VA VA - Patricia Eve Gaugler, 28, Hanover, 29 Sep 1980

[hey-Debbie]

HANOVER, Va. (WWBT) - The Hanover County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the community’s help in getting information about an unsolved homicide in the 1980s.

On Sept. 29, 1980, Patricia Eve Gaugler, 28, was found dead on a gravel trail off Greenwood Church Road. The area is now Wesley’s Court.

“She was last seen at the Ashland Sunoco gas station at East Patrick Henry Road near I-95 on September 29, 1980, around 3 p.m.,” deputies said.

Gaugler was traveling from Pottstown, Pennsylvania to live with her family in the Richmond area.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled her death as a homicide.

Anyone with information is asked to call Investigator Josiah Robertson at (804) 365-6396, the sheriff’s office at (804) 365-6140, or Crime Stoppers at (804) 780-1000.

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Deputies need help with cold case homicide from 1980

 

[hey-Debbie]

Interesting article here.

Patricia Eve Gaugler - Newspapers.com

 

[dotr]

Patricia Eve Gaugler (Photos courtesy of the Hanover Sheriff’s Offi
Jan 24 2022
Hanover cold case: Police seek new break in 80’s homicide | 8News

''Gaugler had been traveling from Pottstown, Pennsylvania to live with family in Richmond when she stopped at a Sunoco gas station on East Patrick Henry Road in Ashland. That was the last place she was seen alive, on Sept 29, 1980.

Gaugler’s body was discovered later that day on a gravel trail, and her death was ruled a homicide. She was 28 years old.

If you have any information related to Gaugler’s death, you can call Investigator Josiah Robertson at (804) 365-6396. Anonymous tips can also be left with Crimestoppers at (804) 780-1000''

 

[Beccalicious]

Bumping

 

[rob525]

This is odd. Ms. Gaugler was last seen alive at around 3 pm at a gas station in Ashland and was found in a wooded area 7 or so miles away that same day? I would guess that the forest fire was the result of someone burning her body? But, I do not see where the article states that for certain. seems like someone local to the area ( at first I thought that she may have been followed to the area by someone from back in Pa., perhaps the reason she was moving to Richmond with parents). However, I wonder what time the body was discovered and the time between discovery and death? Did the guy have time to drive around and find a spot to dump or did he already know where the spot was?

 

[Oakie]

If you take the description of the spot literally (a mile west of the intersection of roads 666 and 657), it's in the woods, a good way from a road....the culprit would almost certainly have had ties to the area, possibly hunted there.

 

[rob525]

I agree. Although that is why I was wondering what the time lapse between last seen, death and discovery. There is a chance that the perpetrator drove around until he found a spot to dump the body and just happened to head off in that direction ( although not very likely).