On April 2011, Patrick Carnes, 86, left his home in Reno with his dog Lucky for a trip to visit family in Ohio. On April 12, after his visit he headed back home with Lucky in his dark green Subaru station wagon.
The following day, on April 13, a highway patrolman saw Patrick’s car pass by too close to him as he was standing by a tractor trailer he had pulled over for a traffic stop.
The police officer caught up with Patrick and pulled him over in the town of Wells, Nevada and gave him a traffic warning. Patrick continued driving westbound I-80 and sometime between then and the following day, Patrick and Lucky disappeared.
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On April 14, Patrick’s car was found abandoned near some sage brush in rural Winnemucca at the Pumpernickel Valley off-ramp in Humboldt County. That was about a three hour drive from where the highway patrolman pulled Patrick over. There were signs of no foul play and the car had gas.
Undersheriff Kull tells KLAS News it was unusual that Carnes’ vehicle was on the south side of the highway, since Carnes was traveling west. If he had pulled over, it would have been on the north side. Also, unusual was the position of the car. To Kull, it looked as if the car had been dumped.
Authorities searched the Nevada desert for Lucky and Patrick for several days, but there was no sign of either of them.
Then the patrolman that pulled Patrick over in Wells heard about his disappearance and decided to check his video camera in his patrol car. On the video he heard Patrick say, “‘I’m only following him because he’s going to Elko,’ and the ‘him’ we figure is the truck that he is directly behind,'” Kull tells KLAS News.
Also, in the video, a tractor trailer can be seen speeding by in the left lane followed by Patrick’s car before he was pulled over. It raises the question if that was the car that Patrick was following to Elko? Authorities said there is also a clue in the video as in the upper left hand corner of the trucks rear door there is a logo, that so far no one has been able to recognize.
Law enforcement was hoping that someone out there, possible a trucker might be able to recognize what that logo is on the truck in the video or maybe remembering seeing Patrick that night driving on I-80 between Wells and Winnemucca.
They released a request and Truckers responded in a big way offering ideas about the logo and truck on the dashboard camera, but so far it has not led to any new information.
Police are hoping that on the anniversary of Carnes disappearance that truckers or anyone from the general public might remember something and will come forward with new information.
Two years before Patrick’s disappearance, the FBI created a task force to look at the possibility of a serial killer working as a truck driver, because of the many disappearance and slayings around the I-80 area.
One case that stands out is Judy Casida, 62, from Reno who went missing in 2006. Her case is similar to Carnes case as Casida’s car was also found abandoned at the same off-ramp, reports RGJ News.
Carnes has blue eyes, stands 5’ 11″ and weighs 180 pounds. Carnes is balding and was wearing a Toledo Mud Hens baseball cap at the time of his disappearance. He is fair-skinned and always wears his glasses.
A reward is being offered for any information about Carnes’s disappearance.
If you have any information on this case, please call the Humbolt County Sheriff’s Office at 775-623-6419 or the Secret Witness at 775-322-4900.
