LUMBERTON, NC (WBTW) – Lumberton police say one year after a 20-year-old woman was reported missing, there are still few clues for detectives to follow.
Abby Lynn Patterson disappeared one year ago Wednesday on September 5, 2017. While the Lumberton Police Department is still actively investigating her disappearance, Captain Terry Parker says detectives are still unsure what happened to Patterson.
“Detectives have followed a number of leads, but have not determined what happened to Abby after she left her home last year,” Capt. Parker says in a press release Wednesday morning.
A missing person report from the Lumberton police says Patterson had returned home from rehab just days before she vanished. The 20-year-old had only been in Lumberton a few days before her disappearance, the police report states. Before that, she was in rehab in Florida for heroin addiction, according to the report. Patterson had last lived in Lumberton about three years prior.
Shortly after Patterson’s disappearance last year, Samantha Lovette, Patterson’s mother, said neighbors saw Patterson get into a car down the street from Lovette’s home. Police describe the person in the car as an “acquaintance.”
The driver told police that Patterson was dropped off at another location, but police declined to say where that was.
Lovette told WBTW sister station, CBS17, that she received a text from her daughter that day saying she would be gone about an hour. Lovette never heard from her daughter again.
By the time the missing person report was filed at 6 p.m. the same day, Patterson’s phone was going straight to voicemail, according to the document.
Just months prior to Patterson’s disappearance, the bodies of three women were found in Lumberton. Rhonda Jones’ body was found in a trash can at 702 E. 5th St. in east Lumberton on April 18, 2017. On the same day, the body of Christina “Kristin” Bennett was found in the same vicinity, inside a home at 505 Peachtree Street. Megan Oxendine’s body was found a few blocks away about six and a half weeks later on June 3, 2017.
Despite the close timeline, police say Patterson’s disappearance is not related to the deaths of the other women as there are few similarities in the cases.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Abby Lynn Patterson is asked to call the Lumberton Police Department at 910-671-3845 and speak with Detective David Williford.
