Barbara Blatnik /// Part 2 /// 317 | Forensic Files

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around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime according to Barbie's friend Michelle
Michelle dropped Barbie off near the bike shop that we have discussed as well as near her boyfriend's home Jerry so we
need to discuss what are the possibilities of what happened after 3:30 a.m. where we have nobody else
who's come forward saying that they saw her after that time period so let's let's pretend that either she decided
not to go to Jerry's house or that she did in fact go to Jerry's house he was not home and there was no one there to
let her in or or nobody answered the door one thing that I find Curious here Captain is this situation
of if she in fact wanted to go to Jerry's house why not just drop a her off right at Jerry's house yeah and I
know that that that was my initial immediate thought and reaction to finding out that she that we knew her
whereabouts until about 3:30 a.m. that morning again though these are younger people Barbara is not even an adult yet
and it's 3:30 in the morning I don't know that she would just pull right up to Jerry's house get out of Michelle's
car walk up and ring the doorbell yeah so I would I would be curious to find out from Michelle or if any of Barbara's
friends from way back then if they have any idea or clue as to how this would typically go down because I'm kind of
guessing here but if they had been on and off for about a year I'm wondering if this was not so
entirely uncommon that this wasn't the first time that she thought about showing up at Jerry's in the middle of
the night was there some type of procedure that they had you know to throw the Little Rock the little Pebble
at the window or did she in fact call Jerry earlier that night we know that she called her parents and we don't have
anybody saying that they were present or around Barbie when that call was made so
is there a chance that she called Jerry as well and said hey I'm going to be here till the bar closes and I might
come over to your house afterwards well and that would make some sense cuz again
hypothetically let's say she called Jerry she can't get a hold of Jerry this would make sense on why she would call
her her parents she normally doesn't call her parents to let them know where she's going to go or what's happening
but maybe she called in hopes that Jerry called and left a message that's a possibility I also think that it might
be likely too that there was something else going on with the blatnik family that she may not have wanted to miss out
on we mentioned that her sister and mother went shopping they a shopping trip the next morning right is there a
chance that she was asked if she wanted to go on that trip and this unusual call
for her to call home is her saying hey I'm on my way home and that's you know I want to be a part of that shopping trip
tomorrow or letting them know I will be home tonight so don't allow me to miss out on the events of tomorrow yeah wake
me up tomorrow yeah so back to the boyfriend Jerry thing though I mean it wasn't this wasn't something that that
you or I did every night but I have to imagine I know with myself and I'm sure with you as well that there was more
than one occasion where you call a friend and say hey I'll meet you in your backyard at 11:30 or I'll meet you in
your backyard at 2: in the morning and you sneak out of your house and you go meet your buddy well sometimes it's hard
to remember times before cell phones yeah but but yeah that that was very common or it was also more common than
just to swing by somebody's house just to see if they're there possibly but what I'm getting at is with Jerry's Home
and with this with this possibility of her going over there with their not being cell phones if I was going to meet
up with a buddy at 1: in the morning or 2 in the morning in in somebody's backyard you did that because you
couldn't call their house that late at night to let them know hey I'm outside right or you couldn't ring the doorbell
because you'd wake up their parents I'm talking about being 15 16 17 years old sneaking out and meeting up with
somebody is there was there a procedure if they had done this before that they would not necessarily meet at Jerry's
house not necessarily meet on his front at his front door you know what I mean where they stre yeah meet me at uh uh in
the churchyard or meet me in my backyard at this time and I can actually think of
a time or two where I went to meet the person and for whatever reason they didn't show up mhm you don't panic you
just leave because you're like oh their mom or dad must have caught them sneaking out the window or trying to get
out the back door yeah the guy that didn't show up he actually told me he didn't like you so whatever may have
happened here let's say that she decides to do something else other than to go to
Jerry's or for whatever reason that Meetup didn't take place and I don't mean to sound a little douchy here
but to toss out the the old anything's possible but this could be as simple as drop me off down
the street so I can smoke a cigarette before I get to his house drop me off down the street because I want to walk
off this Buzz I have it could be so many things oh yeah there's a bazillion options here but what we what we can go
the rabbit hole we can go down is this she didn't meet up with Jerry she didn't get into Jerry's house or whatever that
meeting was supposed to be let's say that didn't take place or she changed her mind a bazillion things like we said
right regardless that meeting doesn't happen she would find herself on the street at close to 4:00 a.m. so what
would she likely have done at that time well we do know we've spoked with some of her friends and spoke with her sister
so we do have some thoughts on that my first thought is she could have went over to see if anyone was still at
the bike shop this is just a short walk away from where she was if she if she did do this she could have run into
anyone including there was a person that was named an ex of hers Named Dave who was at a party that night at the bike
shop party at some point that night mhm apparently police looked at this guy pretty hard apparently he had an alibi
for the time when Barbie went missing there's another option that she could have proceeded down the street to where
her very close friend Gina lived now we've not yet mentioned Gina Gina was living with her boyfriend just two
blocks up Grand Division Avenue she was in a relatively new relationship and her
boyfriend Rodney did not want her to go out and hang out on Warner Avenue the night before with Barbie now Gina says
that Barbie had called her on that Saturday in question and asked her to come out with her but Gina declined a
decision that she says she later regretted adding that if she had been with Barbie that night no one would have
messed with her apparently according to Gina her boyfriend at the time was one of three brothers who were not only
known in the area but kind of feared in the area as well yeah according to Gina Barbie did not make it to her house that
night but I point out that as being an option for two reasons one it's not terribly far from where she got dropped
off mhm it's her very good friend and she she would be under the belief that her friend is at home because she spoke
to her earlier that day she's not coming out I'm not coming out I'm staying at home yeah so maybe she wanted to see her
friend now we know she didn't arrive there but is it possible that something happened to her on on her route to that
way yeah and again it's it might be a punt but she gets dropped off she tells her friend she's going to Jerry's house
she goes over to Jerry's house there's nobody there there's no lights on oh [ __ ] what I'm going what am I going to
do let me head towards a friend's house yeah she's she's been drinking or doesn't want to go home yet I'll drop in
on Gina and see what she's doing okay so there's another option here and it's just plain and simple that
maybe Barbie decided to walk home from that location how far away is it well I don't have the exact distance
here but what is interesting is it's a much further walk if she were to stick to the streets but there's a park that
she could have cut through now this is not terribly far from where she lives I do know that but I don't have an exact
you know miles or anything here if she chose to cut through the park it's 4 in the morning right if
anything's going on at the park there nothing good right and if if anyone's there yeah they're nothing good too this
is Jack Donovan park with it had baseball fields in wooded areas this was in fact between Barbie where she would
have been near Jerry's Home and her home so perhaps someone seized upon her in the park while she was making the cut
through right Barbie's family said that she would never accept a ride from a stranger but they did add that she would
have taken a ride from somebody that she knew yeah and of course there's always the possibility that she was snatched
off the road maybe from the park whatever and just thrown into a car against her will well with that rabbit
hole again yes somebody picks her up throws her in a vehicle fine but also this is the age where I mean how many
times did you end up at a party or end up in somebody's car that you you knew from school
or knew they were a friend of a friend you know so this this makes it wide open if somebody saw her that was just an
acquaintance you know so they're saying yeah she wouldn't get into a car with the stranger a complete stranger but she
might get into a car with you know local Jack that she kind of knows well and I mean consider this she's dropped off at
3:30 in the morning we've only looked into this case for about a week or so and we've already identified three
possible places that she could have gone to and she would have known multiple people there that's where I Circle back
to what the detectives were saying at the time and even 10 years after the fact where they say look she was a
popular kid had a ton of friends we interviewed everybody that we could think of and we're we're not coming up
with any suspects here and and part of the issue they're saying is there could have been just like you pointed out that
the possibilities do seem somewhat endless they're saying look there's so many options here of whom she could have
been with and until we find somebody saying that they saw her with somebody or somebody saying that she was with me
we got this marker of 3:30 a.m. and that's where the road dead ends for us yeah but that goes back to you're
breaking down those categories of these teenagers or early 20 some year olds that don't want to talk that don't want
to get in trou trouble or get their friends in trouble right and so it goes back to that is there it almost seems
like there's a piece of the puzzle missing that possibly could be given to us by one of these individuals well
here's the thing too look man it's been 30 years if you saw Barbara that night if you hung out with her after 3:30 a.m.
or if you can add further detail regarding that night Now's the Time I mean [ __ ] the time was decades
ago but right right it's never too late to do the right thing and nobody gives a
[ __ ] if you were underage drinking or smoking a Dube yeah just help us out tell somebody something you know add to
the timeline help police maybe they'll get back involved in this thing and what was the uh Facebook page again I believe
it's Justice for Barbara blatnik so they could contact the page as well correct correct but regardless of these Endless
Possibilities the reality is where we sit today that after 3:30 a.m. no one is saying that they know
where Barbie was or what she was doing or how she ended up on the side of O'Neal Road and K kyoga Falls yeah now
after Barbara was killed the media in the akan area was quick to highlight her murder multiple stories ran about the
case in the days that followed the discovery of her body this is particularly because murders in the area
were relatively rare yeah in 1987 there were only nine women murdered in akan proper I want to point out that Barbara
is not part of that statistic akan police had about an 88% solve rate on average not bad right 88%
solve rate M but Barbie's case Drew special attention and not just because it was the brutal murder and rape of a
pretty young girl Barbie's murder was the Tipping Point in the eyes of many who believed that a serial killer was at
work in Summit County mhm as of the end of 1987 there were four cases of murders
of women which remained unsolved and which the police did not seem to have any leads on all of these involved
bodies dumped in a diamond pattern on the map of Northern Summit County within just a few miles of each other all were
middle class white females living in a lowrisk area lowrisk lifestyle who were last seen going about their usual daily
routine in very safe neighborhoods only to be found murdered within a short time period okay I'm I'm
just trying to make sure I'm following go ahead one these bodies were laid out seems like a diamond pattern if you look
at a map yeah if you're looking at a map it it would it would look like a diamond
pattern some people have pointed out pointed out that pattern that it means something some people have pointed out
that that adds to the serial killer Theory MH and so then all these women were living highrisk lives lowrisk
Lifestyles lowrisk lowrisk Lifestyles and they all were in very safe neighborhoods I think what's more
important scratch the diamond pattern throw that out the window that seems like some Hollywood [ __ ] to me what
seems more important is that we have similar victimology and all of them are within a few miles of each other right
all of these all but one were found stabbed and all but one were raped all were found out in public spaces no
weapons were found in any of the cases and all of them had occurred with within the last 4 months of
1987 this series of murders was causing near Panic among the residents of the area articles appeared in local papers
about women being afraid to leave their homes gun sales spiked and pepper spray tear gas and mace flew off the shelves
okay so and then in these four cases did they believe that the attacks happened where the the bodies were found or were
they did they happen somewhere else well we're going to dive into each one of these cases and we'll look at each one
of them specifically rather than uh you know just doing it as a whole but there there were calls to hotlines to rape
hotlines that were going through the roof this is women looking for advice on how to protect themselves and
self-defense class registrations shot up now I will I want to point something out
anybody that has never done self-defense classes or has considered it but for whatever reason has not g around to it I
highly encourage these types of classes for a million reasons I'll name just a couple one it's going to give you some
tactics that you do not know these are life-saving tactics as well as the confidence to to push through this type
of situation right I don't know Catey but I know crazy there were rumors at at the time that were spreading about
perpetrators lying in weight for women hiding under their cars cutting their ankles with knives or disguising
themselves as old ladies asking for assistance and then attacking women this is something that you often see in a
situation where there's there's cause to panic we have the general public that are coming up with these folklore type
stories in an area we got four murders that took place in a short period of time and all that the public knows is
that these murders are unsolved regard regardless of how many perpetrators it was they're still out there so police
are going to step up Manpower they did Issue statements assuring the public that they were on it and debunking these
wild stories that were circulating through the county in response to public outcry a task force was in fact formed
this is just days after Barbie's death they wanted to get to the bottom of these murders the task force was formed
by Summit County prosecutor Lynn slabby and included akan kyoga Falls Hudson Township the office of Summit County
sheriff and the we also have the coroner Cox that we mentioned earlier as well as
representatives from the FBI prosecutor slabby said there have never been this many homicides in this short of a time
without one or more being resolved we cannot tolerate this the plan was for the task forc to share information get
centralized they wanted to do a computer database which we've talked about and I
think the first time I recall us talking about this might have been during the course of the Ted murders uh which we
know eventually led to the arrest of Ted Bundy MH they wanted to get this centralized computer database put
together with information on all of the murders and then work together all these
different agencies now one akan detective at the time said any idea is a good one and
hopefully we will be able to gain some information we don't feel the murders are related but it doesn't hurt to get
together and exchange ideas so let's take a quick look at the other three murders as you have inquired
Captain these three murders that stump police proceded Barbies authorities believed at the time that none of the
victims knew their killer or Killers which made the cases very hard to solve and investigate right here are the three
victims the first is Janice Christensen so on Monday August 10th 1987 in Hudson 31-year-old Janice
Christensen laced up her running shoes Janice was a computer operator at kyoga Falls General Hospital and she was also
a fitness Enthusiast who liked to run MH many days she brought along with her her
very large 70b dog named wolf but for some reason on this day she did not around 9:30 a.m. she got into her
vehicle a Toyota Tel and headed out to the Metro Park District Bike and Hike Trail in Hudson for her run when Janice
didn't show up for lunch with her mom it this being very unlike her and when her
husband Ken arrived home from work at 5:45 and didn't find her there and then checks with Mom and finds out she hadn't
shown up for lunch he calls the police and he filed a missing person's report after spending a very uneasy night alone
at home I mean he can't sleep and it's like 6:30 in the morning he decides I'm going
to go out and look for her yeah he knows that she was going to go out for a run I'm guessing that he knew the areas that
she preferred to run because he ended up heading to the very same trail that Janice had went to and this is around
6:30 a.m. he brought the dog with him he and the dog walked the path and wolf started acting very strange and was
alerting to some bushes unfortunately there hidden in the brush was Janice's partially nude body her husband said he
touched her arm it was cold and he noticed Dr blood on her shirt yeah later police determined that Janice had been
raped and stabbed to death in the chest they say about 10:00 a.m. the day before
when she had gone running this was a very popular recreational trail and if it was in fact that she was
murdered at 10: a.m. this would have been in broad daylight right and you'd think that somebody would have saw
something yeah and we talked about safe areas and safe neighborhoods this was the first serious crime ever to happen
since the trail opened in 1973 I've actually been to Hudson quite a bit it's a nice area whoever killed
Janice they were either Brazen enough to do it in a public area in broad daylight
or dumb enough to do it that way her car and this is the weird part man her car was found in a drugstore parking lot in
Bedford but police have stated that they believe that she was killed near the trail where her body was found right so
somebody took her keys moved her car yeah and Ken was looked at uh the couple apparently was having some type of
marital troubles that they may or may not have resolved isn't everybody having Mar if you're married you have problems
you you have problems that's the rules right yeah the report was that whatever these troubles were they were resolved
and that resolved so much that the couple was planning on moving together to Florida police weren't able to link
Ken or anyone else to the murder and no weapons were found in this murder Janice's murder remains unsolved coroner
Cox collected a DNA sample left from the rape but nothing has come of it and nothing has been stated regarding that
publicly as well our next victim is Joanne Bartholomew two months later this is after Janice's murder just
two months later on Wednesday October 21st 47-year-old Joanne Bartholomew headed out alone to an evening church
service Joanne's husband Chuck often accompanied her but on this night he was busy working on opening the couple's
second Dairy Queen franchise now Joanne made it to the 8:00 service and then she
headed to the mall she was seen at a store called O'Neal's looking at VCRs and according to police she made a
purchase there Chuck got home around 9:30 fell asleep on the couch around midnight the couple's son woke him up
and saying look mom's not home she's still not home and her car's not in the driveway yeah so father and son go off
in the car to look for Joanne driving the route to the church and back because they didn't know that she had gone to
the mall so they didn't bother looking there Chuck called churchgoers from the night before to ask asked if they had
seen his wife after the church service they had not then he called the police and reported Joanne missing by 7:30 the
next morning after Chuck and Tom decided to go back out and drive around in daylight hours this time they spotted
Joanne's Cadillac it was parked in an outdoor lot at the Chapel Hill Mall this is close to the mall entrance Joanne's
poor husband had to open the trunk of the car in the company of police but to their relief it was empty police
theorized that Joanne never re-entered her car after shopping Chuck's relief was shortlived
because on Saturday at 300 p.m. Joanne's body was found in a wooded area behind the best product store at the mall she
was found face up partially naked raped and stabbed to death in the neck and chest no knife or other evidence was
found Joanne had also been robbed according to the akan PD her purse and credit cards including the one used to
make the purchase at O'Neal's were taken her things were found in two separate locations one set of credit cards and ID
were found by a jogger dumped about 3 mil away in North Hill and some more cards were found by someone about 2
miles away in Patterson Park Park that makes you wonder if the person was on foot police searched the park and found
the missing purse as well except for the robbery the case looked very similar to
that of Janice Christensen and the public began to be [Music] concerned this show is sponsored by
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Cheers Cheers a Hoy unfortunately Captain we have another victim in this string of
murders that the task force is going to have to investigate now this is the murder of Marsha
Potter on Monday December 14th Marsha Potter aged 36 she was getting ready to leave bingo at her
church this is around 10:30 p.m. Marsha was a wife mother and aad dental office receptionist she was in the company of
her parents on that evening this is in North akan not far from her home Marsha was reported to be very safety conscious
she made a point of double-checking that her car doors were always locked and she
even counseled her friends and family to do the same now on this night after Bingo Marsha's parents walked her to her
car in the church parking lot they saw her lock the doors and then drive off but by 4:30 a.m. on Thursday
morning Marsha's husband Larry was alarmed that she had not come home so he calls police it didn't take long to find
her at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday Mara's body was found inside of her car by residents
in an apartment complex on North persing Avenue in North akan this is just six blocked
just six blocks from her home yeah she was lying on the floor or the seat the reports vary but she was stabbed to
death in the neck newspaper reports are also they also report that she was robbed the acan police said that
Marsha's purse was emptied and several credit cards were missing now there are some interesting things about Marsha's
case she was not raped she was found fully clothed and media reports were that the doors of her car were still
locked when her body was found akan police theorized that she might have been killed elsewhere and then driven to
that spot by the killer again with this crime no murder weapon was found some final thoughts on the murders these four
murders and the task force that was assembled there was a lot of disagreement right off the bat about
whether the cases were even in fact related to one another we have detective Sam massina and other kyoga Falls Police
spokespersons who told the Beacon Journal repeatedly that Barbara's murder had no similarities to the other three
cases of murdered women in Summit County coroner Cox seems to agree with these statements investigating officers
in North akan felt that it was likely that Mara Potter was killed by someone she knew they're basing this off of the
thought in fact that she was found in her locked car implying that maybe she had picked
someone up also her case she was not raped I guess they had a a strong suspect in her case but there was never
an arrest made so I'm guessing they didn't have enough evidence in Marsha Potter's case well it's difficult too
cuz it kind of seemed like a robbery as well so you can go under the you can go down the rabbit hole that maybe she knew
the person but it's also possible that she just didn't have a door locked when she was driving and I guess generally
investigators did not feel that Barbie's case fit the pattern if there was a pattern going on right one we can point
out some things here that are obvious from the get-go she's much younger than the other three victims right she lived
30 mil away which I think is a huge indicator that it might not be connected and she was strangled not stabbed but
not so fast because do you feel like the three other than Barbie's case are connected that's a tricky one I actually
think that two of them are connected and the other two have no connection to any
of the others yeah so it seems like the first two that you discussed the first two two seem very similar yeah well
there's a park involved and that's the only reason why I would go okay well 30 Mi away yes
but possibly Barbie would have cut through that Park to reach her house so that puts a park into play and
I know that's a stretch but the first two had Parks possibly involved where I would say that there could be the
possibility that we have similar cases is Barbie's case would fit with the first two in the fact that it looks like
the the first two victims were just kind of snatched out in public yeah and it was a it seemed like a the motive was
sexual right 100% And in the same way in in Barbie's case as well mhm well sadly all of these cases
whether they're connected or not went cold and they actually went cold very quickly by August of 1988 this is the
first anniversary after the murder of Janice Christensen she was the first one murdered yeah Hudson police said that
they had little hope of solving the case what a kick in the freaking pants right
less than a right in the grle right we got a year later and we have the police straight up saying we have little hope
of solving this case but but don't they have DNA they did but that didn't mean anything in 1987 or 1988 they didn't
have a crystal ball to know that hey right one day but again that's like it seems like they would be able to
test all this stuff by now I mean You' think this is not like a some you know dirt poor area that they
don't have tax money coming in for these people to do their jobs right so it just
seems like I wonder what it' feel like to be a detective the day that they caught
Golden State killer just to go oh [ __ ] now think about the hundreds of cases that are not solved that have DNA that
they can start doing this test to well that's the thing though that's what we're doing here essentially is
reminding everyone that these cases are unsolved there was evidence collected in
these cases if that evidence is still around and still exist let's see if we can do something with it yeah yeah the
Beacon Journal this is also another not uplifting thing to report here but what was reported was that the task force
never really got off the ground it stalled because the information sharing software wasn't yet completed so the
task force basically just kind of fell apart and the other thing too that seems like the case for the task force in
their defense frankly there just weren't leads to pursue in some of these cases so police did admit that they were never
close to an arrest on any of these four cases and still to this day there's no consensus about whether they were
looking for one killer Two Three or maybe even four different Killers right again because it's not clear even
with the autopsy of Barbie's case is it are we looking for one individual or two
and if we're looking at two then I would say that this this case is definitely not connected to the other three and I
lean more towards what you were saying that the first two seem more likely to be connected if any of them are
connected those first two we don't know about the third one maybe that's maybe that's a robbery maybe that's somebody
that she knew and Barbie's case maybe it's two individuals and if that's the case
then but it's like couldn't they come out and tell us that are we looking for one person or two do you want to hear a
theory this is this is an interesting Theory I want to pass along the theory that Barbara's family told us yes right
her sister Donna says Barbie's family does not believe that her case is related to the other three
murders according to Donna word on the street after Barbie's brutal slaying was that her sort of boyfriend Jerry may
have been responsible this along with two other men who were brothers Donna believes that Barbie got
into a car with these guys that night and they drove around drinking maybe doing drugs and then something went very
wrong I'm not I want to be clear we obviously know Barbie's death was not an accident at all so nothing wrong like
that something occurred and one two or all three of these men were involved in the murder of Barbara blatnik now Donna
says that Barbie there would be involved in her rape as well one two or three of
them yes according according to this rumor according to word on the street and according to the theory that the
family seems to believe now Donna made sure to point out that Barbie was a tough cookie she
was a fighter she had been in several physical fights in the past there are people that knew Barbara who have
pointed out that if may have taken multiple men to to overcome her so this is where this thought gets in theory
gets some legs here from people that knew Barbara now Donna also heard a rumor that a car matching the
description of Jerry's car was seen that night in the Blossom Music Center area we do know that police searched
Jerry's home at one point in the investigation they didn't find anything now just a few years ago a local man
named George was drunk in an area bar and recounted a story to a friend of barbes named
Kelly this drunk guy George said that on the night of Barbie's death Jerry and the two brothers that we had mentioned
came to him for help they wanted help cleaning out their car with bleach and they wanted him to help them wash their
clothes mhm when he asked why they need his help what is this mess what the hell's going on they say one of them
tells him we just killed Barbie blatnik so this Jesus this woman Kelly relayed this story that she hears from
this drunk guy George one night to Barbie's best friend Gina remember the one who decided not to go out that night
the one with the new boyfriend Gina takes this information and pass this along to a detective
according to Gina her thoughts on this scenario was that the detective did not seem overly interested in this
information but that's hard to say if there is any truth to this story and George is not a lying drunk
then it's unlikely that the blatnik they may never see closure because here's some problems with the
current state of this case yeah I hesitated there for a second captain I was going to say
current state of the investigation I'm I really feel like in this case there's no
investigating currently going on but anyway if if in fact this is true they may never see closure because Jerry and
one of the brothers named by this George guy both of them are deceased by now right and even if there is DNA that
remains in Barbara's case we don't know if it was ever tested against Jerry or the brothers and now it it could be too
late to test you know it's it's too late to test these two men no it's not too late dig up their bones well the other
thing too is that it it's always possible that one of them could have killed her but not left their
DNA I don't want to go down that road too far because I'm not very comfortable with with some of the things that we
think that happened that occurred during the attack of Barbara right but but what
I'm getting at here is there's a chance that more than one person was involved maybe even as many as three if we're
going to believe this rumor or this Theory or or thought that that one of the perpetrators didn't leave behind any
evidence well yeah let's hold our horses for a second too on the idea that that maybe that law enforcement didn't care
because cuz what I've noticed or what I've come to find The more I've hung out with local detectives in an our in our
area when they talk about cases there's a lot of cases that they believe they know what happened they just can't prove
it and so if you have your coroner telling you I think there's multiple people involved in the rape which would
be mean that there's multiple people in the murder multiple people in the cover up and The Dumping of the
body and now maybe not law enforcement and uh kyoga but law enforcement in the you know in the area
uh that Barbie grew up in they probably heard these Rumblings of these rumors and you might have a a bunch of
circumstantial evidence but like you said we have two people dead so it's not like you can start rounding them up and
turning them against each other so it could be one of those situations where they've heard these Rumblings
maybe that's why they didn't seem so interested you know like cuz they're but it's
like and I don't even know what you do as a detective what do you do if you go I this is what I think happened but I
can't prove it well but on top of that and I wanted to make sure that we came across we well I want to make sure that
we're clear on this right when we state that we're saying that Gina says when when I passed this information along I
didn't feel that the detective found it very interesting right now I don't know Gina I've never spoken to Gina so I
don't know exactly how this went down or what gave her those thoughts and feelings but a detective isn't going to
jump out of his chair and go oh I got a live one here you know city they're going to take in the information and and
take a look at it but there are times when they take the information and don't look at it I
mean we're not going to sit here and pretend that that never happens yeah I actually got a hear a really cool
interview on of a pretty high-profile case I can't tell you what the case is but it was um people that were
presenting information to law enforcement and the reason why they presented this to me was for me to hear
the law enforcement's reactions and some of the stuff they would drop these B shells stuff I've never heard about
these this big case and I'm I'm going oh my God I can't believe what I'm hearing and the
detective is stone-faced you know yeah what else you got well throughout the interview you
start realizing that big bombshell that they're dropping on him he's already heard he's already been working on
somebody else told him or they've already worked it or they know that it's a dead end right uh that there was a
couple other things again bring up a couple things that I thought were Bombshells didn't seem that interested
the longer they talked you start realizing uh he you know actually showed his hand on a couple things saying you
know that one thing that you brought up I've never heard before that's that's pretty interesting mhm he just didn't do
it so at the time and I and that could mean nothing but I think um it just seems like one of the again I
I hate to you know keep beating this drum but it seems like there's some information that maybe law enforcement
can give us that would help and and and or somebody could come forward and say I
saw these three guys that night or this drunk guy George somebody else could come forward mhm if they told drunk ride
George if they were dumb enough to go to a a fourth party if there's three individuals involved and say can you
help us clean our car which seems it that seems like uh that's why it sounds like a drunk [ __ ] story right at
first when I go through that I'm like I'm I want to toss it out and say no doesn't seem right to me
but if maybe in a panic they go we have no ability to wash our clothes you know what I mean if if whatever they're
trying to achieve they young and and dumb enough right if whatever they're trying to achieve they have no ability
at that time to do that they may have reached out to somebody that they thought wouldn't tell
anybody yeah and again this is years later so or somebody that would help them and then in trade you go well he
can't tell anybody now he helped us right or or he he likely would less be less likely to tell someone or he was on
drugs or he's such drunk that I also don't want this to to deter anybody from going to police or any type of law
enforcement agency with information I'm a big if you see something say something
and if it's even if it's something that you don't know if it has any importance to a case at
all let let somebody know let the experts decide if it has any importance to the case all yeah let's be very clear
let's start with the idea if you know something go to police right because I feel like in Barbara's case here that's
what we're missing there's somebody that night I have a my gut tells me that this
is less likely to be connected to the first two murders in this series I feel like there's too many moving parts and
pieces where she could have just went with somebody she knew we have her family saying she would have went in a
car with people she knew she would have accepted a ride with somebody she knew there's the bike shop there's her other
friend's house there's her boyfriend's house whatever type of relationship they were having and she knows all these
people in this area this area we're talking is about one mile from her her home yeah I wish we knew who gave Jerry
The Alibi because if one of those individuals is somebody that is a part of one of these rumors could be the two
brothers right then it you know and then of course that makes a great Alibi too because you got two people saying well
he was actually with us so a big deal but uh by the way he was with us while we were killing this poor girl so but I
think sometimes with there when there's smoke there's fire and there seems to be
some details about this you know one some piece of of possible evidence that points to more than one person and then
you have a story that's pointing to more than one person when there's smoke there's sometimes fire yeah I mean you
have just the simple fact of all right I like a nice drunk person as much as the
next guy let's pretend that drunk George is telling the truth well now we have two stories linking Barbara to to Jerry
we have her friend Michelle saying not only did she tell me to drop her off in this area she was getting dropped off in
this area because she said she was going to Jerry's or that she was going to meet
up with Jerry right then some time frame goes by and now poof Jerry and two brothers show up talking to George and
they need help getting their car cleaned up and their clothes cleaned up right which would makees sense that the murder
took place somewhere maybe even in the car or that blood happened during the transportation of of the body yeah I'm
not going to lie I will never say 100% that I trust this George's story but the interesting thing is the missing time
frame involved all seems to ends with Jerry and then picks up and starts again with
[Music] Jerry [Music] for more information on this case you can check out the justice for Barbara
blatnik Facebook page and if you have any information regarding this unsolved murder please submit a tip we want to
thank everybody for listening if you want to check out our old episodes download the Stitcher app they're all
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awesome folks out there for listening and telling a friend until next time be good be kind and don't
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Barbara Blatnik /// Part 2 /// 317

Part 2 of 2

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Join us in the Garage as we discuss an Ohio Cold Case. Barbara was just 17 when she didn’t come home one night. Her body was found the next day. There was fear at the time that an undetected serial killer was operating in the area. We will discuss some possible leads for this unsolved case and ask you for your help. Beer of the Week - Focal Banger by The Alchemist Garage Grade - 4 out of 5 bottle caps

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Brief Summary

Barbara Blatnik's unsolved murder raises questions about her last hours and possible suspects, including her boyfriend and local rumors.

Key points

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The Mystery of Barbie's Disappearance. Exploring the possibilities of what happened to Barbie after 3:30 a.m. on that fateful night.
The Murder of Janice Christensen. Janice was found murdered on a popular trail, raising questions about safety.
Joanne Bartholomew's Disappearance. Joanne went missing after church, leading to a tragic discovery of her body.
Marsha Potter's Case. Marsha was found dead in her locked car, raising suspicions about her murder.

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0:08WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

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