Ponte Patterson Murder House To Be A Subway

Recently, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved an application by into a Subway restaurant. But 30 years ago, that property was home to one of the most gruesome crimes in Waterford history.

In June of 1980, 70-year-old George "Ponte" Patterson was assaulted and murdered at the adress, which was his home. His car was stolen. Ultimately, two men, Erich Seebeck and Adam John, were convicted of the murder, thanks to the amount of Patterson's brain that had been eaten away by insects.

“It was definitely one of Waterford’s most unique cases,” Police Chief Murray Pendleton said Monday.

The Murder

On June 24, 1980, two cousins of Patterson's went to his home and found the 70-year-old man dead. The two called the Waterford Police, and after inspection, the police found several blood-stained bricks near Patterson’s head. Also, Patterson’s car had been stolen.

The case immediately became a top priority of the Waterford Police Department, as it was the first murder in town since 1947, according to a 1980 article in The Day. Seven Waterford Police Officers were assigned to the case, headed by Detective Sgt. Joseph San Juan, the article said.

In searching the scene, police found mail was still in Patterson’s mailbox from Friday, June 20. An autopsy showed Patterson was killed by the corner of a brick, breaking his skull and cutting his brain, and there was considerable “maggot activity” in his body and brain. Using the best scientific knowledge at the time, the medical examiner said Patterson died on June 22, two days before June 24.

The Car

On June 20, 1980 police found an abandoned car on the side of the road in New Jersey. As the investigation into Patterson’s death expanded, police found that car was Patterson’s, according to court documents.

Police fingerprinted the car, and matched the prints to Seebeck and John. Then they began to question people who had been with the two men before and after June 20.

First they talked to Morris Frost, a friend of John and Seebeck. Frost met with the two men the morning of June 18, when Seebeck said he was arrested earlier that day and had to get out of town. Seebeck told Frost he could "get a car from a seventy-year-old queer in Waterford (Patterson was a homosexual),” according to court documents.

Later police tracked down Michael Adams, who picked up Seebeck and John hitchhiking after the two men abandoned Patterson’s car in New Jersey. Adams drove the men to Ohio in his truck. During that time, Adams told police John and Seebeck said they got a car from an old man who was dead from “old age or something,” according to court documents.

The evidence was mounting against John and Seebeck. However, the men abandoned the car on June 20, two days before the medical examiner put the original time of death. With this, the police could not put Seebeck and John at the crime scene.    

Disproving The Alibi

Waterford Police refused to give up on the case, particularly Detective Don McCarthy. McCarthy looked into the file for a week, and saw Patterson’s brain, at the time his body was found, was much lighter than a normal brain because of insects eating away at it, according to a 2000 article in The Day. Forensic entomologist Wayne Lord of Connecticut College came in and said, based on the deterioration of the brain, Patterson likely died on June 20.

The medical examiner agreed, and changed the time of death from June 22 to June 20. The defense tried to disallow this new evidence, but the judge permitted it.

The jury agreed with the prosecution, and found both men guilty of the crime. John was sentenced to 18 years in prison, and Seebeck was sentenced to 27 ½. Both men would appeal the decision, but it would stand.

Later, the case would be featured on Court TV, and was featured in several scientific magazines.

*Much of the information used in this report is from ct.findacase.com.