deputy who was present at the meeting excused herself to make a phone call. When she returned, she sat down and said, We've got him. We know all about him and where he is. She reeled off an enormous catalog of details of the surveillance of Ted Young, finishing with, he just crossed over the border from El Paso to Juarez, pulling a trailer. The U.S. Marshals made it clear that Ted Young was a federal fugitive and they had sold jurisdiction over him, but they said they would keep local law enforcement in the loop.

The Waco detectives had trouble reconciling that the U.S. Marshals knew where Ted Young was but hadn't made the arrest yet. They kept quiet but they were troubled and as the weeks went on and still no arrest was made, they became restless and decided to continue on with their own investigation. Getting everyone in the same room hadn't helped their jurisdiction issues. They weren't getting any cooperation from El Paso boys. They had no idea what the U.S. Marshals plans for Ted Young were and they were no closer to finding either Sam Uric or Gary Patterson. With the help of Waco based Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston, they realized that if they could somehow have Gary's disappearance viewed as a federal crime and a federal case, they would gain power to subpoena witnesses as well as seek the cooperation of the El Paso authorities and the FBI. But the problem they had was that Gary Patterson didn't cross over state lines. El Paso is still in Texas. Texas Ranger Cawthon recalled in an interview with Carlton Stowards from the Dallas Observer for his article and book Death in a Texas Desert. Quote,

Finally, after doing some research, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston came up with a statute referring to interstate flights that worked to our advantage. The commercial flight that Gary had taken to El Paso had been scheduled to travel on to San Francisco that same day. They had found a loophole to get their federal link and soon after the FBI officially joined the missing person investigation. They were now ready to utilize all the resources they had available to them. Since the Marshals insisted on bringing Ted Young in, Assistant U.S. Attorney Johnston called them and requested they help locate Sam Uric as well. But it was given a stern warning by the Marshals. You don't know who you were dealing with. The Texan grandfather Sam Uric's history went far beyond what local law enforcement knew. There was a highly classified FBI investigation called Operation Circus, which named Uric as a known associate of two rogue CIA agents in the 1980s, Frank Terpal and Edmund Wilson.

The rogue agents had been accused of selling stolen items to terrorist countries. The FBI believed Sam Uric helped hide the rogue agents when they were on the run and that he was also involved in the purchase and delivery of arms and 20 tonnes of plastic explosives. These explosives were sold to Libyan terrorists who would ultimately claim credit for the 1986 bombing of a Berlin nightclub frequented by American soldiers. The bombing killed two U.S. servicemen and wounded over 200 others. In retaliation to the bombing, President Reagan ordered airstrikes on Libya. At the time of the investigation into Gary Patterson's disappearance, at least three U.S. intelligence agencies had his ex-father-in-law Sam Uric listed as someone who assisted in facilitating the shipment of explosives to Libya. So now local law enforcement knew. Sam Uric wasn't just a small-time money launderer with shady businesses. He was a serious criminal and there was every chance that he was involved in his ex-son-in-law's disappearance.

With the threat Sam Uric had made still fresh in his mind, Detective January stepped up his own personal protection. He checked his home and vehicle for explosives and he kept several guns close by in case he needed one at a moment's notice. When Detective Christina Woodruff found out about the dark past of Sam Uric, she feared for her life. They believed he was a person capable of anything. The next stage of the investigation involved Texas Ranger Cawthon and Waco Detectives January and Woodruff going over every name in Sam Uric's day planer. They constantly flew between Waco and El Paso, creating a roadmap between different people on the list. Everyone in the day planer seemed to be involved with the underside of the law in some way. Fugitives, conmen and lawbreakers dotted across the desert plains of Texas.

Some people got wind that police were sniffing around and fled before they could be questioned. Other associates of Sam's, sometimes two or three times removed, gave tidbits of information. One person told Detectives that Sam Uric was actually with Ted Young in El Paso the day Gary Patterson flew there. On a dusty rocky road on the outskirts of El Paso, Detectives approached the house of a man known to both Sam Uric and Ted Young, Oli Martinez. Oli told them that Ted was living in Honduras in Central America and he offered to take them there personally. Ted Young might have been in Honduras. It would explain the long-distance calls from Sam Uric's trucking company to the country. But it also might have been a ruse by Oli Martinez to get back over the border himself. When Waco investigators called through the info to the US Marshals in El Paso, they were warned that Martinez was a known hustler and conman and he was likely just playing them.

As the one-year mark of Gary Patterson's disappearance came around, the leads finally started heating up. They interviewed dozens of Uric's associates and worked through every name in his day planner, which led them to a man named Clark Paulson. Clark confirmed that he knew both Sam Uric and Ted Young, and after some prodding, he admitted that Ted had contacted him a while ago and asked to borrow his pickup truck. On May 3, 1997, the day Gary Patterson disappeared, Clark Paulson delivered his pickup truck to Ted Young at the Red Roof Inn, El Paso. Paulson picked his truck up the following day in the same motel's parking lot, but he wasn't sure what Ted had used it for. Detectives then made a plan to go to an address that had come up in their extensive investigation of Sam Uric and his associates. It was a ranch in the Chihuahuan Desert, east of El Paso, owned by a longtime associate of Uric's. The ranch was on 600 isolated acres of desert. They believed that Uric often visited the ranch, sometimes staying there for weeks at a time. He would use the ranch to meet Ted Young and others on unknown business.

According to Texas Ranger Cawthon, when interviewed for the Dallas Observer for the book of Death in a Texas Desert, quote, When we arrived out there, this old Dodge Charger comes racing down a hill, spewing dust 20 feet into the air. The driver was head of security for the ranch, ex-military, and it turns out, a real police buff. When we gave him a general idea of what we were up to, he said he was glad someone was looking at the place, because he was pretty sure whatever was going on there wasn't legal. To my surprise, he agreed to meet with us when he got off work. The security guard told Cawthon and Detective January that he had walked every inch of the 600 acre ranch. They asked him if he had ever found any bones out there, and he said yes, many. They were on his workbench. He collected the bones and bleached them.

He showed Cawthon and January his collection. Many looked like animal bones, but then he pulled one from the box that made the officers stare at each other. It looked human. Cawthon explained that they would like to have a forensic anthropologist examine it. Be my guest, the security guard replied. Dr. Susan Mackie Wallace only needed one quick look at the bone as it was pulled from Cawthon's briefcase. It's a human arm, she said. After a few quick measurements, she confirmed it could very well be the bone of a male in his early 30s.

While they waited for a search warrant for the ranch, it seemed the perfect time to get Lisa Uric back in for questioning. And as luck would have it, Lisa had failed to pay ordered court costs and fees in the aftermath of her sentencing, so she found herself arrested for parole violation. When detectives January and Woodruff arrived at her house to arrest her, she didn't argue. As Lisa sat in the back of the police car, Woodruff turned to her and said, he won't believe what had been uncovered in the desert outside El Paso. Lisa looked at her with no idea. A human arm bone. Lisa sank down in her seat, and according to the detectives, she doubled over as if she had stomach cramps.

At the county jailhouse, Lisa sat silently when questioned. Detective January explained to her in very simple terms that the window of opportunity was closing fast. At that, Lisa appeared defeated and quiet, and within 24 hours, she started talking. Her father Sam Uric had made a plan to lure Gary to El Paso, but according to Lisa, it was only to beat him up, not to kill him. He used an associate that he knew, Ted Young, to entice Gary away from Waco in order to carry out the plan. Lisa admitted that she knew Gary would go as soon as they offered him the new worker, the Chevrolet suburban. Her father had asked her to help Ted Young identify Gary. Just before her sentencing, which had occurred the day before the mysterious Ned Wright walked into Gary's office, Lisa called Gary's parents to ask them for a photo of Gary to put in a locket for their daughter.

Gary's parents obliged, although they were confused why she was being caring enough to do so. The photo wasn't for their daughter's locket. The photo was to give to Ted Young so that when he was taken around Brazos to meet the staff, he would be able to recognize Gary immediately. The Waco investigators approached US Attorney Bill Johnston with what they had. Arrest warrants were approved for Sam Uric and Ted Young, and the search warrant for the ranch outside El Paso where the arm bone was found was also approved. That day, an army of volunteers from the military base, the prison and the fire department joined the team of police and police dogs as they searched the 600 acres of desert on the ranch to look for Gary's body. The huge team fought the harsh sun and tough ground over three days. Every disturbed piece of ground and every unusual gathering of rocks would prick the senses of those searching.

One of the officers came upon a neat pile of rocks and beneath them, just under the surface, was a skull. After a little more digging, they found more bones. Even though the reality of what they had found hung heavy, they were relieved to have located Gary's body, bringing some closure to the case. The search team rejoiced. It was a massive breakthrough. The body was sent to the El Paso coroner's office, and Detective Christina Woodruff waited for the medical and dental records to arrive. When the records came through, she walked through the front doors of the coroner's office and sat waiting with a coffee. The coroner looked at the dental records for just a few seconds, then turned to Detective Woodruff. It's not him.

Woodruff felt herself slip to the floor. How could it not be Gary Patterson? Further investigation revealed the body belonged to someone else, a homeless man from El Paso, a homicide victim, but not related to the Gary Patterson case at all. With the search coming up with nothing on Gary, the investigation focused back on locating Sam Uric and Ted Young. Regardless of the US Marshals' jurisdiction over the arrest of Ted Young for the fraud sentence he faced, with Gary Patterson's case now being a federal investigation, the Waco investigation team could go after him as well, and it was in their best interest to find him first. They believed that they could get Ted to spill the beans on Sam Uric and maybe even lead them to Gary's body. But without Ted, their case was weak. Three weeks later, word came through that Sam Uric had been apprehended by US Marshals in Las Vegas. Apparently the US Marshals had known of Uric's whereabouts for three days prior to his arrest, but didn't inform the investigation team back in Waco.

Uric was held in jail awaiting extradition back to Texas. Detectives knew that they had to find firm evidence on Uric by the time he was brought back to Waco. If they didn't, they risked him being released without charge. They realized to get that firm evidence, they had to track down Ted Young. Their investigation had revealed that Ted was in Honduras as they had been told previously, and the decision was made to go there and get him. Texas Ranger Matt Cawthon and his lieutenant boarded a plane with members of the Secret Service who had agreed to run interference with the Honduran government in Central America. They would liaise with local police too if necessary. When they arrived in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, representatives of the US Embassy were waiting for them.

Never before had the Texas Rangers been involved in an arrest of this magnitude. They had never traveled so far, been involved with so many different agencies, or been this deep into an investigation. It was uncharted waters. Honduras is nestled between Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, and remains one of the poorest and least developed countries in Latin America. The economy is based mostly on agriculture, and in 1997, coffee and bananas accounted for 37% of the total legal export revenue. During the 1990s, drug trafficking and kidnapping were an enormous problem for Honduras. The rise in violent crime had intensified with government unrest, and murders were at an all-time high between the years 94 and 98. 88% of the cocaine headed for the US is believed to pass through Central America, so Honduras was exposed to the problems that came with that.

Organized crime, violence and corruption, senior military members were alleged to be involved in drug trafficking, like elsewhere in Central America. Private security outnumbered police. Corruption was rife, and people protected themselves with people they knew they could trust. When the team pursuing Ted Young arrived in Honduras at the end of July 98, they had no idea that within just two months, the country and the entire region would be unrecognizable. It would be hit by the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record, and the deadliest recorded hurricane in the satellite era, Hurricane Mitch. When the Texas Rangers arrived to their hotel in Tegucigalpa, the shit hit the fin. One of the secret service guys came in and told them that the US Marshals were furious that they were there. The same US Marshal that had attended the meeting in Waco, the one who had taken the phone call and told them to back off Ted Young as he was the sole jurisdiction of the US Marshals, had just phoned Washington to get the Waco investigators kicked out of Honduras. But while officials were disagreeing back in the US over who had jurisdiction over Ted Young's arrest, the Waco team in Honduras continued tracking him.

They got into a van outside their hotel and drove four hours north to San Pedro Sula. They had word that Ted Young was there. The road between Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula can be dangerous. Rock slides are common, especially in the wet season which they were in. Traffic signs are often unmarked or inadequate, and the traffic is heavy with trucks and buses. Because of the high incidence of carjackings, international tourists are advised to drive with locked doors and to be wary at traffic stops. It's advised not to drive at night. After driving over four hours through the mountains and the dense pine trees which grow along the central part of the country, the Waco team arrived in San Pedro Sula. Cawthon showed a photo of Ted Young to some locals. They told him the American man in the picture worked at a local junkyard and pointed in the direction. When they pulled their van up to the rundown junkyard, they all watched as the grey-haired Ted Young walked through a gate into the yard. Texas Ranger Cawthon recalled in an interview with Carlton Stowers for the Dallas Observer and for the book Death in a Texas Desert.

I can't describe how I felt at the moment when I finally saw the man we'd been chasing after for 15 months. I wanted to run across the road and hug him. But they held back. They watched him overnight and first thing the next morning, Ted Young was arrested and taken to the local police station before being transferred to the San Pedro Sula jail. Cawthon told Ted he was from the Texas Rangers and he wasn't there about the fraud case he was wanted for. He was there to talk about Gary Patterson. At that point, Ted's face dropped. Cawthon reeled off all the evidence they had on him. They knew he had stayed at the Fairfield Inn in Waco. They knew he had posed as Ned Wright. They knew he had stayed at the Red Roof Inn in El Paso. They knew he borrowed the pickup truck from Clark Paulson the day Gary disappeared. They knew he had spent time in El Paso with Sam Urik. Cawthon told Ted that if he didn't fill in the gaps and cooperate, then he would spend the rest of his life in jail protecting a man who would never protect him.

After sitting silently and staring back at the Texas Rangers, Ted Young replied, Okay, I'll give you what you want. Ted Young told them the entire story. Ted fled his conviction in South Carolina and made his way to Honduras. He had been traveling back and forth to the U.S. on his twin brother Fred's passport. Sam Urik contacted him in Honduras and asked him to come back to the U.S. to carry out a job for him. Urik had been shipping Ted old trucks to soar. It was the only way he was able to make a living at the time, so he felt he owed Urik a favor. Ted went on to explain the failed attempt at luring Gary to Florida. Then he tried to meet him at the airport in Waco with the intention of driving him out near China Springs to arrange his murder. When that also failed, Ted and Urik came up with the plan to lure Gary to El Paso. That day, Ted met Gary at the El Paso Airport. Gary was under the impression he was there to meet the CEO of the company, so Ted had to make excuses for the delay.

He took Gary to lunch and they visited a few bars for drinks. By the time dusk came, which was the arranged time they were meeting the CEO, Gary was a little tipsy. They jumped in the pickup truck and Ted told Gary that he had to swing by the desert development location to pick up a soil sample. As they drove out into the desert, the sun was fading and Gary began dozing off. When they approached the location, a figure stood out on the road in front of the pickup truck. As Gary's eyes adjusted, he focused on the man he assumed was his new boss, the CEO. But as he looked closer, he saw his ex-father-in-law, Sam Urik, walking to the passenger side door. He turned to Ted, who was by then holding a .22-colour pistol in his face. Sam Urik opened Gary's door, wrapped duct tape around his arms and legs, and dragged him out of the car.

Sam then turned to Ted and told him to go back to town and to pick him up the next day, because this is going to take all night. Ted went back to the Red Roof Inn and retired for the night. The next day, he collected Urik and returned to the pickup truck to the parking lot of the motel, where it was later collected by its owner, Clark Paulson. Urik then drove Ted out of town to a safe place where he could travel back over the border. When Ted asked Urik where Gary was, he said, he's in the desert. Urik pulled $180 from his pocket, apparently taken from Gary, and gave it to Ted for his troubles. Using his twin brother Fred's passport, Ted Young crossed the border into Mexico and disappeared back to Honduras. After hearing his story, Ranger Cawthon had one more thing he needed Ted Young to do.

He slid a notepad in his direction across the table and asked him to draw a map of where he and Gary had met Sam Urik. Ted explained that originally he was supposed to take Gary to a ranch they knew, which sat on 600 acres east of El Paso. But security were walking around, so they moved to an area adjacent to that property. Cawthon knew exactly what ranch he was referring to. It was the ranch where they had found the remains of an unrelated murder victim during their search for Gary. Ted drew a map to the spot Urik had dragged Gary from the pickup truck. From San Pedro Sula, the Texas Rangers got in touch with Detective January, who was in El Paso. That day, January had arrested Clark Paulson for misprision of felony, which is the knowledge and concealment of a felony.

Paulson was the man they had questioned earlier, the man who had lent Ted Young his pickup truck. January couldn't believe what he was hearing on the phone. Cawthon said, get a search party together. I'm faxing you a map, and with it, you're going to find Gary Patterson's body. On the 3rd of August, 1998, a search team driving convoy down the same long road east of El Paso that Gary Patterson travelled on his final day. 15 months before, Gary thought he was going out into the Desert Evening to collect the soil sample. Instead, his ex-father-in-law stood over him, bound him, and beat him with a metal pipe until he was almost dead. But killing him wasn't enough. He wanted Gary to suffer until his very last breath. Urik dug a shallow grave and rolled his ex-son-in-law in.

Gary was still gasping his last breaths of air, as Urik shoveled desert sand over him. Following Ted Young's map, the search party walked into the desert. The search dog led them to a spot of unsettled ground, and a small amount of digging was all it took to know there was something there. Detective January ordered the area be cordoned off, and the medical examiner was called in. A helicopter hovered above, taking aerial photos of the site. A hydraulic mule was brought in, and every moment of the excavation was filmed. January wasn't leaving any stone unturned, and he wanted the scene treated with the utmost care. Gary Patterson's body was lifted from his shallow grave, still dressed in the black jeans, white shirt, and boots he had been wearing the day he went to El Paso.

It had taken 15 months, and an excessively complicated investigation involving Waco Police, the Texas Rangers, the FBI, a California Private Investigator, the US Marshals Office, the Secret Service, the State Department, Border Patrol, the Government of Honduras, and even Interpol. But they had finally got there. They had found Gary Patterson. That day, Detective Steve January cried for the first time in his career. In September 1999, Clark Paulson, the owner of the pickup truck, faced a misprision of felony charge for his role in the murder. But Paulson adamantly denied he knew anything about the plan to murder Gary Patterson. He said he had no idea what Ted Young was using his truck for.

He was acquitted. Lisa Uric pleaded guilty to misprision of felony and received a three-year prison sentence, plus the two-year sentence she was already serving for violating the terms of her parole. She lost all custody rights to her daughter, who by that time, at nine years old, was cared for solely by Gary's parents. When Sam Uric and Ted Young's cases came to court, Assistant US Attorney Bill Johnston made no secret that if the cases went to trial, he would be seeking the death penalty. They both pleaded guilty. Federal Judge Walter Smith, without pointing the finger at any agencies or persons in particular, made mention that he was troubled by the lack of federal participation in the investigation. Ted Young pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder and for carrying a firearm during a crime of violence. He received a 20-year sentence, plus the four years and three months he still owed in South Carolina for his fraud conviction.

Sam Uric pleaded guilty to the murder of Gary Patterson and was sentenced to life in prison. Despite the coroner confirming that Sam was inhaled into his thorax, Sam Uric denies any knowledge that Gary was still alive when he buried him in the desert.