Patrick Wayne Mello

• Missing Since 07/28/1995
• Missing From Needles, California
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Male
• Race White
• Date of Birth 08/05/1981 (43)
• Age 13 years old
• Height and Weight 4'6, 100 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, brown eyes. Patrick has a scar under his chin. He has facial dimples and a small indentation below the outer edge of his right eye.

Details of Disappearance

Patrick was last seen at his Needles, California residence on July 28, 1995. Authorities stated he had been sighted in Laughlin, Nevada after his disappearance. They initially believed he had run away with other juvenile males.

Several days after his disappearance, the police found a duffel bag behind a casino in Mohave Valley, Arizona. They initially thought it was Patrick's, but the bag turned out to belong to Patrick's younger brother; he had left it there before Patrick disappeared.

Patrick was living with Jimmy Joe Cox at the time of his disappearance. In 2012, Cox was convicted of the 1982 murder of a young woman and sentenced to fifteen years to life in prison. His victim, Carole Spearman, had lived with him in Needles at the time of her disappearance. Her severed head and one hand were found in the Colorado River several weeks after she was last seen.

It isn't clear whether Cox is a suspect in Patrick's disappearance, but police now consider Patrick to be missing under suspicious circumstances. His case remains unsolved.