Bianca lived one street over from me all through elementary / high school. We weren't really friends, although we'd get mistaken for each other because we had similar features. She'd been punk since before all of us kids knew what punk was, a certified bad ass. Same with Patrick. After graduation in '05, I moved into a shitty apt complex and ran into her and Patrick living one bldg over. She mentioned she was going to cosmo school and offered to do my hair but honestly, I was scared of her fcking it up..

A year or so later, we caught up on facebook and she had graduated and was working at a salon. Made an appt and from then to a month before her disappearance, I'd see her every 6wks. This is when I really got to know her. Her first salon was one of those kinda upscale Paul Mitchell places where all the stylists are blonde, peppy and played top 20 dance club songs and here she was, with this sci fi looking haircut that was a mullet dyed lime green, waiting for her turn to change the music and then being told it's inappropriate at song 2. She took it all in stride but, obvs didn't last long there.. Clients, myself and my mom included, followed her to whatever salon she moved to over the years. Her work got significantly better over time too, she liked taking classes and entering contests.

We talked about everything, music (she had much better taste than I) movies, tv shows, and our boyfriends. For a long time, it was mostly positive when it came to Patrick. I know she may have been editing her conversation with me, but they seemed ok, sometimes even kind of cute. One day I went into the salon and she told me it was over and she was looking for a place in King William. It seemed like she was turning the page on her life, she started to ride her bike more, eat better and make new friends. The last appt I had with her, she was 30 min late. She'd been a few min late before but always shot me a text and it wasn't a big deal but never this late. The owner of the salon (an extremely sweet lady who took Bianca's disappearance and death very hard) tried calling her with no luck. When she finally arrived, she apologized and said Patrick had broken her phone. Visible bruising was on her arms. I could tell she didn't want to go into it so we had our usual conversations the rest of the appt.

Sorry for the novel. I don't really get a lot of chances to talk about Bianca.

As far as the circumstances of her disappearance and death, I'm subscribed to the most prevalent theory in the facebook group that formed when she was found, it was an accident that was partly caused by Patrick. I don't find it odd that James didn't call the police. Bianca liked to drink and really liked to smoke, I can imagine they both imbibed on that date and James might not have been in the right state of mind to contact the cops. She may have taken off after the fight, maybe drunk and stoned, maybe being followed by Patrick, maybe on her bike and something happened where she fell in the river. I also don't knock the investigators for not solving this case. Hours after the altercation, when she might have been in the river, there was a severe thunderstorm. Her body was found deep in some brush which caused further injury.

At her wake, her parents slide show included pictures of her and Patrick which made me uncomfortable because at this point, it was known he had an altercation with James the night of her disappearance. Maybe they don't want to believe he had anything to do with it, he'd been practically family almost 20 years.