Patrick Mullins // 424
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What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Heath. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello, everybody. A big thank you to Lacey and Amanda for recommending today's case. This is a really suspicious story that takes place on a boat.

And it has a really bizarre twist. Like, I feel like you and I, Heath, we're going to and all of us, we're going to be really talking about the details of the crime scene here. Yeah, there's a lot of very, like, small details that will just completely throw you guys off. It's a very, very strange story. Seriously. So thank you again to Lacey and Amanda for putting this one on our radar. And please make sure that you guys share Pat's story.

All right, guys, without further ado, this is episode 424 of Going West. So let's get into it. So

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It's that time of the year. Your vacation is coming up. You can already hear the beach waves, feel the warm breeze, relax, and think about...

In January of 2013, a 52-year-old high school librarian from Florida headed out on his boat for a quick afternoon ride.

When he didn't return home, an intense search ensued, leading a fisherman to find his remains tied to an anchor. His body was found floating in the water, but he hadn't drowned. He had been shot. And with the circumstances surrounding his strange death, his family pushed for justice. This is the story of Patrick Mullins.

Patrick Mullins, also known as Pat, was born on October 20th, 1960 in Tallahassee, Florida to parents Nancy and Patrick. He was the middle of five children growing up alongside brothers Bert and Gray and sisters Linda and Nancy. Patrick Mullins was born on October 20th, 1960 in Tallahassee, Florida to parents Nancy and Patrick.

At three years old, the family relocated to Anna Maria Island, located in Manatee County on the southern tip of Tampa Bay. And after graduating from Manatee High School in Bradenton, Florida, Pat went on to attend the University of Florida, where he met the love of his life, Jill. ♪

Now, Jill had grown up in Sarasota. That's very close to where today's story takes place. And she was rooming with Pat's brother's girlfriend. So that is how she met Pat, you know, through his brother. So Jill remembers fondly, quote, Pat was a wonderful person. He was able in many ways and just really enjoyed helping people.

So Pat and Jill got married shortly after graduating from college in 1983 and settled back where Pat had spent most of his life, again, Manatee County, Florida.

They eventually found a home that backed right onto the Braden River in Bradenton, which is just 20 minutes from where he grew up on Anna Maria Island. And this was a total dream for Pat because he was an avid fisherman and boater, so being on the river would be really exciting for him. And it was there that he and Jill raised their two sons, Mason and Miles.

Now, for 20 years, Pat taught fourth grade in the Manatee County School District. And after a very happy career in education, both Pat and Jill decided to go back to school to acquire their graduate degrees with the goal of becoming librarians. In 2004, after finishing his degree at the University of South Florida, Pat was hired as the librarian for Palmetto High School, where his niece and his brother Bert also worked. So that's that's pretty fun.

And there he was beloved by his coworkers and students alike. I mean, I read so many comments online from previous students who knew him as their librarian, who just absolutely loved him. Like he brought so much joy to so many people. And Jill remembers proudly how committed he was to helping his students and that he would often keep the library open after hours just to help them finish their homework.

One former student remembers his unrelenting commitment to following the rules that he put in place, but that he was such a selfless presence in the school that it didn't bother them. And Pat especially loved to show up for students who were struggling or who were lacking a father figure. And he loved stepping into that role. Sometimes he would even pay the fees for some of his high schoolers to be able to take their standardized tests online.

for college admissions. Like, Pat is incredible. Yeah, he just seems like the nicest guy and he cares deeply about all of these students. Like, more than most. And even Jill says that he was pretty perfect and joked that his only demon was how deeply dedicated he was to being the best librarian that he could be.

In addition to his passion for his job, Pat was an avid reader and a fan of jazz and also donated much of his time to charitable causes. In the 90s, he was a sergeant in the National Guard and volunteered to help hurricane survivors after the devastation of Hurricane Andrew. And he also belonged to multiple education advocacy associations. I mean, it's just like... Again, I mean, God. He's just like a perfect guy, pretty much. Seriously, such a good man.

So, as their sons grew up, Pat would frequently take them out on the water to swim, boat, and fish, and enjoyed kind of tinkering with the mechanics of his boats and cars with them. And Jill happily remembered what a treasured childhood memory this was for Mason and Miles, saying, quote,

Mason painted the bow of his boat to resemble the P-40 airplane that had the menacing shark's teeth on it. Miles weighed so little that his boat would tilt about 80 degrees before it would settle onto a plane. She added that on the weekends, quote, "...Pat would be covered up to his elbows in grease when he found that he needed to run to the parts store. He'd come in from the garage, shower, and painstakingly remove the grease from underneath his fingernails just because he might run into one of his fourth graders."

In 2013, both Pat and Jill were nearing retirement. And naturally, you know, they were looking forward to it. Pat was also excitedly anticipating grandchildren in the next few years. And he just really hoped to share his passion for the water and the joys of growing up in Florida with his son's future kids. So now it's January and it's nearing he and Jill's 30th wedding anniversary. And they already had this beautiful hotel picked out in Fort Myers to spend it at.

But they wouldn't get to go on this trip because something deeply disturbing and very puzzling would happen right before their anniversary came.

On Sunday, January 27th, 2013, 52-year-old Pat was tending to some household duties before working on his boat for the afternoon. Well, around midday, he headed out to a gas station to pick up oil and a boat fuel filter, and this transaction was the last time that he ever used his debit card.

Then after this, Pat returned home to change the filter on his son's boat before setting out in his own boat, which was a Stumpknocker brand flat bottom skiff that measured about 14 feet in length. So it's a motorized boat that could hold just a few people. One neighbor, Glenn Westberry, recalled seeing him mow his lawn from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon before heading out on the water by himself.

And let's talk about this river for a sec, the one that he is going out onto in his boat by himself because...

Pat had been out on this river hundreds of times. I mean, he lived on it for years. And this river, which again is the Braden River, stretches 21 miles and it's a tributary. So it flows into the Manatee River and even goes up to a place called Ward Lake because it's a tributary.

You know, this is Florida. There are a ton of rivers and just small bodies of water around here. So, by the way, I always like to say this. I don't know why I automatically always picture rivers to be super narrow. And so I feel the need to describe them to you guys. But Braden River, it's pretty wide. Like multiple boats could drive next to each other if they needed to. And for those wondering, it hosts alligators, fish, and even raccoons.

River otters. And probably some Florida manatees. Well, yeah, actually in the adjoining Manatee River, there are manatees. And then, you know, it connects into the ocean. So Braden is, like I said, it's a tributary. It's very long. You know, this is a, it's lengthy. Yeah, and he's, you know, a good old boy from Florida. He spent a lot of his time on this river. So again, he knows it very, very well. Yeah, and it's not...

uncommon for him to go out there by himself. He's always working on his boats. He knows so much. This is his thing. This is his niche, you know? So again, Pat left to go on his boat at about 4 p.m. that day. So just two hours before the sunset for the evening, which happened just after 6 p.m. that day.

Now, Jill had left that morning to run errands around 1130 a.m. And when she returned much later in the day, actually around sunset, Pat still hadn't come home. So that Sunday morning, she had headed out to her aunt's house back in nearby Sarasota to pick up some items that belonged to her mother, who had actually passed away three months earlier.

Then a co-worker of hers was planning on meeting her back at her house to pick up some furniture that she was getting rid of. Before Jill left, it was a very normal morning. You know, Pat kissed her on the forehead and helped her move some of the furniture that was getting picked up outside. And when she returned again around sunset at 6 p.m., she found that Pat was gone forever.

Now, he hadn't informed Jill of his plans, but he had told his brother and a friend that he planned to test out the boat motor. But it was definitely strange that he had been gone for over two hours, especially after dark. Because again, he's just testing out the motor. He's not going on like a night long journey. He's just going out on the water to test this new part. Right. Make sure it works.

Probably have a nice little ride along the way. And then he was supposed to be back by the time Jill returned. Again, she didn't even know that he was doing this. So as night crept in, Jill became increasingly concerned about his safety and whereabouts. Because although Pat was an experienced boater, he was very conscious about safety and would not have been out there past dark.

According to Jill, the navigational lights on the boat weren't working, so he wouldn't have stayed out past sunset anyway, giving us more reason to believe that something was wrong. And not only that, but his cell phone was found in his car, so no one could even attempt to reach him.

After calling around to friends and family and realizing that nobody had heard from him, Jill finally called 911 to report her husband missing at 11 p.m. on the evening of January 27th. Completely unsure if he was still out on the vast river water or if something else had happened.

Now, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office came to take her statement and began their investigation shortly after. Because, you know, luckily, even though Pat was 52 years old, they started looking for him that same evening. Yeah, because, I mean, he's out on this water. He left his cell phone in his truck or in his car. Um...

they know that he doesn't have any navigational lights. So they're kind of assuming that things aren't right here. I mean, and again, they know that he wasn't going to be out there for that long. They probably talked to his brother and his brother relayed to police that, yeah, he was just going out to test this engine and would be right back. Right. I think the fact that he was out on the water is what made this more of an urgent search because we really don't see this very often. If you're over the age of 18, um,

Unless the circumstances are really weird, they don't usually look right away. They make you wait. Very true. So at least a day. Yeah, absolutely. So that night, it was 62 degrees Fahrenheit or 16 degrees Celsius. The moon was full and the tides were strong out on the water. So alongside the Sheriff's Office Marine Unit, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission worked together to scan the coast for Pat. Wow.

Though growing increasingly concerned, Jill couldn't imagine that Pat was in any real danger because, again, a Florida boy through and through, he was a very strong swimmer and he knew the waters well. But there was no sign of him at all that night. Well, the following day, the Coast Guard came across an unmanned boat bobbing in the Egmont Channel, which can reach depths as low as 80 feet beneath the water.

his boat was found a significant distance from the Mullins' home, and not somewhere that his wife believes that he would be heading. I mean, it was farther than he would have ever traveled in this small skiff, which he normally wouldn't have even taken out on the open water. The boat was west of the nearest plot of land, which is the Egmont Key National Wildlife Refuge, a former military base located on an island northwest of Bradenton.

So, this boat was discovered at 11:00 AM the following day, between buoys 9 and 10. Sadly, there was no sign of Pat, but he had clearly been on board at one point, as his hat and sunglasses were recovered from inside.

The only discernible damage to the body of the boat were the scuffs of red paint that looked as if the boat had rubbed up against something and had been streaked with red paint residue. Yeah, and they didn't know what this came from, but there is a very interesting theory that we're going to discuss later. So remember this little detail here. Yeah, remember these red streaks of paint.

Well, the top was down, and though it had run out of gas, the keys remained in the ignition, and the engine was still running, but had been placed in neutral. Which is so suspicious as well, that the boat is literally running until it ran out of gas, and he's just not in the boat. Yeah, it's very, very strange.

Now, the chance that Pat had been robbed was pretty slim because the boat was still intact and pretty much the same as it had been when Jill had last seen it. Also, Pat's wallet was still inside with all of his cards and identification, as well as $8 in cash. But, panic-stricken, knowing Pat had somehow separated from the boat, she contacted her sons to let them know what was going on.

Well, Mason was serving overseas in Afghanistan at the time, but he was actually able to get home with the help of the Red Cross. Miles, on the other hand, was a student at his parents' alma mater, which again was the University of Florida in Gainesville, so he was just under a three-hour drive from his parents' house. So both sons raced back to be by their mother's side and assist in the search.

Now, later, the boat would become a real point of contention, because to the dismay of the family, the boat was not tested for fingerprints or for any DNA, which would turn out to be a huge mess up here.

And it was also stored uncovered and unsecured outside as it underwent examination. So they basically just left it out there for all of the potential, you know, evidence to be washed away by the rain or by whatever else. Yeah, it's so disappointing to see this because I think at first...

They're really not thinking that there's foul play or anything nefarious involved. They're probably thinking that he fell overboard or was attacked by an animal or something more basic happened like that. But it's so hard, like hindsight's 20-20, but I really wish that they would have done that. Well, the more we get into these details...

the more that it just does not appear to be an accident. Oh, yeah. So recovered from the boat were two fuel tanks, two flotation devices, though one was reportedly missing, two paddles, a boat hook, a battery, a screwdriver, a dock line, and two plastic water bottles. And according to the private investigator that took over the case later,

The water bottles were also never tested for DNA when one of them may have contained a sample that did not belong to Pat. And they also were unaccounted for later because investigators claim that they did not know what became of the bottles because they were never entered into evidence. So just remember that.

Like, what the hell? Nothing is being done. They just threw away these water bottles that could have potentially had DNA evidence on them. They did something to them, but they definitely didn't. They definitely didn't take any of this into evidence or take any samples for DNA.

So initially, his family had also believed that just something kind of fluky happened, you know, like maybe he suffered some kind of medical emergency and fell overboard. Because according to Jill, in the week before Pat's disappearance, he had been suffering from severe headaches.

Now, in the aftermath of Pat's death, Jill recalled, quote, One thing I've always thought strange about Pat's death was about a week before he disappeared, Pat was having some really severe headaches. He was irritable. Pat was not an irritable person. Later on, I was talking to a medical professional who suggested that severe headaches might very likely be tied to something that was of extreme stress to Pat.

However, Jill can't imagine what he would have been keeping from her because she called him her best friend, saying that they told each other everything and always had. So this was a really confusing thing to her if these headaches were totally random and, you know, can be explained away by something very simple or if they could in some way be tied to whatever happened to him.

Now, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office and the Coast Guard continued to comb the surrounding waters for any sign of Pat, but to no avail. They also searched area hospitals and a 7-mile or 11-kilometer stretch of the beaches along the coast.

One source came forward claiming to have witnessed Pat's boat or a boat similar to Pat's traveling out of Terrasia Bay, which is north of Bradenton at 6.20 p.m. on the day that Pat disappeared. So just after sunset. However, when Jill questioned the witness, they couldn't be sure if it had been Pat on the boat or not. So the one possible sighting that we have doesn't feel super credible.

Now, the CSX Bridge, which connects Bradenton and Palmetto across the Manatee River, had active security cameras on the day that Pat went missing. And these cameras would have captured some part of his journey. But this is so frustrating, Heath, because when law enforcement sought to download this file, it was corrupted and they couldn't view it. So I'm curious here, Heath,

this video footage was corrupted. Like, was it corrupted on purpose? Right. Or did something, you know, fluky kind of happen here where the cameras, you know, just messed up in some way? It just seems too perfect. It seems very convenient, yes. It's so frustrating. So we're not sure. The information has not been released if this corruption was intentional or not, but it's definitely disappointing either way.

Now, sadly, on January 31st, 2013, the Coast Guard announced that they were calling off the search for Pat Mullins. But more disturbing evidence would soon be uncovered. Because 10 days after Pat went off in his boat, his body was found. ♪♪

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10 days after Pat's disappearance and nine days after his boat was recovered, Jill received the call that she had been dreading. Pat's body had been discovered. Now, that morning, Mason and one of Pat's brothers were out for a boat ride, just kind of scanning the waters for any sign of Pat. And Jill called them to return to the house upon hearing the news that fishermen had recovered Pat's body.

floating face down in the Crystal South Florida water. He was pulled from the water about a half mile or .8 kilometers west of Sneeds Island, which is about 5 miles or 8 kilometers from Bradenton by car. But to the shock of everybody involved in the search, Pat hadn't drowned. He had been shot. Disturbingly, the man who recovered him noted that his face was gone, bloodied beyond recognition.

But other than that, his body appeared pristine, clean and without visible marks from a struggle, and still wearing the same clothes that he had disappeared in. Now, Pat's remains were collected and brought to the medical examiner, who determined that he had been hit in the face with a shotgun blast.

As law enforcement puzzled over the circumstances surrounding Pat's death, and scrambled to collect evidence that would either prove that it was a homicide or prove that it was a suicide, Pat's community of decades and his school of devoted students and coworkers came together to mourn this really sudden and tragic loss.

Now, two days after his body was recovered from the bay, Palmetto High School hosted a memorial for him that was met with standing room only attendance. And Jill really struggled with this because, you know, she had all these unanswered questions. She was going through all this grief and she remembered, quote, I was disturbed, finding it hard to concentrate, finding it hard to sleep. It was difficult.

Well, here's another thing about the case. Whoever had killed Pat made sure to try to hide what they had done because according to the autopsy conducted on Pat, his body was weighed down in the water by a 25 pound anchor tied to a three quarter inch rope.

So Pat had been bound with this thick rope, which wrapped around his waist, looped through his legs, and was secured with a nautical knot. And this is kind of crazy to me because of...

how well he was tied. Like, it seems like it would have been overkill to tie yourself this way. When you look at photos or a reenactment of the rope tied around his body, you're like, why would somebody go through all that trouble to tie themselves that securely if they were going to take their own life? No, it's really weird because it is super excessive the way that it's wrapped around his waist and then down...

in his thigh area around his legs. It really seemed like somebody didn't want his body to surface. They wanted him to go down there, possibly be eaten by alligators and leave no trace of him, which is very reminiscent of a case that we covered recently on the murder of Mike Williams.

But anyway, so the medical examiner's office reported that Pat Mullins died of a gunshot wound on the right side of his head. And based on the pattern of his injury, he was found to have been killed by a buckshot shell, which contains eight to 10 pellets that are about the size of a marble. Yeah, they kind of just spread out when the gun goes off. And that kind of like birdshot.

Birdshot is a lot smaller because obviously it's for birds. Yeah. But, you know... Bigger birdshot. Same kind of idea there where the gun is going to spread these little pellets. It's going to do a lot of damage. But in this case, because it's buckshot, it's a lot bigger, so it's going to cause a lot more damage. And if you've ever seen...

a wound from a shotgun from buckshot. It's very, very intense. Which is why, I hate to say it again, but like you said, that the fisherman who found him said that his face was gone. Yeah, basically gone. So at first, based on the results of the autopsy, investigators began to explore the possibility that Pat had taken his own life.

But of course, his family and friends scoffed at this and maintained that he was not depressed or troubled and that they couldn't imagine a reality where he would do this. And hello, you know, he was bound and weighted down. But that's not going to be the only detail that's going to throw you guys off because the next detail is amazing.

massive. Well, his family argued that Pat had many short-term plans laid out even for, you know, the very day that he disappeared, which would not be typical for somebody who is planning on ending their life. Now, though his hands had been left free, potentially giving him the ability to tie himself up, the angle that the bullet struck him would have been exceedingly difficult to achieve.

Pat would have needed to tie himself up, linking himself to the anchor, and then perch himself on the side of the boat, holding a shotgun in the exact position so that it would strike him in the face and knock him overboard. So if these actions were not carried out in this exact order and without mistakes,

It wouldn't be possible. So it just feels a little too specific. Yeah, it's kind of crazy to think about this scenario actually happening. And then he would also have to make sure that no one saw him or heard him so that his body could essentially sink to the bottom of the ocean. And then you'd have to wonder why this happened.

would be the method. Like, why he wouldn't want his body to be found. It just feels very excessive. Yeah, I was gonna say that too. Like...

If like, it just seems like so much, like so much to take your own life, to tie yourself up, to put yourself in this crazy position in order to have the shotgun hit you in the side of the head. And you also have to be perched up on the side of the boat so that you fall overboard. Like it just seems insane to me. Well, there's so much more because as you hinted out, as you hinted at a second ago, Heath,

The most compelling detail that seems to veer away from suicide being, you know, a possible outcome is the fact that there was no blood found on his boat. That is the biggest thing in this case. It's the biggest thing that my mind is just so attracted to here because I'm really thinking about the fact that, you know, with a shotgun blast...

There had to have been some sort of blood spatter on the boat. I mean, it's just impossible for that not to have happened. Especially like you're saying with the buckshot, basically,

Well, here's the situation. So with the placement of the bullet and the amount of blood that would have been present, there would have been splatter on the boat, at least a minuscule amount. Like there's no way that there wouldn't have been. But the boat was tested with luminol and there was no proof of any even small minor traces of blood. That just is...

It just blows my mind because, you know, when they're testing for this minuscule amount of blood and they find absolutely nothing, it means to me that he was not shot on that boat. Well, also, the shotgun was not recovered on or near the boat, despite the divers searching for it in this entire area. It also wasn't found near Pat's body.

which was pulled from, you know, much more shallow waters than his boat had been floating in. But I will say investigators noted that the currents were very strong, like I mentioned, and they may have carried the gun away long before they were able to search for it.

But according to the forensic anthropologist that examined his skull, it's possible that there were two points of entry into the skull, meaning there were two potential weapons and two potential assailants.

But due to how much damage his skull had sustained, it was unfortunately impossible to tell. But already with this scene that we can paint, you know, there is one to two assailants, one to two gunshot wounds. It didn't happen in the boat. He was tied to an anchor and then put into the water. This all seems so intentional. It wasn't like...

Oh, I'm going bird hunting and I accidentally shot a man in the head. Yeah. This feels super... It didn't happen in his boat. Right. And you really can't say that anyway because the fact that he was tied up. If something happened like that, if it was an accident...

I mean, I guess somebody could recover your body. There would be a lot of blood all over the place, but somebody could recover his body, tie it up, put an anchor. Try to cover up what they did by accident. Exactly right. But that just did not seem to be the case here. Yeah. I mean, it seems like somebody removed him from his boat and murdered him. Well, the biggest question other than, you know, who did this seemed to be how his body could have traveled so far in the water without being seen.

Rather than suicide, it seemed more likely that he had been forcibly removed from his boat and killed, his body dumped later after being wrapped with rope and anchored in hopes that the connecting ocean would conceal it until he decayed. And though his body had supposedly been in the water for 10 days, Pat's body had not been met with any decay or animal activity.

which also led many to believe that it had possibly been concealed elsewhere first, or even that Pat had been alive for some time after he vanished. Yeah, and 10 days is pretty significant. I'm not sure what the water temperatures were, but it was 78 degrees Fahrenheit or 25 degrees Celsius when he went out on his boat. So although it was January, it was technically winter in

This is Florida. Yeah, it stays warm down there. Yeah, I would be willing to bet that he wasn't immediately disposed of. Well, five months after Pat's death on June 26, 2013, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office received information about a specific buoy where Pat may have entered the water. But even after an extensive search was conducted around this area, no evidence was found to support this claim.

Officially, Pat's cause of death was labeled "undetermined", but the Sheriff's Office detectives and medical examiners thought suicide still somehow seemed to be the most likely cause. However, they acknowledged that the case was odd and admitted that there was other possibilities here. As the investigation came to a close and suicide seemed to be law enforcement's foregone conclusion,

Those who knew Pat were devastated at the lack of information that they were able to glean from this investigation. One former student of Pat's said, quote: But he was a by-the-book type of guy, so I questioned it a little.

I knew law enforcement had failed him and his family. There were so many things that they should have looked further into. So, because they agreed, the Mullins family actually hired a private investigator and a forensic expert to examine the case from top to bottom, confident that police had missed something. And the agency even ran reenactments of the shooting on a boat out on the water, and they determined that it would have been nearly impossible for Pat to have done this to himself.

Which is amazing that they did this because with any suspicious death, theories really surrounded this case. Some of Pat's family and friends believe that he accidentally encountered some, you know, maybe illegal activity on the water.

like maybe an exchange of drugs or illegal substances and that he was killed as a witness. Because as we know, you know, there's a lot of drug trafficking in Florida in general, and there's a lot of ports in which those drugs come in. There's a lot of waterways in which those drugs come in. So this is, you know, definitely a possibility. Yeah, I mean, it makes a lot of sense. And it

given Pat's character, it's also possible that he pulled his boat up to maybe assist someone who was in distress and he was instead met with an attacker or caught in the crossfire of an altercation involving guns. That's definitely possible as well. But I guess one thing I would have to say about that is that if he was trying to help somebody that was in distress,

Why would they just randomly attack him? Like, I think it's more likely that he maybe ran into something that he wasn't supposed to see. Yeah, and maybe then they brought him onto their boat and executed him. Right, like, hey, you're a witness to a crime that's happening here, so you have to be eliminated. Right.

Well, and here's the thing. Pat had never owned guns and he claimed that he never would. So illegally and covertly obtaining a gun would have been supremely out of character for Pat. But just in case he had purchased one legally, investigators searched his records and bank statements anyway, and they couldn't find any evidence that he had purchased a gun at any point before his death.

Now, there was also the possibility that he had known his attacker. And this next theory is really interesting to me, and it loops in this red paint situation. Some people think that this theory is a little bit more far-fetched, but basically, the Mullins family had a friend who began displaying very odd behavior shortly after Pat's death. And some still feel like he was tied to the crime.

Damon Presswood was a friend of Pat's brother, Gray, and became known to the whole Mullins clan, like he would frequently join in on family gatherings and parties.

Damon and his wife Catalina also lived in Bradenton with their young daughter, and Damon was actually a celebrated chef at a local restaurant. But although Damon seemed like a good family guy, he did have a little bit of a checkered past with the law, including driving under the influence and a battery charge that occurred the same year that Pat was killed.

His business also suffered some setbacks after logging a bankruptcy in 2009 and a foreclosure in 2016. According to Pat's family, who continued to see Damon after Pat's death, Damon exhibited increasingly strange and erratic behavior following Pat's disappearance.

Damon also eventually revealed that he was intermittently using methamphetamine. So it may have been just the drug use that was to blame for his very strange behavior, but it's also feasible that his drug use was to mitigate the guilt or responsibility that he felt if he had, in fact, been involved in Pat's death. Yeah, I mean...

He's acting very, very strange here. But according to Pat's family, Damon slipped into a deep state of depression after Pat went missing, which was very odd to them because Damon was always closer with his brother Gray than he was with Pat. Yeah, it seemed like

somebody in his position maybe wouldn't be that upset about Pat's death because they weren't as close. So they were kind of like perking their ears at that. Right. Well, Jill recalls with suspicion that Damon told her that he would sometimes stare out to the Manatee River sobbing and wishing for his friend to come back.

Which obviously she felt was very eerie and strange. And, you know, if he's just being a compassionate person, like, that's amazing that you care. But it was enough for them to really look at. Well, there's a lot more to this. So every January around the anniversary of Pat's death, Damon would break down, unable to function for a few days. And this behavior was described as paranoid and impulsive.

Naturally, because everybody thought this was extremely bizarre, it raised the eyebrows of everyone who knew him. Was it possible that maybe they met up with each other on the water that day? Had Pat perhaps come upon Damon purchasing drugs and was killed by the dealer, making Damon feel responsible?

Well, the most credible indication that these men may have seen each other that day is that Pat's boat arrived with red paint scratches along its side. Red paint that matched the exact shade and placement of red stripes along the side of Damon's boat. It's a little weird. Very weird, and get this. A chip from the paint of Damon's boat was taken and tested against the paint remnants that were found on Pat's boat.

And get this, I already said that. The paint samples were a fucking match. But detectives were dismissive about the development because they basically knew that there would be no possible way to definitively tie the presence of paint on Pat's boat.

to Damon's involvement. Yeah, because even though, like, they could have gotten into a scuffle at another time, even though, by the way, Damon never said, a week earlier, our boats came into contact or anything like that that could prove that this was something else. Are there other boats with red paint and red stripes on the side? Surely. But I think coupled with his behavior, it was definitely just...

Something that the family wanted to look into that unfortunately couldn't be resolved. Yeah, and police did say that this was a pretty common color of paint, like it's used on a lot of different boats, but it just feels very convenient that Damon's boat had that same color of red on it. But just four and a half years after Pat's death, on April 5th, 2017...

48-year-old Damon died suddenly in his home, according to his obituary, and his death has widely been attributed to an overdose. Around the first anniversary of her husband's death, Jill began papering the area with flyers and also took out ads for benches to display Pat's picture, as well as information about the day he went missing and the reward, which, by the way, is $20,000.

By this point, no valuable tips have been brought forward at all, but both she and the sheriff's office have received calls with some tips. Jill admitted that Pat would hate the attention as a man who is known for being humble and just very low-key all around, but Jill, her sons, and all of Pat's friends and family are still hopeful for answers in his case.

In January of this year, 2024, the Mullins family and the Manatee County Sheriff's Office jointly announced that they sought to get the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to take over the investigation in hopes that fresh eyes and renewed interest would produce an outcome.

Jill recently shared, quote, this is a mission to find the truth and I can't change what happened so I can't be angry with the world. I just have this purpose always in the background and sometimes it haunts me when I want to go to sleep.

The circumstances surrounding Pat's case are clearly suspicious and someone knows something. So if you have any information about the death of Pat Mullins, please call the Manatee County Sheriff's Office at 941-747-3011 or Manatee County Crime Stoppers at 866-634-8477. ♪

Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes. Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. What a strange one with such strange details. Again,

Again, please make sure that you share this episode. It's so frustrating that the cameras were corrupted that day, that the police didn't take any DNA evidence from the boat, didn't collect any evidence from the boat. Like, so many things were... So many balls were dropped in Pat's case. And I feel like maybe if they hadn't been dropped, there would be something that police could do. But it feels like...

I don't know how they're going to get answers. And not only that, you know, the biggest thing that we kept coming back to was the fact that there was no blood evidence inside the boat. So it's just suspicious all around. Yeah, to me, it really feels like for whatever reason, somebody...

took Pat off his boat, whether it was, like we're saying, a friend. If it was Damon or somebody else who was like, hey, come over to my boat for a second, which happens on boats. It does, yeah. And then one thing led to another and he was killed. Or if it was bad from the start. If the moment that Pat was brought onto somebody else's boat, he knew it was bad news. Like, I just wish for the family so bad that there was more

and really, really hope that they'll get justice. So please do not forget to share this case. Yeah, keep pushing this case out into the limelight, and we'll keep sharing as well. Yeah, thank you guys so much for tuning into this one, and we'll see you back in the studio on Friday. All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. ♪

so

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