Can You Help Solve The Murder Of Patricia Richmond At Orchard Lake?

Patricia Sue Brogan Richmond

Suzie as she was known to friends and family, was born on February 23rd, 1954 in Raleigh County, West Virginia to Homer Harrison Brogan and Thelma Jean Thompson Brogan. She graduated from Shady Spring High School in 1971. Suzie then married Bruce Richmond and the couple moved to Pluto Road. The next year, in March, Suzie gave birth to their daughter, Angela Arlene. Life was good, until a fateful day in November of 1973.

On November 8th, 1973, Suzie was 20-years-old when she dropped off Angela at her parents home at approximately 10:30 a.m. She had loaded her orange Volkswagon with Amway products that she intended to distribute to customers on Old Crow Road before taking her grandmother to the store. Suzie was wearing a white dress, a blue sweater, white boots and a red ribbon tied in her black wig.

Suzie had stopped at Ransom`s Market, and the Amoco Gas Station in Beaver, before returning her grandmother back home. After that, Suzie just disappeared.When Suzie failed to return home that evening, her parents called the WV State Police to file a missing person's report. They told her to wait a few days, because Suzie may be a runaway.

Also on November 8th, residents of the town Minden, in Raleigh County, reported seeing smoke rising up from the trash dump.

Bruce was concerned and posted a one-thousand dollar reward for information leading to her returned.

Over 100 of Suzie's friends and relatives organized search parties to scour the woods. A helicopter was deployed in the search for Suzie as well. Bruce even flew in a friend's plane in hopes of finding something. All of this fruited no results.

November 16th, representatives of the West Virginia State Police discovered Suzie's burned Volkswagen over a hill near the Concho Trash Dump in Minden. It was ascertained that her vehicle didn't leave the road due to any kind of accident and that the fire was deliberately set. There was traces of gasoline found her car as well as a partially scorched gold wedding band with the brand name of Gold Circle. 

A resident later reported that he saw the Volkswagen burning and he did not see anyone around the car, but he did see two Black men walking up the road away from the car. He asked them if anyone was hurt and they replied, "No, that they were the only ones in the car." He had offered the two young men a ride but they refused. Both men were described as young Black males, perhaps 19 or 20. One was wearing army pants and carrying an army jacket and was wearing a square-faced diver`s watch with a wide band. He was wearing shiny black boots and that the sole of the right boot appeared to be about three to four inches thick but the left boot did not have a built-up sole. He was about 6` tall and slender, medium complexion and stuttered a little when he spoke. The second Black male was described to be only about 5`6" in height and more stocky. He was wearing a black leather cap which appeared to have ear muffs on it and his hair was bushy and stuck out from beneath the cap. 

Two weeks after Suzie went missing, two raccoon hunters, Harvey Williams and James Shay, were at the eastern shore of Plum Orchard Lake when they found Suzie's body. It was approximately fifty yards from the road at the base of an overturned tree. Her body was too badly decomposed to determine whether she was sexually assaulted or not. Suzie's dress, sweater and bra were found wrapped around her neck. Her face looked like it had been either beaten beyond recognition or that animals had gotten to it. It also didn't look like Suzie's body had been there longer than 24 hours. A gold colored button chain with a button attached which bore the imprint of a sailing ship, a partial tooth plate, and Suzie's long black wig were found at the scene. Suzie's white boots were missing.

An autopsy revealed that Suzie had died as a result of two stab wounds to the left chest wall that punched her lung and caused hemorrhaging. The murder weapon was never identified. The coroner also determined that Suzie's body was probably at Orchard Lake for at least two weeks.

Two salesmen reported that they may have seen Suzie at the Beckley Shopping Plaza on the day of her disappearance. They had been sitting in a car outside of Murphy`s about 1:30 p.m.on November 8th when they observed a Black man get into a red colored Volkswagen parked nearby. Inside the car was a young white woman sitting on the passenger side. They continued to watch as the Black man started the car to drive away. He seemed to be unfamiliar with the gears on the car and had trouble backing it out of the parking space. One of the salesman thought the girl looked familiar, so he wrote down the license plate number of the Volkswagen as it passed by and headed north on US 21 toward Mount Hope. After they heard about Suzie's body being found, they turned the paper with the license plate number over to the police. It turned out to be the license of Suzie's orange Volkswagen.

Three men who had been hauling coal on Beury Mountain toward Thurmond on November 8th, all told identical stories about seeing an orange Volkswagen coming up the narrow road at a rapid pace. The windows were down in the Volkswagen. A Black man was driving, a petite Caucasian woman sat in the middle and a second Black man was in the passenger seat. The description of the Black males in the vehicle matched exactly the description given by the Minden resident who had seen and talked to two Black males walking away from the burning Volkswagen.

The search for clues began to concentrate on the Beury Mountain area. Police were searching for any clue that Suzie had been there, especially looking for her pair of white boots.

Suzie's family and friends began getting threatening calls and letters telling them to leave the matter alone or they would do something to Suzie's younger sister Sharon. This cause the family to go silent.

The following July, Bruce remarried and became a minister. In 1989, Angela got married as well. 

No new clues have been found in Suzie's case and her murder remains unsolved.

If you have any information about the murder of Patricia, please call Crime Stoppers at 304-255-STOP and leave a tip at www.crimestoppersofraleighco.org.