On a spring evening in Wichita, Kansas, 32-year-old Caucasian female Patricia Magers was working late in the bridal shop she owned, La Bride d'Elegance. On that day, April 11, 1992, she and her 23-year-old employee, Patricia Smith, had kept the shop open past its usual closing time to accommodate a customer who had arranged to pick up a cummerbund.
Her husband, Mark, later recalled they had a "textbook marriage" and that she loved working with the customers in her shop, which had been open for just over a year.
As the two women waited, a man entered the shop at 4613 E. Kellogg. It is believed they let him in, possibly thinking he was the customer they were expecting. Instead of a simple transaction, the evening took a horrific turn. The man ushered both Patricia Magers and Patricia Smith into a back room of the bridal shop, which served as an office and work area. There, he shot both women execution-style in the back of the head with a. 22-caliber semi-automatic firearm.
Shortly after the shootings, the customer who the women had been waiting for arrived. He encountered the killer, who was still in the shop. The customer managed to escape and, after some delay, contacted the police. When authorities arrived, they found Patricia Magers was already deceased. Patricia Smith was discovered barely clinging to life and was rushed to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Investigators found that cash had been stolen from the register, but robbery did not appear to be the primary motive.
The murders of Patricia Magers and Patricia Smith were not an isolated incident. Authorities quickly linked the slayings to a string of similar killings that occurred in the spring of 1992 across several Midwestern states, including Indiana and Missouri. The perpetrator came to be known as the "I-70 Killer" because most of his crimes took place in small businesses located near the interstate highway. His victims were often women with long brown hair who were working alone. The description of the suspect, provided by the customer at the bridal shop and other witnesses from different crime scenes, was that of a white male, approximately 5'7" to 5'9" tall with a slender build and reddish or sandy-blonde hair. Despite a composite sketch being created and a multi-state task force being formed, the I-70 Killer has never been identified or apprehended. The case remains unsolved, and no arrests have ever been made in the tragic death of Patricia Magers.
