MN MN - Barbara Paciotti, 20, Hibbing, 14 June 1969

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Barbara Jean Paciotti
barbara_jean_paciotti_1.jpg
paciotti_barbara2.jpg

Paciotti, circa 1969

  • Missing Since 06/14/1969
  • Missing From Hibbing, Minnesota
  • Classification Endangered Missing
  • Sex Female
  • Race White
  • Date of Birth 03/11/1949 (72)
  • Age 20 years old
  • Height and Weight 4'11, 98 pounds
  • Clothing/Jewelry Description A rust-colored jacket, a red plaid dress, loafers, and rings set with jade and topaz stones.
  • Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Dark brown hair, brown eyes. Paciotti's nicknames are Barb and Barbie. She is of Italian and Serbian descent.
Details of Disappearance

Paciotti was a resident of Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1969. She was visiting her parents in Hibbing, Minnesota on June 14, 1969 when she was last seen near Sammy's Pizza downtown, just after midnight.

Paciotti's roommate saw her get into a green 1964 Oldsmobile driven by Jeffrey Dolinich, whom she was dating at the time. The vehicle belonged to Dolinich's father. Paciotti has never been heard from again.

When questioned about Paciotti's case in 1969, Dolinich claimed they had argued in his car and he left the vehicle as a result. When police searched his car, they found Paciotti's purse with her identification inside. One of the purse's straps was detached.

The officers who questioned Dolinich noticed clothing stained with grass and mud lying on the floor of his apartment. They subsequently searched the residence, but Dolinich's muddy shoes and pants had already been taken away by his mother. Investigators recovered the shoes, but not the pants.

Dolinich threatened to commit suicide after Paciotti's disappearance and was hospitalized for observation. He sent a cryptic, remorseful-sounding letter to her parents shortly after she was last seen. In the letter, he stated he had hit Paciotti and later he woke up without her in Mora, Minnesota, and he believed she was deceased.

The investigation in Paciotti's disappearance was reopened in 2005 and Dolinich was named as the only suspect in her case. He was reinterviewed by authorities, hired an attorney refused to cooperate further in the investigation.

Several searches in and around property formerly owned by Dolinich have turned up no evidence in Paciotti's case, and he never faced charges in her disappearance. He is now deceased.

Paciotti's family does not believe she would have left voluntarily. Authorities believe Paciotti met with foul play and is deceased, but there is as yet insufficient evidence to charge anyone in her disappearance. She was employed as a secretary for an investment firm in 1969. Her father and sister died in 1977 and her mother in 2004, but her brother is still alive.

Paciotti's loved ones held a memorial service for her in 2008. Her case remains unsolved.

Investigating Agency
  • Hibbing Police Department 218-263-3601
Source Information
 
thank you for all the efforts you have been able to do in this case ... barbara rest in peace
 
In addition to the articles below, I also found a marriage license application for a "Barbara A. Paciotti" (different middle initial but about the same age as the missing Barbara) in the Minneapolis Star Tribune in August 1969. I tried to see if there were any other Barbara Paciotti's living in Minneapolis at the time with the middle initial "A" and I couldn't find any.
Barbara Paciotti marriage.jpg

"Lake area searched for woman," Minneapolis Star, 19 June 1969, 7A.
Lake area searched for woman_.jpg

"300 Searchers, Copter Fail to Find Secretary," Star Tribune [Minneapolis, MN], 20 June 1969, 31.
300 Searchers, Copter Fail to Find Secretary_.jpg
The helicopter and some 300 police officers, St. Louis County sheriff's deputies and volunteers were looking for Barbara Paciotti, 20, who disappeared in downtown Hibbing about 1:30 a.m. last Saturday.

She was last seen with a male companion. Police said yesterday they have not found the companion, either.

Miss Paciotti, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fabian Paciotti, was in Hibbing over the weekend to visit her parents.

The search yesterday concentrated in the Dupont Lake area about 4 1/2 miles east of Hibbing, police said. The search will continue during daylight hours today, officers said.


Minneapolis Star, 21 June 1969, 6A.
Barbara Paciotti.jpg
Barbara Paciotti, 20, has been missing in the Hibbing, Minn., area since last Saturday and a man in a Minneapolis hospital has been questioned in the case. Miss Paciotti, who had been working as a secretary in Minneapolis, was in Hibbing visiting her parents when she was last seen with the man. He went to the Minneapolis Police Department Sunday evening, later was taken to a hospital and Hibbing police visited Minneapolis to question him. They said he semed [sic] to be in a stupor. The inquiry is continuing.
 
In addition to the articles below, I also found a marriage license application for a "Barbara A. Paciotti" (different middle initial but about the same age as the missing Barbara) in the Minneapolis Star Tribune in August 1969. I tried to see if there were any other Barbara Paciotti's living in Minneapolis at the time with the middle initial "A" and I couldn't find any.
View attachment 393809

Unfortunately this is not the missing Barbara. On Ancestry there is the birth record for Barbara Jean on 11 March 1949 and another birth record for Barbara Ann Paciotti on 22 June 1948 in Douglas, MN.
 
For what it's worth, @Diane Redfern , NamUs only shows the photo on the left (thicker eyebrows if you're on mobile.)

You're right though - aside from the eyebrows, the teeth don't seem to match either. I'm looking at the slightly crooked tooth to the right of her front upper teeth in the left-hand photo, vs no apparent crooked tooth in the right.
 
 

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