Crime Junkie
Crime Junkie
"But the fact that these remains literally sat in storage for over a decade is, again, frustrating for me, but it's frustrating to police and the Viola family who've spent how much time and resources over the last decade looking for a missing person who has likely been deceased this whole time." — Britt
"I don't think she would do anything to herself, not with her mother and children in her life." — Jim Viola (via podcast host)
"She says that she wanted Twanette to look after her kids no matter what happened to her." — Britt
This episode chronicles the mysterious disappearance of Patricia Viola from her Bogota, New Jersey home on February 13th, 2001. Her husband, Jim Viola, returned home to find the house alarm set and Patricia's coat and purse missing, but her identification, cell phone, keys, and crucial epilepsy medication left behind. The initial investigation explored various theories, including her leaving voluntarily, a potential medical emergency, or foul play. Police interviewed family, friends, and neighbors, while also checking with transportation companies and airports, but found no immediate leads.
As the investigation progressed, it was revealed that Patricia had been experiencing significant personal stressors, including caring for her sick mother-in-law, the ongoing suspension of her driver's license due to seizures, and friction with her sister-in-law who was temporarily living with the family. A particularly distressing incident involved cigarette burns on a guest bedspread, leading to a heated argument the day before her disappearance. Friends noted Patricia seemed deeply troubled and confided in a close friend that "something was very, very wrong," even requesting her friend to look after her children, though she refused to provide specifics.
Over a year after her disappearance, a tip led investigators to consider a connection to a triple homicide that occurred a few years prior on the same street, though this theory was ultimately deemed unlikely. The case remained cold for over a decade until September 2012, when a bone fragment from a left foot, along with a sock and sneaker matching Patricia's, washed ashore on Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York. These remains, found in 2002, were finally identified as Patricia Viola's through DNA comparison with a sample provided by her children in 2011. The delay in identification was attributed, in part, to the overwhelming backlog at the medical examiner's office following 9/11 and subsequent delays in processing. Despite the identification of her remains, the exact circumstances of Patricia Viola's death and disappearance remain unconfirmed, leaving her family without complete closure.