April 12, 2011
Following a break in the Dana McPeek disappearance, the Sun looks into another local missing-person case
www.santamariasun.com
<<One of Santa Barbara County’s most high-profile missing person cases is that of Victoria Cotton. On July 15, 2006, Cotton left her home in Goleta to go to the farmers market or French Festival in downtown Santa Barbara. Some people close to the case say she was last seen at the 7-Eleven in downtown Goleta.
Cotton was well known in her community. She moved to the area from Monterey in the 1970s to study physics at UC Santa Barbara. After graduating, she accepted a job at the Santa Barbara Research Center and continued working toward a master’s degree in electrical engineering.
Libby Patten, Cotton’s friend and officemate at Santa Barbara Research Center, said Cotton was a “very inclusive person who was upbeat and always had a smile on her face.”
“I was new to town, and she invited me to events and out on hikes,” Patten said. “She was a well-rounded person. ... She was a pilot. She had her own plane and her own home.”
Not long after they met, Patten recalled, Cotton left work one Friday saying she didn’t feel very well. Then she didn’t come in on Monday.
“It turned out she had a brain abscess, which is pretty much an infection of the brain,” Patten said.
Cotton was unable to receive timely treatment, and the infection ended up permanently damaging her short-term memory and impairing her judgement.
“A lot of people with that kind of condition might just stay at home, but she still always wanted to do things,” Patten said, adding that Cotton would sometimes forget to make sure she met her basic needs, like drinking water.
Friends and family aware of Cotton’s vulnerablities, including Patten and co-worker Steve Tighe, organized a search effort soon after her disappearance.
“Steve was very energetic and passionate about doing something, so he launched that website [members.cox.net/helpfindvickie], and we went walking where she used to walk. It’s one of those things where you’re hoping to see something, but you don’t really want to, but you want closure,” Patten said, adding that Cotton would often go walking for hours on her own.
Patten also noted that people close to Cotton expressed some frustrations to the Sheriff’s Department about the case not being taken seriously enough.
“There’d be times when she wouldn’t come home one night, and she’d show up the next day at a friend’s house,” she said. “I could see how that could have been the case at first, but after the third or fourth day, it was obvious [she was missing].”
Patten said she used to hope Cotton’s disappearance was a “memory issue” and that she was lost and didn’t have her ID with her. But if that was the case, Patten said, someone surely would have found Cotton by now.
“She made it for almost 20 years with her condition. It’s just heartbreaking. She was a great person,” Patten said. “Sometimes I just do these mental exercises where I see her getting on the bus, I see her getting off the bus and going into 7-Eleven. You think if you just keep imagining what she was doing, you can figure things out.”>>
