KALAMAZOO, Mich.- It has been nearly three months since Teleka Patrick disappeared.
The young doctor was completing her medical residency at a Kalamazoo Hospital; what seemed like a life on track, suddenly derailed Dec. 5.
In the weeks that followed Patrick’s disappearance, new details about her life emerged, including search warrants just released, showing who was in contact with her right before her disappearance.
On Dec. 4, Teleka called a man named James Davis, a friend in St. Louis, Mo., who told detectives she was distraught.
Davis told police that Patrick asked him to come to Kalamazoo because she feared for her life, worried someone connected to gospel singer Marvin Sapp was after her.
Detectives say Sapp has cooperated with the investigation, calling the gospel singer an innocent victim of stalking.
Davis also believes Teleka was on her way to see him when she disappeared.
These new details are raising even more questions for detectives, private investigators and her family, now at the breaking point of frustration and heartbreak.
“It’s like a stale case right now, it’s like on the back burner, nothing is happening,” Teleka’s mother Irene Patrick said in a phone interview.
Her gold Lexus was found in a ditch off an Indiana highway, the last place investigators pin Teleka Patrick’s location. K-9 units tracked her scent back to the highway where police believe she got into another vehicle.
There are more questions than answers as the weeks turn to months.
There was surveillance video recorded just hours before her vehicle was found, attempting to get ahotel room just a few miles from her apartment.
There was also speculation she feared for her safety, leading to questions about her state of mind, something her ex-husband addressed in an interview with Inside Edition.
“In my relationship with Teleka , I’ve seen her in a delusionary state of mind, I’ve seen her experiencing the paranoia, delusions, telling me about voices, this is what she’s told me. So in that state of mind, anything is possible.” Ismael Calderon said.
Allegations of mental instability her mother vehemently denies.
“If I had, I would have sought care for her. I love that child why would I allow her to go down that path?” Irene said.
Police say Teleka told Western Michigan University she wanted to come from California to their medical school in Kalamazoo to be closer to her fiancé, though family and friends have no indications of who that could be.
When YouTube videos of Teleka, speaking to an unknown love interest surfaced, the object of her affection remained a mystery.
Then, in a strange twist a personal protection order surfaced from gospel singer Marvin Sapp, saying Teleka joined his church and that he has more than 400 pages of correspondence from her claiming he is her husband.
“He is not a suspect in her disappearance; the pastor is nothing more than an innocent victim of an apparent stalking,” Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller said at a January press conference.
We reached out to Marvin Sapp without any response.
And though the videos and the PPO give us an idea of what Teleka may have been thinking, it doesn’t bring us any closer to her.
“We have different, sides, different stories, the only person on the other side of the two sides is Teleka herself,” Irene said.
A search in an Indiana Lake not far from where her car was found turned up no sign of Teleka and a possible sighting at a Battle Creek Wal-Mart turned out to be a dead-end as well.
With the help of supporters, Patrick’s family is offering a $20,000 reward. If you have any information, call Silent Observer at 269-343-2100.
