SAN ANTONIO -- A Wilson County judge on Monday declared Patty Vaughn, a woman who has been missing for more than eight years, dead.

The request was made by Vaughn's estranged husband, J.R. Vaughn, in December 2004.

Patsy Wallace, the missing woman's mother, said that J.R. Vaughn has an ulterior motive in having her daughter declared dead -- money.

"If the money was gonna be spent ... on the kids, more power to him," Wallace said in an interview Monday with KSAT 12 News. "I don't want him and his new wife having a gay old time on my daughter's death money."

J.R. Vaughn was not available for comment.

Patty Vaughn has been missing since Christmas 1996, when her husband told investigators she left their La Vernia home after an argument and never returned home. Her van was later found abandoned. Some of her blood was discovered inside the vehicle. No arrests have been made.

Wallace said she is in the process of filing a wrongful death lawsuit against J.R. Vaughn in hopes that someone will come forward with information that might finally solve the case.