ND ND - Barbara Cotton, 15, Williston, 11 Apr 1981

[Sweetluv]

Bumping!

 

[Schiellj]

Bumping!

Thank you

 

[theshadow45]

Barbara has been missing for 43 years today.

 

[summergirl1]

The Roar of the PumpJack

The Disappearance of Barbara Cotton (North Dakota) *A Light the Way Collaboration*

www.evaporatethemissing.com

 

[Sweetluv]

summergirl1..thanks for the article! It was informative and gave alot of insight. I wish more of the missing had articles out there that gave us a better detailed description of the day they went missing, under what circumstances, and who had contact that day with them. Barbara's disappearance, I hope, will be solved someday soon...

 

[Sillybilly]

Good morning everyone,

Just to let you know that Schiellj has been verified as an extended family member of Barbara's.

Thank you to Schiellj and to everyone else who is here to discuss this case and hopefully, eventually, find out what happened to Barbara.

 

[Sweetluv]

How hard was this Boyfriend looked at by LE at the time? Were staff interviewed at the Restaurant to confirm Barbara was even there? What kind of search was ever done by LE...tracking dogs brought in?
I hope Barbara's family gets the answers they deserve.

 

[Schiellj]

How hard was this Boyfriend looked at by LE at the time? Were staff interviewed at the Restaurant to confirm Barbara was even there? What kind of search was ever done by LE...tracking dogs brought in?
I hope Barbara's family gets the answers they deserve.

I don't have access to the case files however, to my knowledge, law enforcement never spoke to him. I am not aware of any interviews with the restaurant staff nor am I aware of any ground searches (besides the ones I did).
Barb's disappearance was treated as if she was a runaway for years.

 

[Richard]

...Barb's disappearance was treated as if she was a runaway for years.

Unfortunately, so many disappearances of young people start out by them leaving home to "run away" and a predator takes advantage of them when they are vulnerable.

The assumption that someone ran away should not be used as an excuse for not taking the disappearance seriously and immediately taking necessary steps to find them.

 

[sylvanianvicious]

Hi, this is my first post so hopefully I'm posting in the right spot! I haven't seen any rule-out nor suggestion that Scottsdale Jane Doe may be Barbara Cotton. The biggest flaw in my theory is that Jane Doe was found in Arizona in 1982 while Barb went missing in North Dakota. Doe's remains were skeletal, consisting of just her skull and could've been undiscovered since 1980 or 1981. They determined her hair color to be brown, like Barb's. The facial reconstruction bears a decent resemblance to hers, as well. To top it off, both have similar dentals. Jane Doe's dentals are described as potentially protruding front teeth and recent fillings while Barbara had perfect teeth with a few fillings. Doe is estimated between 15-and 19-years-old. What do we think?

 

[Richard]

Hi, this is my first post so hopefully I'm posting in the right spot! I haven't seen any rule-out nor suggestion that Scottsdale Jane Doe may be Barbara Cotton. The biggest flaw in my theory is that Jane Doe was found in Arizona in 1982 while Barb went missing in North Dakota. Doe's remains were skeletal, consisting of just her skull and could've been undiscovered since 1980 or 1981. They determined her hair color to be brown, like Barb's. The facial reconstruction bears a decent resemblance to hers, as well. To top it off, both have similar dentals. Jane Doe's dentals are described as potentially protruding front teeth and recent fillings while Barbara had perfect teeth with a few fillings. Doe is estimated between 15-and 19-years-old. What do we think?
View attachment 533837

Welcome to Websleuths and to this thread. Your thoughts on this potential match are certainly worth consideration by the investigating agencies.

 

[sylvanianvicious]

Welcome to Websleuths and to this thread. Your thoughts on this potential match are certainly worth consideration by the investigating agencies.

Thank you, I'm glad to be here and potentially do some good for this world. I sent the match to the Doe network after getting positive feedback on a Reddit post that I made. I wanted to make sure there was no contradicting evidence before submitting

 

[brittanyoshell]

Hi, this is my first post so hopefully I'm posting in the right spot! I haven't seen any rule-out nor suggestion that Scottsdale Jane Doe may be Barbara Cotton. The biggest flaw in my theory is that Jane Doe was found in Arizona in 1982 while Barb went missing in North Dakota. Doe's remains were skeletal, consisting of just her skull and could've been undiscovered since 1980 or 1981. They determined her hair color to be brown, like Barb's. The facial reconstruction bears a decent resemblance to hers, as well. To top it off, both have similar dentals. Jane Doe's dentals are described as potentially protruding front teeth and recent fillings while Barbara had perfect teeth with a few fillings. Doe is estimated between 15-and 19-years-old. What do we think?
View attachment 533837

She's not listed as an exclusion on namus so I think it's definitely worth checking out.

 

[brittanyoshell]

Thank you, I'm glad to be here and potentially do some good for this world. I sent the match to the Doe network after getting positive feedback on a Reddit post that I made. I wanted to make sure there was no contradicting evidence before submitting

Thank you for looking for Barb. If you havent already you should check out findbarbcotton.com it's run by an extended family member of Barb and has a lot of information on her case

 

[sylvanianvicious]

Thank you for looking for Barb. If you havent already you should check out findbarbcotton.com it's run by an extended family member of Barb and has a lot of information on her case

Thankfully that was the first website I found when looking for information. It's a wonderful resource and I can tell it's run by someone who truly, deeply cares. I really hope Barb is reunited with her family soon. Even if Doe doesn't turn out to be her, then they're both one step closer to being reunited with their families. Thank you for your input on the match and being so kind.