Maria “Mary Faye” Mendez (Wild Card, Texas)

2025-08-20

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Our card this week is Maria “Mary Faye” Mendez, the Wild Card from Texas.Maria “Mary Faye” Mendez walked out of the duplex she shared with her family in Odessa, Texas, on Aug. 2, 1985, and seemingly vanished without a trace. Her sister-in-law watched Mary head in the direction of a local bar after fighting with her husband, who they knew as Arnuldo Mendez. Mary had asked her sister-in-law to watch her 5-year-old daughter, Virginia, while she went out, but she never came home. For nearly 40 years, her family wondered whether she’d w...

Our card this week is Maria “Mary Faye” Mendez, the Wild Card from Texas.

Maria “Mary Faye” Mendez walked out of the duplex she shared with her family in Odessa, Texas, on Aug. 2, 1985, and seemingly vanished without a trace. Her sister-in-law watched Mary head in the direction of a local bar after fighting with her husband, who they knew as Arnuldo Mendez. Mary had asked her sister-in-law to watch her 5-year-old daughter, Virginia, while she went out, but she never came home. For nearly 40 years, her family wondered whether she’d walked away from her life and children…or if something bad had happened to her. It wasn’t until a young cold case detective stumbled across her long-lost case file and started digging that clues in a decades-old mystery started to be unearthed.

If you know anything about the death of Mary Mendez, contact Det. Gonzales at 432-335-4926, or to submit a tip anonymously through Odessa Crime Stoppers, call 432-333-8477 or visit 333tips.org and reference case number 84-7988.

View source material and photos for this episode at: thedeckpodcast.com/maria-mary-faye-mendez

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