CA CA - Barbara Thomas, 69, from Bullhead City AZ, disappeared in Mojave desert, 12 July 2019 #4

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In regards to the parking area where the other cars were parked, was there not one person there "enjoying" a "break" in their car, that happened to notice anything?
I realize that LE has to go on the last reported sighting, and that they need to focus on the whole timeline leading up to the time of person reported missing.
The last 24 hours is very important.
And here we have a report from the missing woman's husband. Via 911.
Once again does anyone know how long they have been married? If there was any kind of a riff between them?
Or between her and anyone? I have not seen that reported any where.
And I take it to heart what our VI is saying about there being pix taken by the missing woman, so am left wondering where the heck she is.
jmo and tia,
Chi
According to @dbdb11, RT said Barbara took the 360 photo, that included vehicles parked in a parking area below, from atop a hill. It is not known if anyone in the parking area saw Barbara. I hope so.

He also said that he could confirm they've been together since 2006 but isn't sure when they were married. That was early on, so perhaps he is aware of that now. MOO

The post below is information dbdb11 shared which he received via text from his sister in HK. She was present when RT spoke to her father (Barbara's brother).
hmmm i don’t have the sharpest memory but i’ll try to recount as best as i can - robbie and said he needs to talk to daddy and that barbara’s missing. it was a long story that started at the beginning on friday morning and progressed chronologically throughout the day. the impression robbie gave me was that she was wearing a red cap, a bikini and carrying a travel cup with beer in it. they lost sight of each other for 5-10 minutes before she “vanished” and he went back to their rv to see if she had returned but it was still locked so that meant she hadn’t come back yet (they had put the key under a rock which they both knew the location of). so he went back to check a shaded cave that they had found together earlier thinking she may have been taking a break from the heat but she wasn’t there either. he still wasn’t worried at this point because.. i don’t remember why he said he wasn’t yet worried. maybe because they both knew the area? or this was a regular thing? idk not sure but he continued searching for her on his own. by around noon time it was getting terribly hot so he started getting worried and called 911. police arrived like 2 hours later and searched for her. robbie said throughout the day they had sniff dogs, horses, hundreds of people and even a helicopter (which unfortunately couldn’t use its infrared function because it was too hot out to get any useful readings) and nobody could find any trace of her. searched throughout the night too. nothing. she had just disappeared. robbie admits “it doesn’t make any sense” that she just wandered off and got lost and there’s no evidence.. which is why he suspects she may have been picked up in a car. also because from the spot where she went missing she had to cross a highway in order to get back to where their rv was parked. also apparently she took a 360 picture that morning from on top of a hill and the photo included a parking lot with some vehicles in it so the police are looking into their license plates/info.

robbie said that he just wants barbara back and will press no charges against the person who abducted her so long as they return her. the call was delivered in a measured tone but he broke down a bit at this point, was tough to hear ..abc reached out? idk if it was abc but some mainstream news outlet and i definitely heard nancy grace mentioned. robbie’s done some interviews as he wants to get the word out. but he hasn’t seen or read any of the released news and comments. it’s too much

he said he keeps returning to the spot where he lost her and overturning rocks and searching and searching hoping to find something. he was there the day he called us although i think he said he shouldn’t really go back there as protocol says he’s the first suspect. he was even held for 5hrs in a cop car on the first day. it’s been nonstop and nobody is sleeping. robbie said he had held off on calling daddy to tell him the bad news because it was such devastating news and he was hoping she would turn up.. but he couldn’t wait any longer. he also said it’s difficult to call into china and said his calls rarely go through so if we want to ask any questions or talk more we should call him.

txt msg from my sister. wish i.asked.for this.earlier...
dbdb11's post re: length of RT and BT's relationship:
i dont know who youre speaking of, and am also not on facebook for over a decade.

barb has two brothers, fairly estranged. have met my cousins once as a small child. i think my uncles side has divorced once lr twice and may have more cousins i dont even know about. on my dads side, we've been at home in hk for many years, and though i've visited rob and barb on trips back to states, have never tried to reach out to cousins.

can confirm barb and rob have been together since 2006 at least, though i dont know how long married.

on cellphone atm.. about to.call robs fam for any updates, but there are some questions i want to ask which just dont feel appropriate given my distance from everything.goin on abd the things they all must be going.through.

thanks again all
 
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We all know that no one just disappears.
So we are going with this woman definitely being at that spot on that date? I hope that LE have the evidence that they need to prove it. Surely, the neighbors' surveillance cam info.
This is just so sad.
C
 
i am looking at the maps again, the s in the road where i was focusing... what i took to be a parking lot in satellite view is actually more like a large electrical transformer or something. it is not a parking lot at all. i must be looking in the wrong area.
@dbdb11
I think you ARE looking at the wrong place. The search HQ was further south at the junction with Hidden Hill Road, as confirmed by the WS member who went there, and posted some photos.

As for the parking area seen from the hill top, I understood it to be some distance away.
 
Yes, financial problems can be a factor, but I haven't seen any reason to assume that was a problem for them. Lots of people buy RV's or expensive cars when they retire, especially when they are couples who enjoy travelling.

So that alone doesn't indicate to me that there was financial strain in the marriage. Imo

I'm just explaining one of the reasons why sleuths poke around at items like this. We can't know any motivations, we aren't inside anyone's heads. I'm not assuming, just answering the question about why some people are interested in the finances. And some people have posted about it.

I do not know how anyone could know what "financial strain" was for someone else. I tend to keep my financial worries inside my head, but other people talk about theirs quite a bit more. In my own marriage, we have worked out some checks and balances on spending, but I know people personally who are in really difficult financial straits in retirement, and they talk about it and act on it.

The more I think about this case, the more I think the evidence stacks up for an unlikely but possible "death by misadventure in the desert." But I don't know what LE knows (or what family members know). There seems to be some suspicion on RT, right? If those who suspect him want a full picture, they'll look into what's known about finances, that's for sure.
 
Anytime, that's what I do.
All my hopes and prayers, if you don't mind me saying, are with your entire family.
Nice to meet you, sorry for the circumstances,
Chi
eta I did include all relevant info, maps, clothing description, but not the pic of B in her bikini, although it's nice, I really think she'd prefer the other pic in this situation
im very grateful for you and all of your prayers. thank you
 
Here is the grab of the trail on the other side.


View attachment 196015

If the whole trail looks like that, it would be pretty hard to inadvertently wander off it. I wonder if it stays relatively flat, or if it eventually has drops on the side. I guess someone could trip or fall and then maybe roll off the trail. Distances in the desert tend to look shorter than they actually are, so I wonder if BT was further away from RT than he thought when she disappeared.
 
FIND ATTACHED and definitely take a look on your own if you'd like.

They parked the camper on the pull off, just speculating here of course, hid truck/RV key under a rock they both would be able to find quite easily, they crossed over Kelbaker road (with a camera?, a gallon of water, at least one beer in a travel mug or coozie?, Barb in either bikini top or possibly bra? Robbie carrying a pack of some kind?), once on the other side of the road they proceeded to walk (NOT HIKE) approx 2 miles (exactly 2.2 miles according to Robbie's correspondence with us) towards a hill that could be seen from the parking area just ahead of where they pulled off the road.

Once on this hill Barb decided to take a panorama photo of their surroundings (which I assume includes Robbie in the panorama. If it is a 360 photo as Rob initially suggested they likely brought a 360 camera, and Barb and Robbie should both be in this image). Robbie claims the 360/panorama photo Barb took from this hill includes cars in the parking lot below, potentially even license plate numbers? and was very upset police were not looking into the owners of these cars as potential suspects (and were instead suspecting him, and seemingly ignoring his statements on the day she went missing). I assume if the cars were clearly visible in the picture, surely Rob and Barb would have been plainly visible to anyone in a car in the parking lot below the hill as well.

As they were on the way back from the hill, towards their RV, there was a rock formation Robbie implies they were both interested in. He stopped to take a photo of this rock formation and "asked Barb to stay with me," but she went on ahead anyway. Sounds quite stubborn of her. Perhaps they had some kind of disagreement? In any case, he says she wanted to get back to the RV.

This is where Barb rounds a corner, we can assume she rounds a boulder outcrop that puts her out of Robbie's sight. Robbie has never specified how long he spent taking photos of this rock formation, but he claimed to us that police have photos of Barb on the walk, that day, and that police have photos of the rock formation as well. Robbie and Barb have no known social media accounts where they share photos of their adventures with friends/family.

As Robbie made his way back to the RV he did not have any concerns. The RV was less than 1/4 mile (1000 ft) away from where he last saw her, he has claimed, and was never concerned about how far ahead she could have gotten, between him and the RV. He made his way back to the RV and was not immediately concerned that he didn't see her there. He was hot, he has told us, and poured some water on a towel and put it on his head. After a few minutes of her not turning up he began to grow concerned. He did not immediately look for any signs of tire tracks, or signs of abduction/kidnapping. He proceeded to shout and wave his arms, as well as backtrack to a cave they both knew was in the area. His thinking was, perhaps she went there to get out of the sun (between when she left him and the few minutes it took him to get back to the RV from the rock formation).

According to public records he called the police around 3pm?, and according to Robbie they arrived two hours after he called? On arrival the search and rescue crews destroyed any evidence of a potential crime scene, according to Robbie. If this account is accurate, what did Robbie do in those two hours?

Robbie served in Vietnam, and also has years of experience visiting the Mojave desert, including familiarity with Kelbaker's immediate geological features, and, I would assume, a keen sense for his surroundings. He didn't think to look for signs of abduction, or a struggle? He didn't follow up with the cars parked in the parking lot just down the road (but did check in a cave???)? He didn't look for signs of a struggle around the RV but concludes she must have been abducted? That abduction is the ONLY logical conclusion?

I think we are missing some vital information here and would like to hear a much more detailed account of what Robbie did between taking photos of the rock formation, returning to the RV, searching the area for Barb, calling police, and search and rescue finally arriving. I think our timeline of events could do with clarification.



FOR REFERENCE:
Walking speed 1000 meters or 1 kilometer per 10 minutes ( m/min – km/min ), converted to foot per 10 minutes equals 3280.84 feet per 10 minutes ( ft/min ).
According to the above generalisation Robbie was approx 3 plus MINUTES away from the RV.



I would like to include some further speculation for everyone to consider. Robbie drove across state lines to the only S on a quiet road, the first stage of an otherwise undefined camping trip. He hasn't told any of us anymore about what this trip entailed, or what they were initially planning. They pulled off the road in a place with enough room for other cars to pull off as well. They began their walk in the Mojave around/ or not long after HIGH NOON, in RECORD HEAT. This all happened on a Friday, a weekday, when many others who might otherwise be hiking and exploring the desert area, would have more likely been at work. Regular hikers familiar with the area, and other locals have expressed it would be foolish and naive to wander into the Mojave for a casual walk at this time of day (unless of course your plans required not being seen by anyone else).

I think you bring up SO many salient points (the part about state lines troubles me too, it's another little box to check on the criminal checklist).

I don't think she went around any rock formation, though, in Robbie's story. He was heading toward the rocks in the dry creek bed (they were coming back from the main rock formation where she took the panorama photo). He walked on a smaller, very narrow trail toward that creek bed. She may have followed a short distance, but it would have been uncomfortable with bare legs, or potentially so. Anyway, she headed back, so she went up the main trail, he was going down hill a little (not much elevation change) but at right angles to her, so could no longer see her.

She should have been able to see the RV's top from her position, makes me really want to go out there myself, but Sroad's account is the one I'm going off of.

I only mention the lack of rocks near where I assume they parted ways because there was no obvious place for an abductor to hide, nor was there a rock for her to use for privacy if she needed a bathroom break. My own personal experience is that trying to squat where there's as much desert bloom as was near that trail...would be unpleasant. She'd be better off going to the RV. Just another little piece to consider (you are incorporating RT's story very well, so I'm trying to do the same).
 
Probably already answered, but I'm several pages behind and this is important. Most recent contact numbers:

July 22nd - The investigation continues into the whereabouts of missing person Barbara Thomas from SBSD - Colorado River Sheriffs Department : Nixle
The investigation is ongoing and anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Nicholas Clark, Specialized Investigations Division (909) 387-3589. Callers wishing to remain anonymous are urged to contact the We-Tip Hotline at 1-800-78-CRIME (27463) or www.wetip.com.
I want to add these as well. Mods let me know if sharing these is frowned upon.

In the meantime, everyone else, please share with everyone you know. On your social media. Anywhere please.
 

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Google map of driving directions between Bullhead City, AZ where BT and RT live and left from that morning she disappeared to go camping in the desert according to RT, and the approximate area where RT said they pulled over to go for a walk and check out some rock formations. It shows that area is 'smack dab' in the middle of the nearest desert to their home, The Mojave, one of the hottest places on Earth
<modsnip - link to unapproved source>

I can't shake this thought from when I first read about her disappearance how extreme the circumstances were.

According to RT, he drove 2 hours from home with his wife to walk literally:

in the middle of the Desert
in the middle of July
in the middle of the Day

So many "middles" involved in the circumstances of BT's disappearance that day, but not a middling undertaking at all IMO.

upload_2019-7-31_15-6-21.png
 
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i am looking at the maps again, the s in the road where i was focusing... what i took to be a parking lot in satellite view is actually more like a large electrical transformer or something. it is not a parking lot at all. i must be looking in the wrong area.

The place you are looking at is pretty much straight east of a known camping area in granite hills (the name of the camping spot eludes me at the moment). My guess is that camping spot was what he was calling the parking lot. If RT had parked further down towards Kelbaker/Hidden Hill where everyone thinks, I believe it would be a little over 2 miles up to the camping area. MOO
 
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