On April 20, 1989, Carol Heitz was cruising along Hwy 200 in Montana when a Chevy Nova traveling in the opposite direction crashed into her car head-on. Fortunately, Heitz emerged from her car without serious injury. The other driver — a woman in her late 30s, with strawberry blonde hair, crawled from the wreckage, also without any visible injuries. The fender bender was far from the most concerning development that evening. Today, one could use a cell phone to call 911, but in 1989, that wasn’t an option. It didn’t really matter, as the woman driving the Nova was not interested in speaking with anyone. Heitz said the woman just stared at her, never saying a word. By the time police arrived, the woman was long gone. Using the license plate on the Nova, police identified the young woman as Patricia Meehan, a resident of Bozeman, some 380 miles away. Her father would later say that Patricia didn’t drink or do drugs, but she had told him that she was “under stress” and wanted to move home to Pittsburgh. Her parents allowed her to come back under one condition: that she meet with a psychologist first. Less than 24 hours later, she was 380 miles away from home, just outside of Circle, Montana. If Patricia was driving home, the 27-hour drive wouldn’t include a 2-hour detour to Circle. At the scene of the accident, an eyewitness watched as Patricia walked across the road, climbed a fence, and stood on the other side looking at the accident like a spectator. Not long after, Patricia turned and walked into the woods. Police tracked down a series of footprints about three-quarters of a mile away, but those eventually disappeared. What was Patricia doing in Circle? Was she lost on her way to Pittsburgh? There have been over 5,000 reported sightings of a woman resembling Patricia since her disappearance, but none have panned out. Her case was featured on NBC’s Unsolved Mysteries in 1989, but to this day she has never been found. If you have any information concerning this case, please contact the McCone County Sheriff's Office at 406-485-3405.
