The Disappearance of Patty Vaughan Part 1

Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

Vincent Strange

True Crime, Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the fall of 1996, Patty Vaughan separated from her husband JR after more than 10 years of marriage. While she worried about her children, the separation, which was likely leading to divorce, was necessary. She ran into an old flame while attending a rodeo, and an old romance started anew. Patty was lighter – and happier – than ever. On Christmas Day, she decided it would be best for her estranged husband to come over and spend the holiday with the kids, since it was their first Christmas apart. She wanted to make the transition as smooth as possible. But things didn’t work out as she intended. After heated arguments between Patty and JR, she disappeared. But it wasn’t without a trace.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Patty Vaughan, please contact the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office at 210-335-6000.

If you’re experiencing domestic abuse, please get help by calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-SAFE, or 800-799-7233. You can also text “start,” S-T-A-R-T to 88788 or visit thehotline.org

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The Wilson County News, The San Antonio News-Express, foxsanantonio.com, and news4sanantonio.com were used as sources for this episode.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	If you're experiencing domestic abuse, please get help.
0:06.0	One of the most accessible ways to do that is by calling the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at 800-799 Safe or 800-799-7-2-33.
0:18.9	You can also text Start-S-T-A-R-T to 8-8-7-88. At the hotline.org, you'll find other resources available to you.
0:31.5	Again, if you are experiencing domestic abuse, please get help by calling 800-799 safe or 800-799-7233.
0:44.5	The Gone Cold Podcast may contain violent or graphic subject matter. Listener discretion is advised.
0:52.3	Violent crime in Texas is often thought of as a big city problem.
0:56.9	Houston, Dallas, San Antonio.
1:00.1	When associating violent crime with Texas cities, those come to mind almost effortlessly.
1:06.8	It's doubtful places like Floresville, Stockdale, Lavernia, or anywhere else in Wilson County would even make the list.
1:15.9	Situated just southeast of San Antonio, Wilson County was home to about 25,000 residents in the mid-1990s,
1:24.6	a far cry from the number of people living in the big city at the time, which was around
1:29.4	one million. Made up primarily of working-class folks, homes in Wilson County were spread out,
1:36.4	and most properties there could be considered rural, certainly not the kind of place you'd expect
1:41.8	to find random crimes, like abduction murders, for instance.
1:47.2	However, Wilson County wasn't exempt from violent crime, particularly cases of domestic violence.
1:55.5	Rarer are unresolved missing persons cases, cases in which questions perpetually linger.
2:03.0	Was the disappearance a result of a crime of opportunity, the missing person a victim of a
2:08.7	random act of violence, or did they vanish as the result of the most extreme form of domestic
2:15.1	violence? These are only a few of the questions questions the family of Patty Vaughn, who disappeared on Christmas
2:22.5	Day in 1996, continued to grapple with to this day.
2:54.4	... The misnomer is that most women think that once they get out of that relationship, we're safe.
2:55.3	It's good now.
	...

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