Patrice Endres

Case background and investigation

Patrice Tamber Endres was a 38-year-old wife, mother, and small-business owner in Forsyth County, Georgia. She ran a busy salon called Tamber's Trim 'N Tan on Highway 369 in Cumming, where she was known for her warmth and work ethic. On the morning of April 15, 2004, she was working alone between appointments. Within a narrow window of roughly 13 minutes, sometime between about 11:37 and 11:50 a.m., Patrice vanished from the salon, leaving behind a scene that has puzzled investigators for more than two decades.

When a client arrived and found the salon empty, the details were immediately unsettling. Patrice's car was still in the lot, though it appeared to have been moved from where she normally parked. Her keys remained inside, her lunch sat out uneaten, and cash had been taken from the register or safe, yet there were no signs of a struggle or forced entry. It was as though she had stepped away mid-day and simply disappeared, prompting a massive search across Forsyth County and beyond.

For more than a year and a half there was no trace of her. Then, on December 6, 2005, her skeletal remains were discovered behind a church on Kelly Bridge Road in neighboring Dawson County, roughly ten miles from her salon. The discovery confirmed that Patrice had been killed, but it did not reveal how she died or who was responsible. Notably, her distinctive wedding ring, two 14-karat gold bands soldered together around a pear-shaped diamond, was never recovered, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has long hoped the ring might one day surface and help crack the case.

Over the years investigators examined several suspects. Patrice's husband, Rob Endres, drew scrutiny, as did two convicted serial killers, Jeremy Jones and Gary Hilton, both of whom were active in the region during that era. Jones at one point claimed involvement before recanting, and none of the suspects was ever charged in her death. Each promising lead ultimately fell short of the evidence needed to bring charges, and the case grew cold.

More than twenty years later, the murder of Patrice Endres remains unsolved. The case has been featured in Netflix's "Unsolved Mysteries" reboot and in numerous news retrospectives, keeping public attention on the mystery. The GBI continues to seek tips, particularly about the whereabouts of the missing wedding ring, which investigators believe could hold the key to identifying her killer. For her family, and for a community that watched a well-liked local businesswoman vanish in broad daylight, the questions of who took Patrice and why still have no answers.