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Wife Tricks Secret Lover Into Killing Her Husband: "I Didn't Even Know the Guy"
A criminal fell hard for a suburban mom and was willing to do her bidding — even if that meant murder, as seen on Snapped: Killer Couples.
When Patricia Aldridge began an affair with an ex-boyfriend who had been “in and out prison,” she saw an opportunity to take out her husband of 20 years and get away with it.
To outsiders, the middle-aged mom and her 42-year-old husband, Millard Aldridge, seemed a picture of suburban happiness. On Snapped Killer Couples, airing Sundays at 6/5c on Oxygen, Millard’s sister-in-law admitted she never saw cracks in the veneer: “They seemed… like they were gonna grow old together and sit on the front porch in a rocking chair,” she remembered.
The family lived a quiet life in the tight-knit community of Huntington, West Virginia — Millard’s hometown, where he worked as a photographer for the local news station. Patricia was a seamstress, once owning a local shop called A Stitch in Time that had gone bankrupt. They each had children from previous marriages and even welcomed a son of their own together.
But then Patricia’s old flame returned to town after 18 years.
Who is Mitch Vickers?
Patricia soon started up an affair with her former boyfriend, Mitch Vickers. The duo wrote love letters to each other and even brazenly rendezvoused at an apartment belonging to Patricia’s grown daughter when she wasn’t around.
By his own account, Vickers was falling hard for Patricia.
“I love this lady with all my heart. She has buffaloed me. She got me to believing, without a doubt, her husband was a real prick,” Vickers stated in a confession shown on Snapped: Killer Couples, where he claimed Patricia told him her husband was a drunk and a domestic abuser.
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“I cannot let somebody beat up on somebody I love,” he told police.
It was Patricia's stories of abuse that led Vickers to agree to kill Millard Aldridge for her.
What happened to Millard Aldridge?
Millard Aldridge was murdered in his own home on the morning of June 25, 1998.
“The blood splatter indicated this was a very violent attack. It looked more like what we would typically refer to as a rage killing,” remarked retired detective Charles Kingery on Snapped: Killer Couples.
The killer beat Millard with several kinds of weapons found in the garage, including a pipe, a clawhammer, a screwdriver, and even a crescent wrench off the wall.
Millard's desperate pleas to his wife for help went unanswered, Vickers would later claim, even boasting to police that he yelled, “I’m gonna send you to hell, boy,” before throwing the husband into the trunk of his car.
After leaving Millard’s lifeless body near an embankment in a remote location, he doused his car in gasoline and set it ablaze, destroying most of the evidence.
How was Patricia Aldridge caught?
Patricia called the police that morning to report her husband missing. While speaking to authorities, she mentioned at random that Millard had parked her van on the street that day — not knowing that detail would prove to be her undoing.
From the bloody scene in the garage, the police immediately knew this was a homicide. When they inspected Patricia’s van closely, they found blood splatter on the wheel, indicating the car was next to Millard as he was being beaten in the garage and not on the street like she had claimed.
They also discovered that the garage had been sprayed with a chemical solution that detects dried blood.
After an exhaustive search, investigators located the burnt-out car, and though almost everything was destroyed, they could make out the first three digits of the license plate, which matched Millard’s.
His decomposed body was found days later, the injuries to his face and head so severe that he couldn’t be identified easily. His brother Dennie Aldridge ID’d the body from an “M” tattoo on his arm and a scar on his leg.
“I didn’t know what to do then. I kinda fell to my knees,” he told Snapped through tears.
Patricia’s grown daughter, Jennifer, soon came forward to the police with the startling information that Patricia and Vickers were having an affair.
The police now had a motive and suspects, but they needed the evidence.
Mitch Vickers' confession
When police called Patricia in for questioning, she insisted that the affair was over and she had nothing to do with the murder.
She stepped away for a call and came back with Vickers on the phone, who allegedly took all the blame.
“I’m the one that did. I’m the one that killed the SOB,” he told police, according to Tom Plymale, Wayne County prosecutor.
“I’ve never had a confession quite like this,” Plymale added.
Vickers was already prepped to go behind bars. Already convicted of burglaries, Vickers had worked out a plea deal and a delayed report date, so he was actually scheduled to go to prison four days after the murder.
“I went berserk. I went crazy, you know. I love this lady with all my heart. How can I go to jail knowing that his asshole is going to be out here beating on her?” he said.
But when police determined Patricia had been lying about Millard abusing her, Vickers changed his tune. He stopped covering for Patricia, who allegedly had her sights set on a life insurance payoff and a hefty 401k, not protection from Millard.
According to Vickers's newly revised confession, Patricia unlocked the garage for him and then drove behind him in the van when he dumped the body, providing a getaway ride.
“I don’t even know the man. She had been wanting to get rid of him for a long time,” Vickers told police. “She offered me $10,000. She asked me to do it, and finally, I agreed to it.”
Then, an old jail buddy of Vickers came forward, claiming that Vickers had offered him $7,500 to kill Millard, but he refused. He also produced a video of Vickers and Patricia kissing and snuggling together at his home on Christmas 1997. He claimed Patricia had approached him on a separate occasion, also offering payment for murder.
Patricia Aldridge’s Dramatic Arrest
In what Sheryl Aldridge describes as “poetic justice,” the police swooped in to arrest Patricia right after her husband’s funeral.
At that point, the family suspected her involvement, but she was doing the “boo-hoo poor widow, what about me thing” claimed Dennie. Cousin Darlene added, “It was so hard. We had to grin and bear it.”
Both Patricia Aldridge and Mitch Vickers were found guilty by jury of first-degree murder, earning life sentences without parole. But Patricia still had a powerful hold over her lover. During her trial, Mitch recanted his second statement that she was involved and said under oath, “She didn’t do anything bad!”
“He may have testified at that trial to rid himself of being a snitch,” said Plymale — but the real reason he covered for her could be simpler.
“Mitch Vickers truly loved her, and I think he tried to save her one last time,” he added.
Vickers died in prison in 2002.
