Patrick Carnes was a fiercely independent and kind grandfatherly figure. In 2011, Patrick was retired, widowed, and contemplating moving from his home in Reno, Nevada to Toledo, Ohio, where he could be closer to family.
In April 2011, he traveled to Toledo to check out some retirement facilities. As usual, his dog Lucky was with him everywhere he went.
He planned out his road trip and hoped to be back in Reno on April 14th.
On April 13, 2011, Patrick was on schedule. He had made it to Nevada. Around 9:00 p.m., he was pulled over on Interstate 80 in Wells, Nevada for failing to move over for a stopped truck. He told the officer he was heading to Elko where he was going to get some sleep.
He specifically told the officer he was following the truck ahead of him because the trucker was going to Elko also.
The officer let Patrick go with a warning and advised him to be sure he moved over for stopped vehicles.
The next morning, around 6:00 am, an ff-duty police dispatcher was heading to work. She noticed a car off the highway and believing there might have been a car accident, called it into the sheriff’s department.
The car was Patrick’s, but there was no sign of him or his dog Lucky anywhere. The scene was bizarre. It didn’t appear to be an accident but the car was pulled quite a bit off the road in the desert.
There were quite a few oddities leaving authorities- and family- to wonder, what happened to Patrick Carnes and his dog Lucky out there.
What went wrong?
And most importantly, where are Patrick Carnes and his dog Lucky?
Patrick Francis Carnes often went by ‘Pat’ to family and friends. He was born on January 30, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio, where he’d grow up with five sisters and one brother.
In 1942, Pat joined the U.S. Navy. He was honorably discharged for the first time in 1946, and then after being recapped the next year, he’d be discharged honorably again in 1949.
This was also the year he would marry the love of his life, Margaret. Pat and Margaret would raise their children near Santa Monica, California. They had three sons and one daughter.
In 1981, Pat retired and he and Margaret decided to move to Reno, Nevada for something different.
Margaret passed away in 2004, and after 55 years of marriage, Pat became a widow.
Pat was still healthy and decided he would try his best to enjoy the rest of his life as happily as he could. He adopted a mixed-breed dog he named, Lucky. Lucky became Pat’s best friend and went everywhere with him.
He was a dog that people would notice also, as he was so big- over 100 pounds.
In 2011, Pat was 86 years old, and he began to feel it was time to look into some retirement homes. He also thought it might be a good idea to move to Toledo to be closer to family.
In April, Pat took a road trip with Lucky and drove from Reno, Nevada to Toledo, Ohio. He spent some time with family and touring some living options in the area.
Pat was going to return home to Reno and think over his options before making a decision.
He left Ohio and with Lucky by his side, he began his journey back to Nevada.
THE DISAPPEARANCE.
Pat was driving west on Interstate 80 on the evening of April 13, 2011. He was coming up to the mile marker 358, near Wells, Nevada, when he passed by a Nevada State Trooper with a truck pulled over on the side of the road.
Pat didn’t slow down, nor did he move over, so the trooper jumped in his car and pulled Pat over.
Pat was unaware of the law that required him to do so, and he told the officer this.
Interestingly, Pat made a few notable comments to the the officer which was caught on the officer’s audio.
First, Pat commented that he was following a truck because the truck was heading to Elko, and Pat had decided to make it to Elko to sleep for the night.
It was noted on the trooper’s dashcam that Pat was indeed following behind a semi-truck.
Pat made another comment as well. He said he wouldn’t be driving at night anymore.
The trooper believed Pat was fine, he seemed perfectly normal, perhaps just getting tired from the drive, but nothing raised any alarms for the trooper.
Pat was sent off with a warning.
The next morning, around 6:00 a.m., an off-duty police dispatcher was driving to work when she noticed a vehicle off the road. This was in between Battle Mountain and Golconda, Nevada, and specifically near the 205 Pumpernickel Valley exit.
It was a ways off the road, and sitting in a way that she believed there had possibly been an accident. She called into the local sheriff’s office to report so someone could check it out.
An officer was dispatched to the scene. This was a rural, desolate area, and the officer wondered at first if the car had been abandoned there on purpose.
There were no signs of an accident, but there was one set of footprints walking away from the car.
The officer called in the license plate and learned that the Subaru belonged to Patrick Carnes. They called the phone number listed for Pat, his apartment number, but no one answered.
Pat didn’t have a cell phone.
Meanwhile, Pat’s family was waiting to hear from him to make sure he made it back home safely.
But they never received that call.
Patrick Carnes- and his dog Lucky- had disappeared.
THE SEARCH.
It took a few days for everyone to realize there was a problem. Pat’s family had been waiting days to hear from him, wondering if he took a detour to visit a friend or had other plans on the way home.
Around this same time, authorities in Humboldt County were also wondering why they hadn’t been able to reach Pat and why the car was still there. They called Reno authorities and asked them to do a welfare check on Pat.
A couple of Pat’s family members also decided to drive to Pat’s place.
Together, they all noticed that Pat had never made it back home after Ohio, and his family now learned his car was abandoned off the highway.
A search immediately began near the site where the car was. Authorities were now acting quickly, knowing it had been four days since they initially found the car there and Pat, at 86 years old, could be out in the Nevada desert and in need of help.
The car was looked over, and it seemed all of Pat’s personal belongings were there, except a wallet. There were no signs of an accident or foul play, and there was one set of footprints walking away from the car.
The car was also found to be in working order, but possibly stuck. It also had plenty of gas.
So why was it off the road in the manner that it was?
Interestingly, Pat was traveling home on the night of April 13th, and he was heading West. But the car was found off of the Eastbound side, meaning he was possibly heading back in the opposite direction.
Did he miss an exit?
This was also 85 miles past Elko, where Pat indicated he was planning on sleeping for a bit. Did he turn around to go back to Elko?
But Pat was also only four hours from home, why would he backtrack 85+ miles just to get some sleep in Elko?
The searches of the area turned up no signs of Pat or Lucky.
Authorities learned that Pat had a mild leg injury which caused him to walk with a limp. This further concerned everyone because if Pat had walked off into the desert, he couldn’t have gone too far.
Searches of the area were hindered by rain, but still nothing was found. Law enforcement brought in tracker dogs and utilized air searches also.
Still no signs of Pat or Lucky.
The investigation was also made difficult by the fact that Pat only used cash, he didn’t have any credit cards, and he didn’t have a cell phone.
There was nothing to trace.
Authorities were also curious about Pat’s timeline that night.
He had been pulled over by a police officer around 9:00 p.m., and this is verified by dash cam footage.
Pat indicated he was following a truck to Elko, where he planned to get some sleep.
Why was he following a truck to Elko? By this statement, everyone had to wonder if Pat had been communicating with this trucker. Perhaps he had stopped at the same gas station earlier and they struck up a conversation.
Dashcam Screenshot of Truck (ON THE LEFT SIDE) Pat Was Following — –
How did Pat know this truck was going to Elko? And why was he following him?
Authorities tried to enhance the footage of the dash cam which did show this truck Pat was following, but the quality was too poor to make out any identifying factors. It is too grainy to read a license platethe or to see a logo on the trailer.
Had Pat made it to Elko? Did he even stop at Elko?
There were some traffic cams near the Elko exit, but those cameras weren’t working that night, adding to the frustration of everyone involved in searching for Pat.
HUMBOLDT COUNTY, NEVADA.
Pat’s Subaru Forester was found in Humboldt County, just inside the county limits. This area is desolate and vast and there just isn’t much around.
Humboldt County is in the northern part of the state of Nevada, just northeast of Reno, Nevada, where Pat lived in 2011, and where he was driving back to on April 13.
The car was found off of Interstate 80, which would be the main highway running through the area. Pat’s route home, would only take him through the small southern corner of Humboldt county.
This was more than a two-hour drive away from where he was pulled over at in Wells, Nevada, and another hour away from where he told the state trooper he was going to stop for the night- in Elko, Nevada.
There is nothing around.
At night, this area would be completely pitch black, with only moonlight and passing cars lighting up the area. It’s also been said while this is a main highway, nighttime traffic is minimal, usually just the occasional trucker here and there.
The population of the entire county is just over 17,000 residents, with an area of over 100,000 acres.
The area of Humboldt County where his car was found, was just about 200 miles from Reno, where Pat lived. He had driven the entire way from Ohio without incident but something happened to Pat between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.
Authorities did come out and state they believed it was highly likely that the car was purposefully dumped there and possibly not by Pat.
The reason for this belief? They simply found no signs of Pat or Lucky and didn’t believe he could get far, especially with a leg injury.
This leads to some interesting theories about what may have happened out there in the Nevada, Desert.
THEORIES.
First, did Pat drive off the road on purpose and leave his car there? Perhaps for Lucky to use the bathroom?
But why did he park it in the way he did? Did it get stuck there?
I think the most telling question I have about this theory is the fact that the car was found on the wrong side of the road, so it would have been heading in the opposite direction he should have been.
It’s also a dramatic way to drive off the road, instead of just pulling over to the side. It was nighttime, and the car ended up there between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. There would have been very little traffic on the road.
Second, did Pat have a medical episode causing him to drive the car to that spot, and then walk away from it?
But where did he go? And how have there been no signs of Pat or Lucky despite the search effort to find them?
There is also the theory that Pat ran into foul play somewhere. Perhaps he was robbed, and the perpetrator dumped his car in that location- not Pat.
That still leaves no answers as to where Pat may be- and in fact, he could be anywhere.
This theory also led authorities down another route. Could there be a serial killer? A truck driver serial killer?
The FBI started a task force to look into this very possibility.
Long-distance truck drivers have the ability to move quietly through the entire country without much of a second look. They often drive at night, and they often drive through rural and empty areas. They pass through mountains, forests, by lakes and rivers, and pretty much every landscape of our country.
The task force was named the ‘Highway Serial Killings’ initiative. Through the work of this task force, they identified 200 possible victims and solved 70 crimes that were indeed related to truck drivers.
There were two main reasons detectives thought this a possible theory in the case of Patrick Carnes
First, he had told an officer he was specifically following a truck to Elko, and then he vanished.
Second, is the case of Judith Casida.
Judith Casida and her husband argued on February 14, 2006. Judith told him she was leaving.
Neighbors saw her get into her truck and drive away She was seen later on at a McDonald’s by other witnesses.
She was driving a white 1991 Mazda pickup truck.
On March 5, her truck was found abandoned near the 205 Pumpernickel Valley exit ramp off Interstate 80. There was no sign of 62-year-old Judith anywhere.
This is the same spot where Patrick’s car would be found five years later.
Coincidence? Some think so. But others think it’s bizarre, that two cars were found abandoned in the same exact place, and both drivers of those vehicles vanished into thin air.
Judith Casida remains a missing person.
So what do you think happened to Patrick Carnes?
Do you think his case and the case of Judith Casida are related?
Did Patrick meet with foul play, or become lost in the desert?
Patrick was declared legally deceased in April 2014. Local detectives still work the case, and still discuss the case often.
Pat’s family also continues to find clues as to his whereabouts, through billboards and flyers they have posted all over the country, specifically at truck stops.
The trucker whom Pat was following might have been innocently helping an elderly man find his way to Elko and if so, authorities would still like to speak with him.
Pat is described as a Caucasian man, 5’11” tall and weighing around 180 pounds when he was last seen in April of 2011. He has grey hair and wears glasses. He also walked with a slight limp.
Pat was wearing a tan jacket, a blue plaid shirt, tan or beige pants, tan canvas shoes and a Toledo Mud Hens baseball cap.
He was traveling with his loyal companion, Lucky, a 100-pound mix-breed dog.
Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at 775–623–6419.
