Patricia Bernadette Meehan’s story reads like something straight out of a mystery novel. Born in Pittsburgh and once on track for a career in early childhood development, she eventually followed her love of animals west to Montana, working as a ranch hand and taking odd jobs to get by. In the days leading up to April 20, 1989, something seemed off—her landlord said she appeared unusually “hyper,” and she told her father she was stressed and wanted to come home. Then, after a bizarre car crash on Highway 200 near Circle, she stepped out of her vehicle, stared silently at another driver as if looking right through her, climbed a fence, and calmly walked into a dark Montana field—disappearing without a trace.
What followed only deepened the mystery. Shoe prints believed to be Patricia’s vanished in the terrain, searches turned up nothing, and no one could explain why she was nearly 400 miles from home. Over the years, more than 5,000 sightings poured in—from truck stops and diners to highways across the Midwest and Pacific Northwest—some convincing enough to be confirmed by police, but none leading to answers. Her family crisscrossed the country chasing leads, her case landed on Unsolved Mysteries, and theories ranged from amnesia to hitchhiking to starting a new life entirely. Decades later, Patricia Meehan’s quiet walk into the Montana night remains one of the state’s most haunting unsolved disappearances.
Read more about this at Wikipedia, or Google her story. It is disturbing.
Photo credit: By Meehan family – Original publication: Montana Missing Persons Bureau Immediate source: The Charley Project, Fair use.
