She Was Murdered After Someone Tried To Buy Her Waterbed, And Her Husband Knew Something Was Wrong When She Didn’t Come Home On Time
Patricia Anne Jauron of Sioux City, Iowa, tied the knot with her husband, Gene Jauron, in 1972, and together, they had two sons.
She was briefly employed by the USDA before she began working at Sergeant Bluff Middle School, first as a librarian and later as a secretary.
From 1995 until 1997, Patricia was also on the Sergeant Bluff School Board. Then, Patricia and Gene, who’d been married for 25 years, both retired and intended to spend their post-career years traveling.
But tragically, that didn’t happen. Instead, she was brutally murdered outside her old home on May 26, 1998, at the age of 45.
At the time, Patricia and Gene had moved out of their previous residence, located at 1516 Old Highway 141, six months earlier and into a new house just across the road, 1541 Old Highway 141.
They’d reportedly inherited the new house from an elderly neighbor, so the couple was trying to sell the remaining items from their former place.
They’d held a recent yard sale, too, and someone who attended it supposedly called Patricia and Gene numerous times following the sale. The individual wanted to buy their waterbed and set up a meeting for the purchase.
So, Patricia agreed to meet with the person at her old home and arrived at the property at their designated appointment time. Gene claimed she was “supposed to be gone only for a few moments.”
After she didn’t return home in a timely matter, Gene reportedly became worried and visited the property to check on her. There, he allegedly discovered the waterbed in the basement, which was drenched with blood. Patricia had been stabbed to death, and her body was reportedly in the yard.
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It’s unclear what kind of knife was used, how many stab wounds she suffered, and whether the murder weapon was ever recovered.
During a 2005 interview, Gene recalled what he said happened, referring to the killer as “he.”
“He’d hit her on the head, knocked her down, and tied her up. She still had the twine on her one arm, but she got loose. He started stabbing. She got out the basement door, and she got out into the yard, and he must have stabbed all the way out,” Gene detailed.
When Gene got there, he reportedly found Patricia’s body over an embankment. According to him, the killer had stabbed his wife so forcefully that “the knife’s blade had broken off in [her] chest.”
He contacted the police at 10:52 a.m., and a medical examiner later determined that Patricia had been murdered not long after 9:00 a.m.
As authorities launched an investigation, Gene thought he’d previously met his wife’s killer at the yard sale they’d hosted. The same man reportedly bought and paid for a dresser during the yard sale yet never returned to pick it up.
Rather, the man, who claimed to have worked at a local packing plant, placed the phone calls about the waterbed. Gene stated that those calls were traced back to a pay phone at a nearby convenience store.
Additionally, since Gene lived just across the highway from his old home, he allegedly spotted a red car in the driveway on the morning his wife was murdered and believed the vehicle belonged to her killer.
“Somebody around here knows. He would have had to have been the most horrible, bloody mess you had ever seen in your life. All I can do is hope they get him,” Gene said.
In the wake of Patricia’s slaying, the police noted that the crime was “personal in nature.” By June 4, 1998, some anonymous local residents, including a business and a couple, as well as Pioneer Bank and Crime Stoppers, started a $7,000 reward fund for information that led to the arrest and conviction of Patricia’s murderer.
The police continued searching for the red car Gene had spotted, to no avail. Months later, in August, investigators also conducted a case review in hopes of figuring out new ways to solve it. By October 29, there were still no further developments, and the case was presented to a criminal investigative analyst with the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC).
The NCAVC began developing a profile of the killer, but what came of their efforts is unclear. Gene ultimately passed away on January 12, 2012, and he never learned who murdered his wife.
He’d previously spoken about Patricia’s character and temperament, saying, “She was the life of the party… never see her grumpy… always willing to help everybody.”
Today, her case has remained unsolved for over 26 years, and Gene believed someone in their local area knew what happened.
Anyone with information regarding Patricia’s case is urged to contact the Woodbury County Sheriff’s Office at (712) 279-6010.
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