Cold Case Files - REOPENED: The Pastor's Wife

Episode Date: December 26, 2024

The image of a perfect couple is torn down when the wife goes missing and the husband, a pastor, may be hiding some ugly secrets. With no body, the case goes cold for three years, until a detective stumbles upon an unpleasant discovery. Babbel - Get up to 60% off your Babbel subscription at Babbel.com/COLDCASE ZocDoc: Check out Zocdoc.com/CCF and download the Zocdoc app for free! 

As humans, we make judgments about those around us based on appearance, even though it's not always a conscious process. A person's job, body type, or even gender are, a pastor, and his wife, Patty Jo, gave those around them the impression that they were a happy, stable couple. Maybe that was true. Or maybe those judgments were misguided. Because Patty Jo Pooley was murdered. And all the signs seemed to point to her husband. From A&E, this is Cold Case Files. I'm Brooke, and here's the admired

Bill Curtis with the classic case, The Pastor's Wife. I always keep a picture. Anytime I work in investigation, I keep a picture of the person missing or the victim, because you always look back and the person is not just a number or not just something that fades away. Keith Isom is an investigator in Pennsylvania County, Virginia. He doesn't investigate a lot of homicides, but the ones he does get, he takes personally. It's someone that actually lived and had a family and had thoughts and had breath, and now possibly something has happened to them. And so you keep reminding yourself that while you're going forward,

it's for that person that you got that photo. The picture Isom holds close belongs to Patty Jo Pulley. On May 16, 1999, her pickup truck is found abandoned near Highway 62. Patty Jo herself is missing. My first intuition was, well, she met someone and left. I mean, just without knowing anything, because the truck, the way it was parked, the truck was parked there

as if someone was going to come back and get it or as if it was placed there neat and nice not going to come back and get it, or as if it was placed there neat and nice, not to have any damage done to it. Patty Jo is about the last person Detective Isom would expect to skip town. Patty Jo, what did you think about this trip? I had a wonderful time. Married to a local pastor, Rick Pulley, she has helped to form a spiritual basis for the community and on the surface seems to enjoy a perfect marriage.

They were involved in almost every aspect of our church. Rick and Patty Jo worked with our worship team, and they worked with our young people. And with the youth ministry, there was a lot of outward ministry mission work. They did a mission trip at least once a year. Randy Setteth is the lead pastor at Rick Pulley's church. Judy is his wife. In church, she would lay her head on his shoulder, so there was obvious affection there. They seemed to be a happy couple. Only concern we would have had would have

been that they were maybe too committed to the church ministries and we were trying to get them to rest a little bit more, do some things outside of church, outside of mission. On the surface everything looked fine, of course everyone has little problems, but as you begin to look behind the scenes and that's where you start find out that everything is not as it appears. 18 hours after Patty Jo went missing, Detective Isom drives to Rick Pulley's home to talk to him about his missing wife.

Well, when I first came here, my intention was to give him my card, introduce myself to him, and if there was any way we could be of any assistance, you know, to let us know. And when I saw Mr. Rick Pulley for the first time, that's when I realized the scratches, the wounds on his face, and I realized at that time I needed to take a statement from him. The scratches on Pulley's face are deep and numerous. Rick Pulley claims he fell into a convenient briar patch.

This is my tool kit. What started out as a courtesy visit to a concerned husband quickly morphs into a Q&A with a possible suspect. The reason I wanted to tape it was simply because of the marks on his face. At that point, I felt there was a different side of this story, and the only way I really knew to get to it was just sit down with him and just talk to him, let him talk to me. I'd taken the van and taken her into work so I could take the van and have the tire fixed. The pastor claims he last saw his wife at 6 p.m. on the night she disappeared.

Pulley says he spent the rest of the night at the local high school. And then he got talking about the play at Dan River High School. How many times did you get there for the play? About 7, 15, 7, 20, I think. Had the play started? It started. It already started. It just so happened that night I was at the exact same play.

He didn't know this. Maybe it's coincidence, luck, or perhaps a bit of both. But Isom's own son was in the same school play that night, and the detective was in the audience, watching the whole thing. And asking questions about the play, how did it end, he began fumbling through it. What was the last scene? I don't know.

You mean the name of it? No. What happened? What happened up on was the last scene? I don't know. You mean the name of it? No. What happened? What happened up on stage? The last act? Um The last the last act was the lovers finally come together and

everything is consummated with their relationship. And it all it ends with that. It's happy ever after. His final answer was that both couples came together and they live happily ever after. Which I knew that wasn't true because one of the main characters in one of the couples dies. The investigator believes Rick Pulley is lying and wonders why. Isom then asks the pastor to take off his shirt. And of course, taking off his shirt, he had a few scratches on his arms

that to me consistent with briars. But what really stood out to me was he had some scratch marks here on his chest, but also these four elongated bruises on his right bicep. When I looked at the bruises, it was consistent with Patty Jo reaching up, grabbing him with her left hand on his right bicep, and also reaching up with her right hand and scratching his face. That's why when I looked at that, that's exactly what this picture told me. Detective Isom's suspicion only deepens when a few days later, an eyewitness surfaces. He was walking right along this area right here.

Robert Rowland is a self-described good old boy. Two days after Patty Jo Pulley disappeared, Rowland tells police about a man he saw near the missing woman's pickup. So when I pulled him and started talking to this fella, he turned and tried to hide from me and looked over his shoulder. Thinking that the man's truck had broken down, Roland stops and offers him a lift. T-shirt was torn, had something hanging down on his side, and it was ripped. You know, looked like a sheet or something like that. Right.

And he told me, he said, I'm all right, I'm all right, just go on, go on. Robert Rowland identifies a photograph of Rick Pulley as the man he met on the side of the road. When they showed me the photo, I said, that's the fellow right there. That was the fellow that the photo was shown. That was the fellow you saw seen walking up 62. Yes. Pastor Rick Pulley is now the prime suspect in his wife's disappearance and possible murder. There is, however, still a question of motive. Detective Isom begins that inquiry with a small event that happened the night before Patty Jo Pulley disappeared.

Patty Jo went to Winn-Dixie, which is a grocery store here, and she got up to the cash register and wrote a check, and they wouldn't take it. So here she is, a dignified woman, a very proud woman as far as a pillar of the community down there where she lives, and they won't take her check. So I'm sure she's very humiliated and embarrassed. Phone records shed light on the source of the couple's money woes. Rick Pulley, it appears, was a sex addict, racking up nearly $1,000 a month in calls to 900 sex lines. You know, we all put on masks and try to present ourselves a certain way in front of everyone else, but once you go behind closed doors,

you take the mask off. So at this point, is the person that everyone perceived him to be in the community, is what he actually was behind closed doors, or whether it's another Rick Pulley that no one knew about. It appears the local pastor was leading two lives. The question for investigators, was he willing to kill his wife in order to keep his secret? 2025 is right around the corner, and that means New Year's resolutions. If learning a new language is on your list, you should absolutely get Babbel. Be a better you in 2025 with Babbel, the science-backed language learning app that actually works.

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Rick Bolle had a sexual addiction that not only jeopardized the sanctity of his marriage, but also its financial stability. It seemed that the couple that everyone thought seemed perfect had some well-hidden problems. Was the desire to keep his addiction secret enough motive for a pastor to murder his wife? So they searched the area, trying to find a scent, looking for her or anyone that may have left the truck. Six months after Patty Joe Pulley disappeared, investigator Keith Isom walks the area looking for her remains. It's a thing of every night, laying in bed, trying to figure out where she could be. I looked everywhere I knew here in Virginia, on this side of the river, along the roads, knowing she was somewhere, somewhere here, but not knowing exactly where.

One person apparently not as concerned with Patty Jo's whereabouts, her husband Rick. Three months after the disappearance, he leaves town, moves to southwestern Virginia, and literally never looks back. He didn't start it all over again up there, a new life. I never heard again from him. Never called, asked me how the case was going or anything. So he sort of forgot about me, but I didn't forget about him. Detective Isom believes Pastor Pulley to be his killer. The problem, without a body, there is no case to be made for murder.

I just need a body. You know, I've got all the circumstantial evidence together, and once you put the pieces of the puzzle together, you've got a picture. But until I've got that body, then the picture's there. But the most important element is missing, and that's the crime. For three years, Patty Jo Pulley has lived among the missing. Then, in December 2002, a project geologist takes a walk under a bridge, one that places Patty Jo forever among the dead.

As I was just working, you know, I just heard something crunch under my foot, and my first impression, my first thought was, well, I stepped on a, you know, skeleton of a deer. But then when I looked down and I noticed that there was a bra. I didn't see a skull or anything like that. It was just bones and what appeared to be a bra across the bones. So the mass of the skeletal remains was in this area right here? That's correct. Investigators arrive and begin to process the scene. We conducted an excavation of the skeletal remains and successfully recovered in excess of 95% of the skeletal remains, which is very uncommon.

Once we got down to where the entire skeletal was visible, we began photographing, began searching for other physical evidence. Scraps of clothing, as well as dental records, confirmed the remains to be those of Pulley. A length of rope tells investigators Patty Jo was murdered. This was very crucial, and what this indicated was the possibility of potential binding of the victim or possibly being used as a weapon for strangulation purposes.

The recovery of the remains, the ropes that were found with the remains, basically led from a missing person case from Virginia evolving into a homicide investigation for North Carolina. You're sort of disappointed that she's dead, but it's a relief now that you can go ahead with it. Detective Keith Isom worked the original missing persons case and gets cold case detectives up to speed. I took everything I had, everyone I'd interviewed, every tape I had, every photograph, and handed it to them, said, here's the case, go through the case,

and you'll see the puzzle, you can put it together. I think the photographs that were taken by the investigators from the Pennsylvania County Sheriff's Department were clearly one of the most crucial pieces of evidence in the case. These pictures, taken a day after Patty Jo disappeared, are of deep scratches found on the face, arm, and chest of Patty Jo's husband, Rick Pulley, longtime suspect in a missing person case, now turned murder.

We were of the opinion that their theory that Mr. Pulley appeared to be involved was correct. He had three scrapes or scratches on his left cheek. In 1999, Rick Pulley told investigators the cuts on his face came from a fall into a thicket of briars. A forensic pathologist at Wake Forest University, Dr. Patrick Lance, evaluates that possibility. So I just went out and just sort of thrust my arm into a briar patch to see what would happen. And, of course, like most people would know, I got some superficial scratches on my forearm. And with enough effort, you might actually get one to bleed. But for the most part, these are fairly linear. They're more irregular, not nearly as wide as the injuries we saw on Mr. Pulley's cheek and face.

Dr. Lentz's findings helped to explode Pulley's story about a fall into a briar patch. With the discovery of Patty Jo's body, detectives believe they have enough to charge Rick Pulley. Now they have to find him. Have you ever woken up with an unusual symptom like a swollen itchy eye and immediately Googled it or searched TikTok to see what's wrong? We've all gone down that rabbit hole. But it's time to get the help and care you really need with ZocDoc. ZocDoc is the free healthcare app and website that takes the guesswork out of finding a doctor by letting you search and compare high quality in-network doctors so you can choose the right one for your needs and click to instantly book an appointment. No more waiting weeks for an appointment or searching through endless directories to find

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it to anyone who's in need of fast, quality care. So stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to ZocDoc.com slash CCF to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today. That's z-o-c-d-o-c.com slash ccf. ZocDoc.com slash ccf. After finding Patty Jo Pulley's body, the investigation once again turned to her husband, Pastor Rick Pulley. They reviewed all of the evidence, including the photos of the scratches on his body. He had claimed they came from a briar bush. Unable to duplicate the injuries and combine with other evidence, the police believed they could charge him with Patty Jo's murder.

First, though, they needed to locate him. It's like a place you would go if you wanted to hide and get away, you know, not be found or bothered. Connie Winslow is Patty Jo Pulley's niece. For nearly three years, Winslow has kept tabs on Rick Pulley, tracking him to the small town of Lebanon, Virginia. I begged him to please just tell me where she is, and he kept saying, I don't know where she's at. I did not do anything to her. In Lebanon, Rick Pulley has again become a church leader and a trusted member of the community.

Connie Winslow, however, refuses to let him walk away. I told him, I said, you know what, I said, I just want you to have one last thing to remember our family by. And I slapped him so hard, so hard. But that, believe it or not, made me feel so much better. We found that Mr. Pulley was at his work, which is at this residence right here, is where he was doing his counseling at at that time. In February of 2003, Rick Pulley gets a second visit from his pest. This time, it is in the form of the local chief of police, with a warrant for the pastor's arrest.

When I got here, I found him alone and very cooperative. I went ahead and transported him up to the sheriff's office where the detectives waited to question him. This here was when we went to pick up Rick in Lebanon. This is what he looked like when he was sitting in jail in the holding cell. In four short years, Rick Pulley has changed from a brown-haired young man of 43 to a white-haired shell at 47. Detective Isom chalks it up to the corrosive effect of guilt.

We all have consciences, and no matter how we may want to portray ourselves one way, there's always a little something inside that eats on us. The guilt that has gnawed on Rick Pulley is finally realized in the form of a set of cuffs and a ride back to North Carolina to await trial for murder. This life, which is left in the form of a skull and bones and restraints, all came from this beautiful woman. At trial, Caswell County District Attorney Joel Brewer tells the story of the perfect marriage,

which somehow took a wrong turn to murder. She's working cleaning houses to try to make ends meet, and he's making telephone sex calls and running up huge telephone bills. The DA doesn't have DNA or fingerprints. What he does have, the gashes on Rick Pulley's face, scratching out the identity of a killer. We told the jury at the beginning of our final argument

that in Genesis, the Lord set a mark on Cain. And then we began to explain to the jury how the mark was set upon Ricky Pulley by Patty Jo and what this told Keith Isom. And pretty much the best witness on the whole thing was Patty Jo, to where she left a mark on Rick's face and his body. If it had not been for that, it's a good possibility he'd have got away with murder. On October 29, 2004, Rick Pulley is convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

It's justice for Patty Jo. And now the family, even though they'll always miss her, there's some type of closure. Are you going to put it on the roadside or this side? On a cold January morning, the family of Patty Jo Pulley places a cross near the bridge where her remains were found. Try hitting it on that side another time or two. He let her lay there three and a half years. and he knew where she was and we didn't.

She was our baby and we had a lot of good times didn't we Rita? I didn't want the death penalty for him. I thought it would be too easy. I think knowing him and the type of person he is, what he has now, life in prison without parole, is exactly what he needs. It's the worst thing for him. Rick Pulley is currently serving his sentence at a medium security facility in North Carolina. He's 62 years old. All people are supposed to be equal

in the eyes of the law, but the law is full of human eyes. In cases where someone we have looked to for guidance, like a pastor, commits a violent crime, it can cause everyone to feel a little betrayed. This podcast is hosted by Brooke Giddings, produced by McKamey Lynn and Steve Delamater. Our associate producer is Julie Magruder. Our executive producer is Ted Butler.

Our music was created by Blake Maples. This podcast is distributed by Podcast One. The Cold Case Files TV series was produced by Curtis Productions and is hosted by Bill Curtis. Check out more cold case files at aetv.com or learn more about cases like this one by visiting the A&E Real Crime blog at aetv.com slash real crime. Pluto TV is a place for movie fans like me and TV fans like me. They've got something for everyone. And it's free. I love free. And I love Jersey Shore. For me, it's the Godfather.

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