THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BARBARA BARKLEY

On the morning of May 29, 1981, 19-year-old Barbara Jean Barkley arrived for her shift at a furniture store along 66th Street in Pinellas Park. The store, Pipe Furniture, was owned by her fiancé’s family, and that day she was working alone. A witness saw her get there around 10:00 a.m., for what seemed like a normal day at work.

Barbara, who went by Bobbie, had a routine of calling her mother during her lunch break every single day, but on that day, the call never came. By around 1:30 p.m., her brother Bruce stopped by the store after he couldn’t reach her by phone. The two of them had planned to meet during her lunch break that day, and when she didn’t answer, it was enough for him to go check. He saw her purse was still there, a television had been left on, and a calculator and pencil were on the floor, but there was nothing to clearly explain what had happened in to Barbara.

 
Bruce checked nearby businesses, made calls, and waited, thinking she may have stepped away for a bit and would return, but she didn’t. By around 7:00 that evening, after she still hadn’t come home, he contacted police. Her car was also missing. It was a beige 1973 Plymouth Fury with a brown vinyl top, Florida plate JZT-780, and a bumper sticker on the right side that read “Single and Loving It.”
A few days later, the car was found abandoned outside a rock club called, Studio 19, near the intersection of U.S. 19 and State Road 60 in Clearwater. The driver’s side window was down, the keys were still in the ignition, and the gas tank was low. Some of Barbara’s belongings were still inside.
A witness said they had seen a man driving Barbara’s car that day in the parking lot of a self-serve car wash along U.S. 19 after she had disappeared. He was described as being in his mid to late 20s, around 5’10 and about 160 pounds, with dark blond hair and light facial hair. One of his legs was wrapped in a bandage, and he reportedly had asked someone to wash the car for him, saying his leg issue made it difficult.

 
Over the years, a few names came up as suspects, including individuals who resembled the man at the car wash. One of those was Mark Cutler, a man who even claimed he knew what happened to Barbara, but nothing he said could be confirmed and a witness was unable to identify him as car wash man with any certainty. Another suspect was James D. Winkles, who was later connected to multiple cases in Florida, but neither of these people were ever definitively connected to what happened in this case, and both are now deceased.

Throughout her life Barbara was especially close with her mother, who kept the same phone number for years afterward, holding onto the possibility that one day her daughter might still try to call. But more than four decades later, that call never came...