Abby Lynn Patterson

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

FBI

Missing From:

Lumberton, North Carolina

Reward:

up to $10,000

Not from STC, Conditions and restrictions apply

Summary:

Patterson was last seen in Lumberton, North Carolina at 11:30 a.m. on September 5, 2017 leaving her grandmother's house with the expectation of returning soon as she said she had to run some errands and would be home in half an hour. The 20-year-old texted her mother, Samantha Lovette, before heading out, informing her that she would be returning home in approximately an hour with a few of her old high school pals. She then waved goodbye to her grandmother and left through the front door. She never returned. She left home on east 9th Street, walked down the street towards Inglewood Avenue, got into an older model brown Buick sedan that was parked on the side of the road after leaving her grandmother’s house on East 9th Street, according to a witness. The driver of the Buick, who was a friend of Abby’s, was located by the police. Detectives were informed by him that she had called him and requested a ride to a different location; he dropped her off there and was unaware of her whereabouts.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

Since Abby and her mother had a very close relationship, Samantha knew something wasn’t right when Abby abruptly stopped answering her texts. Samantha kept attempting to reach Abby on her cell phone, but every call ended up in her voicemail. Samantha reported her missing to the Lumberton Police Department when she didn’t return home by 6:00 p.m. In the months prior to Patterson's disappearance, three women were found dead under unclear circumstances in Lumberton. The bodies of Rhonda Jones and Kristin "Christina" Bennett were found fifty yards apart from each other on April 18, and the body of Megan Oxendine was found two city blocks away on June 3. All the dead women were found naked and in various stages of decay. All of them had struggled with drug addiction, as Patterson had, and the cause and circumstances of their deaths remain unclear.

Additional Details:

Authorities stated there were few similarities between Patterson's case and the other women's deaths, and they don't think her case is related to the others. At the time of her disappearance, Patterson was visiting her mother in Lumberton after a stint in a Florida drug rehabilitation program; she lived in Jacksonville, Florida and had last lived in Lumberton three years before. Her case remains unsolved. In a desperate attempt to locate Abby, her family promised a $5,000 reward for information that would lead to her location. This was quickly raised to $10,000 following a $5,000 donation from a nearby business. In spite of the fact that some tips were received but none of them resulted in any significant developments in the case, friends and family were optimistic that the promise of a reward would prompt someone with information about the case to come forward and speak with investigators.

Case Last Updated:

Oct 24, 2023