1 00:00:20,270 --> 00:00:22,272 [intriguing music playing] 2 00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:27,360 [Miles Mullins] What happened that day? 3 00:00:29,154 --> 00:00:31,156 How did the boat get out that far? 4 00:00:32,198 --> 00:00:35,785 [Jill Mullins] Why would no boats notice 5 00:00:35,869 --> 00:00:39,622 this unmanned vessel traveling all that distance? 6 00:00:40,623 --> 00:00:43,460 [Miles] There was just so many things that made no sense. 7 00:00:44,919 --> 00:00:48,048 [Gray Mullins] They won't say homicide. They won't say suicide. 8 00:00:48,131 --> 00:00:50,884 Any reasonable person looks at this and decides, "boom," 9 00:00:50,967 --> 00:00:52,844 this is not a suicide. 10 00:00:54,554 --> 00:00:55,638 This is a murder. 11 00:00:57,182 --> 00:00:59,184 [mysterious music playing] 12 00:01:33,301 --> 00:01:35,303 {\an8}[tranquil music playing] 13 00:01:39,307 --> 00:01:45,271 [Jill] When we moved up here, Bradenton was a pretty small town. 14 00:01:48,274 --> 00:01:50,693 My husband Pat and I were able 15 00:01:50,777 --> 00:01:53,238 {\an8}to purchase a house that was on a river. 16 00:01:54,447 --> 00:01:56,825 And it was a great place to raise the kids. 17 00:01:57,325 --> 00:01:59,953 [Miles] A big part of my time growing up in Bradenton 18 00:02:00,036 --> 00:02:02,664 was just being out in the water fishing some. 19 00:02:02,747 --> 00:02:04,290 I had a good time hanging out. 20 00:02:05,458 --> 00:02:07,877 {\an8}So there are spots I know I can take my little dingy, 21 00:02:07,961 --> 00:02:09,963 {\an8}and go push it up on shore, 22 00:02:10,046 --> 00:02:12,757 and hop out, and hang out for a little bit. 23 00:02:12,841 --> 00:02:15,093 -[Mason Mullins on video] Oh, my God! -[Miles laughing] 24 00:02:16,594 --> 00:02:17,720 [Miles] Hey, stop! 25 00:02:19,013 --> 00:02:21,933 [Gray] My brother Pat and I grew up on the water. 26 00:02:22,016 --> 00:02:24,394 {\an8}Boats were everywhere. I mean, we all had boats. 27 00:02:25,270 --> 00:02:27,647 And we were able to go out all the time. 28 00:02:30,900 --> 00:02:34,028 Pat's boat was a 14-foot Stumpnocker. 29 00:02:36,239 --> 00:02:38,867 Growing up, Pat really coveted them. 30 00:02:38,950 --> 00:02:41,661 You know, it was like, "Boy, that would be the boat to have." 31 00:02:42,287 --> 00:02:45,957 Stumpnocker is a brand. It's a flat-bottom boat. 32 00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:47,250 [motor starting] 33 00:02:51,504 --> 00:02:54,382 [Jill] Stumpnocker was pretty much for the Braden River, 34 00:02:54,465 --> 00:02:57,177 which was extremely shallow. 35 00:02:57,802 --> 00:03:00,930 [Miles] We would go out mullet fishing, and it was kind of magical almost. 36 00:03:01,014 --> 00:03:03,057 You could see a fish take off underwater 37 00:03:03,141 --> 00:03:05,602 'cause you see its trail glow in the water. 38 00:03:05,685 --> 00:03:07,103 So that was always fun. 39 00:03:08,396 --> 00:03:10,690 It was just a peaceful place to be. 40 00:03:18,489 --> 00:03:21,201 {\an8}[Jill] On January 27th, 2013, 41 00:03:21,284 --> 00:03:25,246 {\an8}I was going down to my sister's house in Sarasota. 42 00:03:26,122 --> 00:03:29,542 I didn't know what Pat's plans were for the day, 43 00:03:30,251 --> 00:03:36,633 but he had numerous outboard motors that he always wanted to be working on. 44 00:03:37,967 --> 00:03:42,013 Pat wished me a good day, gave me a kiss, and off I went. 45 00:03:44,224 --> 00:03:47,769 I came home that night, 6:30, I think, 7:00. 46 00:03:47,852 --> 00:03:50,438 And when I got home, Pat wasn't there. 47 00:03:51,356 --> 00:03:55,026 His truck was there, so I thought he was at a neighbor's house. 48 00:03:57,737 --> 00:03:59,614 I called his cell phone, 49 00:03:59,697 --> 00:04:02,992 but Pat didn't like to carry his cell phone. 50 00:04:03,076 --> 00:04:06,788 So that wasn't a surprise not to get an answer. 51 00:04:08,748 --> 00:04:13,419 I went outside and looked for him. I looked at the neighbors' houses. 52 00:04:13,503 --> 00:04:15,129 I didn't see him. 53 00:04:15,213 --> 00:04:17,590 We had a pretty regular routine. 54 00:04:17,674 --> 00:04:21,261 On a Sunday, we considered it a work night, 55 00:04:21,344 --> 00:04:25,056 and we kind of started winding down about 7:00, 56 00:04:25,139 --> 00:04:27,141 so it was odd that he wasn't home. 57 00:04:28,685 --> 00:04:32,188 It was getting later, and I got more and more nervous. 58 00:04:33,773 --> 00:04:37,610 Then I walked out to where our Stumpnocker was kept. 59 00:04:38,820 --> 00:04:39,946 It was not there. 60 00:04:44,284 --> 00:04:47,495 When I realized that the Stumpnocker was gone, 61 00:04:48,162 --> 00:04:50,290 then I realized I needed help. 62 00:04:50,373 --> 00:04:53,751 So I called my son Miles. 63 00:04:54,544 --> 00:04:57,839 I was in Tampa studying my bachelor's degree program, 64 00:04:57,922 --> 00:05:00,216 and I told my mom not to worry about it. 65 00:05:00,300 --> 00:05:03,928 I think he had spoken to one of my uncles the day prior 66 00:05:04,012 --> 00:05:07,181 and mentioned that he was gonna go take the boat out for a spin. 67 00:05:07,265 --> 00:05:09,309 Just to go run some gas through it. 68 00:05:09,392 --> 00:05:12,854 He'll get home. He's the last person you'd have to worry about 69 00:05:12,937 --> 00:05:14,689 being able to find his way home. 70 00:05:16,274 --> 00:05:19,610 Then it got later, and she called again, and said, "He's not back." 71 00:05:19,694 --> 00:05:23,406 I had known that something was different or out of the ordinary, 72 00:05:23,489 --> 00:05:27,410 so I just immediately left Tampa and drove down to Bradenton. 73 00:05:28,870 --> 00:05:31,581 [Jill] I called my brother-in-law. 74 00:05:31,664 --> 00:05:33,958 This was probably 11 o'clock at night. 75 00:05:34,042 --> 00:05:36,586 I was kind of silent because I didn't wanna ask him 76 00:05:36,669 --> 00:05:39,881 to please go out in the boat and try to find Pat, 77 00:05:39,964 --> 00:05:44,635 but he asked, "Do you want me to?" And I... "Yes, please." 78 00:05:47,388 --> 00:05:51,184 [Miles] The uncles met me at the boat ramp with my boat. 79 00:05:51,267 --> 00:05:53,936 So I just jumped on and we started searching. 80 00:05:55,104 --> 00:05:58,441 We focused on the Braden River because we knew he was on the Stumpnocker, 81 00:05:58,524 --> 00:06:01,361 which is designed for shallow water. 82 00:06:01,861 --> 00:06:03,029 I think it's highly unlikely 83 00:06:03,112 --> 00:06:05,782 that he would take the Stumpnocker into the Manatee River. 84 00:06:05,865 --> 00:06:08,326 Its intended area of use was the Braden River, 85 00:06:08,409 --> 00:06:09,660 and that's where it stayed. 86 00:06:21,339 --> 00:06:24,967 We did the main routes, and when we didn't find anything on that, 87 00:06:25,051 --> 00:06:30,431 we started to go into all the small little nooks and crannies and streams. 88 00:06:34,811 --> 00:06:36,813 [Rabun Moss] After 11:00 p.m. at night, 89 00:06:36,896 --> 00:06:40,775 we received a call from Jill Mullins, Patrick Mullins' wife, 90 00:06:40,858 --> 00:06:42,068 that he was missing. 91 00:06:42,151 --> 00:06:44,070 He went out on the boat and didn't return. 92 00:06:44,153 --> 00:06:48,324 {\an8}At that time, we asked the common missing questions, 93 00:06:48,408 --> 00:06:50,535 {\an8}"Any problems or anything? Did he leave a note?" 94 00:06:50,618 --> 00:06:54,539 {\an8}"Did he have his phone with him?" Which he did not have his phone with him. 95 00:06:54,622 --> 00:06:57,875 "How is your relationship? Did you have money troubles?" 96 00:06:58,418 --> 00:06:59,252 Um... 97 00:06:59,335 --> 00:07:02,713 "Do you own a weapon? Does your husband own a weapon?" 98 00:07:02,797 --> 00:07:05,758 They went and checked out a couple of boat bars. 99 00:07:06,801 --> 00:07:10,513 Pat was not a bar person. Boat or otherwise. 100 00:07:12,223 --> 00:07:15,893 We started a search operation with our marine unit 101 00:07:15,977 --> 00:07:19,856 to commence searching for a lost boater at that point. 102 00:07:22,066 --> 00:07:25,278 We know that Patrick was seen by his neighbors leaving in his boat 103 00:07:25,361 --> 00:07:26,863 around 3:00 that day. 104 00:07:26,946 --> 00:07:29,866 And we had no indication that any other person was with him. 105 00:07:31,576 --> 00:07:33,870 {\an8}His boat was a riverboat. 106 00:07:33,953 --> 00:07:37,290 So we concentrated on the area of the Braden River and the Manatee River. 107 00:07:40,376 --> 00:07:43,546 [Jill] And then the Coast Guard became involved. 108 00:07:44,464 --> 00:07:47,300 [Roy Cromer] At 2:40 in the morning on January 28th, 109 00:07:48,468 --> 00:07:50,803 {\an8}the Manatee County Sheriff's Office notified us 110 00:07:50,887 --> 00:07:53,890 {\an8}of Mr. Mullins' missing status. 111 00:07:54,807 --> 00:07:58,769 Whether he was underway on his boat or in the water was unknown at that time. 112 00:07:59,854 --> 00:08:03,357 So in a search and rescue case, time is not exactly your friend. 113 00:08:03,441 --> 00:08:07,111 The longer you search, the farther something could drift, 114 00:08:07,195 --> 00:08:10,490 and we don't know what exactly we're looking for. 115 00:08:10,573 --> 00:08:14,160 Whether it's an upright boat, a capsized boat, or a person in the water. 116 00:08:14,243 --> 00:08:17,246 -[indistinct radio chatter] -[suspenseful music playing] 117 00:08:18,206 --> 00:08:23,211 [Jill] Helicopters went over our house in the neighborhood all night long. 118 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:26,839 I was very worried. Something was very wrong. 119 00:08:29,300 --> 00:08:31,302 [Stephen Covey] The most obvious thought to me 120 00:08:31,385 --> 00:08:36,224 {\an8}was that Pat had broken down or he had back problems. 121 00:08:36,307 --> 00:08:38,559 {\an8}Maybe he'd hurt his back or something. 122 00:08:38,643 --> 00:08:43,606 We kind of expected to find him stuck on shore with something broken. 123 00:08:45,733 --> 00:08:48,569 I had to think that it had to be some kind of physical ailment 124 00:08:48,653 --> 00:08:50,947 because if something had happened with the boat, 125 00:08:51,030 --> 00:08:54,450 it's almost impossible to think that he couldn't fix it and get home. 126 00:09:02,625 --> 00:09:04,835 {\an8}[Jill] The next day after Pat disappeared, 127 00:09:04,919 --> 00:09:09,882 the Manatee Sheriff's Office called and said the Stumpnocker had been found. 128 00:09:11,259 --> 00:09:13,261 [sinister music playing] 129 00:09:14,470 --> 00:09:18,140 [Miles] The boat was found northwest of Egmont Key. 130 00:09:18,224 --> 00:09:19,725 It was in the shipping channel 131 00:09:19,809 --> 00:09:22,228 that a lot of these large container ships 132 00:09:22,311 --> 00:09:24,689 coming to deliver goods use. 133 00:09:24,772 --> 00:09:27,942 So definitely not where it's supposed to be. 134 00:09:30,653 --> 00:09:32,989 [Jill] The boat was amazingly far out. 135 00:09:33,072 --> 00:09:34,907 So far from our house. 136 00:09:34,991 --> 00:09:37,785 I don't see how it could have traveled that far. 137 00:09:39,662 --> 00:09:41,330 [Miles] His belongings were in the boat. 138 00:09:42,498 --> 00:09:44,917 But he wasn't with it. 139 00:09:46,627 --> 00:09:50,548 [Rabun] It had a life vest in it, sunglasses, and a straw hat. 140 00:09:51,382 --> 00:09:55,344 But the anchor was not in the boat, and it was out of gas. 141 00:09:56,429 --> 00:09:58,264 The engine was set to idle. 142 00:09:58,347 --> 00:09:59,640 The ignition was on, 143 00:09:59,724 --> 00:10:03,019 indicating that it possibly ran dry while it was in the idle state. 144 00:10:04,812 --> 00:10:06,814 There was no indication of a crime scene. 145 00:10:06,897 --> 00:10:11,569 There was no obvious sign of injury or anything traumatic that happened. 146 00:10:12,737 --> 00:10:15,072 Could have been a medical event. Fell overboard. 147 00:10:15,156 --> 00:10:18,701 Boat could've not have functioned and he got off somewhere. 148 00:10:19,201 --> 00:10:20,536 It was unknown at that point. 149 00:10:23,623 --> 00:10:29,086 We did do an in-depth investigation of Pat to try to find out financial... 150 00:10:29,170 --> 00:10:30,421 "Was he having problems?" 151 00:10:30,504 --> 00:10:33,174 Phone records, see who he was in communication with. 152 00:10:34,133 --> 00:10:37,178 There was no troubled areas in his past 153 00:10:37,261 --> 00:10:40,765 or problems that we could center on that might lead us to conclude 154 00:10:40,848 --> 00:10:44,685 that he went missing on his own or someone else caused him to go missing. 155 00:10:45,186 --> 00:10:47,396 We had no idea what happened to Pat. 156 00:10:49,857 --> 00:10:51,901 At the time the boat was found, 157 00:10:51,984 --> 00:10:54,695 they ultimately released it back to the family. 158 00:10:56,280 --> 00:10:58,574 [Miles] We did go and take a look at the boat. 159 00:10:59,283 --> 00:11:01,285 At first, nothing looked out of the ordinary. 160 00:11:01,369 --> 00:11:03,621 But we did notice 161 00:11:03,704 --> 00:11:07,166 just some kind of light-red paint markings on the side of the boat. 162 00:11:07,667 --> 00:11:10,628 And that was something that was not there in the past. 163 00:11:11,754 --> 00:11:16,842 It was interesting and something to note, but we didn't know what to think about it. 164 00:11:16,926 --> 00:11:18,928 [somber music playing] 165 00:11:20,513 --> 00:11:22,932 After the boat was found without my father in it, 166 00:11:23,015 --> 00:11:24,433 everyone was still thinking, 167 00:11:24,517 --> 00:11:26,519 "Where do we go from here? What's next?" 168 00:11:27,103 --> 00:11:31,065 "Did he get onto land somewhere? Which island did we not see yet?" 169 00:11:31,148 --> 00:11:35,277 "What could have happened here?" Just more questions. No answers. 170 00:11:40,825 --> 00:11:43,035 [Jill on video] And back to Patrick. 171 00:11:44,537 --> 00:11:47,623 [Jill] Pat and I were married in 1983. 172 00:11:49,041 --> 00:11:51,210 Pat and I had two children. 173 00:11:53,170 --> 00:11:55,339 Our eldest is Mason, 174 00:11:55,423 --> 00:11:58,634 and about two years later, Miles came along. 175 00:12:00,845 --> 00:12:03,723 [Miles] My dad taught fourth grade for 21 or 22 years 176 00:12:03,806 --> 00:12:07,768 before he and my mother went and got their graduate degrees, 177 00:12:07,852 --> 00:12:09,645 and they both became librarians. 178 00:12:10,438 --> 00:12:12,106 At the high school where he worked, 179 00:12:12,189 --> 00:12:16,235 he was really loved and respected by the kids because he cared. 180 00:12:17,862 --> 00:12:23,743 He might have ten or 12 kids staying until six or seven at night, 181 00:12:23,826 --> 00:12:26,871 and he would just stay there, and keep the library open. 182 00:12:27,371 --> 00:12:31,834 And he always got the children who needed that little bit extra. 183 00:12:31,917 --> 00:12:34,837 The children who didn't have a father figure in their life. 184 00:12:37,423 --> 00:12:39,675 [Gray] I have two brothers and two sisters. 185 00:12:40,509 --> 00:12:43,721 We all were so compelled to work on things, 186 00:12:43,804 --> 00:12:46,766 and tinker, and tear them apart, and put them back together. 187 00:12:48,976 --> 00:12:51,771 And Pat was good at all of it. 188 00:12:52,354 --> 00:12:53,606 He was brilliant. 189 00:12:55,900 --> 00:12:57,735 [Dr. Mark Sylvester] He was very regimented. 190 00:12:57,818 --> 00:13:02,156 {\an8}He was very disciplined. He was very, um, serious first. 191 00:13:02,239 --> 00:13:03,908 [Miles] He was by the books. 192 00:13:03,991 --> 00:13:06,327 He did things the way that they were supposed to be done. 193 00:13:06,410 --> 00:13:08,579 That was kind of him. Very cautious. 194 00:13:08,662 --> 00:13:12,333 [on video] It's... It's a Coleman table lamp. 195 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:15,377 [Jill] Pat was living a good life. He was vital... 196 00:13:15,461 --> 00:13:17,171 -[Pat] Hi, Jill. -[robot parrot] Hi, Jill. 197 00:13:17,254 --> 00:13:19,673 ...and he was close to retiring soon. 198 00:13:21,675 --> 00:13:24,345 And was looking forward to his future. 199 00:13:26,430 --> 00:13:29,308 {\an8}[reporter 1] A family is desperate tonight as a man remains missing. 200 00:13:29,391 --> 00:13:32,269 {\an8}[reporter 2] There's speculation that he may have fallen off that boat 201 00:13:32,353 --> 00:13:34,355 {\an8}long before they found it. 202 00:13:34,438 --> 00:13:36,440 {\an8}[reporter 3] Rescue crews will continue searching 203 00:13:36,524 --> 00:13:39,902 {\an8}even though the danger of hypothermia makes survival chances slim. 204 00:13:42,279 --> 00:13:45,199 [Roy] So after the boat was found, we continued searching 205 00:13:45,282 --> 00:13:47,618 'cause we're looking for a person in the water. 206 00:13:48,911 --> 00:13:51,455 When we found the empty boat, we had our best clue, 207 00:13:51,539 --> 00:13:54,291 so we can kind of backtrack from there and figure out 208 00:13:54,375 --> 00:13:56,418 where the person we're looking for might be. 209 00:13:57,753 --> 00:14:01,882 So looking at where they found the boat, it was about nine miles offshore. 210 00:14:02,716 --> 00:14:05,886 It was essentially open ocean in the Gulf of Mexico. 211 00:14:07,346 --> 00:14:10,182 When we find an unmanned vessel in a location like this, 212 00:14:10,266 --> 00:14:13,018 what we're trying to do is figure out 213 00:14:13,102 --> 00:14:15,688 where we think it most likely came from 214 00:14:15,771 --> 00:14:18,732 using the surface currents and the wind data. 215 00:14:18,816 --> 00:14:21,026 So we use a method called the "reverse drift method." 216 00:14:21,110 --> 00:14:23,112 The wind was out of the east that night, 217 00:14:23,195 --> 00:14:26,448 and with the tide also pushing offshore, 218 00:14:26,532 --> 00:14:30,744 we estimated that the vessel probably drifted from somewhere 219 00:14:30,828 --> 00:14:32,329 in the lower Tampa Bay. 220 00:14:33,873 --> 00:14:36,667 Searching for a person for an extended period of time 221 00:14:36,750 --> 00:14:38,419 is definitely challenging. 222 00:14:38,502 --> 00:14:41,213 We certainly don't slow down any of the search efforts 223 00:14:41,297 --> 00:14:42,923 once we find an empty boat. 224 00:14:44,508 --> 00:14:49,388 [Jill] After the Stumpnocker was found, it was a very long week 225 00:14:49,471 --> 00:14:54,310 waiting to find out if Pat would be found. 226 00:14:54,810 --> 00:14:57,313 Hoping that he'd be found alive. 227 00:14:57,813 --> 00:15:01,692 But really praying that he would simply be found 228 00:15:01,775 --> 00:15:06,614 because an answer at least is an answer. 229 00:15:25,716 --> 00:15:27,426 [Geoffrey Page] After they found the boat 230 00:15:28,052 --> 00:15:30,054 {\an8}and the man was missing, 231 00:15:31,221 --> 00:15:32,681 {\an8}I was fishing every day. 232 00:15:35,809 --> 00:15:39,313 I am a full-time saltwater fishing guide, 233 00:15:39,396 --> 00:15:42,566 and I was on my way in from a charter. 234 00:15:42,650 --> 00:15:46,070 And as we approached Emerson Point, one of my clients said, 235 00:15:46,153 --> 00:15:48,238 "Captain, Captain! What is that out there?" 236 00:15:51,450 --> 00:15:54,870 And I started to see what looked like a body, 237 00:15:54,954 --> 00:15:55,913 but I wasn't sure. 238 00:15:56,997 --> 00:15:58,999 [ominous music playing] 239 00:16:01,210 --> 00:16:03,462 So we eased up to him very slowly. 240 00:16:05,798 --> 00:16:07,216 And then it clicked. 241 00:16:08,175 --> 00:16:10,719 I said, "Boys, this is that school teacher." 242 00:16:12,221 --> 00:16:14,598 They had found the boat north of Egmont. 243 00:16:15,349 --> 00:16:17,601 I knew, "That guy's gonna pop up." 244 00:16:18,602 --> 00:16:20,813 And sure enough, he popped up. 245 00:16:25,150 --> 00:16:30,572 I noticed that he had some type of shirt, blue jeans, belt, 246 00:16:31,073 --> 00:16:33,242 one shoe missing, one shoe off. 247 00:16:35,035 --> 00:16:37,413 Everything was clean as a whistle. 248 00:16:37,496 --> 00:16:40,249 I mean, all the hairs on his arm, his hands, 249 00:16:40,332 --> 00:16:42,334 wristwatch, wallet in the pocket. 250 00:16:43,293 --> 00:16:45,921 And this rope was wrapped around him. 251 00:16:46,630 --> 00:16:48,257 I mean, it was very well... 252 00:16:48,340 --> 00:16:52,261 intricately wrapped under arm, around the neck, through the chest. 253 00:16:55,556 --> 00:16:59,059 The rope went down the water, and there was a little bitty, tiny anchor 254 00:16:59,143 --> 00:17:00,436 dug into the sand. 255 00:17:02,062 --> 00:17:04,732 I think it was four-to-six feet of water at the most, 256 00:17:04,815 --> 00:17:05,983 complete sand bottom. 257 00:17:08,736 --> 00:17:10,946 I didn't flip him over or touch him in any way, 258 00:17:11,030 --> 00:17:12,781 but it was crystal clear water, 259 00:17:12,865 --> 00:17:17,494 and I looked, and I could see the face, and there was no nose or face. 260 00:17:17,578 --> 00:17:18,412 It was just... 261 00:17:18,495 --> 00:17:21,415 Looked like spaghetti. That's the best way I could describe it. 262 00:17:21,999 --> 00:17:24,084 I called the Florida Marine Patrol, 263 00:17:24,168 --> 00:17:27,087 and they had an agent out there within 40 minutes. 264 00:17:32,342 --> 00:17:34,970 [Jill] It was February 5th that I got a phone call 265 00:17:36,597 --> 00:17:39,433 saying that a body had been found. 266 00:17:40,225 --> 00:17:41,769 That was Pat. 267 00:17:43,812 --> 00:17:45,147 It was horrible. 268 00:17:47,066 --> 00:17:50,402 [Gray] I was searching all the areas where they actually found him. 269 00:17:50,486 --> 00:17:52,154 That was my area. 270 00:17:53,947 --> 00:17:57,034 I've thought about it a lot. You know, "Did I wanna find him?" 271 00:17:58,994 --> 00:18:00,079 [sighs] 272 00:18:04,583 --> 00:18:05,709 It's a good thing. 273 00:18:08,087 --> 00:18:09,713 I didn't need to find him. 274 00:18:14,301 --> 00:18:17,262 So I think that was luck. That was just luck. 275 00:18:21,433 --> 00:18:24,812 I do remember when his body was found, uh... 276 00:18:25,479 --> 00:18:26,855 thinking how lucky... 277 00:18:27,523 --> 00:18:31,235 how lucky I was to have him in my life as long as I did. 278 00:18:31,318 --> 00:18:33,862 Because there's people out there that don't have that. 279 00:18:34,446 --> 00:18:36,824 Um, so that was, uh... 280 00:18:38,242 --> 00:18:39,368 that was sad. 281 00:18:40,702 --> 00:18:41,703 [Jill on video] Maybe? 282 00:18:43,330 --> 00:18:44,957 -[Miles on video] Yes! -[Pat laughing] 283 00:18:55,968 --> 00:18:57,845 [Dr. Russell Vega] When we first saw the body, 284 00:18:58,887 --> 00:19:00,514 the body was fully clothed, 285 00:19:00,597 --> 00:19:04,726 with the exception of one shoe, with a rope and anchor tied around it. 286 00:19:06,562 --> 00:19:09,648 The body was in a moderate state of decomposition, 287 00:19:09,731 --> 00:19:12,025 {\an8}consistent with the body being out there 288 00:19:12,109 --> 00:19:13,777 {\an8}for eight or nine days. 289 00:19:14,278 --> 00:19:18,198 But there's really no way to be able to narrow it down specifically. 290 00:19:19,283 --> 00:19:23,120 It was clear that there had been some kind of severe head trauma. 291 00:19:23,912 --> 00:19:27,791 There were six separate exit perforations 292 00:19:27,875 --> 00:19:29,501 on the left side of the skull, 293 00:19:29,585 --> 00:19:35,674 and then what appeared to be one larger perforation on the right side. 294 00:19:36,925 --> 00:19:42,139 So this was clearly a pattern of a shotgun with some kind of buckshot. 295 00:19:43,515 --> 00:19:45,767 The gunshot wound came from the right side. 296 00:19:45,851 --> 00:19:47,436 Definitely from right to left, 297 00:19:47,519 --> 00:19:49,855 a little bit upward, and a little bit backward, 298 00:19:49,938 --> 00:19:51,773 to exit on this side. 299 00:19:55,444 --> 00:19:58,071 In this case, we don't know if it was suicide or homicide. 300 00:19:58,155 --> 00:20:01,867 So we have currently listed in our reports, 301 00:20:01,950 --> 00:20:03,911 "The manner of death is undetermined." 302 00:20:05,495 --> 00:20:08,457 But the arms were not bound up at all, 303 00:20:08,540 --> 00:20:12,628 so I consider the possibility that suicide occurred in this way... 304 00:20:13,962 --> 00:20:15,756 a very reasonable possibility. 305 00:20:19,927 --> 00:20:21,929 [mysterious music playing] 306 00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:30,854 [Jill] We met at the medical examiner's office, 307 00:20:30,938 --> 00:20:36,944 and the medical examiner told us that he really leaned towards suicide. 308 00:20:38,320 --> 00:20:40,822 He said that the ropes would be tied differently 309 00:20:40,906 --> 00:20:43,367 if it were a homicide. 310 00:20:44,534 --> 00:20:49,081 I thought, "Okay, let's look at this. This is a suicide." 311 00:20:51,333 --> 00:20:55,629 But I couldn't find any reason to think what they were telling me was true. 312 00:20:59,341 --> 00:21:00,550 My name is Lee Williams. 313 00:21:00,634 --> 00:21:04,221 I was an investigative reporter at the Herald Tribune in Sarasota. 314 00:21:05,222 --> 00:21:09,309 {\an8}The sheriff's office said it was a suicide before Pat was even pulled from the water. 315 00:21:09,393 --> 00:21:10,477 {\an8}And from then on, 316 00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:14,690 {\an8}they just pressured Jill to accept the fact that her husband killed himself. 317 00:21:15,482 --> 00:21:17,567 When I interviewed law enforcement about this, 318 00:21:17,651 --> 00:21:21,947 they tried to get me to buy into the suicide theory. 319 00:21:22,030 --> 00:21:25,158 They were trying to convince me to leave this one alone 320 00:21:25,242 --> 00:21:26,618 because it was a suicide, 321 00:21:26,702 --> 00:21:29,621 and that's probably the best thing for the family. 322 00:21:33,417 --> 00:21:40,007 [Miles] The police suicide theory was that he tied that rope around himself, 323 00:21:40,090 --> 00:21:41,425 tied to this anchor, 324 00:21:42,926 --> 00:21:46,430 positioned himself on the edge of the Stumpnocker, 325 00:21:46,930 --> 00:21:48,181 shoots himself, 326 00:21:49,099 --> 00:21:50,142 went overboard. 327 00:21:53,812 --> 00:21:55,522 How would you get to that outcome? 328 00:21:55,605 --> 00:22:01,403 Or why would you assume a suicide under those circumstances? 329 00:22:02,029 --> 00:22:03,947 It didn't really make any sense to us. 330 00:22:04,573 --> 00:22:06,575 [Jill] I was really surprised 331 00:22:06,658 --> 00:22:11,079 when we learned that Pat died of a shotgun wound to the head. 332 00:22:12,039 --> 00:22:14,791 We never had any guns in our house. 333 00:22:14,875 --> 00:22:15,709 Pat... 334 00:22:15,792 --> 00:22:18,128 no, he didn't really have the interest in them. 335 00:22:20,172 --> 00:22:24,885 [Lee] The Manatee County Sheriff's Office did a forensic audit of his bank accounts. 336 00:22:24,968 --> 00:22:27,220 He never got the money out to buy a shotgun. 337 00:22:27,304 --> 00:22:29,639 He didn't have any shotgun, never owned one, 338 00:22:29,723 --> 00:22:31,975 never had any shotgun shells. 339 00:22:32,059 --> 00:22:34,770 They checked local dealers. I called local gun dealers. 340 00:22:34,853 --> 00:22:36,938 Nobody had sold Pat Mullins a shotgun. 341 00:22:37,731 --> 00:22:42,819 There's also no note or anything found that would lead us up to suicide. 342 00:22:43,695 --> 00:22:47,032 Based on what I think Pat's life was like and his personality, 343 00:22:47,115 --> 00:22:51,286 I just don't think that suicide was an option for him. 344 00:22:52,371 --> 00:22:55,540 Even before he went out on the Stumpnocker that day, 345 00:22:55,624 --> 00:22:58,794 he bought, like, I think they were some discount welding goggles 346 00:22:58,877 --> 00:23:01,505 that he wouldn't need for today and had no plans for. 347 00:23:01,588 --> 00:23:04,091 But it was a good buy, so he bought it for later. 348 00:23:04,174 --> 00:23:05,467 He just had plans for later. 349 00:23:06,551 --> 00:23:08,929 He was excited for the future. 350 00:23:09,888 --> 00:23:12,849 [Jill] He wanted to be a grandfather so much. 351 00:23:12,933 --> 00:23:14,684 That was big in his mind. 352 00:23:15,769 --> 00:23:19,898 We were gonna be celebrating our 30th anniversary that June. 353 00:23:19,981 --> 00:23:23,485 There was just too much positive to say goodbye to the world. 354 00:23:24,236 --> 00:23:26,238 [pensive music playing] 355 00:23:27,572 --> 00:23:29,366 [Miles] Another thing that didn't make sense 356 00:23:29,449 --> 00:23:32,202 is the way the rope was tied on him when he was found. 357 00:23:32,285 --> 00:23:35,539 It wasn't something that my dad, or any boat person, 358 00:23:35,622 --> 00:23:37,707 would be doing knot-wise. 359 00:23:38,625 --> 00:23:41,753 They weren't knots that he would have chosen to use. 360 00:23:43,213 --> 00:23:45,549 I think he would have done it with one good knot 361 00:23:45,632 --> 00:23:47,843 if he were to have committed suicide. 362 00:23:49,761 --> 00:23:52,347 [Jill] I kept hearing from the sheriff's department, 363 00:23:52,431 --> 00:23:57,686 "It was clearly not homicide because Pat's hands weren't tied." 364 00:23:59,062 --> 00:24:04,109 Well, why would you need to tie hands if perhaps he was killed beforehand? 365 00:24:05,819 --> 00:24:10,907 Pat would need to be unconscious or already gone to be wrapped like that. 366 00:24:12,492 --> 00:24:14,494 {\an8}[mysterious music playing] 367 00:24:15,162 --> 00:24:19,291 {\an8}I even had the primary detective, at one point, 368 00:24:19,374 --> 00:24:21,626 {\an8}phone me and ask me to be reasonable. 369 00:24:22,377 --> 00:24:27,716 {\an8}That if somebody were to have killed Pat, then they would have taken his wallet. 370 00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:31,428 I don't know why somebody killed my husband, 371 00:24:31,511 --> 00:24:36,099 but I don't think Pat was killed for the eight dollars he had. 372 00:24:39,811 --> 00:24:41,813 {\an8}[mysterious music continues] 373 00:24:46,902 --> 00:24:50,947 So I want you to wrap the ropes around you in the same manner. 374 00:24:51,031 --> 00:24:53,033 Tie the same sorts of knots... 375 00:24:53,116 --> 00:24:57,496 {\an8}I'm Lori Baker. I'm a professor of anthropology and forensic science. 376 00:24:58,788 --> 00:25:02,584 So, initially, when I was called about the Patrick Mullins case, 377 00:25:03,543 --> 00:25:07,964 I was told there wasn't certainty whether it was homicide or suicide. 378 00:25:09,216 --> 00:25:11,343 He was shot with a shotgun, 379 00:25:12,135 --> 00:25:14,137 but he wasn't recovered on the boat. 380 00:25:14,638 --> 00:25:17,015 The shotgun wasn't recovered on the boat. 381 00:25:17,807 --> 00:25:22,020 Just the idea of the way that he was wrapped within the ropes 382 00:25:22,103 --> 00:25:24,189 sounded really unusual. 383 00:25:25,148 --> 00:25:27,567 It's not something I've seen in a suicide case. 384 00:25:27,651 --> 00:25:29,653 -Around the waist, I think. -[man] Okay. 385 00:25:29,736 --> 00:25:32,739 [Lori] So we're trying to reconstruct it being a suicide 386 00:25:32,822 --> 00:25:35,075 with a grown man tying himself up, 387 00:25:36,034 --> 00:25:39,996 being on the edge of the boat with an anchor tying you down. 388 00:25:41,665 --> 00:25:43,250 And then how do you hold a gun, 389 00:25:43,333 --> 00:25:46,294 given what we know about the trajectory of the gun? 390 00:25:47,254 --> 00:25:49,089 How would he have sat on the boat 391 00:25:49,172 --> 00:25:53,051 to ensure that he went into the water along with the shotgun 392 00:25:54,219 --> 00:25:55,929 while tied to the anchor? 393 00:25:58,265 --> 00:26:01,851 Why don't you put the anchor in the water? 394 00:26:02,561 --> 00:26:03,645 [man grunts] 395 00:26:06,606 --> 00:26:09,067 -[Lori] So it's pulling pretty good. Okay. -Yeah. 396 00:26:11,152 --> 00:26:16,199 The angle, in this case, is unusual and not typical at all for a suicide. 397 00:26:17,617 --> 00:26:20,203 Theoretically, if this were an 18-inch barrel, 398 00:26:20,287 --> 00:26:22,330 like a tactical shotgun, 399 00:26:22,414 --> 00:26:24,541 it's heavy and it's unwieldy. 400 00:26:24,624 --> 00:26:26,334 So you're gonna brace it, 401 00:26:26,418 --> 00:26:30,380 and you're gonna brace it up next to the area that you're gonna fire at. 402 00:26:31,673 --> 00:26:35,719 But what's interesting is, when we look at the skeleton, 403 00:26:35,802 --> 00:26:37,387 there are no black marks on there. 404 00:26:37,470 --> 00:26:41,266 There would definitely be something if this were a contact wound. 405 00:26:41,891 --> 00:26:44,019 The fact that it's not a contact wound 406 00:26:44,102 --> 00:26:46,021 using something that's long-barreled like this, 407 00:26:46,104 --> 00:26:49,649 it doesn't make it most likely to have happened that way. 408 00:26:50,442 --> 00:26:54,070 {\an8}In our experience, most gunshot suicides are contact wounds. 409 00:26:54,154 --> 00:26:57,616 {\an8}The muzzle of the weapon is placed right up against the skin 410 00:26:57,699 --> 00:26:58,908 {\an8}at the time it's fired. 411 00:26:58,992 --> 00:27:03,705 {\an8}But the wound in this particular case being on the side of the head? 412 00:27:04,414 --> 00:27:07,542 I haven't seen one with a shotgun in that location before. 413 00:27:08,418 --> 00:27:09,753 So if you're holding that, 414 00:27:09,836 --> 00:27:12,672 it's gonna be coming in right at your jawline here, 415 00:27:12,756 --> 00:27:16,593 and not too much at an angle, so it's kind of actually... 416 00:27:16,676 --> 00:27:18,219 Yeah, that's an awkward position. 417 00:27:18,303 --> 00:27:20,430 -[Lori] It's an awkward position. -It's not natural. 418 00:27:21,264 --> 00:27:22,098 [trigger clicks] 419 00:27:33,151 --> 00:27:35,987 [Lori] Immediately after a gunshot wound to the head, 420 00:27:36,071 --> 00:27:38,490 with the amount of blood that there would have been... 421 00:27:38,573 --> 00:27:40,033 it would be in the boat. 422 00:27:42,285 --> 00:27:46,748 It would be almost impossible to do this and not get blood in the boat. 423 00:27:49,584 --> 00:27:53,338 [Rabun] After the body was found, we did go back to Patrick's boat, 424 00:27:53,421 --> 00:27:56,800 and we did luminol testing on it for blood spatter. 425 00:27:58,426 --> 00:28:00,804 Unfortunately, we didn't get any blood spatter. 426 00:28:05,934 --> 00:28:08,603 Whatever happened, maybe blood didn't get on the boat. 427 00:28:08,687 --> 00:28:10,397 It was undetermined at that point. 428 00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:14,234 We didn't have enough information to make a sound conclusion on that. 429 00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:21,116 [Lori] I still can't get over it. 430 00:28:21,199 --> 00:28:24,369 Even as we stood there, and it was a still day out on the water, 431 00:28:24,452 --> 00:28:27,247 there wasn't much of a breeze, but there was a breeze. 432 00:28:27,330 --> 00:28:31,418 And that breeze, and the amount of spray 433 00:28:31,501 --> 00:28:36,131 from the type of trauma that occurred from that kind of projectile, 434 00:28:36,214 --> 00:28:40,552 it's very challenging even when you try to do something like this 435 00:28:40,635 --> 00:28:42,929 to not leave any trace evidence. 436 00:28:45,557 --> 00:28:49,310 The absence of trace evidence, to me, 437 00:28:49,394 --> 00:28:52,313 makes it less likely that it occurred in the boat. 438 00:28:54,899 --> 00:28:57,068 [Lee] He clearly wasn't killed in that boat. 439 00:28:57,152 --> 00:28:59,612 There's zero biological evidence in there. 440 00:29:00,780 --> 00:29:02,907 So he was killed elsewhere, which... 441 00:29:02,991 --> 00:29:05,994 a pretty reasonable person would conclude 442 00:29:06,077 --> 00:29:08,163 means that this was not a suicide. 443 00:29:08,246 --> 00:29:09,330 This is a murder. 444 00:29:13,626 --> 00:29:16,921 The thing that I find perplexing when I looked at the photographs 445 00:29:17,005 --> 00:29:22,010 is there's absolutely no indication that they were any scavengers 446 00:29:22,093 --> 00:29:24,345 that did anything to his body 447 00:29:24,429 --> 00:29:27,140 while it was in the water for almost ten days. 448 00:29:29,893 --> 00:29:34,564 After a gunshot wound to the head, there's so much blood that happens. 449 00:29:38,651 --> 00:29:40,612 Within just a few minutes, 450 00:29:40,695 --> 00:29:44,866 you'd start to see some scavenging activity by something within the water. 451 00:29:45,950 --> 00:29:49,412 We don't see any damage to his hands at all. 452 00:29:51,831 --> 00:29:53,458 When there's an open wound, 453 00:29:53,541 --> 00:29:57,545 sharks can smell blood from a fourth of a mile to a half of a mile away. 454 00:29:57,629 --> 00:30:01,382 And this is an area where there are lots of sharks. 455 00:30:02,884 --> 00:30:04,844 Even around here, there are alligators. 456 00:30:04,928 --> 00:30:07,680 I mean, there's just a lot of stuff in these waters. 457 00:30:11,100 --> 00:30:12,560 So it makes me wonder, 458 00:30:13,102 --> 00:30:15,730 "Was he really in the water for ten days?" 459 00:30:18,441 --> 00:30:21,820 [Miles] That makes me question if he was somewhere else 460 00:30:21,903 --> 00:30:25,698 for any amount of days before going into the water. 461 00:30:25,782 --> 00:30:28,076 Maybe he was held somewhere on land? 462 00:30:29,369 --> 00:30:30,453 Who knows. 463 00:30:34,374 --> 00:30:37,961 [Lee] My personal theory is that he encountered something on that river 464 00:30:38,044 --> 00:30:39,796 that he shouldn't have seen. 465 00:30:39,879 --> 00:30:42,173 Maybe because he went over as a Good Samaritan 466 00:30:42,257 --> 00:30:43,925 and wanted to help somebody out. 467 00:30:46,469 --> 00:30:49,556 That makes the most sense because he was that kind of a guy. 468 00:30:52,183 --> 00:30:56,604 [Miles] If my dad saw somebody with a boat, mechanical issue, 469 00:30:56,688 --> 00:31:00,066 I'm pretty sure he would approach and try to help them out. 470 00:31:01,734 --> 00:31:02,944 When the boat was found, 471 00:31:03,027 --> 00:31:05,405 the engine was in neutral, and the gas was run out. 472 00:31:05,488 --> 00:31:09,284 It kind of points to there was a pause while he was doing something. 473 00:31:11,286 --> 00:31:15,623 My dad would leave the engine running if it were not a long-term stop. 474 00:31:19,294 --> 00:31:22,046 You put the engine in neutral as you're pulling up to a dock 475 00:31:22,130 --> 00:31:24,799 or if you just wanna stop moving to look at something. 476 00:31:27,635 --> 00:31:28,887 [Lee] In my humble opinion, 477 00:31:28,970 --> 00:31:31,431 Pat Mullins saw something out there in that boat of his 478 00:31:31,514 --> 00:31:32,932 that he wasn't supposed to see... 479 00:31:35,810 --> 00:31:36,728 [gun cocks] 480 00:31:37,395 --> 00:31:39,105 ...and they killed him for it. 481 00:31:39,188 --> 00:31:40,273 [shot firing] 482 00:31:44,694 --> 00:31:48,239 So you have to ask yourself, "What's worth taking a man's life for?" 483 00:31:50,074 --> 00:31:51,326 Probably looking at somebody 484 00:31:51,409 --> 00:31:53,661 who was running drugs or some other type of contraband. 485 00:31:55,830 --> 00:31:59,626 Bradenton and the Braden River, it's a great place to go and recreate. 486 00:31:59,709 --> 00:32:04,464 But you have some people using that river for bad purposes. 487 00:32:05,256 --> 00:32:07,967 There's been a lot of motorboat theft. 488 00:32:08,885 --> 00:32:11,387 There are people harvesting fish illegally, 489 00:32:11,471 --> 00:32:14,641 and I've heard that there's drugs that move up and down that river. 490 00:32:15,975 --> 00:32:18,478 Pat's boat was found way out in the bay, 491 00:32:18,561 --> 00:32:22,148 and Pat never went out in the bay in that Stumpnocker to begin with. 492 00:32:22,857 --> 00:32:24,609 I think whoever murdered him 493 00:32:24,692 --> 00:32:27,779 may have taken the boat out there just to dump it. 494 00:32:27,862 --> 00:32:29,822 So they probably dumped it to get rid of it, 495 00:32:29,906 --> 00:32:34,369 or they just could've, you know, towed it out there and cut the rope. 496 00:32:34,452 --> 00:32:36,454 [train whistle blowing] 497 00:32:43,836 --> 00:32:46,506 [Miles] So we're passing the CSX railroad bridge right now. 498 00:32:47,090 --> 00:32:49,968 For the Stumpnocker to end up where it was found, 499 00:32:50,051 --> 00:32:52,136 it had to go past this bridge. 500 00:32:55,223 --> 00:32:57,266 And they do have cameras mounted on the bridge 501 00:32:57,350 --> 00:33:00,645 that are recording any and all boats that pass through. 502 00:33:00,728 --> 00:33:04,816 It would have been able to capture the Stumpnocker and my dad going by 503 00:33:05,316 --> 00:33:07,860 if he did take the Stumpnocker through here. 504 00:33:09,153 --> 00:33:11,990 So you would know. Is he by himself? Is he with a friend? 505 00:33:12,073 --> 00:33:13,074 Is he, you know... 506 00:33:13,157 --> 00:33:14,909 Is he towing a boat? 507 00:33:15,785 --> 00:33:18,121 You know, is he helping somebody out? 508 00:33:18,204 --> 00:33:19,706 Is somebody towing him? 509 00:33:23,918 --> 00:33:25,420 [Miles] We were hoping to see... 510 00:33:25,503 --> 00:33:27,797 just anything, with the Stumpnocker going through there, 511 00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:29,424 would have been valuable information. 512 00:33:34,303 --> 00:33:36,097 {\an8}[Rabun] We obtained a video 513 00:33:36,180 --> 00:33:38,224 shortly after this incident happened. 514 00:33:38,307 --> 00:33:41,144 Unfortunately, the CSX personnel 515 00:33:41,227 --> 00:33:43,813 downloaded a corrupt video file. 516 00:33:44,564 --> 00:33:47,734 We went back a second time. The second time it was corrupted. 517 00:33:49,235 --> 00:33:50,695 [Miles] It was disappointing. 518 00:33:51,571 --> 00:33:55,366 I was definitely frustrated that that was an immediate dead end, 519 00:33:55,450 --> 00:33:58,202 because that footage was so important to us. 520 00:34:03,583 --> 00:34:05,209 [Gray] It is frustrating. 521 00:34:05,877 --> 00:34:10,006 We have no facts, no answers, just theories. 522 00:34:10,715 --> 00:34:12,383 But I believe he was killed. 523 00:34:13,092 --> 00:34:14,218 Someone killed him. 524 00:34:16,429 --> 00:34:19,766 "Who?" is the million-dollar question, I suppose. 525 00:34:22,310 --> 00:34:24,062 [Rabun] At the start of an investigation, 526 00:34:24,145 --> 00:34:26,272 we try to talk to as many people as we can. 527 00:34:28,274 --> 00:34:32,070 And Damon Crestwood, who's a good friend of Patrick's brother, 528 00:34:32,153 --> 00:34:35,281 and knew Patrick, was interviewed multiple times. 529 00:34:36,657 --> 00:34:38,493 Damon is a family friend. 530 00:34:38,576 --> 00:34:40,995 I knew him from family get-togethers. 531 00:34:41,079 --> 00:34:45,291 Memorial Day, we would meet up with the family and some extended friends. 532 00:34:45,374 --> 00:34:48,628 Do a lot of water sports and just have a good time hanging out. 533 00:34:49,462 --> 00:34:50,463 [Pat on video] Okay. 534 00:34:52,340 --> 00:34:55,134 [Miles] My father was not close with Damon. 535 00:34:55,218 --> 00:34:58,137 He was connected to my family through my uncle. 536 00:34:59,472 --> 00:35:03,101 I met Damon in '89 or '90, 537 00:35:03,184 --> 00:35:04,811 and we became fast friends. 538 00:35:05,645 --> 00:35:09,524 He owned his own restaurant for a while and was a talented chef. 539 00:35:10,149 --> 00:35:11,317 {\an8}Damon was a sweetheart. 540 00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:13,903 {\an8}You know, I met him, I was probably about 12 years old. 541 00:35:13,986 --> 00:35:15,822 {\an8}He was a couple of years older than me. 542 00:35:15,905 --> 00:35:21,828 And he was just a likable, dependable, admirable guy. 543 00:35:23,663 --> 00:35:26,249 But after Pat's disappearance, 544 00:35:26,332 --> 00:35:30,336 Damon's behavior quickly became markedly different. 545 00:35:32,088 --> 00:35:37,802 Damon was very upset when Pat was missing and presumed dead. 546 00:35:38,469 --> 00:35:40,179 Almost disproportionately so. 547 00:35:41,639 --> 00:35:45,351 [Gray] He would break into tears and then uncontrollable sobbing. 548 00:35:45,434 --> 00:35:48,354 He would come to the house sometimes, you know, early on. 549 00:35:48,437 --> 00:35:50,648 I don't think I'd seen that side of him before. 550 00:35:52,775 --> 00:35:54,485 [Jill] After Pat had died, 551 00:35:54,569 --> 00:35:56,612 Damon told me how, 552 00:35:57,155 --> 00:36:01,576 so many times, he would go and look out along the Manatee River, 553 00:36:01,659 --> 00:36:05,413 and cry and sob for hours. 554 00:36:09,208 --> 00:36:10,501 You know, he knew my dad. 555 00:36:10,585 --> 00:36:15,006 They had known each other, but not like a long-time close friend 556 00:36:15,089 --> 00:36:17,592 that you would expect that type of reaction. 557 00:36:21,304 --> 00:36:24,098 [Stephen] Damon was just kind of off the rails. 558 00:36:24,182 --> 00:36:28,394 Constantly asking, "If something happened, would you still be my friend?" 559 00:36:28,477 --> 00:36:30,563 "Could I count on you being there?" 560 00:36:31,147 --> 00:36:35,026 {\an8}None of us really knew exactly why. 561 00:36:37,653 --> 00:36:39,530 [Mark] Pat was killed in January. 562 00:36:39,614 --> 00:36:42,700 My wife and I, and everyone else for that matter, 563 00:36:42,783 --> 00:36:46,787 we all noticed that he had a mental breakdown every January, 564 00:36:46,871 --> 00:36:49,290 like clockwork, after Pat's death. 565 00:36:50,499 --> 00:36:53,169 [unsettling music playing] 566 00:36:56,088 --> 00:36:58,424 [Mark] It gives you an unsettled feeling 567 00:36:59,467 --> 00:37:03,387 that he knew more than he had ever told. 568 00:37:06,557 --> 00:37:10,728 [Gray] Eventually, Damon intimated that he'd been using crystal meth. 569 00:37:12,230 --> 00:37:15,691 Mark's a psychiatrist and he's like, "We gotta keep an eye on him." 570 00:37:15,775 --> 00:37:18,069 My job is to pay attention to behavior. 571 00:37:18,152 --> 00:37:22,073 He got more and more paranoid. Impulsive. 572 00:37:22,615 --> 00:37:27,912 And there were episodes of extreme erratic behavior that concerned us all. 573 00:37:28,746 --> 00:37:32,458 [Miles] The Memorial Day after my dad had passed, 574 00:37:33,125 --> 00:37:36,003 the family and some extended friends got together. 575 00:37:36,087 --> 00:37:37,797 And Damon did come out, 576 00:37:38,297 --> 00:37:42,176 and I saw Damon tie a rope to his dog, 577 00:37:42,718 --> 00:37:45,930 and then tie that rope around himself. 578 00:37:52,228 --> 00:37:56,857 [Mark] It was in the exact manner that it was on Pat's body. 579 00:37:58,651 --> 00:38:01,070 That was, uh... 580 00:38:01,153 --> 00:38:03,030 extremely troubling. 581 00:38:03,114 --> 00:38:05,866 The nautical rope was a thing that was disturbing. 582 00:38:05,950 --> 00:38:07,243 Tied around your waist. 583 00:38:07,743 --> 00:38:10,579 We're just... beside ourselves, actually. 584 00:38:12,540 --> 00:38:15,626 At the time, we actually confronted him about it. 585 00:38:15,710 --> 00:38:18,796 Like, "Hey, you know, what's going on? You're acting weird." 586 00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:21,716 He didn't give any explanation. 587 00:38:26,012 --> 00:38:28,639 [Miles] There's another thing that started to tie him 588 00:38:28,723 --> 00:38:31,726 a little more intimately with the case. 589 00:38:32,727 --> 00:38:36,731 After the boat was found, I had seen on the side of the Stumpnocker 590 00:38:37,231 --> 00:38:39,734 red paint markings on the side of the boat. 591 00:38:40,276 --> 00:38:46,032 [Jill] And then we realized Damon's boat has a red stripe on it. 592 00:38:48,993 --> 00:38:53,831 Damon lived where he would put his boat in the Manatee River, 593 00:38:53,914 --> 00:38:56,542 kind of close to the opening into Tampa Bay. 594 00:38:58,627 --> 00:39:02,131 That area is where Pat's body was found. 595 00:39:03,632 --> 00:39:05,634 [Miles] With his erratic behavior, 596 00:39:05,718 --> 00:39:11,223 the red paint did start to tie Damon potentially into the picture. 597 00:39:11,307 --> 00:39:15,102 That was just something that was like, "Maybe we ought to look into this." 598 00:39:17,688 --> 00:39:20,941 [Mark] The police really wanted to sample Damon's boat, 599 00:39:21,025 --> 00:39:22,485 that they knew was red. 600 00:39:23,903 --> 00:39:27,281 And they were declined by Damon. 601 00:39:27,365 --> 00:39:30,409 He denied to us of being involved 602 00:39:30,493 --> 00:39:32,828 or knowing anything about what happened to Pat. 603 00:39:34,330 --> 00:39:37,166 It got to the point, eventually he stopped talking to us, 604 00:39:37,249 --> 00:39:39,877 but we didn't have information to go further 605 00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:43,589 on if he was involved or not, because we just didn't have any witnesses. 606 00:39:43,672 --> 00:39:46,550 And that's just where it stopped, and there was no further 607 00:39:47,134 --> 00:39:49,512 efforts put towards talking to Damon 608 00:39:49,595 --> 00:39:53,140 or being able to get a paint chip from his boat. 609 00:39:56,435 --> 00:39:59,188 [Mark] Damon died April 5th, 2017. 610 00:39:59,271 --> 00:40:03,401 That was about four and a half years after Pat's death. 611 00:40:03,943 --> 00:40:09,490 He had overdosed, and it looked like it was meth. 612 00:40:09,573 --> 00:40:11,283 He was 48 years old. 613 00:40:11,992 --> 00:40:14,245 And it was another trauma 614 00:40:15,287 --> 00:40:20,876 because we were hoping that Damon would tell us he knew something. 615 00:40:23,045 --> 00:40:27,508 [Miles] After Damon passed away, his daughter did give permission 616 00:40:27,591 --> 00:40:30,302 {\an8}for a paint chip to be taken from his boat 617 00:40:30,386 --> 00:40:32,888 {\an8}to be tested to see if it's a match 618 00:40:32,972 --> 00:40:34,974 {\an8}to the paint on the side of the Stumpnocker. 619 00:40:35,724 --> 00:40:38,310 We thought, "This is the ticket. We're getting somewhere." 620 00:40:39,937 --> 00:40:42,898 The feedback we got from the police department was that, 621 00:40:42,982 --> 00:40:45,359 "Yes, it's a match. No, it's not important." 622 00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:48,237 [Rabun] In reading the report that came back, 623 00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:51,532 "The boat cannot be eliminated as a possible source of red paint smears 624 00:40:51,615 --> 00:40:52,950 on the victim's boat," 625 00:40:53,033 --> 00:40:54,869 is the way they actually worded it. 626 00:40:54,952 --> 00:40:57,371 The red paint is a common variety. 627 00:40:57,455 --> 00:41:00,666 We can't say what brand it came from or anything. 628 00:41:00,749 --> 00:41:02,751 I labbed it and produced that result for us. 629 00:41:03,627 --> 00:41:05,880 {\an8}[Jill] They discounted the testing 630 00:41:05,963 --> 00:41:09,091 {\an8}saying that there was a lot of paint that was being made that year, 631 00:41:09,175 --> 00:41:12,261 so it was really as good as nothing. 632 00:41:13,095 --> 00:41:15,473 I didn't feel it was as good as nothing. 633 00:41:16,599 --> 00:41:19,727 [Miles] I think it means something. It's highly unlikely that something else 634 00:41:19,810 --> 00:41:23,481 would have rubbed that boat that would match the paint on Damon's. 635 00:41:25,900 --> 00:41:27,943 [Jill] Given Damon's strange behavior, 636 00:41:28,027 --> 00:41:32,406 given his obsession with Pat's death, 637 00:41:32,490 --> 00:41:38,954 I feel that Damon is aware of what happened to Pat. 638 00:41:42,583 --> 00:41:43,918 [Miles] There are some theories 639 00:41:44,001 --> 00:41:46,420 about the ways that my dad would have interacted with Damon 640 00:41:46,504 --> 00:41:49,173 that could have ended up with my dad being murdered. 641 00:41:51,509 --> 00:41:54,595 [Gray] Maybe he's driving along and sees Damon's boat floating 642 00:41:54,678 --> 00:41:56,096 with the engine up, and... 643 00:41:56,180 --> 00:41:58,724 You know, he would have gone straight to it to... 644 00:41:58,807 --> 00:41:59,850 to aid. 645 00:42:00,851 --> 00:42:03,395 I don't even know if Damon had the boat out. 646 00:42:03,479 --> 00:42:05,814 You know, maybe somebody else had his boat out. 647 00:42:09,318 --> 00:42:12,488 I don't have a scenario that puts all this together. 648 00:42:13,405 --> 00:42:15,533 I guess anything's possible. 649 00:42:24,083 --> 00:42:25,834 [Rabun] Based on our investigation, 650 00:42:25,918 --> 00:42:29,046 we have more questions than answers for what happened that day. 651 00:42:29,129 --> 00:42:31,298 And we wish we could help the family 652 00:42:31,382 --> 00:42:34,218 by finding those answers to help them with their closure. 653 00:42:34,927 --> 00:42:37,972 We don't know. That's why we... It's a death investigation. 654 00:42:39,181 --> 00:42:40,683 We don't know what happened. 655 00:42:42,101 --> 00:42:45,062 Most of the time, homicides come to us with background information 656 00:42:45,145 --> 00:42:49,567 that suggests there was a reason, or a motive, or something. 657 00:42:49,650 --> 00:42:52,236 Certainly there was no evidence of a robbery that occurred. 658 00:42:53,654 --> 00:42:54,947 Going to the other side, 659 00:42:55,030 --> 00:42:58,742 the most important factor in keeping suicide as a consideration 660 00:42:58,826 --> 00:43:01,453 was the unusual rope application on the body. 661 00:43:01,537 --> 00:43:06,625 That it just was apparently tailored to a potential for self-wrapping. 662 00:43:06,709 --> 00:43:10,796 That, in our minds, kept suicide as a possible consideration as well. 663 00:43:10,879 --> 00:43:13,257 So without being able to really say 664 00:43:13,340 --> 00:43:16,468 that homicide was definitely much more likely 665 00:43:16,552 --> 00:43:18,679 or suicide was definitely much more likely, 666 00:43:18,762 --> 00:43:21,557 we had to consider that both were still reasonably likely. 667 00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:23,142 That only left us one alternative, 668 00:43:23,225 --> 00:43:25,227 is to call the manner of death "undetermined." 669 00:43:27,104 --> 00:43:29,106 [seagulls crying] 670 00:43:33,986 --> 00:43:36,572 [Jill] I think it was on the first-year anniversary 671 00:43:36,655 --> 00:43:39,992 that I started doing the flyers 672 00:43:40,868 --> 00:43:43,829 because we weren't getting any closer to an answer. 673 00:43:45,748 --> 00:43:47,666 I have gotten a few phone calls. 674 00:43:52,171 --> 00:43:55,424 I don't think we've gotten anything 675 00:43:55,507 --> 00:43:57,217 {\an8}that has turned out valuable, 676 00:43:57,301 --> 00:44:00,804 {\an8}but a couple of calls have gone into the sheriff's office as well. 677 00:44:03,349 --> 00:44:07,686 As one of his brothers tells me, Pat would hate this. 678 00:44:08,228 --> 00:44:12,191 He would hate what I'm doing because he was low-key. 679 00:44:12,274 --> 00:44:14,985 He didn't need or like attention. 680 00:44:16,862 --> 00:44:18,489 But Pat didn't need to die. 681 00:44:19,114 --> 00:44:23,994 Whoever did this is a danger to any and everybody. 682 00:44:25,871 --> 00:44:30,918 Nine years later, I feel like someone out there is gonna have some answers. 683 00:44:33,337 --> 00:44:34,755 [Miles] You gotta have hope. 684 00:44:35,255 --> 00:44:39,468 You know, we see these cold cases get turned around decades later. 685 00:44:39,551 --> 00:44:41,470 Something like that could happen in our lifetime. 686 00:44:43,639 --> 00:44:46,642 [Jill] My children need to know what happened to their dad. 687 00:44:48,060 --> 00:44:51,188 It's not a pretty story, and it doesn't have a conclusion. 688 00:44:52,648 --> 00:44:57,152 We don't have answers, but I am still trying. 689 00:45:01,031 --> 00:45:03,033 [mysterious music playing]