36: Ep. 36 Unsolved Mystery of Patricia Meehan: The Woman Who Walked Into Nowhere

On April 20, 1989, 37-year-old Patricia Meehan crashed her car on a remote Montana highway, climbed out unhurt, and walked into an empty field—never to be seen again. Or was she? Over 5,000 people reported seeing her in the months and years that followed, always at truck stops, always alone, always talking to herself. But she was never found.

This deep dive explores one of the most bizarre and potentially paranormal missing persons cases in American history. Patricia Meehan’s disappearance defies conventional explanation: her footprints vanished into thin air, massive searches found nothing, yet thousands of witnesses swore they saw her wandering the Pacific Northwest for years.

Discover the haunting details: the silent stare after the crash, the footprints that led nowhere, the verified sightings across multiple states, and the heartbreaking search by parents who died without answers. Was Patricia suffering from amnesia? Did she intentionally disappear? Or did she walk into something paranormal we can’t explain?

35 years later, this case remains unsolved and deeply disturbing.

RESOURCES & REFERENCES

Primary Sources:

∙ The Charley Project: Patricia Bernadette Meehan

∙ NamUs Case File

∙ Doe Network Case #1071DFMT

Media Coverage:

∙ NBC’s Unsolved Mysteries, Season 2, Episode 6 (November 1, 1989)

∙ Wikipedia: Disappearance of Patricia Meehan

∙ The Seattle Times (September 1990)

∙ Associated Press reports (1989)

Additional Resources:

∙ The Trail Went Cold Podcast

∙ True Crime Time: “The Baffling Disappearance & Sightings of Patricia Meehan”

∙ Medium: Multiple articles by various true crime writers

Contact Information:

McCone County Sheriff’s Office: 406-485-3405​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​