Unsolved Mysteries: The case of Patrice Endres
Netflix's latest documentary offering, Unsolved Mysteries, really taps into what it can mean to be a true-crime fan in the internet age. For right or wrong, shows like Making a Murderer have snowballed the concept of the armchair detective, with Reddit threads and forums dedicated to theories and uncovering new evidence.
Unsolved Mysteries actively invites the viewer to do this, dedicating each episode to a different case that, in one way or another, has a question that's begging for an answer.
In episode two, the disappearance and (later to be discovered) murder of Patrice Endres is laid out. Testimony is given by her son Piper, now an adult, and a number of her friends and acquaintances – including her husband Rob Endres.
Believed to have been within a window of just 13 minutes, Patrice went missing from her hair salon in Cummings, Georgia, in April 2004.
Although her friends noted that she wasn't acting her usual self that day, there was very little in the way of information about what might have happened to her. Apart from two independent witnesses, who each reported seeing a car pulled up outside the salon's front door, and the money missing from the cash register, nothing appeared hugely out of the ordinary in the shop. Her lunch was left on the side, uneaten, but there was no clear sign of a struggle or evidence to suggest foul play.
Patrice's son Pistol spoke of what it was like being unsure of what had happened to his mother. The pair had been very close, and he hinted that she had been unhappy in her marriage to Rob. At first, Pistol believed she might have left of her own accord, to start a new life, and he shared that he had hoped to one day hear from his mother again to go and join her somewhere.
Sadly, a full 600 days after she went missing, Patrice's remains were found in December of 2005.
It was abundantly clear from the on-camera interviews that Rob did not get along with his wife's son Pistol, whose father was from a previous relationship, and the feeling was mutual. Rob admitted to locking Pistol out of the house after his mother's disappearance; just a teenager at the time, he had to go and find somewhere else to stay.
Now an adult, Pistol is still pushing to solve his mother's case and find out what actually happened to her. He revealed in the documentary that he has "different theories" about what he thinks happened, but that he told police: "I think Rob had something to do with my mother's murder."
Patrice's friends, who were also interviewed for the docu-series, insinuated that Rob had been a jealous husband and that Patrice had not been as happy in her marriage as she'd been in the earlier years of their relationship.
When questioned on the rumour that Patrice had been looking into getting a divorce, Rob claimed that this had not been the case (at least as far as he'd been aware). He denied any possibility of being involved in Patrice's disappearance or her murder.
As her husband, even Rob acknowledged that he might be an obvious suspect. Having a "degree in Criminology", he said that he realised he'd be looked at as a person of interest.
"I have no comment for people that think that I killed Patrice because I don't talk to those people," he told filmmakers in Unsolved Mysteries. "Because I know I didn't, Patrice knows I didn't, and it's physically impossible time-wise for me to have been involved in it. Think what you like."
He claimed that a petrol receipt and his work records prove his movements that day, and these mean it would have been "impossible" for him to have been to Patrice's shop at that time.
The detective in the documentary said that Rob has been "thoroughly investigated" and the timeline "doesn't eliminate him" but "greatly reduces the chances that he could have done this".
Meanwhile, viewers have been questioning some of Rob's on-screen remarks, particularly some chilling comments about his wife's remains.
When asked about Rob, Unsolved Mysteries co-creator Terry Dunn Meurer told EW: "Our goal is to present a balanced story, and I don't express opinions because I don't know.
"We respect Rob and appreciate that he was willing to tell his story. We respect the fact that the police department did thoroughly investigate him and they couldn't find any connection to Patrice's abduction and murder. I don't like to speculate because we are here only to present the facts as we hear them."
Meurer later added that "I know that he really loved Patrice", before revealing: "[Rob] actually remarried now, to a lovely woman, which is one of the things we didn't talk about in the episode. We didn't include her in the episode because she wasn't around [during the time of the events] and didn't know Patrice."
Rob believes that Patrice's killer was likely somebody, or more than one person, that she knew, and that had knowledge of her routine.
Patrice's case remains unsolved, but is still open. Some previous suspects were also presented in the episode – Jeremy Brian Jones and Gary Michael Hilton. Both men were serial killers, and had made references that might have indicated a link to Patrice. Jones actually confessed to the murder at one point, but later recanted.
Patrice's wedding ring – a photo of which was included in the series – was never recovered in the search for Patrice. It was not found with her body, and remains missing to this day. This piece of evidence could hold the key to finding the perpetrator.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is still looking for information and tips, to finally solve the case. In an effort to encourage further gathering of new evidence, Netflix has also created a public drive of case files, video clips and other information covered in Unsolved Mysteries.
Unsolved Mysteries is available on Netflix.
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