On October 25, 1978, a motorist near the old Salt Lake Beach off I-80 near Magna, Utah discovered the body of a Caucasian woman later identified as 45-year-old Patricia Ann Barrett. The woman was found nude and wrapped in a piece of carpeting; investigators estimated she had been dead about a month, placing her likely time of death around September 25, 1978. The death was classified as a homicide, with strangulation considered a possible cause.

Patricia, known to family as Patti, had been transient for roughly the prior year and a half and had arrived in the Salt Lake City area just a couple of months before she disappeared. She had traveled from Texas and may have spent time in Oklahoma and Louisiana. The last known contact was a phone call to her children on August 31, 1978.

For decades the remains were unidentified until June 2012, when Patricia’s daughter and advances in DNA technology produced a definitive identification. No arrests or publicly named suspects have been announced, and the homicide remains unsolved. If anyone knew Patricia, saw her in the Salt Lake City area that fall of 1978, or has information that could help, please come forward.