Patty escaped months ago:
When Adam found out that Patty was telling everyone she was sure that she did not murder Hightower, he helped her escape through the air ducts, and sent her in a nuns habit to Canada. Paul was sure that Adam helped her escape, but Skye had arranged an air-tight alibi. Adam discovered that Sharon took Faith to get away to the Abbott cabin. He attempted to get in, scared her, and she shot him in the arm with a gun that Nick had left for her protection. Nick arrived, called an ambulance, and Adam was taken to the hospital where he recovered and exonerated Sharon as having been understandably scared, not knowing it was him. Paul later received a call from a red-headed, black cat-tattooed Patty in a bar in South America. She told him that she was fine but would never return, as she twisted the rosary beads in her hand and necked with a guy and asked him if she could call him Jack
In October 2011, Patty turned up in Genoa City again as Myrna Murdock, working as housekeeper to Genevieve Atkinson, and was severely burned in an explosion at the mansion. She had apparently been in town at least since the murder of Diane Jenkins, and had since been tormenting the suspects with information she gleaned from the stolen park surveillance tapes. She had gathered the suspects at a warehouse to view the tape on the night of the explosion which had kept her from joining them.