In late summer 1985 a woman’s body was discovered in a Philadelphia train yard and identified as 52-year-old Helen Patent by her ex-husband, with whom she still shared a home. Her body was found partially nude and had been stabbed multiple times; one report says 47 stab wounds, another describes 19 gashes including one deep enough to expose internal organs. Friends and family said she often left for a week without saying where she was going, but they did not think she would willingly go to a secluded spot with a stranger; it is believed she may have met her attacker at a local bar she frequented.

Patent’s murder was the first of nine women killed in the Frankford neighborhood between 1985 and 1990, crimes attributed to the media label Frankford Slasher. Several victims were reportedly seen with a middle-aged white man shortly before their deaths. Leonard Christopher was later arrested and convicted for one 1990 killing, but the other cases, including Helen Patent’s, remain unsolved. Does anyone have information about Helen’s last known movements or the bars she visited in 1985?