“You see a lot of death,” said Randy Patrick of his years as a cop, yet the case of Carrie Singer stayed with him. The discovery of her body, which had been “just dumped like trash,” was a uniquely horrific discovery.
“We don’t have a lot of homicides in Isle of Wight County,” said Patrick of the county in southeast Virginia with a population under 37,000. Even for a much larger community, Singer’s death would have been traumatic. The 28-year-old’s skull was cracked from “eight or nine severe blows.” She was “naked from the waist down.” Then there were the buzzards. While she’d been “left in the woods less than 24 hours,” they had already devoured “any soft tissue” they could reach: “Buttocks, vagina, eyeballs, nostrils.”
It became even more nightmarish when, “about eight miles” away, another woman was found bludgeoned to death and nude from the waist down the same week.
That was back in 2004. Patrick continued to pursue the case over “thousands of hours,” conducting “hundreds and hundreds of interviews over the years.” He never lost hope, but admitted there were times “we thought we had exhausted everything.” (He noted they often had to prioritize more current crimes: “We had the normal caseload that continues to pile up. When you have a small investigative unit, you can’t just say, ‘We’re going to focus on this for 13 years and nothing else.’”)
Finally, it seemed like it was over. Not the investigation, but Patrick’s career: “I was pretty much at my retirement party when all of this sort of came together.”
That’s the point, said Patrick, when the Discovery Channel came knocking. The result is the upcoming series, Killing Fields: Murder Isle. The show’s co-executive producers are Tom Fontana (creator of the HBO series Oz) and Barry Levinson (winner of the Best Director Oscar for Rain Man).
Ahead of its January 4 premiere, Patrick shares some of his observations on the best tools for even the coldest cases, as well as challenges every investigator must confront:
Media Can Make a Difference. In general, it doesn’t hurt to “get the public’s attention.” Patrick believes that “a lot more crimes could be solved if people didn’t say, ‘I don’t want to be involved!’” The spotlight often brings to light new facts and persons of interest long after the initial investigation. Indeed, it may cause people to reconsider their silence when they realize there’s still interest in the case and, with the passage of time, whatever stopped them from speaking is no longer a concern. Yet this can also create complications because…
Time Can Take a Toll. Years after the initial interview, someone unexpectedly shares new information. The discovery is incredibly exciting for investigators eager to pursue “every little lead.” But the excitement needs to be tempered, because of the risk these aren’t new details—they’re old details recalled incorrectly. “People’s memories do fade,” Patrick said. Of course, there’s also been a very scientific advance.
The Thrill of Technology. Since he started working the case in 2006, Patrick said the ability to solve crimes through DNA “has been so enhanced—that’s going to be great for every agency.” (“Back in the day a fingerprint was crucial. Fingerprints are almost by the wayside now with DNA. It’s just been a wonderful thing.”) He noted that “evidence that was submitted back 13 years ago, it was resubmitted,” because we can learn so much more from it today. But it’s still worth remembering…
There’s No Substitute for Putting in the Man Hours. Patrick said the team started “from scratch,” creating the need for a lot of “old-fashioned police work.” This resulted in “re-interviewing everybody.” This work often leads to dead ends. (Indeed, almost worse than dead ends, as people who weren’t particularly helpful at the time of the crime may now no longer clearly remember what happened.) Yet it can also lead to remarkable results.
Talking the Talk. “I was taught the Reid technique of investigations,” Patrick said. (The Reid technique of interrogation is both celebrated and controversial: supporters say it effectively induces admissions of guilt, critics say it “works” so well that it can lead to false confessions.) Patrick is a big believer in “establishing a rapport even with someone guilty. I’ve made many arrests in my career where I gained their confidence, even though they committed a crime, and I got their confession. That’s a win for me. It’s exciting. That human element is still absolutely key in every criminal investigation.”
Patrick said that investigators are very human, even as they do a job that can test one’s faith in humanity. (One of his major motivations for solving the case is the relationship he developed with Singer’s mother over the 13 years of the investigation.) It’s worth remembering…
The Feelings Never Fade. The 60-year-old Patrick said this is the right moment to end his career: “It’s time for me to go.” His plans include “looking at property in the mountains,” getting back into fly fishing and traveling. When he looks back on his career, he’s at peace: “I did the best that I could do when I was in my job and I’m comfortable with that, solved or not. I gave it my all.”
Yet Patrick also said that, right up until the end, he felt the “emotion” of the job. That includes the highs of making a case and the lows of the profession as well. While working the Singer case during the show, they got a call to deal with what turned out to be a suicide: “It was a 17-year-old girl hanging from the ceiling fan in her bedroom. Was that emotional? Absolutely. Shit like that never gets mundane.”
Investigator Randy Patrick from “Killing Fields: Murder Isle.” (Courtesy of Discovery)This article was featured in the InsideHook newsletter. Sign up now.
