Patricia Ann Cadle was 33 when she disappeared after an afternoon phone call to her aunt on August 20, 1981. She told her aunt her brother-in-law planned to show her a trailer in the Jennison area; she was never seen again after that call.

Patricia’s car was later found parked at a shopping center on Alabama 25 with her purse and a handgun inside, possessions she was unlikely to have left voluntarily. Searches were conducted across Bibb, Chilton and Shelby counties, but no trace of her was found and the case went cold for years.

In 1995 Patricia’s brother-in-law, William Lamar Mills, confessed to strangling her and said he buried her in a remote area of Chilton County. Plans were made to excavate the site, but it is unclear whether remains were ever recovered and no charges were brought against him. The case is recorded as a suspected homicide.

If anyone knew Patricia, the trailer she planned to see, or has information about Jennison or Chilton County in 1981, please share what is known.