The murdered Irish priest, the gay Native American and the 40-year cold case

2026-08-20

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The Sand and Sage motel in Odessa, Texas was the kind of rough outpost that attracted lonesome drifters and hard drinkers. In other words, if you were of a sensitive disposition or simply happened to wander off the beaten track, it was probably best if you found somewhere else to bed down for the night. By the early 1980s, Odessa was regarded as the murder capital of the United States. And so, the discovery of a body, bound and beaten, in a blood-soaked room at the Sand and Sage wasn’t all that shocking to the l...

The Sand and Sage motel in Odessa, Texas was the kind of rough outpost that attracted lonesome drifters and hard drinkers.

In other words, if you were of a sensitive disposition or simply happened to wander off the beaten track, it was probably best if you found somewhere else to bed down for the night.

By the early 1980s, Odessa was regarded as the murder capital of the United States. And so, the discovery of a body, bound and beaten, in a blood-soaked room at the Sand and Sage wasn’t all that shocking to the local authorities.

However, there was one piece that didn’t fit. The victim - Father Patrick Ryan.

One man would answer for this brutal crime. The wrong man.

On this episode of The Indo Daily, host Fionnán Sheahan is joined by Allison Clayton, deputy director of the Innocence Project of Texas, and by Deborah Esqeunazi, director of the documentary Night in West Texas, to look at a vicious murder of an Irish priest, a miscarriage of justice and a cold case that keeps raising questions.

This episode was first released in April 2026

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