Filling in for George Noory, George Knapp welcomed Humboldt County Undersheriff Curtiss Kull for an update on the mysterious disappearances of several people in Northern Nevada. They were joined by Jim Carnes, whose father, Patrick F. Carnes, is one of those missing. Jim said his dad had been looking at retirement facilities in Toledo, Ohio, since several members of his family also reside in that area, but he ultimately decided to return home to Reno. Patrick left Toledo on Tuesday, April 12, with his companion dog Lucky, and several days later had still not made it back, Jim explained.
On the morning of Thursday, April 14, a part-time dispatcher on the way to her other job noticed an abandoned car in the sagebrush just off Interstate 80, Kull added. Deputies called to the scene soon discovered the vehicle belonged to Patrick Carnes. An extensive ground and air search for the missing man was conducted, but no trace of Patrick or his dog was found, Kull continued. The car itself had the appearance of having been dumped, he noted. Both men said they began to suspect foul play was involved in Patrick's disappearance, and that this might not be an isolated case.
According to Kull, two other cases share some eerie similarities. In 2008, 57-year-old Grant Moedl was driving to Boise, Idaho, in the same kind of car as Patrick's (Subaru station wagon) and vanished without a trace. Moedl and his vehicle have never been located, Kull said. On Valentine's Day of 2006, a woman in her early sixties, Judith Casida, left her home in Reno due to marriage difficulties, and to this day has not been seen again. In a curious coincidence, Casida's white Mazda pick-up truck was found abandoned at the same off-ramp as Patrick's car, Kull revealed.
Perhaps the most baffling aspect of Patrick's case is that investigators know exactly where he was the night before his car was discovered. On Wednesday, April 13, at around 9:00 pm, Patrick was stopped by a police officer for a traffic violation, Kull disclosed. On an audio recording from that stop, Patrick can be heard informing the officer that he is following what Kull believes is a semi-truck driver to Elko, Nevada. Jim suggested that his father, who once drove trucks for a living, may have befriended a trucker during his journey. Kull theorized that at some point somebody working in tandem with a serial killing trucker may have convinced Patrick to rest in the cab while they drove his car, eventually dumping it on the side of the freeway where it was found.
Callers phoned in to offer their own theories on the Patrick F. Carnes case, with many truckers and former truckers calling in to help identify the semi-truck from the police dash cam footage (see below).
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