Kriti Mehrotra
When teenager Micaela “Mickey” Rae Costanzo of West Wendover, Nevada, disappeared without a trace left behind on March 3, 2011, her family was quick to raise the alarm. They knew the 16-year-old high school junior would never go off grid or run away, so they immediately got in contact with her friends, their neighbors, some well-wishers, and the authorities. Unfortunately, as carefully chronicled in NBC’s ‘Dateline: Under the Desert Sky,’ it was only her remains that were recovered from a shallow grave in a remote desert area around 2 days later.
Micaela Costanzo’s Remains Were Recovered From Near the Utah-Nevada Border
Although Micaela “Mickey” Rae Costanzo was born on May 3, 1994, in Elko, Nevada, to Celia Costanzo and Theodore Costanzo Jr., she primarily grew up in West Wendover alongside her sisters. She was reportedly the youngest of her mother’s three daughters and one of six overall, so she grew up having the time of her life with Kristina, Delicia “DJ,” Jennifer, Kim, and Amy Costanzo. However, according to the original production, she was the closest to one of her elder sisters, DJ — they were so in tune with each other that the family often referred to them as twins.
At 16 in 2011, Mickey was a junior at West Wendover High School and thriving as a student-athlete. Not only was she a basketball and track star, but she was also a creative writer and the school newspaper editor. She was smart and kind and extremely popular, making it clear she was leading a good, stable, positive life. Yet, she was far from a typical teenager, as she never broke any rules or rebelled; instead, she always kept her family updated about every little thing. Whether it was her getting ready for practice, leaving school, changing plans to hang out with friends, or arriving home, she always made sure her mother knew her precise whereabouts. Therefore, when Celia didn’t receive a call from Mickey about anything after her track practice at around 5:15 pm on March 3, she became a little worried.
Celia’s worry only grew to panic as time passed, especially as she herself could not reach her teen daughter – her calls and texts to her were left unanswered. The mother thus left work early to rush home, just to then immediately raise the alarm and contact the police because she knew Mickey would have been there if she could have been. What followed was an extensive search, but alas, it was only the 16-year-old’s remains that were recovered from a shallow grave surrounded by dry brush in the desert area on March 5, 2011. This area was near the Utah-Nevada border, roughly 5 miles from her hometown of West Wendover. According to her autopsy report, she had several sharp force injuries and blunt force injuries to her head, face, and neck, along with slash wounds across her neck. So, with her hands also having been zip-tied, her death was ruled a homicide.
One of Micaela Costanzo’s Assailants Confessed 2 Days After She Was Found
Since Micaela was just a teenager with seemingly no indications of being a runaway and no history of personal issues, the authorities didn’t hesitate to launch a full-scale investigation. While most deputies dedicated themselves to searching for her, others questioned all those close to her in the hopes of figuring out precisely when and where she was last seen alive. Her boyfriend at the time, Javier, didn’t really have much information to provide, but he did state that she was perfectly normal on the days leading up to her disappearance as well as the fateful day. He added that while they had only been dating for a few months, he would have known if something was wrong because his girlfriend was not the type to keep things in – she always vented to clear the air. However, things changed a little when detectives questioned her childhood friend, 18-year-old high school senior Kody Patten, as he indicated he last saw the teenager walking out of school at 5:30 pm with her boyfriend.
Javier hadn’t indicated anything along these lines, driving officials to decide they should first gather evidence by visiting West Wendover High School to review surveillance tapes. They clearly showed Kody leaving the school through the back entrance around 5:30 pm and almost lurking there until Mikey came out alone minutes later. As if that wasn’t enough, her phone records revealed that in the 10-15 minutes before she suddenly went radio silent at this same time, she had been calling/texting no one but her childhood friend. Therefore, with these details and the discovery of her remains on March 5, 2011, they called him in for another round of questioning on March 7.
Kody initially tried to claim he had no idea what had happened to Mickey or why he was being interrogated, but he broke down a short while later and confessed to killing her. He said the duo had gone on a drive after school, during which she asked him to break up with his fiancée, fellow schoolmate Toni Collette Fratto, and be with her instead. She started hitting him when he refused, he claimed in his statement, resulting in him stopping the car, stepping out, and getting into an intense physical struggle with her. He then alleged he pushed her, which is when she fell, hit her head hard, and started having seizures, freaking him out so much that he used a shovel over her head, slashed her throat, and buried her. He gave detectives no motives and no reasoning for how or why her hands were zip-tied.
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Micaela Costanzo’s Second Assailant’s Confession Helped Bring Her Case to a Close
Kody Cree Patten was arrested for Mickey’s murder on the day he confessed to the crime, shortly following which his family retained a criminal defense attorney for him. It was roughly 2 months later that his fiancée, 18-year-old Toni, approached the lawyer to assert his confession was not the whole truth because she was involved too. She agreed to their conversation being taped, following which she alleged Kody had texted “I have her” on the fateful evening before picking her up and driving them to the deserted area. There, she said, he began arguing with his childhood friend, prior to pushing her, beating her, and ordering his partner to attack her with a shovel and slash her throat with a knife. She asserted they both hit Mickey and cut her throat before the 6’6″ aspiring marine buried her.
Since Toni did not have attorney-client privilege with the lawyer, he handed the tape over to the investigators, resulting in her arrest for murder on May 4, 2011. As the months passed, her family placed the blame on Kody by alleging he had been an abusive and controlling partner, so she followed his orders in fear for her own life. On the other hand, many believed Toni was the mastermind behind it all because she had long struggled with his friendship with Mikey. In fact, as per DJ in the Dateline original, there was a lot of tension between the two women in the months leading up to the fateful day, with Toni often calling Mikey horrible names whenever they passed by one another.
DJ also stated that her sister was not one for confrontation, but according to court records, she did apparently want to clear the air with both Kody and Toni. In early 2012, Kody was reportedly offered a plea deal in exchange for the death penalty to be taken off the table, the sentence of life with the possibility of parole, and his testimony against Toni. He initially agreed and began drafting a formal statement, claiming that the tensions had become so high that the trio decided on March 3 to talk, which is why he left the school grounds with Mickey. However, he suddenly changed his mind, left his statement unfinished, and refused the plea deal. That’s when Toni was offered a plea deal, which she accepted before modifying her original confession to allege that the 16-year-old was already zip-tied in the back when Kody picked her up.
She also claimed she had no hand in slashing Mickey’s throat, but she did participate in hitting her with a shovel and then helping her then-partner get rid of the evidence. In the end, on January 27, 2012, she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon enhancement in exchange for testifying against Kody. She was later sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 18 years. Then, a week before he was scheduled to stand trial, Kody also pleaded guilty to first-degree murder with a deadly weapon to avoid the death penalty. He was later sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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