Son’s 24-year search for answers in mother’s unsolved St. Pete murder: “I think about her every day"
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - For 24 years, Shawn Gertsch has carried the same painful question: who killed his mother, Patricia Hodges?
"God, I think about her all the time. I think about her every day," Gertsch said.
The backstory:
Hodges was a 64-year-old mother of five and grandmother of nine when she was found dead inside her St. Petersburg apartment on April 18, 2002. Investigators say there were no signs of forced entry, no murder weapon was ever recovered, and despite years of investigative work, no one has ever been arrested.
Today, the case remains unsolved, but investigators say a renewed effort is underway to try to identify the person responsible.
A mother remembered
What they're saying:
Hodges was more than a homicide victim. She was the woman who raised five children, including four boys, largely on her own, and whose life revolved around her family.
"She was a beautiful woman… she was sweet. She didn’t have a mean bone in her body," Gertsch said.
Gertsch said his mom loved hearing stories about his travels around the world.
"Every time I backpacked around the world, she always loved to hear stories. I loved going over there and we’d have dinner, and I’d tell her stories about my travels," Gertsch said.
Hodges’ children and grandchildren, Gertsch says, were her world.
"That’s what drove her. That was her life force," Gertsch said.
Gertsch still talks about his mom with the kind of warmth that reveals just how much of her presence remains in his life.
"She was an angel in a way," Gertsch said.
The murder
Timeline:
On April 18, 2002, Hodges’ friend and neighbor, Vivian, became concerned when Hodges did not answer the door.
"I went back in an hour, and she still didn’t answer," Vivian said.
The two women had exchanged keys in case of an emergency, so Vivian let herself inside Patricia’s apartment.
"If I thought anything was wrong, I wouldn’t have gone in," Vivian said.
Inside, she found Hodges dead in the bedroom.
At the time, investigators said Hodges had been stabbed. Police now refer to the manner of death as "upper body trauma."
Gertsch says he got the devastating news from one of his brothers while he was at work.
"He called me at work, and he just said, ‘Rush home, Mom’s dead.’ That’s it. And I just lost it and ran out of the office," Gertsch said.
Outside the apartment, Hodges’ children gathered as police dusted for fingerprints and examined the scene.
Investigators say there were no signs of forced entry, leading the family to believe Hodges may have known the person who came to her door.
"My mom never opened the door for anybody, especially at night. If she didn’t know you… even when I knocked, she’d say, ‘Who’s me?’" Gertsch said.
Hodges had last been seen the night before. By 11 a.m. the next morning, she was dead.
A case that went cold
St. Pete police interviewed neighbors, residents and people close to Hodges in the days after the murder.
"They spoke to a number of different individuals… anybody that was close to her at the time they spoke to. They considered every available suspect at the time," Detective Wally Pavelski, who now works the case as a cold case detective, said.
But detectives never found the murder weapon.
And they never developed enough evidence to arrest anyone.
"It hasn’t led to a definitive suspect at this point, so that’s what we’re hoping to clarify," Pavelski said.
Over the years, the family says they received conflicting information that only deepened their frustration.
"They told us they’d probably have it solved by Thanksgiving," Gertsch said. "Twenty-four Thanksgivings have now come and gone."
A year after Hodges’ death, family members say they were told by investigators she had been sexually assaulted and that may have been the motive.
But Detective Pavelski says the autopsy did not show signs of sexual assault, and the motive remains unclear.
In 2003, the family also realized Hodges’ jewelry — including pieces she wore regularly that read "Number One Grandma" and "Number One Mom" — were missing.
Whether those items were ever tracked down remains unclear.
At one point in 2013, detectives publicly indicated they had a person of interest, but still lacked enough evidence for an arrest.
For Gertsch, hope began to fade.
A promise to keep fighting
Gertsch says his sister Sue had long been the one pushing for answers in their mother’s case.
Then, Sue died.
"That was one thing I told my sister on her deathbed, that I would pick it back up and start running with it," Gertsch said.
Gertsch has kept notebooks over the years, documenting questions, leads and thoughts about the case.
Gertsch feels like something had to have been missed in the initial investigation.
"There has to be something… I don’t know what they collected, but there has to be something," Gertsch said.
New investigation
Dig deeper:
Now, detectives say Hodges’ case is being re-examined with fresh eyes.
Pavelski says St. Pete police are working with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Pinellas County Forensics Laboratory experts to review evidence and determine what could benefit from additional testing.
"They did extensive lab work on this case… the last time they did lab work was in 2017," Pavelski said.
Investigators hope newer forensic techniques could help generate stronger evidence.
"Hopefully we’ll get stronger profiles — or actually a profile that we can look at to identify as a suspect," Pavelski said.
Pavelski also believes someone may still be holding key information.
"Especially in a busy area like that… you would think somebody would have seen something or they know something. I think now is the time to tell us if you know."
After two decades, some witnesses have died. Some of Hodges’ own family members have died without answers.
But investigators hope time may also change the mind of someone who has stayed silent.
"Help us get closure for Shawn, for the rest of the family… give them answers to what happened," Pavelski said.
Still waiting for justice
For Gertsch, the goal has always been the same: justice for his mother.
Gertsch believes someone, somewhere, knows what happened.
"The [killer] had to say something to somebody at some point in the last 24 years," Gertsch said. "I’m just hoping that person, if they see this, says something."
And after all this time, his plea is simple.
"Have some compassion for us," Gertsch said.
Gertsch keeps Hodges’ memory alive by sharing stories about her with his daughter, the only grandchild Hodges never got to meet.
"She wasn’t around for a lot of my accomplishments… and I owe everything to her," Gertsch said.
For a son who has spent nearly a quarter-century searching for answers, the grief has never gone away.
Neither has the hope that one day, someone will finally speak.
The Source: Information for this report was gathered from an interview with Shawn Gertsch, Patricia Hodges’ son, an interview with Detective Wally Pavelski from the St. Petersburg Police Cold Case Unit, St. Petersburg police case records and previous FOX 13 News reporting on the Patricia Hodges homicide investigation.