AUSTIN, Texas — Downtown Austin is a hub for restaurants, bars and night life. It's also the spot of an unsolved missing persons case.
KVUE looked into the disappearance of a Sixth Street club owner who vanished more than two decades ago. After 24 years of collected documents and evidence, police still don't know what happened to Paresh Patel.
"We haven't narrowed down the exact motive for his disappearance, so that leaves a lot of options on the table," Austin Police Department (APD) Det. Christophe Wood said.
It was September of 2000. Patel, a 36 year-old club owner and entrepreneur, was in charge of some of the hottest nightlife spots in Downtown Austin.
"He was a a well known, established figure in the downtown entertainment district," Wood said. "He owned multiple bars."
One of those bars was called Metro. On Monday, Sept. 25, Patel swung by the club.
"That was standard practice for him. He would pick up the weekends, take of the money," Wood said.
Carrying a large amount of cash, Patel then made his way toward Azucar, a Latin dance club he also owned, located on Lavaca Street.
Soon after that, he was never seen again.
"As a businessman, he was always on his cellphone. He was constantly contacting friends, business associates," Wood said.
But the calls stopped.
"He didn't check in, so to speak, and also didn't pick up his children from day care that day, which was a big red flag for the family," Wood said.
Police were notified and the following day, detectives found Patel's white Lexus SUV in a parking lot on the east side of town.
The windows were rolled down, and the keys were still in the ignition. Patel was not in the vehicle, and the money was gone.
In the two decades since, the case has taken a number of interesting turns.
In 2012, federal investigators charged Patel's former business partners, the Yassine brothers, with money laundering and drug trafficking. Given their connection to Patel, Hussein "Mike" Yassine is considered a person of interest in this case. But he's never been arrested in Patel's disappearance.
Now police are using advanced technology to revisit some of the original evidence.
"The physical evidence that has been recovered in this case, it can actually be tested now. The technology to test that evidence did not exist or was prohibitively expensive back then," Wood said.
Austin detectives said they've sent off evidence to labs across the country for forensic testing. Despite gathering a great deal of information in this decades-long case, police are still conducting interviews.
You can help them close this case. If you have any information, call Capital Area Crime Stoppers at 512-472-TIPS.
KVUE Daybreak's Yvonne Nava is shining a spotlight on several Central Texas cold cases as part of a monthly series called KVUE Crime Files.