Unsolved Murder Going On 20th Year

Friday is the 20th anniversary of the murder of a young Tulsa woman, Patricia Elskins.  News On 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright reports her murder has never been solved.

Patricia Elskins murder devastated so many people.  Her mother spent the first 10 years, searching for the murderer, planning to find them and kill them herself.  She no longer has murder in her heart, but does still desperately want the case solved.

Patricia Elskins was a small town Arkansas girl who moved to the city of Tulsa.  She bounced around with a smile on her face and worked at a shoe store at Woodland Hills Mall at day and went to TU at night, studying childcare.

On April 11th, 1988, she was viciously, brutally murdered.

"I hunted this person for 10 years to kill em. I was ready for em. Now, since I got past that 10 years, in such a deep, dark tunnel, just a deep, dark tunnel. I didn't know anything that was going on around me, didn't know anything," said Jimmie Elskins, Patricia's mother.

Patricia had spent the night at a friend's and arrived home around 7:30 a.m.  She'd changed clothes for work, when the killer attacked.

The crime scene photos show there was a violent struggle, a plant knocked over, a table overturned.  Fight as she did, Patricia couldn't overcome the dozens of stab wounds.

Jimmie knows what she'd tell that killer.

"Just look at them and tell them, you have no idea of the lives you have destroyed, not only my life, destroyed my marriage of 35 years, everything. I'm alone, I have no child. She was my life, my life," said Jimmie Elskins.

Police believe the killer was a woman.  They received an anonymous letter from someone who claimed to know about the murder, but was too afraid to talk to them in person.  They hope that person is now willing to come forward.

While Jimmie has now forgiven Patricia's killer, she still wants them captured.

"It's going to e done if it takes every dime I've got, takes everything in my body, I'm going to do it, so that person better be looking out, I'm on 'em," said Jimmie Elskins.

Detectives are still working the case and hope with the passage of two decades, someone is now willing to give them the information they need to make an arrest.

If you have any information, you can call Crimestoppers anonymously at 596-COPS.

To find out about other Tulsa Cold Cases, click here.

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