Mexico Mexico - Patrick Kelly, 22, Tijuana, 5 May 1996

[Archangel85]

Patrick Sean Kelly
Went missing from his apartment at USC and was located dead in Tijuana Mexico.
May, 5, 1996.

Patrick Kelly was a film student at the University of Southern California when he mysteriously died. No one knows what he was doing in Tijuana, Mexico, but on May 5, 1996, a motorcyclist ran down and accidentally killed him. His unclaimed body was later misidentified by accident or design, making it harder for his relatives to find him. His mother hired a private investigator, and they believe that he was abducted, taken to Mexico, beaten, and was killed by the motorcyclist while trying to escape from the attackers. The Mexican authorities have been less than helpful in solving his strange death.

Clues:


- His wallet was on his room's desk, his bags and clothes in the closet. His passport was nowhere to be found.

- At 10:24 Saturday morning, Patrick had made a $60.00 withdrawal at a 7-11 in San Clemente, 63 miles south of Los Angeles.

-Patrick’s mud-caked car was parked along the back fence of the Border. There was damage to the front right bumper and the rear license plate was loose.

-The driver’s seat was much closer to the steering wheel than would be consistent with someone who is 6’1” tall. The radio was turned to a Spanish American radio station.

-Partially smoked cigarette in the ashtray of the car. Patrick was not a smoker

-According to the parking lot records, somebody paid the $60 fee and drove the car off the lot four days after Patrick died.

- While Patrick lay dying in the hospital, someone used his ATM card in downtown Tijuana. They made three cash withdrawals.

My theory is that a friend of his probably forced him to leave the apartment and come to down to Mexico. He was probably beaten until he gave away his ATM number. There's no mention of which day, he was last seen. His close friend Michael Park last saw him at 3:45A.M when he left Patrick's apartment. He was found in Mexico on Sunday, may 5, 1996.

With all the advancements in technology, they should try to DNA test that partial smoked cigarette.

Sources:

LA Times

Unsolved Mysteries website

 

[Sonny Crockett]

This is another case that has it's 25th anniversary this year.

I do think PK went on an unplanned/impromptu trip to Mexico with a friend & didn't tell many/any other family or friends about this. After the CA convenience store footage - what happened to him is extremely nebulous. In the footage, he doesn't seem to be in any distress - so I suspect everything was OK then. Whether his problems started when he got to Mexico or before is still an open question.

It sounds like he may have been forced to either take money out of his ATM (which cleared his account) to give to someone who was robbing him...or, someone forced him to give out his ATM #, and then this criminal/criminals cleared out his account. I suspect that he may have legitimately gotten money out of his account in the U.S. for the trip, and then got robbed/kidnapped when he got to Mexico.

As far as the mysterious person/persons?! who was allegedly with PK when he went on the trip & that person's involvement in what happened - it's very unclear. They may have been an innocent bystander(s) who was just with him on the trip. I guess we'll never know. Very strange.

There was never any indication MP (PK's friend) knew anything about what happened to PK. As he said in the interview, it sounds like they just hung out the night before PK left CA...MP went home because it was getting late, and that was the last time he saw PK. This adds further credence to the idea that the Tijuana, Mexico trip was very unplanned/impromptu. I.e., I suspect that if PK were planning on going when he was hanging with MP, he may have mentioned it...but then again, maybe not.

Very sad to see the mother (Terri Kelly) being interviewed. The family that the deceased leave behind is one of the saddest elements to these crimes.