Speaker 1: Ms Coon, my fourth grade teacher, surprised us one day
Speaker 1: by giving us the name and address of a child
Speaker 1: in Denmark, and she told us that we were going
Speaker 1: to have a penpal the whole school year, and we
Speaker 1: were going to write letters to them every week. At
Speaker 1: Christmas time, we were going to exchange gifts. We were
Speaker 1: going to know their birthday and other special times for
Speaker 1: them so that we could send them a gift or
Speaker 1: some type of special recognition. This was a wonderful experience
Speaker 1: to me because once I mailed off my letter, the
Speaker 1: anticipation of getting one in return was always such a blast.
Speaker 1: I could not wait. This was a slow process. It
Speaker 1: was not making a phone call where you got immediate
Speaker 1: answers to your questions. What's your favorite toy, do you
Speaker 1: play a sport? Do you have brothers and sisters? We
Speaker 1: had to wait weeks to find out those answers. I'm
Speaker 1: having that same experience a little bit with my relationship
Speaker 1: with Carl Patton. Carl Patton is Melissa Wolfenberger's father, and
Speaker 1: as you know from the previous episode where we talked
Speaker 1: to Norma and Tina, her mom and sister, Karl is
Speaker 1: incarcerated for murders that he committed in nineteen seventy seven.
Speaker 1: But Carl wants to be a part of seeking justice
Speaker 1: for Melissa, Well, he has information that I need, and
Speaker 1: the only way I can do that is through letters.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the significance of including Carl
Speaker 1: in this investigation. If you want to know why people murder,
Speaker 1: ask a murderer, If you want to know whether Carl's
Speaker 1: background had anything to do with what happened to his daughter,
Speaker 1: flat out asking if he believes that somebody in his
Speaker 1: past was seeking retribution, then we'll know that. Y'all, this
Speaker 1: is a case like none other that I have ever
Speaker 1: heard of that I've ever worked. I can't even find
Speaker 1: anything in just general research that has happened like this historically.
Speaker 1: There is no other case like Melissa Wolfenberger. Here's why
Speaker 1: you have her father who has been named and classified
Speaker 1: as a serial killer by law enforcement. Her daddy's a
Speaker 1: Flint River killer. That's the moniker. You're going to learn
Speaker 1: later that he hates that, that he does not consider
Speaker 1: himself a serial killer, because he will tell you he's
Speaker 1: not a Ted Bundy type. He has never sought somebody
Speaker 1: out to murder them. That he did not know. He's
Speaker 1: never stalked and killed anybody that he did not have
Speaker 1: a connection with. He has never killed the same victim
Speaker 1: over and over and over like a Ted Bundy. So
Speaker 1: in this case, we have a serial killer turned crime
Speaker 1: victim who turned to the detective that arrested him for help,
Speaker 1: who then turned to a nonprofit for help, who then
Speaker 1: got his family to meet with the disc attorney over
Speaker 1: the case. So he has tried to put as much
Speaker 1: effort into this as he could from where he sat
Speaker 1: in prison. So I can find no other case in
Speaker 1: history where a murderer had a loved one in their
Speaker 1: family murdered, who asked law enforcement for help, who asked
Speaker 1: a nonprofit for help, who then went to the prosecutor
Speaker 1: for help. Carl Patton can't be on the podcast. He
Speaker 1: has no access to a computer with headphones or a
Speaker 1: cell phone, and he's not allowed outside visitors that are
Speaker 1: not family members. I made a formal request to the
Speaker 1: Department of Corrections to meet with him, and I was denied.
Speaker 1: Carl will speak to us today the only way that
Speaker 1: he can. Through letters. Through the years, Carl and I
Speaker 1: have communicated about his life growing up, when he was
Speaker 1: a little boy. I've asked him intimate questions about his family,
Speaker 1: his crimes, his incarceration, and his fight for justice for Melissa. Today,
Speaker 1: you're going to be able to hear his answers to
Speaker 1: my questions. Today we get to go inside Dodge State
Speaker 1: Prison the only way we can and talk to Carl Patton.
Speaker 1: We spoke to Normal Patton, who admitted that she helped
Speaker 1: Carl dispose of bodies in the Flint River. First time
Speaker 1: I ever met her. She sat down with me and
Speaker 1: she said, my daughter was beheaded in Atlanta. Will you
Speaker 1: help me? Absolutely, I offered to help her. I asked
Speaker 1: her to meet me in my office at the college,
Speaker 1: and she did. Before we started to talk about Melissa,
Speaker 1: she told me straight out, I need to tell you
Speaker 1: something before you truly agree to help me. And she said,
Speaker 1: my husband is in prison for murder and I helped him,
Speaker 1: but we had a deal so I didn't go to prison.
Speaker 1: That was a shocking statement. I didn't know her past
Speaker 1: prior to her meeting with me. I didn't know anything
Speaker 1: about Carl Patton. I had heard of the Flint River murders,
Speaker 1: but only cursory. But here's the deal. In my business
Speaker 1: in the real world at the police department, we don't
Speaker 1: get to pick and choose who we help and who
Speaker 1: we don't. If there is a victim of crime, we
Speaker 1: helped that person, period. So Carl's passed enormous path was
Speaker 1: not going to determine from helping Melissa, because the bottom
Speaker 1: line is, the sins of the father have nothing to
Speaker 1: do with what happened to Melissa. She was an innocent,
Speaker 1: twenty one year old young wife and mother that did
Speaker 1: not deserve to have her arms and legs and head
Speaker 1: cut off from her body and discarded in trash bags
Speaker 1: like she was garbage. Her children deserved better, her family
Speaker 1: deserved better. And I also want to be very clear,
Speaker 1: Carl Patton did what he did. He deserves to be
Speaker 1: in prison. In two thousand and three, Carl Millard Patton
Speaker 1: Junior was arrested. He was later convicted of the nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy seven murders of Fred White, Lyddy Matthews Evans, and
Speaker 1: evans boyfriend Joe Cleveland. He has never denied that to me.
Speaker 1: He has never misrepresented the facts to me that I know.
Speaker 1: Of every question that I have ever asked him, he
Speaker 1: has answered, sometimes more than once let's talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about the timeline to catch you up. November the ninth,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight, Melissa was last seen by her mom
Speaker 1: December nineteen ninety eight. Melissa's husband states that's the last
Speaker 1: time he ever saw her. He saw her walking down
Speaker 1: the streets. She said she was headed off and he
Speaker 1: never saw her again, and he just thought she moved
Speaker 1: to California without him. Keep in mind, Melissa I had
Speaker 1: no car, no phone, no money, no luggage with her,
Speaker 1: and she left behind her two small children. Between October
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight in February of nineteen ninety nine. Her
Speaker 1: husband worked at a place called Action Class. He never
Speaker 1: reports her missing. He never calls her family and says,
Speaker 1: will you help me look for her? Have you heard
Speaker 1: from her? Is she with y'all? He never tries to
Speaker 1: find her. He never tries to make sure the children
Speaker 1: can see her and visit with her and be co
Speaker 1: parented by her. As a matter of fact, the house
Speaker 1: they were living in together he moved out of. He
Speaker 1: moved to a different city in South Georgia, and did
Speaker 1: so using an assumed name. April twenty ninth, nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 1: a severed skull is found in the middle of Avon
Speaker 1: Avenue June third, nineteen ninety nine. Arms and legs are
Speaker 1: found in four additional trashbags in the same area. November
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety nine, Melissa's mom, Norma, officially reports her missing. Now,
Speaker 1: y'all remember from the other episode, she tried to get
Speaker 1: her hometown in Henry County to take a report. They said,
Speaker 1: Melissa doesn't live here. She's a grown, married woman. She
Speaker 1: can walk out of her life if she wants to.
Speaker 1: We have no evidence of a crime. Norma reaches out
Speaker 1: to the Atlanta Police Department, who rode by to do
Speaker 1: a welfare check. There was nobody there, no blood, no
Speaker 1: broken glass, the door wasn't kicked in. They basically gave
Speaker 1: her the same speech. She's a grown woman, she's married,
Speaker 1: husband hasn't reported her. She can take a powder if
Speaker 1: she wants to. When Carl is arrested for the nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy seven murders, Detective Bruce Jordan is the one that
Speaker 1: arrested him, and Norma and Carl had a lot of
Speaker 1: conversations about, well, if he called Carl after twenty five years,
Speaker 1: he must be pretty good at his job and maybe
Speaker 1: we should ask him to help find Melissa, because at
Speaker 1: this point she's still a missing person. So Norma goes
Speaker 1: to Bruce Jordan with Carl's blessing and encouragement, to say,
Speaker 1: will you help find our daughter? And to his credit,
Speaker 1: he said yes, and he's the one that discovered the
Speaker 1: severed head was just feet from where her husband worked
Speaker 1: at Action Glass on March fourteenth, two thousand and three.
Speaker 1: The remains are identified as Melissa Wolfenburger. Tragically, law enforcement
Speaker 1: lost four years that they could have been investigating a homicide. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Carl Patton cannot speak for himself on this podcast, so
Speaker 1: Walt McCollum, my husband has agreed to read Carl's letters
Speaker 1: so that it's going to be real clear that Carl
Speaker 1: is speaking when you hear a male voice. And I
Speaker 1: also want to be very clear that Christopher Wolfenberger has
Speaker 1: denied any involvement in Melissa's murder. June sixteenth, twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: Miss Cheryl, I would like to correct something you said
Speaker 1: in your letter. You said Chris knew that I'd kill
Speaker 1: him if I ever got out. Norman made me promise
Speaker 1: I wouldn't not out for forgiveness but for the sake
Speaker 1: of the children and Melissa's grandson and the fact that
Speaker 1: I would be back in prison. Cheryl Chris is not
Speaker 1: worth me being separated from my family one more minute plus.
Speaker 1: I really did not understand the hurt and grief I
Speaker 1: caused with my actions until we lost Melissa. I never
Speaker 1: want to cause anyone that type of pain ever again,
Speaker 1: and I pray God has or will forgive me for
Speaker 1: my sins and actions. April twenty first, twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: I am anxious about the evidence that has been found.
Speaker 1: My main focus is on the bags Melissa's body was
Speaker 1: placed in. We both know it would be hard to
Speaker 1: tie knots, especially in plastic bags, without leaving trace evidence
Speaker 1: of some sort. Whenever murder occurs, some kind of evidence
Speaker 1: is left. No matter how careful the killer is, evidence
Speaker 1: will be there. It may be overlooked, but that does
Speaker 1: not mean it's not there. There is no perfect crime.
Speaker 1: PS told Norma and Tena May, I was glad you
Speaker 1: and miss Adrian were never after me when I was
Speaker 1: doing wrong. Thank God, I am not that man any longer.
Speaker 1: July twenty second, twenty twenty one. Melissa Dawn was my
Speaker 1: baby girl who carried my heart the first time I
Speaker 1: held her. She was a happy, beautiful young lady, made
Speaker 1: good grades in schools, was an rotc and had the
Speaker 1: bright future in front of her. All that changed when
Speaker 1: she met Chris Wolfenburger. He had an unhealthy influence on her.
Speaker 1: She changed, and not for the better. She started sneaking
Speaker 1: out at night to meet him and do god knows what.
Speaker 1: He even talked her into stealing my car twice. She
Speaker 1: and Chris had planned to run away to California, his idea.
Speaker 1: After Melissa became pregnant and had Christina. Chris done everything
Speaker 1: he could to keep Melissa and Christina away from me
Speaker 1: and Norma. Now she had to sneak away from him,
Speaker 1: not sneak to meet him. Only time we ever got
Speaker 1: to see Melissa and Christina was when Chris was at work.
Speaker 1: Melissa told us she'd be in big trouble if he
Speaker 1: found out she had often had bruises on her arms
Speaker 1: and neck. Norman and I tried to tell her it
Speaker 1: was an unsafe and unhealthy relationship, but she was in
Speaker 1: love and wouldn't listen. When Melissa didn't show up at
Speaker 1: Christmas to get her gifts, and then we couldn't locate her.
Speaker 1: I knew in my mind and heart Chris had done
Speaker 1: something to Melissa. September sixteenth, twenty twenty two, Miss Cheryl,
Speaker 1: thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule
Speaker 1: to write and continue to keep me informed on Melissa's case.
Speaker 1: Last week was a rough one. Melissa would have turned
Speaker 1: forty five on Friday. Your letters are greatly appreciated. They
Speaker 1: continue to reassure me that someone other than my family
Speaker 1: is concerned in seeking justice for her. Thank you for
Speaker 1: your effort and determination on Melissa's behalf. My family and
Speaker 1: I owe a great debt of gratitude that cannot be repaid.
Speaker 1: October eleventh, twenty twenty two. How do you kill the
Speaker 1: mother of your two children and then look at those
Speaker 1: children in the eye and say your mother deserted you
Speaker 1: because she didn't want you. Then, when it's proven this
Speaker 1: mother is dead and they want us to visit the grave,
Speaker 1: you take them to a different location and claim someone
Speaker 1: must have moved her. Miss Cheryl, I have told you
Speaker 1: I had to lose Melissa and feel the pain to
Speaker 1: really realize the damage and harm I caused people I
Speaker 1: did not know. Please tell me who does Chris have
Speaker 1: to lose to realize the hurt, heartache, and anguish his
Speaker 1: actions caused. A guilty conscience is a hell on earth
Speaker 1: that continues to punish and convict, and I deal with
Speaker 1: it every day. I pray that one day soon Chris
Speaker 1: will get a conscience and see the wrong he has done.
Speaker 1: I wish Chris had killed me instead of Melissa. That way,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have to live with the guilt of knowing
Speaker 1: I was not there to protect her every time I
Speaker 1: look at her picture. Pain is the price you pay
Speaker 1: for loving your children. So deeply want you to know
Speaker 1: my family and I appreciate your efforts in Melissa's case
Speaker 1: and keeping us in the loop. Chris Wolfenburger has gotten
Speaker 1: away with his crime long enough, and for the first
Speaker 1: time in a long time, I believe he will get
Speaker 1: his due very soon. Also pleased to see the investigating
Speaker 1: agents agree with me that there is only one suspect
Speaker 1: in this case, Chris Wolfenburger. Have read the geographic profile
Speaker 1: several times and for most part I agree ninety five.
Speaker 1: I want you to know in my heart, killer does
Speaker 1: not describe me. Loving, protective father, husband and provider describes
Speaker 1: me and I pray you will see that as well.
Speaker 1: I'm willing to do anything to help bring Melissa's killer
Speaker 1: to justice. I have only two goals left in my life.
Speaker 1: One is justice for Melissa. In getting back home to
Speaker 1: my family, to hear my children's laughter, and to wake
Speaker 1: up next to my wife one more time. This is
Speaker 1: my dream. When I was first reviewing the entire case file,
Speaker 1: so much good work had been done once they knew
Speaker 1: they had a murder. Some real stellar work, as a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, was done. But one thing that I
Speaker 1: saw that was missing was a geographical profile. Now, if
Speaker 1: you are not familiar with that term, it's really an
Speaker 1: extraordinary and just super cool tool for law enforcement. They
Speaker 1: take all the locations that are connected to either a
Speaker 1: crime or a series of crimes, and they try to
Speaker 1: determine the most probable area where an offender lives, and
Speaker 1: this map shows a location that is most likely where
Speaker 1: the offender's bay. He says that base is either his
Speaker 1: home or his work. In other words, this place is
Speaker 1: somewhere that he knows intimately, he feels safe, he feels protected,
Speaker 1: he feels like he could work from there very easily.
Speaker 1: And then it analyzes locations that are connected to the
Speaker 1: crime to determine most likely, yes, this is the person
Speaker 1: that picked this disposal site. It's most likely where this
Speaker 1: person traveled the route that they took after they committed
Speaker 1: the crime. So if you have somebody that leaves their home,
Speaker 1: interacts with a victim, murders that victim, and then dumps
Speaker 1: their body somewhere, the geographical profile when they know the
Speaker 1: body disposal site and where the victim was last seen,
Speaker 1: then they work backwards to show this most likely is
Speaker 1: the area where the perpetrator lived or worked. So some
Speaker 1: of the things that used to get this information into
Speaker 1: their analysis, into their mapping, they will look at again,
Speaker 1: where did this crime end. Is the victim found outdoors
Speaker 1: in abandoned building, in their home, on a street somewhere.
Speaker 1: Then they're going to work backwards to say where were
Speaker 1: they last seen. They're going to utilize witness statements, law
Speaker 1: enforcement reports and get that exact address of where they
Speaker 1: were last seen. Well, now you've got two critical addresses,
Speaker 1: where the body was located and where the victim was
Speaker 1: last seen. They also add things from the victim's life,
Speaker 1: where the victim went to school, where the victim worked,
Speaker 1: because again, where did this killer and victim first intersect,
Speaker 1: they can try to predict that when they're looking at
Speaker 1: this map, there's going to be some hot zones where,
Speaker 1: perhaps you know, the victim is crossing into where the
Speaker 1: perpetrator may live. Maybe she passes where he works every
Speaker 1: day to go to her job or her school, or
Speaker 1: her church or whatever it is that she's headed toward.
Speaker 1: So in the case of Melissa, again we have her
Speaker 1: most likely being killed at one location, being transported and
Speaker 1: then being discarded at another. And then we have some
Speaker 1: principal elements that somebody would want to look at. Where
Speaker 1: did she live, where did she work, where were her parents,
Speaker 1: her siblings, etc. So we were extremely fortunate that we
Speaker 1: had somebody come forward to say, yes, I will help you.
Speaker 1: And Douglas McGregor, who is in Canada, who is a
Speaker 1: geographical profiler. Y'all, he's a freaking wizard. And I tell
Speaker 1: this story a lot of times so that people really
Speaker 1: understand when somebody is truly gifted in their expertise. And
Speaker 1: this is the situation with Douglas. We had a series
Speaker 1: of crimes in Atlanta not too long ago, and as
Speaker 1: soon as I started hearing about them, they were oddly familiar,
Speaker 1: kind of like a deja voo thing, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: why does this sound like I've heard this before, even
Speaker 1: though it was crimes that were unfolded. And I even
Speaker 1: reached out to David Quinn, who was the detective on
Speaker 1: the crimes that I was remembering, and even asked them,
Speaker 1: doesn't this sound like your case? Could this be a copycat?
Speaker 1: He said, they sound real similar to me, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it could be a copycat. So I contacted
Speaker 1: Douglas and in real time and real quick, he did
Speaker 1: a profile and he said, no, this is a stranger.
Speaker 1: He has no idea of the other crimes you're talking about,
Speaker 1: and he's going to strike in this general area always,
Speaker 1: and everything that he sent me I sent to the
Speaker 1: sergeant over the case, and it turned out he was
Speaker 1: absolutely right. I asked him if he would possibly look
Speaker 1: at Melissa Wolfenberger's case and he said absolutely, and he
Speaker 1: generated a report for the police and the prosecutor, and again,
Speaker 1: stellar work, just peerless, the really cool thing on Melissa's
Speaker 1: case that had never been done before. So it was
Speaker 1: just one more thing that we could give to investigators
Speaker 1: into the DA's office to say, look, it's not just
Speaker 1: us telling you there's an analysis that's being done by
Speaker 1: an expert's going to show you the same thing. We're
Speaker 1: going to wrap up this episode with one final letter
Speaker 1: from Carl November third, twenty twenty two. In your last letter,
Speaker 1: you also asked very pointed questions about my past family
Speaker 1: norma parents, children, in crimes, things that are usually off limits. However,
Speaker 1: I'm going to try to answer them as honestly as
Speaker 1: I can. So I always started the beginning. My mother
Speaker 1: my father lived through the Great Depression and know what
Speaker 1: it meant to work hard and still do without. My
Speaker 1: dad used to tell me when he needed a new
Speaker 1: pair of shoes, all he had to do was put
Speaker 1: a piece of cardboard in the bottom of the old ones.
Speaker 1: Was his second son and only one of my mother,
Speaker 1: who was thirty six years old when I came along.
Speaker 1: Mom was the oldest girl of eight and had to
Speaker 1: help watch after her other brothers and sisters. She always
Speaker 1: dreamed of having her own children, but I came late
Speaker 1: in their lives. Family rumor says she found out she
Speaker 1: was pregnant, she ran around yellowing I got me a
Speaker 1: hot shot, and that's where I got my nickname and
Speaker 1: nothing to do with my criminal activities. Mom and Dad
Speaker 1: always made sure I knew I was loved, wanted, and protected.
Speaker 1: Growing up, I'd like to play football and fish did
Speaker 1: not like school. My mother was always my safety blanket
Speaker 1: and my best friend. That's why it hurts now to
Speaker 1: know I disappointed her sometimes, and another reason I'm trying
Speaker 1: now to be a better person. Family loyalty started with
Speaker 1: my grandfather. He always said family first, and to be
Speaker 1: true to your word and your friends. He taught my mother,
Speaker 1: and she taught me. Now I try to pass that
Speaker 1: on to my children. All my mother ever wanted was
Speaker 1: for me to go to church, get educated, own my
Speaker 1: own home, and have grandchildren. She loved Norma, and the
Speaker 1: happiest I ever saw my mother was when Norma gave
Speaker 1: birth to our first daughter. After Tina May was born,
Speaker 1: Norman could do no wrong. Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Speaker 1: When I was young and growing up, we lived in
Speaker 1: College Park. My grandfather, Patton, lived on Main Street in
Speaker 1: a two story, three bedroom mansion he built from a
Speaker 1: two room shack. He was a master carpenter. Long about
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty one, we moved to Ellenwood, east of Forest Park.
Speaker 1: Mom had rented four hundred and six acres of land
Speaker 1: and a two bedroom house for sixty dollars a month.
Speaker 1: No heat, used coal heaters in a fireplace to stay warm.
Speaker 1: Where I owned my hunting skills and my mom bought
Speaker 1: my first house. There I met the Wade sisters, Donna
Speaker 1: and Teresa. The three of us rode horses every day
Speaker 1: after school. We all attended Jonesboro Junior High School, where
Speaker 1: I made some lifelong friendships. My happiest days had begun.
Speaker 1: Teresa Wade introduces me to my future. There she was
Speaker 1: dark complexion, pretty smile, brown eyes, and gray hair. Not
Speaker 1: a lot of gray hair, but enough to be interesting
Speaker 1: at fifteen years old. There she stood my soul mate,
Speaker 1: lifelong partner, best friend, lover, mother, rock of my future family. Norma.
Speaker 1: Did the ADA and the media and myself reach out
Speaker 1: to a killer to try to help solve Melissa's case? Yes,
Speaker 1: and in this case that killer just happens to be
Speaker 1: her father. But he has part of the victimology, he
Speaker 1: has an understanding of part of the suspectology. And again
Speaker 1: we are not arguing whether or not Carl Patton and
Speaker 1: It's guilty, whether or not he's a serial killer. Whether
Speaker 1: or not he deserves to be in prison, there's no
Speaker 1: argument there. I'm going to end Zone seven, like I
Speaker 1: always do, by quoting somebody from my Zone seven. Tonight's
Speaker 1: quote comes from Jim Wrapping, former United States Secret Service agent,
Speaker 1: and he says, never look down at anyone unless extending
Speaker 1: a hand to pick them back up. And I think
Speaker 1: that is so applicable to Melissa's case. I'm Cheryl McCollum
Speaker 1: and this is Zone seven. I am often asked if
Speaker 1: Melissa's murderer was some type of retribution for Carl's murders.
Speaker 1: Join us next week as we talk exclusively to the
Speaker 1: children of Lyddy Evans. The children have an opportunity to
Speaker 1: honor their mother, and we have an opportunity to look
Speaker 1: at Karl's crimes and see if they factor in to
Speaker 1: the murder of Elissa Woffenberger.