Forensic Files Season 11, Episode 29 - As the Tide Turns - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] a computer hard drive holds hundreds of secrets every keystroke every download
every deletion tells a story but if someone downloads a song about murder does it make him a killer
[Music] [Music] it was a hot august night in jacksonville florida and a time of celebration for april and justin barbour
it was their third wedding anniversary and april was about to finish her training as a radiology technician
april barber had gone into the field of oncology specifically radiology type treatment for cancer
patients which was inspired by her mother's death with cancer justin had good news too he just got a
job as a financial analyst for a large lumber company he was a very good guy i mean very smart
very successful everything going for him i mean just like my sister i mean they were
two of a kind i guess the couple's anniversary dinner was at an italian restaurant
later they took a walk along the beach [Music] but their romantic evening ended there
when a man with a gun demanded money give me your money april diverted the man's attention
justin tried to grab the gun shots were fired and that's the last thing justin remembered
[Music] when he regained consciousness he realized he had been shot and was bleeding
[Music] he found april unconscious and faced down in the water [Music] justin dragged april's body about 100
yards toward their car but his wounds made it impossible to carry her up the long flight of stairs
so he left her near the boardwalk and drove for help he flagged down a motorist a few miles
away uh well now here's your emergency i think somebody's been shot is he conscious at all
yeah he's cautious he's trying to keep him that way okay do you see a gunshot wound
guys or staff can't actually tell justin told the ambulance crew that april was down on the beach
by the time they got there she was dead from a single gunshot wound to her face people were calling me telling me my
sister was shot i was in shock it was i mean it was nothing i expected at the hospital emergency room doctors
treated justin for four gunshot wounds he survived but was unable to provide a good
description of their attacker justin couldn't see his face it's too dark and truthfully i believe that it is
too dark to see anybody's face out there at the beach police didn't find much evidence just
the impressions from justin dragging april's body in the sand and the tides were rising
soon there would be nothing left of the crime scene initially it looked like a robbery gone
wrong a man demanded money from april and justin barbour while they were walking
on the beach and they were both shot but robbery may not have been the motive when they looked at april barber's body
she had on her jewelry an expensive ring earrings and her watch if this were a robbery why was nothing
taken at the autopsy the medical examiner discovered foam around april's mouth the foam was still present around their
nose or mouth or both and it's due to the damage the salt water causes to the lining of the lung
dr steiner also noticed that the blood from april's gunshot wound was on top of the phone
meant that april had almost drowned but survived and was shot afterwards my conclusions were that she had
suffered a near-grounding episode and she had been shot while she was alive if she had been dead from the drowning
there wouldn't have been any vital reaction to the gunshot there wouldn't be any hemorrhage into
the sinus but why did the autopsy findings differ from justin's version of the incident
it would be very traumatic the incident itself was very traumatic to him if it occurred as he stated his wife is
now missing he's been shot four times and i wouldn't expect a lot of detail from a person who just went through that
type of traumatic experience eventually as justin recuperated from his wounds he provided a much better
description of the assailant good enough for police to create a sketch he was taller than me
heavier but he wasn't he wasn't overweight right his his shirt was dark it was he had a dark hat on like like a
baseball cap incredibly the police sketch resembled a local man 30 year old david alan shuey who had
previous arrests for sexual assault [Music] in fact chewie allegedly used a gun while committing an assault on the same
beach where justin and april were shot he went down to the beach to find a female she was sunbathing like topless
on the beach gentlemen came up somehow confronted her certainly intended on doing some type of
sexual assault sexual battery to her fortunately the victim got away but she later identified chewie as her
attacker so police questioned chewie regarding his whereabouts on the night of april
barber's murder he denied any involvement and claimed he had an alibi we ran all his credit cards because he
was all over the country unfortunately committing rapes we know from his credit card records
that he was in connecticut with living with his fiancee at the time of this homicide so we absolutely
know he was not the assailant next investigators looked into justin barbour's background
i talked to justin and i said well tell me about your marriage we had a happy and normal
marriage have you ever had an affair no never but investigators dug deeper and learned
that justin was having an affair with his tennis partner shannon kennedy so i'd say justin listen here's the deal i
got shannon in the next room she's saying y'all are engaged in the extramarital affair i'm going to bring
her in here and we're going to get to the bottom of it he's like no don't do that we are i don't want to get her
involved so i'm thinking well why in the heck is this guy lying about this i mean your wife is dead don't lie to
the guy that's trying to help you i mean who knows where that could lead and april's friends told police that she
knew all about her husband's affair i mean she told everybody would listen to her
justin's having an affair i know he is i confronted him about it at the time it appeared that he was only
dating one other person but it appeared that he had as many as five extramarital affairs
and during the three year marriage police asked justin barber for permission to search his home and he was
happy to comply he also made his computer available he had it all boxed up ready for when
the detectives came and he said here it is and hands it to him justin's computer went to chris hendry
of florida's computer evidence recovery section when i made a copy of justin's home
computer hard drive the next thing i did was go through and look for anything that would have been deleted such as
folders and files one of the first things henry noticed was that justin downloaded a song onto
his computer just hours before his wife's death the lyrics are violent they're about
killing somebody it was a song by the group guns and roses with the lyrics i used to love her
but i had to kill her she drove me nuts and now i'm happier this way it's kind of strange this is deleted
hours before we actually got the machine [Music] was this merely a coincidence after all
it was only a song [Music] justin barber told police that a robber shot his wife april in the
head and shot him four times while they were walking on the beach he claimed he passed out later regained
consciousness and found his wife face down in the ocean but the forensic evidence
contradicted parts of justin's story she had evidence of abrasions small abrasions on their collarbone
by your ear and on the back of the neck they are consistent with force or pressure
being placed there could this have been caused by forcefully being held in the water yes
and on justin's computer forensic experts found evidence of a possible motive apparently justin had been trading
stocks on the internet and he wasn't doing very well we have his e-trading he got himself quickly into fifty to sixty
thousand dollars in debt just on that it didn't appear that any of his trades really paid off and lost quite a bit of
money to cover the losses justin borrowed money against his credit cards at very
high interest rates you can't get any worse than that i mean you're borrowing money at 21 to pay off
money that you lost in the stock market justin barbour should have been a little bit brighter with his money i
mean that was a time of low interest home equity loans that's really significant when you talk about somebody
who's a finance major and has an mba in business and also it's important to note
the psychological effects of a lot of consumer debt that affects people's psyche
also suspicious investigators learned that april owned a two million dollar life insurance policy
which she bought primarily to support her younger brother and sister in the event of her death
know we didn't have our mother we didn't have our father and so april felt like it was her responsibility to take care
of us you know if something happened to her and justin knew that too and that was a big part of the
reason for those but justin was the sole beneficiary which meant he could have done anything he wanted
with the money was this enough motive to kill his wife and then shoot himself four times to cover it up
risky but people do a lot of crazy things for over two million dollars using an ultraviolet light
crime scene reconstructionist jerry findley examined the shirt justin was wearing on the night of the attack
you could see some visible gunshot residue or what appeared to be gunshot residue and looking at it with the
ultraviolet light i wanted to see the extent of the pattern the gunshot residue could have come from
justin being in close contact with the assailant but the angles of the bullet wounds to
justin's body were another matter one shot went through his left hand the other three shots were directed away
from vital organs and bone a remarkable coincidence to me the location of them was not
consistent with them with a mugger even somebody struggling over a gun if you've
already shot and killed one person and you've shot another one four times you're not going to leave a witness
investigators also analyzed april's clothing and found another inconsistency justin claimed that he carried april's
body a hundred yards up to the base of the stairs after they had both been shot by the assailant
one of the gunshot injuries that he had sustained is on his left hand so his hand would have been bleeding and
bleeding quite a bit and there should be blood all over the waist line the waist in the front of
those pants of april barber and in fact there was none if she's bleeding from this gunshot one she did not have it on
her body or clothing and he doesn't have it on his so i think that speaks for itself
and by the direction the blood traveled from the wound investigators could tell april's body had not been moved after
she was shot blood flow on april barber was in one direction which was straight down to the
left from the gunshot wound and if the body had been moved in various positions the blood flow would have changed
and finally there was something else that bothered investigators why didn't justin use april's cell phone
that was in her purse in the car why wouldn't he just call on her cell phone anyway and get help he had to get
rid of the gun unfortunately police couldn't find the murder weapon in the thick vegetation
along the 10-mile stretch of road but they did discover one last tantalizing piece of evidence on
justin's computer almost more valuable than finding the murder weapon [Music] on justin barbour's computer forensic
experts found email evidence of his extramarital affairs and financial records proving he was deeply in debt
but that wasn't all forensic experts also discovered that in the weeks and months leading up to
april's murder justin searched various websites looking for information on blood loss and gunshot wounds to the
right chest what's the chances of somebody researching that thing very specifically
gunshot wounds to the right chest and then six months later getting shot in the right chest
i just don't believe that's possible prosecutors believe that when april barbara learned about
her husband's infidelity and his financial problems she wanted a divorce i believe april
barbara had a very good idea of how bad the debt was she told her loved ones you
know the marriage was failing that she tried numerous times to to try and straighten it out or or fix things with
justin but that they weren't improving prosecutors also believe that justin wanted the two million dollars from
april's life insurance policy so he searched computer websites to learn how to shoot himself without
inflicting serious injury justin believed if he drove to the hospital with gunshot wounds everyone
would believe his robbery story justin barbers wanted all he wanted in my belief to show up
with his bride in the suv at the hospital as a hero as somebody who is not only a hero
but also a victim collect the money have everybody feel sorry for him move on with his life from there
but it didn't turn out that way they say when you commit a homicide you make about 30 mistakes and you can't
remember but about five the first mistake that night happened just after 5 p.m justin downloaded the guns and rose's
song i used to love her but i had to kill her prosecutors believe that april told
justin over dinner that she wanted a divorce after that justin enticed april to go
for a walk along the beach possibly to continue their discussion about how to end their marriage amicably
but right away his plan fell apart perhaps april sent something was amiss or she saw the gun
either way there was a struggle justin subdued her by holding her head under the water until she lost
consciousness he then carried her towards the car but there was no blood transfer because
at that point neither one was bleeding [Music] he fired a single shot into april's head
[Music] the blood from her head wound was now on top of the foam produced by the near
drowning justin then shot himself four times careful not to break any bones or hit
vital organs [Music] but the excruciating pain and the daunting task of carrying april's body
up the long flight of stairs required a change of plans he had no choice but to leave april's
body there justin got rid of the murder weapon somewhere along the highway then tried to gather his thoughts and
compose a possible explanation for the water in april's lungs he drove for 10 miles passing numerous
homes and businesses along the way before he asked a fellow motorist to call 911.
justin said that he didn't want to stop at one of the houses because he did not want to wake up an old man or something
to that effect perhaps the oddest piece of forensic evidence was that justin erased the guns and
rose's song from his computer just an hour or so before turning it over to police
that's hard to hear that he did it i mean he was somebody i trusted and that i looked up to
i'm very sad i mean there's not a day that goes by that i don't think about my sister
in june of 2006 justin barber went on trial for the first degree murder of his wife april
the forensic evidence was simply too much to overcome he was convicted and sentenced to life
in prison investigators describe it as one of the most unusual and cold-blooded cases
they've ever seen if you take somebody like justin barber who's probably a sociopath he's probably
narcissistic he looks at everything as how it suits him he did not want the stigma of a
divorce there were no independent witnesses other than the decedent and the murder
and you know there are only two people in that on the beach so in this case forensics made the entire case but the
truth of the matter is with the physical evidence we have once we developed it analyzed it and had it in its final form
and compared it to the story it revealed that justin barber is a liar [Music] [Music]
[Music] you

The woman was dead. The man had been shot four times and survived. When the man's version of events was at odds with the evidence, investigators turned to forensic science, hoping to determine if this was a botched robbery, or cold-blooded murder.

Forensic Files is the longest-running true crime series in television history. Evidence and interviews with experts help solve real crimes, disease outbreaks and accidents around the world.

Brief Summary

April Barber was murdered on her anniversary; evidence pointed to her husband Justin as the killer, leading to his conviction.

Key points

Anniversary Dinner Turns Tragic. April and Justin Barbour's romantic anniversary dinner ends in violence when they are attacked on the beach.
The Investigation Unfolds. As details of the crime emerge, suspicions grow around Justin's story and background.
A Shocking Discovery. Forensic evidence reveals inconsistencies in Justin's account of the night of the murder.
Motive for Murder?. Investigators uncover Justin's financial troubles and a life insurance policy that raises questions.
The Trial and Conviction. Justin Barber is convicted of first-degree murder based on overwhelming forensic evidence.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Does downloading a song about murder make you a killer?

0:15WatchJan 20, 2022

Tension

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