KALAMAZOO, Mich. – It was a four-month, multi-state search that captured national attention and ended tragically with the discovery of Dr. Teleka Patrick’s body.
Now, nine months later the case file has been released revealing new details surrounding her disappearance and death.
Patrick was last seen Dec. 5 in Kalamazoo where she was resident at Western Michigan University’s School of Medicine. Her gold Lexus was found a few hours later on the side of the road in Northern Indiana, her body in a nearby lake.
According to newly obtained police documents the night Patrick disappeared she asked a fellow resident at Borgess Medical Center for $100 and a ride downtown to the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Kalamazoo.
The resident told police Patrick’s voice was high-pitched as her eyes rapidly blinked. He says she told him she planned to meet a man at the Radisson, telling him not to attend the morning prayer group at Borgess and asking him if he believed in demons.
He said Patrick was acting strange and seemed confused.
After unsuccessfully getting a hotel room, a hotel shuttle driver gave Patrick a ride back to Borgess asking him to “not tell anyone we did this.”
The shuttle driver watched Patrick run into the Borgess parking lot and saw a car leave the lot moments later.
The police report sheds new light on Patrick’s life showing that strange occurrences like this weren’t uncommon.
Seven months before she came to Kalamazoo to attend WMU’s Medical School, while she was still living in Loma Linda, Calif., Patrick began contacting pastor and gospel singer Marvin Sapp in Grand Rapids.
She told staff at WMU she wanted to come to their school of medicine for her fiancé in Grand Rapids.
The report shows questions of Patrick’s mental state began as soon as she arrived in Kalamazoo, noting an incident on July 10 where she frantically flagged down a Kalamazoo Public Safety Officer, telling him someone was after her.
That prompted the officer to call the school because he felt she had mental issues. The school had Patrick drug tested after the incident, which came back clean.
Police interviewed Marvin Sapp Dec. 9 after learning he had a person protection order against Patrick.
Sapp gave police a thumb drive that contained 490 pages of correspondence from Patrick, none of which he ever responded to.
When police searched Patrick’s phone they found strange messages including an exchange where she says a large animal struck her car and that she believed Marvin Sapp possessed that animal causing it to attack her car.
While interviewing Patrick’s brother Matthias, he told police no one in their family knew Patrick in-depth and that she had told him Sapp was going to be her husband.
An interview with Patrick’s mother Irene turned up similar information; however she made it clear she thought Sapp had something to do with her daughter’s disappearance.
Patrick’s sister Tenesha told police she didn’t believe her sister's stories about her fiancé Marvin Sapp and wouldn’t believe things she said unless she saw it for herself.
The documents reveal more about the time Patrick’s body was found on April 6, four months after her disappearance.
Police say a receipt from a collision shop was found in her car which Patrick had signed, saying her car was unsafe to drive and had a nail in the tire.
When Patrick’s body was pulled from the Indiana Lake not far from where her gold Lexus was found, the key was still in her pocket.
Police say there were no signs of foul play, ruling Patrick’s death an accidental drowning.
The Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Department concluded Patrick left on her own free will, requesting the missing person’s case be closed.
Indiana State Police are handling Patrick’s death investigation; they’re awaiting toxicology reports before closing that case as well.
