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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.
And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.
Hello, hello, hello.
Welcome back, everyone, to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Ali.
And I'm your co-host, Eli.
Welcome back, everyone.
We are on episode 92 this week.
Do you want to just get right into it?
Yeah, let's just get into it.
We are covering the unresolved missing person case of Abby Lynn Patterson.
And this takes place in Lumberton, North Carolina, in September 2017.
But first, a little bit about Abby.
Abby is 20 years old in 2017.
She had been living in Jacksonville, Florida for the last few years and was experiencing
the world on her own for the first time.
Her family and friends describe Abby as a bubbly and funny person.
She sought to find the good in people and had an open mind.
Abby had experienced addiction already in her short life.
But she was fighting to get her life back.
Prior to her disappearance, she had successfully completed a drug rehab program in Florida
and was excited to go home and visit her family.
She was extremely close to her mom.
They talked every day on the phone, sometimes twice a day.
At this time in 2017, Abby has long brown hair.
She's 5'7", and around 140 pounds.
She has a tattoo on her shoulder of three small birds and a large birthmark on the back
of her thigh.
And now, a timeline of events.
For the Labor Day weekend in 2017, Abby spends this time with her family.
They spend a day at the beach enjoying each other's company and by all accounts, Abby
is happy to be home surrounded by her family.
On Tuesday, September 5th, 2017, Abby's mom, Samantha, is scheduled to work that Tuesday
and Abby makes plans to come with her to her work.
However, in the morning, Abby tells her mom that she's going to hang out with a high
school friend and run a few errands.
Abby told her mom that she didn't plan to be out long and that she would text her.
After Samantha left for work, she got a text from Abby around 1130 a.m. saying, quote,
I will be back in one hour, end quote.
Abby waved goodbye to her grandmother and left their family home on East 9th Street.
This is on the east side of Lumberton.
Samantha saw Abby walk down the street and get into a brown Buick Park Avenue that said
the word Buick down the side.
According to Lumberton police, Samantha also saw Abby in the car that day while she was
out running errands.
Abby was wearing brown shorts and a white shirt.
Now, police have never named the person she got in the car with, but according to investigators,
the friend told police that Abby had asked him to drop her off at another location.
Again, police have never said what the second location is.
They're very tight lipped about these two pieces of information and this whole interview
with the friend.
When an hour comes and goes and Abby is still not home, her mom starts to worry.
It wasn't like her to not respond to text messages.
She tried to call Abby, but her phone went straight to voicemail.
This was also very unlike Abby.
Her mother said that if her phone had died, she would usually call her from somebody else's
phone so she had a number to reach her.
With each call that goes to voicemail, Samantha gets more and more concerned for her daughter's
safety.
When her mom recalls the events of that day to media, she'll say, quote, the day she
went missing, she told me she would be back in an hour, that she was with old high school
friends and for me not to worry.
After an hour passed, her phone went straight to voicemail.
She left with someone she trusted.
Abby's plan was to come back home that day, end quote.
Samantha grows increasingly worried as each hour passes.
Abby was expected to come home quickly.
By 6 p.m. that evening, with still no sign of Abby, her mom reports her missing to police.
Now I couldn't find exact details about how police initially respond to this missing
person report.
I don't know if they're quick to start searching for her or if they're a little slow since
she's over 18 years old.
But during the course of the investigation, police do look at her phone, her phone records,
and bank activity.
Police say they are able to put together a clear picture of Abby's activities when she
left the family home.
But they acknowledge that they're missing that one last piece of information to be able
to locate Abby.
Abby's family plead for someone to come forward with information.
They say, quote, Abby is a light to everyone that knows her and without her we are lost.
We pray that whoever might know something about her whereabouts will come forward, even
if they choose to remain anonymous.
She is not just a missing person.
She is a missing daughter, a missing sister, a missing granddaughter, and a missing piece
of so many people's hearts, end quote.
By October, just a few weeks after Abby went missing, the FBI are involved in the case.
It's unclear exactly why they joined the investigation.
I'm unsure if there's evidence that Abby had been driven over state lines or if it's
the string of missing and murdered women in Lumberton that prompted their involvement.
Police have been clear that they believe Abby's case is unrelated to any other case in Lumberton
and the county.
Around a month after Abby vanished, the family offers a $5,000 reward for information leading
to Abby.
In February of 2018, only five months since Abby went missing, her mom, Samantha, reported
on Facebook that she had spent the day hanging missing person posters around Lumberton and
very specifically where Abby was last seen getting into the car.
Within hours of the flyers being hung, someone had ripped them down from the telephone poles.
She found them lying in the street.
In July of 2018, approaching the one-year anniversary of her disappearance, police spend
a full day searching for Abby along Alamac Road in Lumberton.
Police said, quote, the FBI and Lumberton Police Department conducted a search yesterday
as part of the ongoing investigation to locate Abby Lynn Patterson.
We continue to assist the LPD with this case and encourage the public to come forward with
information to help locate Abby, end quote.
It's unclear if anything was found during these searches, but it does seem like police
return again and again to Alamac Road.
This is the only time they officially say that they're searching for Abby, but they
do conduct more searches but just aren't clear about what they're searching for or what case
it's related to.
But it's all along Alamac Road.
In September of 2018, at the one-year anniversary, her mother Samantha wrote, quote, a year ago
today, that was our last picture together.
We laughed all day long.
This was the perfect day.
What I would give to go back to this very moment.
You are so very missed, my sweet Abby.
I love you more than words could ever say.
We are not giving up.
I feel you with me every day.
I promise we will find you, end quote.
In 2019, Abby's family creates a Facebook to give updates on her case and to share memories
of her.
Sifting through the post and comments, Abby's mom says that there is a person of interest
in the case, but it takes time to prove what happened when no one is talking and the police
are limited in the evidence that they have.
The FBI is still working on Abby's case and both the FBI and Lumberton police have
pledged to work the case until they can find her.
In September of 2019, so it's been two years now since Abby disappeared, her mom
organizes a door-to-door canvas of Alamac Road.
Again, this is the only area that I could find where police and FBI have searched for
Abby.
They also knocked on doors to talk to folks to see if they could gather any new information.
It's also around this time that the FBI announces that they are adding additional
funds to the reward money and they are bringing the total reward to $10,000 for information
leading to Abby.
In 2022, the Lumberton police post a video on their Facebook page summarizing Abby's
case.
In the video, they mentioned that not only have they been able to ID the driver of the
Buick, but also the other people that Abby was with that day.
Police say that through their investigation, they have been able to get a picture of Abby's
activities on the day she disappeared.
Quote, because of this, we know a great deal about what happened in the hours after Abby
left home, but not enough to locate her.
It's this last piece that we're waiting on to bring her home to her mother and sisters.
End quote.
As of 2024, her mother is still advocating and pushing for someone to come forward in
her daughter's case.
The family feels prepared that she may not be coming home to them alive, but they want
her home to lay her to rest and to know where she is.
But that is all we know about the disappearance of Abby Lynn Patterson.
Family and police stress that there are people out there that hold the key to this case and
beg them to come forward with the information.
Police family stresses that it is unlike her to go this long without contacting them.
So if you know anything about the disappearance of Abby Lynn Patterson or her whereabouts
today, please call the Lumberton police at 910-671-3845.
So that is the case of Abby Lynn Patterson.
I pretty instantly felt a kinship with Abby and her story.
I'm a recovering addict as well.
I just celebrated three years of sobriety.
So knowing that she was doing that and rebooting her life is...
What I wrote down was getting sober is the most difficult thing an addict can do, but
when you do, you're kind of unstoppable.
Or that has been the case in my life.
A lot of things opened up for me when I got sober and maintained my sobriety and committed
to it.
So knowing that she was doing that and this happened during that time is...
It's really hard.
And also makes her going missing at this time even more suspicious to me.
Yeah.
Abby truly had the whole world ahead of her.
And like you said, getting sober.
She was taking the world on and taking her life back.
And yeah, just to echo what you said, it's really tragic that just as she was getting
her footing again and get going, this massive thing happened and now we just don't know
where she is.
The question, the first question I had was mostly around the high school friends, but
you definitely expanded on that.
I just, I really wish we knew who they were.
But I also, I'm also just grateful that there is some information out there, at least that
law enforcement has on who these people are.
But it's still wild that even with how recent this case is and how there has been so much
technological advancement in true crime investigation and it being 2024 for that last missing piece,
because they have a lot of information, but they need confirmation from the sources, the
police themselves.
And in every case, no matter what, when it comes down to it, it's like you still need,
you have to count on people.
You have to count on people to come through with the answers.
And that's exactly what's happening here.
Absolutely.
It goes to show that some of the greatest tools that investigators have is just witnesses.
And I know we've talked about before how witnesses can sometimes be unreliable.
Maybe they can't remember things, but just having people say, oh, I saw a girl that looked
like that walking here around this time.
Even if there's nothing else suspicious going on or notable, that is helpful.
It kind of helps trace and lead to the next thing, which might lead to a camera, which
might lead to security footage.
There's nothing that can really replace people as we go in an increasingly technological
world.
People are irreplaceable.
Yeah.
And the presence of that irreplaceability is so palpable in the way that her mom talks
about her.
You read that post and it just broke my heart.
And I think because this is more recent, I can really feel it.
That actively this person is living with this terrifying uncertainty.
My heart really goes out to her, but especially because the case is new to me, I have a lot
of hope for the truth to show itself in this case.
If there's one thing that I took away from this case is that police and her family are
convinced, and I think with good reason, that somebody out there knows something and people
just aren't talking.
And if there are people out there, that means that somebody is going to slip up eventually.
Someone is going to say something in their sleep.
Someone is going to get drunk and blurt something out.
So I do believe that we will see answers in this case and that somebody will either slip
up or maybe they'll just need to clear their conscience and need to say what they know,
whether they're involved or if they just have knowledge of what happened.
Maybe somebody will have that laid on their heart where they'll just be able to come forward
with the information that's needed that will lead to Abby.
It was very clear to me as well in your research that you did and shared with us that her whole
community is very committed to finding her as well.
When you said that two years had gone by and they did the door-to-door canvassing, I was
kind of taken aback that they were out there, boots on the ground, similar to when a person
goes missing and the search party happens that day.
I know it was different, but I thought that was amazing.
To me, I'm even getting goosebumps right now.
I'm like, hell yeah, these people are not going to let it go.
I love that for her.
I love that for Abby and I love that for her family.
I think people in the area especially, not letting it go and not staying quiet puts pressure
on people to eventually say something one way or another.
Abby's mom and family are really a force to be reckoned with and they are very committed
to not letting her name get out of the media, of not letting anybody forget that they are
looking for her every single day.
If any of our listeners end up researching this case, and I mentioned it a little bit
in our timeline, you will undoubtedly see the other missing people cases in Lumberton
and the other murders.
Some of them aren't classified as murders.
Some of them are very suspicious deaths, but women found dead not far from where Abby was
last seen.
There's a lot of Reddit posts, things like that, talking about could there be a serial
killer in this area.
I don't want to discount that that could be happening because frankly that could happen
anywhere.
Police do seem very convinced that Abby's incident is isolated, which is why I chose
to focus mainly just on her during the timeline and not bring in other cases, which I know
I sometimes do if I think maybe there could be a small connection, but police are just
very adamant that Abby's case is isolated compared to the rest.
That's why if you're doing your own research or maybe you know this case and you're wondering
why I'm not talking about everything else going on in Lumberton, that's just why I chose
to do it that way as full transparency.
So again, if you know anything about the disappearance of Abby Lynn Patterson or her whereabouts
today, please call the Lumberton police at 910-671-3845.
And we will be sharing photos of Abby on our Instagram this week.
You can find us at Cold and Missing because Abby went missing so recently.
You know her social media was very active, so there are a lot of photos out there.
So we'll be able to provide lots of different images of her so that way you can kind of
get her picture in your minds and in your thoughts.
And if you see somebody matching her description, you know, maybe you can help.
We also have just been raking in the reviews recently.
So thank you so much to everybody who has left one, given us five stars.
If you've left a written review, thank you so much.
I know everyone is busy and every podcast you listen to asks for you to do this so it
can just like turn into noise.
But whenever you do it, it is an incredible way to support these cases and support this
podcast.
It gets other people listening, which is so helpful to getting these stories out there
to everybody.
And if you or someone you love is hard of hearing and needs a transcript to follow along,
we have those on our website www.coldandmissing.com and there you'll find the full backlog of
all the cases we've covered to date.
Thank you so much for listening to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host Allie.
And I'm your co-host Eli.
Have a great week and stay safe, y'all.
Stay safe, y'all.