Tuesday, November 16, 2004
THE END OF 1983....BEGINNING OF 1984
Barbara was found by a customer and the police were then called. When they arrived at the store they called Becky and told her the situation, then asking her to come to the store in person. Apparently Barbara was shot around 4:00am and they questioned Becky extensively, trying to make sense of who would want to kill Barbara. Becky supplied them with pertinent information…name, address, husband’s name and the like. I don’t know who went to tell Barbara’s husband.
At the onset, local people were not suspected, and it was considered a random robbery and murder. Becky tried to piece together what Barbara may have been doing at the time because she was found near the entrance door. The building only had the one door. We were constantly warned not to go into the cooler when there were customers in the store, as well as other guidelines we followed for safety. The money was only counted after the next shift came on duty and we could go into the back room out of sight.
Each clerk had her own “hiding place” for the money. Barbara had been robbed once before in another employment and she vowed it would never happen to her again. She was very careful with the money and Becky knew exactly where to find it. When she looked….it was all there…Barbara died without giving them anything except what they could get out of the register. We never kept much money there….the large bills and even $20’s were routinely taken to the back and put in the bank pouch.
It was a little after 5:00am when Becky called me. Warren, mom and I were packed and ready to leave for Illinois to see John and Barbara. A vein broke behind my left knee the night before and I had a large bruise and swelling. I had to keep off my leg and ice it down…..Now we were faced with a quandary ….should we go or stay? I hated to cancel out on the Illinois trip because it would be some time before I could get time off to go again….that and the fact they had looked forward to us coming. I also hated to leave Becky with things the way they were but she insisted…. and since we couldn’t be of any help in the situation, we did decide to go on.
We found John and Barb’s apartment without too much difficulty. John always draws such easy, yet detailed, maps for us that it’s never hard to find their new address. They had been looking for us and John came right down to help unload our luggage and Barbara had a nice meal fixed. We enjoyed the warmth, our meal and then opened gifts. Later, I called Becky to find out what was going on with the investigation and the store……she was getting through the best she could. We were both having a hard time registering the reality of the past 24-hours.
I still had the discomfort of the broken vein in my leg and had to stay off it. We had a nice visit with John and Barb for another few days….we visited their church and met some of the people they were working with and left for home on December 30th…….when we arrived at mom’s we discovered her pipes were frozen so we stayed with her until a plumber got her water running again. We had very cold temperatures during this time which lasted over two weeks. That’s very unusual for our area and the cold began seeping into a lot of places.
The weather kept us in except for my three days with the Patrol. I wasn’t able to go back to Fas-Serv at the time because my leg was still bad. We stopped in to see Becky mid-January and she was training a new man since I hadn’t been able to come back to work. The owner was there and hoping I could come back soon…which I intended doing after my leg was strong enough.
On January 19th we were stunned by news reports that four local teen-agers had been arrested for Barbara’s murder. One of them turned out to be the son of one of the other clerks at Fas-Serv, which made this a double tragedy for all of us. We had all waited on these kids countless times in the store and to think they were casing the place for the robbery made all of us shudder. There were two girls and two boys. The girls became nervous after so much publicity and came forward to tell where the murder weapon had been thrown. On the strength of their information, the police found it in a large drainage ditch.
Because Barbara knew them she tried to talk them out of the robbery and appealed to the boy not to do this for his mother’s sake……..but ‘because’ she knew them and could identify them she was shot. Barbara died trying to save them from making a terrible mistake……..
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
At the onset, local people were not suspected, and it was considered a random robbery and murder. Becky tried to piece together what Barbara may have been doing at the time because she was found near the entrance door. The building only had the one door. We were constantly warned not to go into the cooler when there were customers in the store, as well as other guidelines we followed for safety. The money was only counted after the next shift came on duty and we could go into the back room out of sight.
Each clerk had her own “hiding place” for the money. Barbara had been robbed once before in another employment and she vowed it would never happen to her again. She was very careful with the money and Becky knew exactly where to find it. When she looked….it was all there…Barbara died without giving them anything except what they could get out of the register. We never kept much money there….the large bills and even $20’s were routinely taken to the back and put in the bank pouch.
It was a little after 5:00am when Becky called me. Warren, mom and I were packed and ready to leave for Illinois to see John and Barbara. A vein broke behind my left knee the night before and I had a large bruise and swelling. I had to keep off my leg and ice it down…..Now we were faced with a quandary ….should we go or stay? I hated to cancel out on the Illinois trip because it would be some time before I could get time off to go again….that and the fact they had looked forward to us coming. I also hated to leave Becky with things the way they were but she insisted…. and since we couldn’t be of any help in the situation, we did decide to go on.
We found John and Barb’s apartment without too much difficulty. John always draws such easy, yet detailed, maps for us that it’s never hard to find their new address. They had been looking for us and John came right down to help unload our luggage and Barbara had a nice meal fixed. We enjoyed the warmth, our meal and then opened gifts. Later, I called Becky to find out what was going on with the investigation and the store……she was getting through the best she could. We were both having a hard time registering the reality of the past 24-hours.
I still had the discomfort of the broken vein in my leg and had to stay off it. We had a nice visit with John and Barb for another few days….we visited their church and met some of the people they were working with and left for home on December 30th…….when we arrived at mom’s we discovered her pipes were frozen so we stayed with her until a plumber got her water running again. We had very cold temperatures during this time which lasted over two weeks. That’s very unusual for our area and the cold began seeping into a lot of places.
The weather kept us in except for my three days with the Patrol. I wasn’t able to go back to Fas-Serv at the time because my leg was still bad. We stopped in to see Becky mid-January and she was training a new man since I hadn’t been able to come back to work. The owner was there and hoping I could come back soon…which I intended doing after my leg was strong enough.
On January 19th we were stunned by news reports that four local teen-agers had been arrested for Barbara’s murder. One of them turned out to be the son of one of the other clerks at Fas-Serv, which made this a double tragedy for all of us. We had all waited on these kids countless times in the store and to think they were casing the place for the robbery made all of us shudder. There were two girls and two boys. The girls became nervous after so much publicity and came forward to tell where the murder weapon had been thrown. On the strength of their information, the police found it in a large drainage ditch.
Because Barbara knew them she tried to talk them out of the robbery and appealed to the boy not to do this for his mother’s sake……..but ‘because’ she knew them and could identify them she was shot. Barbara died trying to save them from making a terrible mistake……..
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
