The Unexplained Disappearance and Death of Patricia Viola
A photo of Pat Viola before her disappearance. Photo: Disappeared Blog
Patricia Viola disappeared from her home without a trace on the day before Valentines Day in 2001. A year later her remains washed up on a nearby beach. What could have happened to Patricia Viola?
Events Leading Up To The Disappearance of Patricia Viola
Patricia “Pat” Viola was a 42 year old mother of two from Bogota, New Jersey. She had been happily married to her husband, James Viola, since 1986.
Pat had suffered from epilepsy since she was a child. In January of 2000 she suffered a grand mal seizure and her driver’s license was suspended for 3 months. Pat was upset by this loss of freedom.
In the days leading up to her disappearance Pat visited her best friend Toinette Fazio-Markowitz. Pat begged Toinette to cancel an upcoming vacation she had planned so that the two of them could get away for a few days. Toinette was very concerned as this was a strange request and Pat seemed very agitated.
Pat beged Toinette to take care of her children if anything happened to her. Toinette pressed Pat, trying to figure out why she would be asking such a thing all of a sudden but got no answer.
On the morning of her disappearance everything seemed normal in the Viola household. James went to work, the kids went to school and Pat went to volunteer for a few hours in the school library. While she was out something triggered the burglar alarm at the house.
The security company couldn’t get a hold of James or Pat so they contacted Pat’s mother. Pat’s mother left a message on the Viola’s answering machine to tell them about the alarm.
The local police were also notified about the alarm by the security company. They went to the house for a welfare check, looking in all of the windows and checking the doors for signs of forced entry. They saw nothing out of the ordinary.
Pat returned from her volunteer work and called her mom back about the alarm. She said it was nothing to worry about. Pat set the alarm again at 1.10pm and left the house. It is not known where she was going. After this Patricia Viola was never seen or heard from again.
The Search for Patricia Viola
James initially assumed Pat must have just gone shopping for a valentines gift. When she hadn’t returned by the evening he called the police.
James was alarmed to discover that her keys, wallet and medication were all still at the house. She had however taken her coat out with her.
The Bogota police quickly began investigating the case. They stopped all of the nearby buses and asked the drivers if they have seen anyone matching Pat’s description. Next they checked all of the logs for local car services and taxi’s in town but had no success. They checked flight manifests, went door to door, conducted aerial searches and used police dogs but there was no sign of Patricia.
When no leads were discovered they began working with the theory that Patricia may have had a seizure and lost her memory. They called around all of the nearby hospitals but there were no results.
The police considered that it may have been a suicide but there seemed to be little evidence pointing to this.
Patricia’s Remains Are Identified
For ten years Patricia’s family and friends searched but found no trace of her. Eventually police were able to match DNA given to them by Pat’s family with remains that had washed up on Rockaway Beach, Queens in 2002. The cause of death was unable to be identified.
The Bogota police strongly suspect foul play was involved in Pat’s death but have current leads in the investigation.
Paricia’s Law
In 2018 a law was passed to force police officers to gather DNA from the family of every person who has been missing for more than 30 days. This is to help with matching unidentified remains with missing people. The law was dubbed Patricia’s law.
What do you think happened to Patricia Viola? Let us know in the comments.
If you found this article interesting you may also be interested in the cases of Lars Mittank and Elizabeth Barraza.
