Patrick Kelly case

[starmushrooms]

Does anyone remember this case? I watched it today and hoped for an update to see if a killer had been caught. Sadly, they are still trying to solve the case.

Basically, Patrick somehow ended up in Tiajuana, Mexico and as he ran across a busy street he was hit by a motorcycle and after several days in a coma he died. His family believes he was murdered.

What are your thoughts?

[Apostapler]

My impression of the Mexican authorities is they don't want to get involved, even though they should. The part that made me angry was when the official that was interviewed speculated that Patrick "could have given his ATM card and pin number to a friend". Yeah, right. That explains why, when Patrick is comatose in a hospital bed, the friend is going around using the ATM card instead of being with him. Baloney!

Can't find anything relevant on google right now.

[burbqueen]

Oh yeah, this case got my juices stirring! Why did he leave with no wallet or passport? why did he drive so far away and go to the atm machine? I think he maybe was suppose to meet someone? Its just so odd this case and I found hardly anything online. I swear UM is missing something.

[starmushrooms]

One angle I was looking at was the possibility he met someone and was kidnapped and forced into Mexico. With the drug wars happening on the boarder and people going missing it wouldn't surprise me.

I saw this segment again right after seeing a story on the missing family who's van was found on the Mexican boarder and it made me think.

[egswanso]

Originally Posted by starmushrooms

Does anyone remember this case? I watched it today and hoped for an update to see if a killer had been caught. Sadly, they are still trying to solve the case.

Basically, Patrick somehow ended up in Tiajuana, Mexico and as he ran across a busy street he was hit by a motorcycle and after several days in a coma he died. His family believes he was murdered.

What are your thoughts?

To me, the facts that it was the end of the semester, a Saturday morning, and that he brought his passport and ATM card, at least, suggest he and a friend went on a spur of the moment trip to Tijuana for some fun. Nothing unusual there.

I think it's a simple matter of him bumping into the wrong person(s), who did him harm.

What's frustrating about this theory, of course, is that the person he's with at the convenience store (presumably, in this theory, the friend he's going to Mexico with) is unidentified.

Sadly, I have no confidence at all in the Mexican "police" doing anything to solve this crime.

[burbqueen]

ok but he didnt bring his passport they were at home. his wallet too. am I not correct??? Who would take a trip to Mexico and not take any ID with him? After all these years some friend would have showed up or someone heard anything if this person was someone Patrick was familiar with.

[egswanso]

Originally Posted by burbqueen

ok but he didnt bring his passport they were at home. his wallet too. am I not correct??? Who would take a trip to Mexico and not take any ID with him? After all these years some friend would have showed up or someone heard anything if this person was someone Patrick was familiar with.

No, the segment clearly stated he had his passport with him. He left his wallet at home, but obviously brought his ATM card. This seems wholly consistent with a quick trip to a sketchy place; just the essentials.

You would think the person would have been identified by now; the convenience store video clearly shows Kelly and the unknown male were together, however, and there was absolutely no evidence Kelly was being held against his will. Perhaps the male is deceased or the nature of his relationship was one Kelly's other friends wouldn't have been familiar with (I'm not trying to blacken the man's character here, just presuming Kelly's friends and family didn't know him).

[nohwheregirl]

Not a lot of discussion about this case and it's very strange.

This other thread has information on Matthew Stuparyk, who was a suspect in the case. The info is dense, so I'll sum up the best I can:

I believe he was suspected to be the person with Patrick Kelly in the convenience store security footage. They had a mutual friend. He was a Canadian who at one point went to school at USC. He returned to Canada after developing paranoid schizophrenia.

He returned to the U.S. after learning through UM he was a suspect in the Kelly case (I have no idea why he would do this voluntarily). There were other charges pending against him (attempted rape, etc) from his time at USC, but I don't ever think he was charged in the murder of Patrick Kelly, and I don't think he ever could have been legally due to the fact that it's not clear that a crime occurred in the U.S. He was held in jail in L.A. for a few months, all charges were dropped he was released, and then returned to Canada. His family claimed that he was not in California at the time of the crimes.

A quick google search indicates that he may have passed away shortly upon returning to Canada. I'm not 100% sure this is him, but the ages match up. I can't find anything that confirms how he died or if he did, in fact, die.

The Stuparyk angle just adds a whole new level of weird to this story, and I'm wondering if there really is any chance that he was involved in Patrick's death. His family claims that he was in Canada at the time of the death being treated for mental illness, and from what it looks like, he may have been in Canada for years at that point.

I'm wondering how UM even got his name and who was investigating (the P.I. maybe?)? In the version I watched, he was not mentioned as a suspect.

AND YET, it doesn't seem clear that anyone in LE anywhere will do anything about this case. He was clearly with a companion. Who was it? How did he end up sprinting across a freeway? Why didn't the companion ever come forward?

[sdb4884]

This case made the Mexican authorities look very stupid and rightly so they botched this one.

[Nflguy33]

This segment really pissed me off when that DA from Mexico tried to explain why Kelly's ATM was used hours after his accident. They definitely weren't doing their job of investigating the case.

Could the GF from Tijuana be somehow involved in his death? Maybe a jealous ex-BF? Rowdy city boys who had the hots for the GF?

[Orange_Sody_84]

I dunno about the love triangle theory... perhaps someone was trying to steal his ATM card. tried to get him to pay for stuff at the store. the perp tells him to "play it cool" and plans on killing him after they leave the store. somehow Patrick gets away and in a panic sprints across the highway trying to flee from his assailant.

I dunno... I spend way too much time on these boards. :/

[ontarioboi]

didnt anyone ever kind of think that maybe patrick was gay?????? or atleast bisexual? Maybe he planned a date with this other man through a local ad and that is why nobody knows who he is???

its strange his debit card was used a few days after his death. I am sure he wasnt extored by some mexican gang for a 4 degit pin. Most likely, he was running from the other person who was running across the highway with him that day. Seems very strange indeed, but maybe patrick was hiding something himself...

[Orange_Sody_84]

Well that is a credible theory as well. I kind of got that feeling. but that was due to the Actor portraying Patrick more then everything. he had a girlfriend. but that of course doesn't mean anything. it's very insulting the Mexican authorties swept this one under the rug to say the least.

[thinwhiteduke74]

One of the better late-season cases.

[unsolved243]

I'm surprised that this case doesn't get more discussion. It's definitely one of the more bizarre cases profiled. There's so many unanswered questions in the case:
What was Patrick doing in Tijuana and why didn't he tell anyone that he was going there?
Why was his car covered in mud, with some damage to it and the license plate loose?
Why did it appear that someone else was in his car? (Seat pushed too far forward, Spanish radio station on, cigarette butt even though he didn't let anyone smoke in his car)
Why was the car taken out of the lot ten days after he was injured and five days after his death?
Who used his ATM cards the day after he was injured?
Why was the description of Patrick so incorrect in the initial reports? (So incorrect that he was misidentified)
Who was the unidentified person seen with Patrick?

I also found an article about the case which has some interesting details, including:
- The police gave three different accounts as to what happened: First, they said that he was on a motorcycle when they got hit by a car. Then, they said that he was run over by a car. Finally, they stuck with the story that he was running across the street and hit by a motorcycle.
- The police also acted quite suspiciously when they met with Doug Roth, the private investigator hired by Patrick's mother. A police supervisor apparently suggested that they would investigate the case more thoroughly if Roth gave him money. They also alleged (without evidence) that Patrick was involved in narcotics smuggling.
- Los Angeles Police looked at Patrick's car when he was still missing and found what appeared to be blood on it. However, they didn't investigate further when his body was found in Mexico.

There's definitely something more to the story than a simple traffic accident, but I'm not sure what it is. I think Doug Roth might be right when he said that Patrick and his unidentified friend ran into some unsavory characters in Mexico, were attacked and beaten and then escaped, only for Patrick to end up being struck and killed by a motorcycle.

I thought it was interesting that Amazon Prime did not include the fact that Patrick was seen on surveillance video in California with an unidentified man. I assume that's because Matthew Stuparyk was incorrectly identified as the man and arrested.