In the summer of 1982, the life of Patricia Shea, a 40-year-old physician's assistant from Rockaway, Queens, was tragically cut short. On the evening of Sunday, July 25th, Shea returned to her apartment on Shore Front Parkway after a weekend away. Between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m., she received a phone call from an elderly and infirm neighbor named Aggie who lived in an adjacent building and needed assistance. True to her caring nature, Shea left her apartment to help her friend.
The last known sighting of her was around 11:15 p.m. as she made her way to the neighboring building.
The following evening, a jogger in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, about 12 miles from her home, made a grim discovery. Patricia Shea's body was found in the bushes. She had been strangled with a thin nylon cord and her body was hog-tied. A man's shirt was found lying next to her. The manner in which she was bound was so severe that detectives noted she could have inadvertently tightened the ligatures while struggling to free herself.
The investigation into Patricia Shea's murder remains unsolved, a cold case that has haunted her family for decades. Early in the investigation, the police interviewed her neighbor, Aggie, who repeatedly stated, 'The blonde man hurt Pat.' However, due to her health condition, she was unable to provide further details. Shea's boyfriend at the time was quickly ruled out as a suspect as he had an alibi. Over the years, there has been speculation about a possible connection to a string of other unsolved strangulation murders of women in New York City around that time, though a definitive link has never been established by law enforcement.
Despite the passage of time, Patricia Shea's family has not given up hope for justice. Her nephew has been a vocal advocate, working to keep her case in the public eye. The New York City Police Department has revisited the case, with a detective from the Cold Case Homicide Squad taking a fresh look at the evidence in 2015. While there have been persons of interest, no arrests have ever been made in connection with her murder. The identity of the 'blonde man' Aggie spoke of remains a mystery, and Patricia Shea's killer has never been brought to justice.
