Patricia Agnes Gildawie, known as Choubi, was 17 when she disappeared from Fairfax, Virginia after being last seen on February 8, 1975. Family members say she drove a white Cadillac Eldorado with a red interior that had been loaned to her by an older man she was dating. In the days before she vanished her half-sister, Veronique Duperly, noticed bruises on Patricia’s arms, shoulders, and the backs of her legs; Patricia said she fell a lot, which her sister found unconvincing.

On September 27, 2001, skeletal remains and clothing were found in a drainage ditch behind an apartment complex in McLean. An initial medical examiner report incorrectly identified the victim’s race and estimated a recent time of death; the remains were later reexamined using advanced DNA sequencing. In 2022 Fairfax cold case detectives working with a private lab generated a genealogical lead to Veronique Duperly, and a DNA comparison confirmed the remains were Patricia’s. The medical examiner determined the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head.

Detectives are focused on identifying the man Patricia was dating in 1975 — described as a man in his 30s who worked at an upholstery shop near Church Street and Lawyers Road in Vienna — and say he may be key to what happened in Patricia’s final days. Does anyone have information about Patricia’s circle or the upholstery business from that period?