'Everybody knew he was bad news'

The correspondence was from fiancee Lynn Patten's ex-husband, Carl Lewis Patten. He'd been released from prison, the letter said, and he wanted to reconnect with her.

Harper said he reluctantly passed the letter on. In the six months that followed, his world was torn apart.

Lynn Patten, a bright-eyed brunette whose full name was Diana Lynn Patten, was found by her 11-year-old son strangled in her home at 6 Lexington Road on Aug. 26, her 47th birthday.

Carl Patten, 49, the sole suspect in the case, died in a fiery car crash in Prince George's County just 15 minutes later.

Lynn Patten's violent death plays out like a rerun of the 1988 slaying of Nancy A. Holloway, a corrections officer at the Prince George's County Correctional Center whom Carl Patten was convicted of killing.

Carl Patten met Holloway while he was behind bars for a probation violation stemming from a child abuse charge in the mid-1980s. Upon his release, the corrections officer and ex-inmate shared an apartment in Suitland in Prince George's County.

On April 23, 1988, Carl Patten, then a 27-year-old concrete finisher, and Holloway, 40, became involved in a domestic dispute in their apartment on Sycamore Lane, according to news reports.

Prince George's County police said Holloway was killed by a blow and strangulation. Her body was found inside the couple's two-bedroom apartment four days later after she failed to appear for work at the jail.

Police saw Carl Patten driving Holloway's car in Bowie and arrested him that night, about 14 hours after Holloway's body was discovered.

He was convicted of the murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison. His sentence began in spring 1988, said Mark A. Vernarelli, a spokesman for the state's Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

2nd jail romance

Carl Patten had served about a third of the murder sentence when he was introduced to Diana Lynn Brown, who later would drop her maiden name and take Patten's. She was then a 30-something dental hygienist and single mother, contracted by the Jessup prison to care for inmates' teeth.

The two hit it off and the courting began, said her daughter, Krystal Phillips, 21.

Carl Patten wrote Lynn a letter from prison. She eventually wrote back and began visiting her former patient in prison on a regular basis.

They married while Carl Patten was still behind bars. At the time, Phillips was 5 years old.

The couple kept their "long-distance" relationship alive for a few years. But court records show they filed for divorce in 1998, the same year Lynn Patten gave birth to her now 11-year-old son, fathered by another man.

The case was dismissed, as was another divorce filing in 2001. Divorce was filed again - and granted - in 2002.

About three years later, Lynn Patten met Harper on an Internet dating website. The two began communicating via their computers and had their first date a day after Valentine's Day 2005.

Harper was hooked.

"Lynn was a wonderful woman. She enjoyed butterflies and was afraid of them at the same time," he said with an emotional laugh. "She was my partner, my best friend. She took care of the three of us and she gave me strength. We just fed off each other."

He said Lynn Patten was a Thursday-night regular at Cancun Cantina in Hanover, where she loved to line dance to country music. She also loved to go horseback riding.

Harper proposed to her on Christmas Day 2009.

"She had a great smile," Harper said. "I couldn't wait to share my life with her."

The letter

Lynn Patten was at work when a letter arrived in early March at her modest brick home with green shutters at 6 Lexington Road in Harmans, a community sandwiched between BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport and Arundel Mills mall.

It was written by Carl Patten.

"My gut told me to throw it away, but I trusted her," Harper said. "We were always open and honest with each other. I called her at work and told her about it. I tried not to give it a second thought."

A month later, Lynn Patten told Harper she wanted to break up.

"She told me that we were drifting," Harper said. "It didn't seem like her."

Harper spent the next month trying to change her mind. He moved out of the home the day before Mother's Day.

Carl Patten moved in soon after, and Harper and Lynn Patten's relationship drifted further.

"He (Patten) was a very jealous person," Harper said. "He considered me a threat and she told me that. He didn't want her to have any contact with me, but we would text periodically."

Harper recalled a lengthy text messaging session on Aug. 18.

He asked Lynn Patten if she had any plans for her birthday and offered to take her out.

She responded, "You never know. Life is unpredictable," Harper said.

On Aug. 25 she text messaged Harper again, asking if his offer for a birthday dinner was still open.

Harper planned to take Lynn Patten, her daughter and son out to celebrate. He hoped this would be the beginning of a new chapter in their lives.

"She said she was breaking up with him (Carl Patten)," Harper said. "I did view it as a first step to us becoming a family again."

But Lynn Patten suddenly canceled their plans.

She was found dead around 7:50 a.m. the next day.

Her son told detectives his mother and Carl Patten got into a heated argument around 6 p.m. the day before, according to court documents.

The son said during the fight, Carl Patten forcefully grabbed his right arm and pulled him into his bedroom. Carl Patten also put his hands over the boy's mouth during the attack, the boy said.

Harper is not sure what sparked the dispute, but assumes Lynn Patten was trying to end the relationship with her ex-husband.

Lynn Patten's son told Harper and his family that he heard Carl Patten leave the house around 11 p.m. that night. The family believes Lynn Patten was killed just before he left, and they listed Aug. 25 as the date of death in her obituary.

County police have not disclosed a motive in the killing or the exact time and date of Lynn Patten's death. Her death was the fifth homicide in the county since July 1.

About 15 minutes after Patten's body was found, Carl Patten crashed a silver Acura into a barrier wall on Martin Luther King Highway in Prince George's County. The vehicle was registered to Lynn Patten. Prince George's police arrived at the Pattens' home around noon to notify next of kin of Carl Patten's death, and discovered the residence had been roped off with crime scene tape.

Carl Patten's family could not be located for comment.

'Spider webs'

Phillips said her family has no doubt that Carl Patten was responsible.

"We knew. We just knew," she said.

She said in the months before the slaying, her mother had drifted from those who were closest to her.

"We were very close before Carl came back," Phillips said. "Everybody knew he was bad news. But she was defending him. She just kind of backed away from us."

Harper said Lynn Patten always insisted her ex-husband had changed from the young man he was when he strangled Holloway. She boasted of his oil paintings, which she proudly displayed on her Facebook page.

"I was very adamant that he had not changed," Harper said. "He spent 20 years in a concrete jungle. You don't change from that. It makes you harder."

Harper and Phillips are furious that Carl Patten was released from prison in the first place. Vernarelli, the correctional services spokesman, said Carl Patten served 20 years of his 30-year sentence and was put on probation for 10 years following his release - "which is typical," he said.

"The fact that they let him out (and) that they bought whatever he was selling, I'm not too happy about that," Harper said. "They let him out and it ruined our lives. It's just spider webs from there of all the people she knew. He took a wonderful woman and just shattered a lot of lives.

"I'm left mourning the passing of my future. We were supposed to spend the rest of our lives together. She was a wonderful woman, a wonderful mother, and no doubt that she would have been a wonderful wife for me."

---

hrawlyk@capitalgazette.com

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shaking my head - 2010-09-12 05:16:16

words can not exspress how i feel........the worst part of it? he was my dad who i just met 2yrs ago...........what a hell of a memory..........to diana's family im so sorry this has happend to you........may god be with each and every 1 of you..take care of yourselves

unhide Comment hidden due to low ranking. Why is this comment hidden?

latosha patten - not sure, md - Karma: Neutral

Why - 2010-09-08 16:20:20

Why did this guy ever get out of jail, why did this woman hook up with him......why did she let him back into her life....why didn't she have a gun to blow him away when he showed up at her house.

uncle sharkey - Annapolis, MD - Karma: Good

WOW Reynold - 2010-09-08 11:37:33

Are you campaigning? LOL....

I have very little faith in our justice system, it seems every new batch we "vote in" seems to disappoint me more than the last batch. I'm starting to wonder if the judges get some sort of incentive for keeping these people out of the jails or something. They are terribly reluctant to put them in their place for the length of time that the law dictates. They just "pretend" they did by suspending most or all of their sentence. Just making it look good. This guy should have never been released for strangling his ex in the first place. Now two children have lost their mother, a man has lost his true love and a community has lost their friend.
Thanks so much Justice System, you've been a REAL asset to our government. What a joke!

Ronda Gray - Edgewater, MD - Karma: Excellent

Rhonda - 2010-09-08 10:00:31

You are right Rhonda of edgewater. That is why we need to vote a Republican into the Circuit court--to get tough on crime. Vote for Asti!

reynold cavern - Annapolis, md - Karma: Terrible

Lynn - 2010-09-08 09:31:31

I so wholeheartedly agree! Seems the justice system has been letting ALOT of people down lately. You don't even want to get me started. Let's round 'em up and get 'em outta there. There doing us no good anyway.

Beyond comprehension - 2010-09-07 12:47:09

How can anyone convicted of killing a person be allowed to smell fresh air. People like this should spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

Anthony Forrest - crownsville, MD - Karma: Excellent

Another fine example... - 2010-09-05 18:39:40

of our criminal "justice" system at work. As far as I'm concerned, Patten should have never gotten out of jail the first time around. But of course he did, and he was able to kill again. Time and again we are shown that people like this simply cannot magically change or be rehabilitated. My heart goes out to Lynn's family, especially her son who had to bear witness to this terrible tragedy.

Lynn Hughes - Severna Park, MD - Karma: Neutral

Reminder - 2010-09-05 18:12:14

Hopefully the rain will wash away any reminder of him. At least on the road. Lynn was a friend of mine and I will never forget her.

Susan Redmond - , - Karma: Neutral

Too much - 2010-09-05 12:44:30

My sympathies to Ms. Brown's family and friends.

Unfortunately this cowardly, piece of garbage, left a stain on the road.

harry trampolini - severna park, MD - Karma: Excellent

After reading this... - 2010-09-05 09:40:27

...I feel like I just watched an episode of Jerry Springer.
How frustrating for the family to have watched a slow motion train wreck all these years. Her son is the ultimate victim here.

Tyler Johnson - Annapolis, MD - Karma: Excellent

Typical - 2010-09-05 08:23:52

One hears about prisoners snookering prison nurses and social workers quite a lot.

He should have been executed but fat chance of that happening in Maryland.

Emily Galil - Suffolk, Va - Karma: Excellent