Patricia Anne Tamez was 29 when she was murdered in October 1998. She was last seen in Hesperia, California, soliciting sex near a truck stop on October 22, 1998, and accepted a ride from long-haul truck driver Wayne Adam Ford. Her body was found the next day in the California Aqueduct with extensive trauma: binding, sexual assault, blunt force injuries, strangulation, and mutilation, including one breast severed. That severed breast later became a key piece of evidence linking her to Ford.

Wayne Adam Ford turned himself in on November 3, 1998, at the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department in Eureka, accompanied by his brother, and confessed to multiple killings, presenting a severed breast as proof. Ford was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder, including Patricia’s, and received a death sentence. Patricia’s case is a stark reminder of how vulnerable people in precarious situations can be.

If anyone knew Patricia, saw her in Hesperia in October 1998, or has information about her final movements, please share what you know.