Daughter finds missing Houston mom after 50 years
FOX 26’s Damali Keith met with Cynthia Wardell in Northeast Houston, where the family received bittersweet news. Her mother is deceased but was given the name of the cemetery where her mother is buried.
HOUSTON – A Houston woman who’s been searching for her missing mother for more than 50 years is finally getting answers.
Patricia Thomas-Wardell was just 18 when she disappeared in 1970. Back then, the Beltway 8 Toll Road didn’t exist. Their daughter Cynthia was just one year old and she has been looking for her mother all her life. Now DNA confirms a woman found dead in the woods near what is now the Beltway is Cynthia’s missing mother.
“It was like a bad nightmare,” says the grieving daughter.
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With no real memories of her mother, Cynthia clings to photos of her mother, keeps old newspaper clippings about her disappearance, and holds onto stacks of letters like the one she showed me from Unsolved Mysteries after years of begging for help to find her mother, to anyone who would listen.
“Growing up, I got to hire private investigators and things like that,” Cynthia explained. “My family was scammed by people who contacted us saying they had information on where my mother is and they demanded money.”
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Several family members gave Houston Police Department investigators DNA samples in 2016 in hopes of locating Patricia.
“We’re able to solve more missing person cases using DNA, family DNA.” Houston Police Department missing persons detective Darrin Buse explains
Last Friday, Detective Buse told Family DNA that for years Patricia had been buried just minutes from where she lived in a county cemetery as a Jane Doe.
“It is difficult to understand. It’s hard to find your bearings after all these years. She was so close the whole time,” said her brother Raymond Thomas, 82, who was a TSU student when his little sister disappeared. “It was very, very difficult.”
“It’s been a lot of nightmares, you know, wondering where she is,” added Patricia’s sister, Maxine McNeely, 75. “It was just awful.”
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“Even if it’s a bad result, it’s still a good result,” concluded 72-year-old Leroy Thomas. “Now we know for sure where she is.”
After more than 50 years, although it’s her grave they visit, Patricia’s siblings and baby girl have been the closest to her in decades, but they were struck by a locked gate at the cemetery entrance.
“I’m just about ready to go in,” Cynthia said. “The castle is like torture for me.”
When Harris County found out about this, they immediately sent someone to let the family in. The key to open the padlock would not turn and the gates could not be opened quickly enough.
“I’m glad to know she’s here,” Cynthia said. “I can’t wait to just be next to her.”
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There, at her mother’s grave, 52 years of emotion erupted for the first time.
“And now maybe I can be really and truly happy and that’s what I’m trying to achieve because I’m so messed up right now,” Cynthia said tearfully.
It turns out that after Patricia disappeared in 1970, her skeletal remains were found in the woods near the CE King Parkway in January 1971. Somehow, until now, a missing person hasn’t been put together to be the missing 18-year-old investigator, who’s had his fair share of cold cases and new ones.
“We work over 9,000 cases a year,” Det. Busse explained.
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So how did she disappear? Cynthia says her father was questioned by the police but was never charged but is determined to find out.
“The person who took my mother away from me ruined my whole life,” she said. “I want my mom to know that I’m going to find out who did this to her and they’re going to pay for it.”
Meanwhile, the family thanks for the gift of finally knowing.
“It means the world to me,” Cynthia concluded.
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The Harris County Sheriff’s Office is now investigating the murder of Patricia Thomas-Wardell in hopes of bringing her killer to justice after all these years. The family and Det. Buse hope this story will encourage others who are missing loved ones.
“Families can come out and talk to detectives and other families of missing people about their cases,” he explained. “If you haven’t already reported your missing person, you can create a case right there. We can collect DNA. That will be really helpful.”
If you have someone who is missing, the detective would also like to inform you that May 14, 2022 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Children’s Assessment Center at 2500 Bolsover in Houston is Missing in Harris County Day .
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