MISSING: Maureen Fields

A woman vanished after an argument with her husband, just the day before she told coworkers that something was going to happen.

Maureen Fields left her Pahrump home at 8 am on February 15th after another argument with her husband of fifteen years Paul Fields. It was a common occurrence within the couple, Maureen’s loved ones saying that she was considering divorcing Paul.

She was heading to a shift at Wells Fargo Bank, expected to arrive at 8:30. In the past three months Maureen had been working at the bank she hadn’t been late. It was why she hadn’t arrived twenty minutes after her shift started, her co-workers called Paul, trying to find out where she was. Paul went right to the police station after the call ended.

Paul claimed that he tried to report Maureen as missing but the police denied him, saying it hadn’t been twenty-four hours. The police had no record of him trying to make the report but rather he had asked if any accidents involving a green Hyundai had happened. He left right after.

A day went by and nobody heard from Maureen until a green 2004 Hyundai was found in Inyo County, California. The car was stuck in the sand, 125ft from the road and 12 miles from the Nevada state line.
The keys were still in the ignition and the driver’s seat was reclined all the way back. There were prescription painkillers and tranquillizers inside the car, one of the tranquillizers empty.
Slippers and eyeglasses were underneath the gas pedal and religious pamphlets were fanned out around a purse in the passenger seat. Inside the purse, a wallet was inside with credit cards and ID, it was Maureen’s car and belongings.
Police found a pair of knotted pantyhose that they would later find unidentified male DNA on and a blanket near the car that had small splotches of blood and vomit covering it.

It was initially believed that Maureen had wandered off into the desert area and committed suicide but after extensive searches, nothing was found.
Police’s beliefs changed quickly, foul play was suspected and the scene was believed to have been staged by whoever was responsible for Maureen going missing.

Not long after Maureen went missing her loved ones began suspecting Paul had done something to her. They would describe him as jealous and domineering, even saying Maureen was afraid that Paul would kill her.
Co-workers remembered the day before Maureen went missing, Valentine’s day, she had come into work upset. She told them that “somethings going to happen” she never clarified what she meant.
Paul was also the police’s prime and only suspect for years.

Paul maintained his innocence, claiming that Maureen said “I might as well do it now. Why wait?” before walking out the door on the 15th. He made lots of accusations about Maureen, not one was proven or believed by the police.

He claimed that Maureen had been draining their joint bank accounts, he thought she had problems with gambling and prescription drugs. He accused her of taking two $7000 cash advances on their credit cards and withdrawing a further $2000 from their joint account.
Police only found evidence of Maureen taking out a $4000 cash advance from one credit card, it was used to pay off another card.
Paul also claimed that Maureen had tried hiring a third party to kill him but once again police found no evidence and they just didn’t believe him.

Police were allowed to search the Fields’ home multiple times, Paul being very cooperative with the authorities. He even agreed to a polygraph test. This all changed after Paul spoke with his attorney.

After 90 days of Maureen being missing, Paul went to court trying to have her name removed from their joint land, claiming abandonment. Maureen’s father found out and tried to become Maureen’s legal guardian to stop Paul from getting anything. Paul dropped the claims waiting until 2009 to declare her legally dead and continue with getting all her property.

That was all that came from the case, Maureen seemingly vanishing from Earth without a trace. It was thanks to DNA testing advancements that allowed for further leads to come out for the case.

It was in 2012 when the unidentified male DNA was identified as Keith Wayne Holmes. Holmes is a registered sex offender with two priors for molesting children. He re-entered the police’s radar after his arrest on June 11th 2012 after trying to lure a 12-year-old girl into his car, at the time he was living in Pearblossom, California. But he would’ve been in his mid-seventies when Maureen disappeared and was known to have been in the Pahrump area in 2006.
Holmes claimed that he and Maureen had consensual sex on the 15th before he left her near Death Valley, alive. He had nothing else to say after that.

Holmes died in 2014, Paul maintains his innocence and it is still unknown what happened to Maureen.