On a crisp morning in September 2006, veteran fisherman Roy Callahan worked his nets on Lake Michigan just as he had for nearly four decades. But this time, the weight he felt was different.
What emerged from the dark waters was no ordinary catch. Tangled among the lake trout was a police vest, heavy with water, faded by years below, but unmistakably law enforcement issue. The name stitched across the front was still legible: P. Hendrickx.
For Callahan, it was a disturbing find. For the family of Michigan State Trooper Patricia Hendrickx, it was the moment they had waited 19 long years for—confirmation that Patricia hadn’t simply vanished. She had been murdered.
The Night She Disappeared
October 12, 1987, started like any other patrol shift for 26-year-old Trooper Patricia Hendrickx. Just after 10 p.m., she radioed in a routine traffic stop on Highway 31, south of Traverse City. That was the last anyone heard from her.
Her patrol car was found less than two hours later, engine running, driver’s side door open. Her gun was still in its holster. The scene suggested something chilling: Patricia had been taken off the roadside, and she never returned.
But Sheriff William Morrison, the man in charge of the investigation, quickly concluded otherwise. With no body and no ransom demand, he claimed Patricia had likely “run off” to start a new life. To her family and colleagues, it was a theory that never fit.
The Fisherman’s Discovery
When Callahan pulled up Patricia’s vest in 2006, he knew immediately what he had stumbled upon. The vest bore two clear bullet holes in the back, suggesting Patricia had been shot from behind as she fled. Within hours, Michigan State Police Detective Susan Walsh was on the scene, photographing the evidence and sealing it in plastic.
The discovery confirmed what Patricia’s brother, Michael, had insisted for nearly two decades: she hadn’t abandoned her family or her career. She had been silenced.
A Brother’s Relentless Fight
For 19 years, Michael Hendrickx called police stations, hired private investigators, and kept his sister’s case alive. He combed through records, collected witness statements, and built his own timeline of her last days.
Patricia, it turned out, had been asking dangerous questions in the weeks before she vanished. While auditing an evidence locker, she found that kilograms of cocaine from a major drug bust were missing.
She reported the discrepancies, signed the documents, and prepared to escalate the matter to internal affairs.
Michael believed his sister had uncovered a drug theft operation involving people inside law enforcement itself. And the man who dismissed her disappearance as voluntary? Sheriff Morrison, who oversaw both her case and the very evidence she had been investigating.
A Flawed Investigation
Detective Walsh reviewed the original 1987 case file and was stunned. Key witnesses were never interviewed. Patricia’s partner, Trooper James Burton, who recalled her confiding her fears, was ignored.
A gas station attendant who saw her patrol car being followed was overlooked. Evidence of missing cocaine was brushed aside as “clerical errors.”
The more Walsh read, the clearer it became: Morrison’s investigation wasn’t just flawed—it may have been sabotaged.
Breaking the Silence
When confronted in 2006, Morrison, now retired, denied wrongdoing. He insisted Patricia had been mistaken, young, and inexperienced. He claimed the missing cocaine had simply been transferred elsewhere. But when pressed for documentation, his confidence faltered.
Meanwhile, Burton finally admitted what Patricia had told him days before her disappearance: Morrison had threatened her career if she exposed the missing evidence. Patricia had been terrified. She was planning to hand her findings to internal affairs, and she never got the chance.
The Hidden Evidence
The breakthrough came when Burton revealed Patricia’s backup plan. She had told him she was keeping copies of her findings in a safety deposit box at First National Bank in Traverse City.
Records confirmed the box had been opened by Patricia just days before she vanished—and never accessed again.
Detective Walsh quickly secured a court order to open it. Inside, they hoped to find the documents that could finally prove what Patricia had uncovered before she was killed.
A Promise Unfulfilled
For Patricia’s family, the discovery of her vest brought both pain and relief. It was proof of what they had always known: she hadn’t chosen to disappear. She had been murdered because she tried to do her job.
Her brother Michael summed it up best: “She swore an oath to serve and protect. Someone made sure she never got the chance.”
Justice Still Waiting
The reopening of Patricia’s case exposed serious questions about corruption, accountability, and the dangers faced by whistleblowers inside law enforcement. Nearly two decades of silence had protected those responsible. Now, the truth was finally clawing its way to the surface.
Patricia Hendrickx was more than a case file. She was a young woman dedicated to justice, betrayed by the very system she served. And thanks to a fisherman’s net, her story is no longer buried in the depths of Lake Michigan.
