In March 1957, William and Margaret Patterson of El Paso, Texas, mysteriously vanished without a trace, and the couple was not heard from for months.

So, by August 15, 1957, a friend of the Pattersons, Cecil Ward, decided to contact authorities and report the spouses missing. Cecil alleged that he had not seen William or Margaret since March 5 of that year.

This pushed authorities to visit the Patterson’s home, where they found the place in disarray– suggesting that the pair had left abruptly. There were still unwashed dishes in the kitchen sink, and clothes had been laid out on the bed.

On top of that, the couple never turned off their utilities, and they had an expensive fur coat waiting to be picked up from the cleaners. Finally, the Pattersons left their cat, Tommy, behind.

Prior to their Disappearance, William and Margaret owned a photography supply store in El Paso, Texas, that seemingly afforded them a strong financial portfolio. The pair owned a boat and a Cadillac, held investment shares in a boat company, and even owned property in Guaymas, Mexico.

However, when the spouses disappeared, they left all of their expensive belongings behind.

William and Margaret were also reportedly private about their personal lives. They both admittedly endured “rough” childhoods, although they never divulged much more information.

Before opening the photography supply store, William was a former carnival barker– or a person who worked to attract patrons to entertainment events. As he grew older, though, he did not stay close to his family.

Margaret, too, was estranged from her family since they did not approve of her marriage to William. Once moving away from the Midwest and tying the knot with William, though, she was reportedly still a woman of privacy.

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In other words, Margaret was not forthcoming with personal information– even when conversing with friends. In fact, she reportedly never revealed her relationship history or even her birthday.

Yet, following the couple’s disappearance, William’s father, Luther Patterson, did not seem so surprised. At 75-years-old, Luther traveled to El Paso from Chicago in order to speak at the inquest for William’s disappearance. It was there that he revealed his beliefs regarding the case.

“I always knew Pat and Margaret would take off like this someday, but I figured it to be four or five years away,” Luther said.

He also claimed to believe that the couple was still alive and simply went into hiding.

“My boy has done things like this before. He made his living doing sleight-of-hand tricks,” Luther added, referencing his son’s past as a carnival barker.

Friends of the Pattersons, however, were not so convinced. For instance, Cecil Ward, the friend who reported the couple missing, also owned a local auto repair shop.

And he claimed to have visited the Patterson’s home the day the couple disappeared. That afternoon, Cecil alleged that he did not notice any suspicious behavior. Instead, he and the couple actually made plans to work on William’s boat together later that week.

Cecil also claimed that the Pattersons had mentioned no immediate travel plans. This contradicted reports from other friends of the couple, though, who alleged the pair was taking a vacation.

Suspicious Circumstances Following The Couple’s Disappearance

After William and Margaret disappeared on March 5, 1957, one of the couple’s friends– Doyle Kirkland– kept popping up.

The very next day, on March 6, 1957, Doyle– who owned a competing photography shop– actually walked into Cecil Ward’s auto repair shop and asked for help in fixing up William’s car.

Then, on March 15, Doyle’s name came up on the radar again. That day, the couple’s accountant, Herbert Roth, received a telegram detailing how Doyle should become the manager of the Patterson photo supply shop. The telegram was also reportedly signed with William’s nickname, “Pat.”

However, investigators were never able to actually recover the telegram.

One year after William and Margaret’s disappearance, other new information came to light as well. Reynaldo Nangaray, a man who was a caretaker for the couple’s home, alleged that he had found blood in the Patterson’s garage.

“Nangaray told us he found blood in the garage and a piece of human scalp on the propellor of the Patterson’s boat. He found a pair of jeans with a Rolex watch that belonged to Patterson, and he said he also saw one of Patterson’s associates remove bloody sheets from the home and put them inside the trunk of a car,” former Detective Freddie Bonilla said.

“He did not talk to police sooner because he was an [undocumented] immigrant at the time, but when he came to see us, he was a U.S. citizen.”

Other Clues Come In

During the investigation, it also came to light that William allegedly had a 20-year-old mistress named Estefana Arroyo Marfin, who lived in Juárez, Mexico. She came forward and provided a statement to authorities– claiming to have seen William shortly before he disappeared.

When they saw each other, Estefana also claimed that William told her, “When they come for me, I’ll have to go in a hurry.”

According to Estefana, William reportedly had other “important things” to share with her, too. However, she claimed to have never found out what those things were. Estefana also later withdrew the statement she made to the police.

Investigators then learned that on March 15, 1957, William seemingly sent another suspicious telegram from Dallas regarding the management of his photo supply store and the renting out of his home. But, the telegram was called in over the phone– meaning it was difficult to ascertain whether William was truly the author.

A letter was also sent, which asked that his properties be distributed among three different people. They included William’s employee, Art Moreno, his business auditor, Herb Roth, and his friend, Doyle Kirkland.

Sergeant Jim Belknap with the El Paso Sheriff’s Department reportedly found the letter suspicious– mainly because William still had a father and sister who were alive, as well as numerous other close friends in El Paso. So, Sgt. Belknap believed there were other more likely candidates for William’s will.

Theories Regarding The Couple’s Disappearance

To this day, exactly what happened to William and Margaret Patterson has never been uncovered. But, with the various shreds of suspicious evidence, many theories have popped up about the couple’s disappearance.

A popular theory alleges that the Pattersons were actually spies.

“The way they got up and just walked away and left everything behind– the Russians, or whoever sent them, probably told them to drop everything and go back,” county sheriff Leo Samaniego told the El Paso Times in 2005.

“Some people said they had seen William take photographs of Fort Bliss and of military shipments on the trains that came here.”

It is important to note, though, that there is no substantial evidence indicating that William or Margaret was actually involved in these activities.

So, other theories also entered the limelight. Some believe that one of the spouses murdered the other before fleeing and starting a new life. This theory spawned since there was reportedly tension in the couple’s marriage– stemming from William’s alleged affair and Margaret’s reported proclivity for heavy drinking.

Finally, others believe that the couple never actually left their primary residence– falling victim to foul play and remaining concealed somewhere on the property.

This theory ultimately inspired ghost stories in El Paso, with some neighborhood children even attempting to search for ghosts in the couple’s home.

Many Theories, No Evidence

In spite of these theories, the public has never gleaned any closure in the case of William and Margaret.

Over the years, their disappearance was highly publicized in the media– causing many tips regarding possible sightings in both the United States and Mexico to flood in.

However, many of those reports were false or remain unconfirmed. So, what truly happened to William and Margaret Patterson has continued to be a puzzling mystery.

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