Patricia Magers and Patricia Smith:1992, Wichita, Kansas

   

Patricia Magers
Patricia Smith

  Patricia Magers and Patricia Smith were finishing up the day at a bridal and formal wear store called La Bride D’Elegance at 4613 East Kellogg in Wichita, Kansas. The shop was owned by 32 year old Patricia Magers and her husband Mark. They also owned the adjacent shop, Sir Knight Formalwear.


  It was Saturday April 11th, 1992 at 6 p.m. and the shop was already closed. The two had stayed later that day because a male customer was supposed to come by and pick up a cummerbund. It was prom season and wedding season, after all. They wanted to accommodate their customer. 


   A man approached the front door. One of the women likely assumed this had to be the customer they were expecting and opened the door. 


   Investigators theorized that he had assumed only one woman would be in the store. The presence of two women did not seem to change his mind about what he had come there to do. He robbed and shot Patricia Magers and Patricia Smith. 


   As he was leaving he came face to face with the customer who had just arrived to pick up his cummerbund. He ordered the man to the back of the store. The man refused and so the killer told him to leave. The customer, who had seen the gun, did leave quickly. He was so rattled by the encounter that he waited an hour before calling the police. He then described the killer and the gun. Despite an eyewitness statement; the killer was not apprehended. 


  Police in Wichita were following up on every lead but there were no big breaks in the case. 


   Later, two other murders in Indiana would be connected to this tragic double murder. 


   On April 8th, 1992, just three days before Patricia Smith and Patricia Magers were killed another young woman would lose her life in a retail store. Robin Fuldauer was the manager of a Payless Shoe Store on Indianapolis' east side. She was working alone when someone entered the store in the afternoon and robbed and shot her to death. 


  The Bridal Store in Wichita was hit next on April 11th, 1992.


  The killer then went east again and robbed a store called Sylvia's ceramics in Terre Haute, Indiana. This time the victim was a young man. Michael McCown was a musician who co-owned Sylvia's Ceramics with his Mom.  Michael played in a variety of rock bands in Terre Haute and he wore his hair very long. He was kneeling and stocking the lower shelves in the ceramics store. He may not even have glanced at the shopper who entered. Michael McCown was shot in the back of the head and the store was robbed. 


  I believe their killer is Harry Edward Greenwell.  






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