LA VERNIA, Texas — This Christmas marks 29 years since Patty Vaughan disappeared from her home in La Vernia. A day meant for family became the day her loved ones lost her.
Years later, Patty was declared dead, after her husband and person of interest, J.R. Vaughan asked a court to do so. Her family believes she was killed, and that someone has known the truth ever since.
Patty was a mother of three. Her cousin, Barb Kinsey, says she was trying to leave an allegedly abusive marriage and start over. But after Christmas Eve in 1996, Patty was never seen again.
RELATED: 27 years since Patty Vaughan last seen… where is the case now?
“My conversation with Patty the night before she was murdered, she was terrified and she asked me if I could help her get a restraining order. We were going to meet the following Tuesday, but she was dead by then and she was terrified.”
Investigators later found blood inside Patty’s car that was abandoned on the side of the road near her workplace, and blood evidence in her bedroom.
According to law enforcement, Patty’s husband, J.R. Vaughan has always been considered a person of interest in her disappearance.
“In the affidavit for the search warrant, they said that enough blood evidence was found in the home to believe a murder had been committed, which later tested positive to be Patty’s blood.”
But no one has ever been charged.
As for Kinsey, the pain is not just what happened, but what she believes did not happen after. “Yet, law enforcement and the district attorney at the time let her down. The system let Patty down.”
In police reports, family members were interviewed, and one name repeatedly appears. We went to an address connected to J.R. Vaughan’s family to ask if anyone would finally talk.
Door knock again. No answer. No one came to the door.
This case is being talked about again now because of the Suzanne Simpson case. Another mother who went missing last year from Olmos Park.
Her husband, Brad Simpson, is charged with murder in connection to her disappearance and prosecutors in this case are moving forward without having found her body.
Kinsey says that comparison is hard to ignore. “Absolutely. If they would pursue charges without the body, just on what they have, statements that they have, I would love it if Wilson County would pursue it.”
Kinsey says after nearly three decades, the only thing her family can do is keep Patty’s name out there, and keep asking the question that has never gone away.
“We have no answers, although we know what happened to her. We know the only thing we don’t know is where he put her.”