'Everybody knew he was bad news'

Suspect in Harmans slaying strangled woman in 1988
By HEATHER RAWLYK, Staff Writer

Published 09/05/10

Quan Harper had a gut feeling he should trash the letter addressed to his fiancee that arrived at the couple's Harmans home in early March.

The correspondence was from fiancee Lynn Patten's ex-husband, Carl Lewis Patten. He'd been released from prison, the letter said, and he wanted to reconnect with her.

Harper said he reluctantly passed the letter on. In the six months that followed, his world was torn apart.

Lynn Patten, a bright-eyed brunette whose full name was Diana Lynn Patten, was found by her 11-year-old son strangled in her home at 6 Lexington Road on Aug. 26, her 47th birthday.

[Negro] Carl Patten, 49, the sole suspect in the case, died in a fiery car crash in Prince George's County just 15 minutes later.

Lynn Patten's violent death plays out like a rerun of the 1988 slaying of Nancy A. Holloway, a corrections officer at the Prince George's County Correctional Center whom Carl Patten was convicted of killing.

Carl Patten met Holloway while he was behind bars for a probation violation stemming from a child abuse charge in the mid-1980s. Upon his release, the corrections officer and ex-inmate shared an apartment in Suitland in Prince George's County.

On April 23, 1988, Carl Patten, then a 27-year-old concrete finisher, and Holloway, 40, became involved in a domestic dispute in their apartment on Sycamore Lane, according to news reports.

Prince George's County police said Holloway was killed by a blow and strangulation. Her body was found inside the couple's two-bedroom apartment four days later after she failed to appear for work at the jail.

[more at link]

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/top/2010/09/05-54/Everybody-knew-he-was-bad-news.html