Brian Flowers of Honda Marysville: The Patti Adkins Disappearance

Brian Flowers is the primary suspect in the disappearance of Patti Adkins, his secret girlfriend and fellow Honda of America Manufacturing employee who vanished after her shift in Marysville, Ohio, in the early hours of June 29, 2001. The Union County Sheriff’s Office has publicly identified Flowers as the primary suspect in Adkins’ disappearance, but he has never been arrested, charged, or indicted, and he denies any involvement.¹²

Who Brian Flowers Is

Flowers worked on an assembly line at the Honda of America Manufacturing plant in Marysville, a different line from the one where Adkins, a 29-year-old mother of a seven-year-old daughter, worked. He was married. According to investigators, Adkins would frequently walk over to his line during shifts to talk with him, and the two were in a romantic relationship that she kept hidden.³

In the months before Adkins vanished, she withdrew roughly $90,000 and gave it to Flowers. A banker confirmed the withdrawals and that the money went to him. Union County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Jeff Stiers said Flowers had told Adkins he needed the cash to buy out his share of a side business so his wife could not claim the assets in a divorce he said was coming.³ Investigators later questioned whether Adkins may have angered Flowers by asking for the money back.⁴

The Night Adkins Disappeared

The Honda plant takes a yearly “shutdown week” around the Fourth of July. In 2001 that break started after the shift ending in the early hours of June 29. Adkins told friends she was going to Canada with Flowers for the week. To keep the relationship quiet and to avoid leaving her car in the plant lot during the trip, she arranged for another coworker to drive her to work that day.³

Her close friends said the plan was for Adkins to clock out, then hide under a tarp in the bed of Flowers’ pickup truck so coworkers would not see her leaving with him. She was last seen leaving the plant at the end of the second shift, in her white Honda of America uniform.⁵ No one has reported seeing her since.

Adkins had left her daughter with her sister, Marcia Pitts, planning to pick her up after vacation. When Adkins did not return on July 8, 2001, Pitts called Flowers. He told her he did not know who Adkins was, denied they were in a relationship, and said they had never planned a trip. Pitts then reported her sister missing, and the Union County Sheriff’s Office took the case on July 10, 2001.³

Why Investigators Focus on Flowers

Flowers gave law enforcement permission to search his property and his truck. Investigators recovered personal items Adkins had given him, including a birthday card, a phone, and a T-shirt, along with a letter she had written to him about their relationship and her wish to be with him. Those items contradicted his claim that he did not know her.³

Investigators paid close attention to the bed of his pickup, given the friends’ account of the tarp plan. No DNA belonging to Adkins was found there.³ There is no public evidence that the planned trip to Canada ever happened. Since June 29, 2001, Adkins has had no activity on any of her financial or personal records and no contact with family. The Sheriff’s Office has long suspected foul play.⁵ Adkins was legally declared dead in 2011.⁶

Despite the suspicion, authorities have acknowledged that “little evidence has been connected to him.”¹ Flowers has denied involvement and has never been charged.²

Where the Case Stands in 2025

In May 2025, a Change.org petition urged Union County Prosecutor David Phillips to present the case to a grand jury for potential indictment. It drew more than 2,000 supporters. Phillips responded that while he appreciated the public interest, a grand jury was “not an appropriate step at this point, given the status of the evidence.” He said the office hoped to eventually determine what happened and move the case forward, but that the time was not yet right.⁷

In June 2025, the Union County Prosecutor’s Office assigned a full-time investigator to the case from within the Sheriff’s Office to conduct a comprehensive review of the evidence. Phillips described the goal as identifying errors or gaps in the existing case file and filling them. Union County Sheriff Mike Justice said discussions about adding the investigator had begun months earlier. Justice said the department has worked every lead that has come in and has not shelved the case, though he has characterized it as a missing person investigation rather than committing to a finding of foul play.⁸

Reward and How to Submit a Tip

A group called “Concerned Citizens for Patti” has offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to Adkins’ location and recovery.⁹ Central Ohio Crime Stoppers is also offering a cash reward and continues to feature the case in Columbus-area broadcasts and in The Columbus Dispatch. Tips to Crime Stoppers are anonymous.¹⁰

Union County Sheriff’s Office: (937) 645-4110
Crime Tip Hotline: (937) 642-7653
Central Ohio Crime Stoppers: 614-461-TIPS (8477)
Online: www.stopcrime.org
Mobile: P3 Tips app

1
NBC4 Columbus. Boyfriend of Woman Missing for 23 Years Remains Primary Suspect, Deputies Say
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NewsNation. Boyfriend of Woman Missing for 23 Years Remains Primary Suspect, Deputies Say
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NBC News. Ohio Mother Patricia Adkins Remains Missing Years After Her Disappearance
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Clermont Sun. The Strange Disappearance of Patricia Patti Adkins
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Union County Sheriff’s Office. Patti Adkins Unsolved Case
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NewsNation. Missing Ohio Woman Patricia Adkins
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ABC News 4. Search for Patti Adkins Intensifies 24 Years After Disappearance
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13WHAM. Search for Patti Adkins Intensifies 24 Years After Disappearance
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The Columbus Dispatch. Reward Offered for Info Leading to Recovery of Woman Missing 20 Years
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Central Ohio Crime Stoppers. Central Ohio Crime Stoppers Case Feature