Murder of Patricia Ann Veach

8-year-old Patricia Ann Veach was described as a bubbly, playful and cheerful child. Her brother claimed there weren't many pictures of her not making funny faces at the camera. She was 19 days away from her 9th birthday on July 10th, 1969.

Her older brother stayed the night at his grandparents and the rest of the family stayed at their home in Des Moines, Iowa. Around midnight Patricia gave her parents good night kisses and headed to bed.   At 2 A.M. Her mother and father went to sleep and checked up on her. She seemed to have been peacefully sleeping. There were no unusual noises and the dog, who was in the basement, didn't bark.

Unfortunately around 7:15 A.M. Mr. Veach went to check up on her after seeing the screen door had been slashed. Patricia was dead only wearing her p.j. top and laying on her back on her bed. Her and her bed had blood on it. She had been raped and either smothered or strangled to death with a pillow, hand or towel. It was estimated that she had died between 3 and 4 A.M.

There was nothing taken from the house meaning that the perpetrators main objective was to attack Patricia that night. The person who committed this crime is still unknown.



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Sources:
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16901599/patricia_ann_veach_murder/
http://iowacoldcases.org/case-summaries/patricia-veach/
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16901714/patricia_ann_veach_murder/
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16901616/patricia_ann_veach_murder/