Patrick Merrill was last seen in downtown Plymouth about 7:30 pm on April 6, 1987 in a green Mercury Comet with VT plates. At the time, he was a freshman student at the college.

According to police investigations, Patrick met an acquaintance the evening of April 6, with between $6,000 and $13,000 he and his friends had pooled together to purchase 10 pounds of marijuana. An informant told police, the man never intended to sell Patrick the drugs, but stole the money, murdered Patrick, dismembered his body, and buried him in a remote bog in Proctor, Vermont pond. The informant told police that days after Patrick's disappearance, the man showed him a plastic bottle with palm and feet skin. Foul play is suspected in his disappearance, but the acquaintance has yet to be charged. (Information retrieved from TheDoeNetwork.org)