meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Cold Case Files

The Pastor's Wife

Cold Case Files

A&E / PodcastOne

Society & Culture, True Crime

4.18.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 May 2022

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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.

Check out our great sponsors!

Cerebral: GET 65% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH OF MEDICATION MANAGEMENT AND CARE COUNSELING AT Cerebral.com/coldcase 

Shopify: Go to shopify.com/coldcase for a FREE 14 day trial and get full access to Shopify’s entire suite of features!

Thuma: Go to Thuma.co/cold to get a $25 credit towards your purchase of The Bed plus free shipping in the continental US!

SimpliSafe: Go to simplisafe.com/coldcase and claim a free indoor security camera plus 20% off with Interactive Monitoring!

Find your next place at Apartments.com - THE place to find a place!

Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the ov er 27 million drivers who trust Progressive!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

As humans, we make judgments about those around us based on appearance,

0:09.0

even though it's not always a conscious process.

0:12.0

A person's job, body type, or even gender are just some of the things that can influence our impressions of them.

0:19.0

In this case, a couple, Rick Polia pastor, things that can influence our impressions of them.

0:27.5

In this case, a couple, Rick Polly, a pastor, and his wife, Patty Joe, gave those around them the impression that they were a happy, stable couple.

0:31.3

Maybe that was true.

0:33.1

Or maybe those judgments were misguided, because Patty Joe Polly was murdered.

0:38.1

And all the signs seemed to point to her husband.

0:43.6

From A&E, this is Cold Case Files.

0:46.6

I'm Brooke, and here's the admired Bill Curtis with the classic case, the pastor's wife.

0:57.3

I've always picture of the person

1:02.8

missing or the victim because you always look back and the person is just not just a number

1:08.7

or not just something that fades away.

1:13.0

Keith Isam is an investigator in Pennsylvania County, Virginia.

1:17.5

He doesn't investigate a lot of homicides, but the ones he does get, he takes personally.

1:23.1

It's someone that actually lived and had a family and had thoughts and had breath

1:29.0

and now possibly something has happened to them.

1:32.4

And so you keep reminding yourself that why you're going forward is for that person that you got that photo.

1:38.1

The picture Isam holds close belongs to Patty Joe Pulley.

1:42.9

On May 16, 1999, her pickup truck is found abandoned near Highway

1:47.8

62. Patty Joe herself is missing. My first intuition was, well, she met someone and left.

1:56.5

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,

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from A&E / PodcastOne, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of A&E / PodcastOne and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.