New details become public in missing club owner's case

It's been almost 3 1/2 years since Austin club owner Paresh Patel was last seen. He was leaving one of his clubs on Sixth Street on a late September afternoon with thousands of dollars in cash.

Patel told a relative in a subsequent cell phone call that he was heading to another of his clubs in the Warehouse District. But he never arrived. He failed to pick up his children that evening. No one has heard from him since.

Three members of the Texas Syndicate prison gang were convicted of racketeering and drug-dealing conspiracy char- ges. During testimony, former Texas Syndicate leader Randy Salazar said that gang members killed Patel and buried him under the H-E-B store in Buda.

Salazar, charged in the same indictment as the men on trial, pleaded guilty and testified for prosecutors in the hopes of earning a lesser sentence.

The testimony about Patel came during cross-examination and was out of sync with the story line of the day. Patel was not one of the four Central Texas murder victims whom prosecu- tors attributed to the gang. Most of the direct questioning of Salazar had to do with the killing of two of those victims, Jove Rios and George Morales.

On cross-examination, defense lawyer Larry Dowling first asked questions to prove that his client, Ernest Zubiate, wasn't part of the gang in the summer of 2000, when Rios and Morales were killed.

Then Dowling switched gears and asked Salazar about "the guy underneath the H-E-B over in Buda."

"I don't know his name, but I know he's Iranian," Salazar said. "He owned some clubs on Sixth Street."

Patel is actually Indian. But in an interview after the trial, FBI Special Agent Stephen Hause confirmed that Salazar was talking about Patel. Hause declined further comment. Salazar was in jail at the time of Patel's disappearance.

Dowling said notes from Hause's pretrial interview of Salazar showed that the gang leader implicated several people in the robbery and slaying of Patel. Dowling wouldn't disclose their names.

Austin police homicide detectives, who took the case after Patel's disappearance, were aware of Salazar's comments before the trial, Sgt. Hector Reveles said.

"We also have other leads that are equally, if not more, promising," Reveles said. He declined to give specifics but said detectives are almost certain of Patel's fate. "There is every reason to believe that he is deceased and no reason to believe that he may still be alive."

A man reached in Atmore, Ala., where Patel's family runs a chain of motels, identified himself as Patel's nephew. He said the family has not heard any news about Patel and hung up.

A spokeswoman for the H.E. Butt Grocery Co. said investigators have not contacted the company about the case. She said crews broke ground on the Buda store, on the Interstate 35 frontage road, on May 3, 2000, and the store opened on Dec. 13, 2000. Patel disappeared on Sept. 25, 2000.

Buddy Meyer, chief of the trial division of the Travis County district attorney's office, said "there are several possibilities here, i.e., leads, and they are being investigated." He declined to speculate about the possibility of searching under the grocery.

Patel owned three clubs: Metro, Melagio and Azucar. Two of them, Melagio and Metro on Sixth Street, are operating under different names. Azucar, on Lavaca Street, continues to operate. Patel's assets are being managed by a court-appointed receiver.

Becky Beaver, a lawyer who represented Patel in a child custody case, said she knew something was wrong when the "devoted daddy" failed to pick up his boys, then 10 and 6.

"He seemed to have disappeared, and nobody seemed to care," Beaver said. "Every effort should be made on behalf of his children and the rest of his family to ascertain what happened to him. It's got to be a nightmare for them not knowing."

I hope that he's not dead. Unfortunately, it seems he is. BTW, I find it creepy that there could be a body under my local grocery store. I'll keep you posted.

She said crews broke ground on the Buda store, on the Interstate 35 frontage road, on May 3, 2000, and the store opened on Dec. 13, 2000. Patel disappeared on Sept. 25, 2000.

That seems a little late in the game to be pouring the foundation for the store but probably not too late for the parking lot. Since I'm not a crook, I can't think like one but what would prompt somebody to think that a construction site would be a good place to hide a body? I would think that there might be some digging going on and possibly surveillance cameras.

2 posted on 02/08/2004 8:31:58 AM PST by Tall_Texan (Some day I'll have a rock-hard body - once rigor mortis sets in.)

That was my first thought. The slab had to have been poured already if they opened 2 & 1/2 months later. He would have to be buried under the parking lot and for them to think that was a good place to bury him they had to have someone working on the construction crew.

4 posted on 02/08/2004 8:50:33 AM PST by patton (I wish we could all look at the evil of abortion with the pure, honest heart of a child.)

I have no idea, but there is some open space beside the store. If he's anywhere on the property, it's not under the snack aisle, but in the parking lot or that open space.

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