Patricia Arlene Hamilton

Patricia Arlene Hamilton, known to her loved ones as Patty, was an 18-year-old woman working to build her life in Seminole, Oklahoma. In the spring of 1983, she held a night job as a clerk at the U-Totem convenience store, a position that required late hours and self-reliance. Patty and her mother, who also worked a night job at a cab company, had a system to keep each other safe. They would often stay on the phone together during their shifts, a comforting connection in the quiet, early morning hours.

In the pre-dawn darkness of Saturday, April 9, 1983, that routine played out as usual. Around 4:30 AM, Patty spoke with her mother, telling her she was about to step outside to sweep the store's parking lot. She placed the telephone receiver down on the counter without hanging up. Her mother listened for a time but, hearing nothing to cause alarm, eventually disconnected the line to take calls for her work. It was the last time anyone is known to have heard from Patty. About thirty minutes later, around 5:00 AM, a customer walked into the U-Totem and found the store eerily empty.

When police were called to the scene, they found a perplexing and quiet scene. The telephone was still off the hook, just as Patty had left it. Two cans of soda sat on the counter, though a check of the register tape showed no record of the sale. The cash register itself was short $114. Outside, Patty’s car was found locked in the parking lot, and her purse was still inside the vehicle. Her keys were later located inside the store. Investigators found no signs of a struggle or any overt violence, suggesting Patty may have been abducted by someone she knew or was taken completely by surprise.

For more than eight years, Patty's family lived in agonizing uncertainty. Her disappearance was a mystery with no answers, a wound that could not begin to heal. The question of what happened to the young woman from Seminole remained unanswered until October 13, 1991. On that day, skeletal remains were discovered in a creek bed north of Konawa, a town about 20 miles from where Patty was last seen. Using dental records, authorities were able to make a positive identification. The remains belonged to Patricia Hamilton.

The discovery confirmed her family's worst fears, officially changing her case from a missing person investigation to a homicide. However, determining a cause of death from the skeletal remains proved difficult for the medical examiner. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) took the lead on the case, but the trail had gone cold over the long years Patty was missing. Who took her from the U-Totem store and why remained unknown. The missing money pointed toward a robbery, but the lack of a struggle at the scene left investigators with few clues to follow.

Decades have passed, but the murder of Patricia Hamilton remains an open, unsolved cold case on the files of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. Investigators continue to hope that someone, somewhere, has information that could finally bring clarity and justice. Time can cause allegiances to shift and secrets to become burdens. Someone may have seen another vehicle at the U-Totem that morning, heard someone talk about the crime in the years since, or know something about the two soda cans left on the counter.

The case of the young convenience store clerk, whose life was cut short just as it was beginning, has not been forgotten by her community or by investigators. Anyone with information regarding the disappearance and murder of Patricia "Patty" Hamilton is urged to contact the Seminole Police Department at (405) 382-3434 or the OSBI at 1-800-522-8017 or [email protected].