'Cold Case Cards' leads to victim ID in 1989 case

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Wabasha County Sheriff’s office announced Monday they have identified the skeletal remains of a missing person from a 1989 cold case.

The Ramsey County Medical Examiner has positively identified the remains as Deana Patnode, of Inver Grove Heights, who disappeared on Oct. 26, 1982.

Her remains were found seven years later in a wooded median of Hwy. 61 south of Kellogg. At the time, the remains were sent to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner who did not have enough evidence to make a positive identification.

The break in the case came from a tipster who recognized Patnode’s facial reconstruction photo from the Minnesota ‘Cold Case Playing Cards,’ an initiative developed by the BCA and the Department of Corrections in 2008 that aimed at raising awareness of unsolved crimes. The tipster said he thought the image posted on the BCA website looked similar to his neighbor who had disappeared in the 1980s when he was 10-years-old.

This is the first tip generated by the Minnesota Cold Case Playing Cards that has helped to solve a case.

After the email tip in November 2008, BCA agents located Patnode’s sister in Spencer, Iowa, and collected DNA from her. Agents analyzed the samples as mitochondrial DNA and linked the sister to the unidentified remains. BCA and Wabasha County investigators are now treating Patnode’s case as a homicide but the exact cause of her death remains unknown.

Wow! That is very interesting! It is sad, but is good that they have found her remains. It is amazing what they can do with technology these days. Hopefully this finding will be able to put the family to ease once and for all!

Atleast the family knows now.