Thursday, August 19, 1999
Woman's killing ends a life adrift
Authorities seek clues to slaying
BY MICHAEL D. CLARK
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — Patricia Ann Barrett brought five children into this world but had custody of none, a family member said.
In the last part of her 27 years she drifted through life working odd jobs and alternated living with relatives in Hamilton and Northern Kentucky.
Sometime after the early morning hours of last Friday, her unconventional life was ended by someone police investigators are now trying to find.
One of Ms. Barrett's sisters described her Wednesday as friendly, pretty and outgoing, and can't imagine why anyone would kill her and leave her body in a shed behind an abandoned Oxford Township farm house. It was found there Sunday afternoon by someone strolling on the property.
“She either got in with the wrong crowd or somebody picked her up,” said Kathy Messer, one of Ms. Barrett's older sisters.
Ms. Messer said her family is saddened and angry about the slaying of Ms. Barrett, who lived in and attended schools in Hamilton and Falmouth, Ky., but never graduated.
Married at 17 and divorced by 20, Ms. Barrett had two children but no stability in life. Later with a boyfriend she had three more children, Ms. Messer said. At the time of her death, she said, Ms. Barrett did not have custody of any of the children.
“She'd work to just make enough to get by. She worked as a motel cleaning woman, waitress or as a house cleaner,” she said.
Ms. Messer said that in the months before Ms. Barrett's death “she was trying to get her life under control.”
She said her younger sister had no history of mental illness, drug use or serious criminal record outside of run-ins with the law while a teen.
Ms. Barrett most recently spent time in the south Hamilton area, Butler County Sheriff investigators said during a news conference Wednesday.
Details about her death are sketchy, said investigators, who are not releasing information gathered from an examination of Ms. Barrett's body. But they are still appealing to the public for help in determining who was last with Ms. Barrett, said Butler County Sheriff Maj. Anthony Dwyer.
“Ms. Barrett's lifestyle and friends she had are very important to us. Our investigation is very active,” Maj. Dwyer said. “We are looking for someone who had contact with her in the south Hamilton area. One person could have done this, but we are also looking at multiple suspects.”
He said she was last seen in the early morning hours of Friday near Ohio 4 in south Hamilton, somewhere between Symmes and Bobmeyer Roads. At least three people talked to her near that time, but none know what happened to her afterward.
“We don't have her leaving with anyone. It takes a lot of information to solve a crime like this,” Maj. Dwyer said.
The Butler County coroner's office is conducting toxicology tests on Ms. Barrett's body, but the results could take weeks.
Ms. Barrett's body was discovered near an abandoned farmhouse in the 5900 block of Todd Road in Oxford Township, just north of the Oxford city limits.
Anyone with information about the homicide should call the sheriff's office at 887-3010.
Ms. Barrett's family has requested donations to pay for her funeral. For more information on making a donation call Don Catchen & Son Funeral Home in Erlanger, 606-342-4040.
County to pay for new radio system
This mom beat the odds - and City Hall
70 years, 1 question: What makes us tick?
Former principal under suspicion
No challengers for county judgeships
Bodies from river crash found
Father asks help in finding daughter
Shooting victims ask for prayers
Getting off welfare gets easier
'Longest garage sale' starts today
Cop accused of tampering with evidence quits
Gun-toting student to be sentenced
Schools in search of subs
Timing tangles city tax vote
Training center tops N. Ky. wish list
Woman's killing ends a life adrift
County plan charts development
Dayton decision to rezone street a real clunker
How to help earthquake victims
Politically incorrect? Stand in line
State fair beckons exhibitors
Attorney starts 2002 re-election bid
GET TO IT
Improved Pap test resisted by insurers
Butler Co. voters to decide 9 non-school levies
Candidate Bush on inner-city tour today
Country Day makes 1-year move
Drug use starting to fall among teens
Face on video, appearance in court lead to arrest
Federal judge lets Klan march in Cleveland
Levies approved for ballot
Most of suit vs. Hamilton thrown out
New levy for police on ballot
Ohio looks at violence in schools
Pioneer Village seeks helping hand
Schools told math, science need work
Silverton to welcome new official
Stadium finds new life as a lake reef
TRISTATE DIGEST
