Found Deceased VA - Kathleen 'Katie' Barham, 32, Portsmouth, 27 May 2015

DNA Solves
DNA Solves
DNA Solves

New Posts

steelman said:
I would be a little more inclined to zoom in on the boyfriend if he hadn't reported her missing at all. After he reported it to police, they didn't even bother assigning anybody to the case and following up. The boyfriend may have thought that once he reported it, he needed to sit back and let the cops handle it. They didn't. After 9 days, he contacted Katie's father, who got on the horn with the PD and started raising hell. Only at that point did they drop their doughnuts and radar guns and begin searching for her. That's a week and a half after she vanished.

Her boyfriend has been pretty upfront and vocal, hasn't lawyered up, and hasn't gone into hiding. For the time being, I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was sleeping that night while she was coming and going while doing laundry.

Keep one thing in mind. She was reportedly last seen at 10:30 p.m.------but at 12:24 A.M., she made a post on her Facebook page. At around 1:30 A.M., the boyfriend woke up and went looking for her, at which time he said he found the clothes in the dryer "still warm".

Was she being stalked by someone as she was walking back and forth to her apartment ? Apparently she was traveling back and forth from one to the other for at least a couple of hours, maybe more.
Click to expand...

Who's story is it that the boyfriend reported her missing but LE didn't pursue anything until 9 days later, LE's or the boyfriends?

I'm not jumping to conclusions on the boyfriend either. I remember a case a few years ago where a young lady who lived in an apartment complex disappeared. Everyone suspected her husband. As it turns out when she left her apartment to go to work, her neighbor asked her for a ride to work because he said his motorcycle wouldn't run. She agreed and he kidnapped her, took her to a secluded area, raped her, killed, dumped her body and then drove back to town and dumped the car in a Walmart parking lot. Her name was Whitney Heichel. You can read her story on WS here: http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?188035-OR-Whitney-Heichel-21-Gresham-16-Oct-2012-1
 
Joe Friday said:
Who's story is it that the boyfriend reported her missing but LE didn't pursue anything until 9 days later, LE's or the boyfriends?

I'm not jumping to conclusions on the boyfriend either. I remember a case a few years ago where a young lady who lived in an apartment complex disappeared. Everyone suspected her husband. As it turns out when she left her apartment to go to work, her neighbor asked her for a ride to work because he said his motorcycle wouldn't run. She agreed and he kidnapped her, took her to a secluded area, raped her, killed, dumped her body and then drove back to town and dumped the car in a Walmart parking lot. Her name was Whitney Heichel. You can read her story on WS here: http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?188035-OR-Whitney-Heichel-21-Gresham-16-Oct-2012-1
Click to expand...

Good question about whose story it is, about if they didn't really pursue it for 9 days.

Honestly, when someone goes missing, it's not always like the movies where they release the hound dogs the same night and gather search parties. Many times their families put out a missing persons report and say they may have left on their own. If the boyfriend didn't express his concern within that 9 days it's likely that LE didn't see a huge issue with waiting. It may have been after that 9 days where the boyfriend talked to the dad, and it was the dad who panicked. In that case, the boyfriend would look a little suspicious IMO.

It's also very likely that IF she was out by herself, she was victim of a random, senseless crime. If that's the case, hopefully DNA helps find the perp.
 
Katie's boyfriend reported her missing less than 24 hours after her disappearance and it' 11 days before a detective was assigned to Katie's disappearance. Since I have no MSM or link to back it up it's jmo.
 
I also meant to add that Portsmouth is a poor city. I know, I live here. It's not a good excuse but there aren't a lot of detectives that could be assigned to this case. We've had a lot going on in the city and I think the police are spread pretty thin.
 
lizzybeth said:
I also meant to add that Portsmouth is a poor city. I know, I live here. It's not a good excuse but there aren't a lot of detectives that could be assigned to this case. We've had a lot going on in the city and I think the police are spread pretty thin.
Click to expand...

Oh yes. I'm familiar with the area. My kids' aunt lives in Hampton, and we visit very often.

I had family friends years ago who were in the Navy and lived in some very seedy apartments in Portsmouth. It was all they could afford. But we stayed with them for a weekend and I witnessed many drug deals and stuff in that small amount of time. Creepy stuff. Not all parts of Portsmouth are bad but there are some very questionable areas for sure.

PLUS with all the stuff that's been going on, it makes perfect sense that their police officers are busy. With people having bodies and stuff in cars, finding people to get all of it done requires extra time and money. I get it.
 
Was it usual for her not to have contact with her parents for up to ten days at a time? If her parents only found out she was missing after nine days?
 
lizzybeth said:
Katie's boyfriend reported her missing less than 24 hours after her disappearance and it' 11 days before a detective was assigned to Katie's disappearance. Since I have no MSM or link to back it up it's jmo.
Click to expand...

According to this MSM story her boyfriend (Fegan) did file a report for her missing on the 28th and investigators confirmed that no one one was assigned to the case then.

Fegan filed a missing persons report for Barham May 28. Portsmouth police confirm a detective wasn’t assigned to the case until Monday, June 8. That has the family concerned and frustrated.

“It’s just very horrible,” Fegan said. “Her phone was on for four days, and now it is off. For four days they could have tracked her on it and wouldn’t do it. They told me it was a hassle and needed a warrant.”

http://wavy.com/2015/06/09/police-searching-for-missing-portsmouth-mother/
Click to expand...
 
The only thing about the boyfriend that sits weird with me is just based on my own personal relationship, if I went missing for even a few hours, my spouse would be calling every Tom, Dick & Harry trying to find me. My parents would definitely know right away.
 
Since the boyfriend reported her missing right away, I guess he thought that the police would have contacted her parents.

LE dropped the ball on this one big time. jmo
 
CD82 said:
Oh yes. I'm familiar with the area. My kids' aunt lives in Hampton, and we visit very often.

I had family friends years ago who were in the Navy and lived in some very seedy apartments in Portsmouth. It was all they could afford. But we stayed with them for a weekend and I witnessed many drug deals and stuff in that small amount of time. Creepy stuff. Not all parts of Portsmouth are bad but there are some very questionable areas for sure.

PLUS with all the stuff that's been going on, it makes perfect sense that their police officers are busy. With people having bodies and stuff in cars, finding people to get all of it done requires extra time and money. I get it.
Click to expand...

Neport News/Hampton have their own issues. :)

We're having issues with the Mayor (trying to have him recalled), the Sheriff (refusing to have deputies in the courtroom because of budget cuts...of course he pouted and stomped his feet enough that he was given more money for his budget). Add to that two shootings by police officers. It's a big mess.

About the lady that was stopped and had human remains in her trunk. She was stopped in Hampton (part of Hampton Roads but another city entirely). She lived in Richmond which is 100 miles from Portsmouth. I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with Katie.
 
Would LE contact her parents? They probably just asked the boyfriend if he had contacted family to see if Katie was with them.

iluvmua said:
Since the boyfriend reported her missing right away, I guess he thought that the police would have contacted her parents.

LE dropped the ball on this one big time. jmo
Click to expand...
 
iluvmua said:
Since the boyfriend reported her missing right away, I guess he thought that the police would have contacted her parents.

LE dropped the ball on this one big time. jmo
Click to expand...

The part of him not calling her parents to inform them Katie is missing is strange and to think that LE would handle it when they are not even looking into her being missing, is even more strange.

JMO
 
I wonder what clothes were in the dryer. Automatically, when something like this happens you think the significant other may have something to do with someone's disappearance. IF he harmed Katie I wonder if he did the laundry to try to hide evidence. I'm not saying he's involved in her disappearance at all.

JMO
 
Joe Friday said:
Who's story is it that the boyfriend reported her missing but LE didn't pursue anything until 9 days later, LE's or the boyfriends?

I'm not jumping to conclusions on the boyfriend either. I remember a case a few years ago where a young lady who lived in an apartment complex disappeared. Everyone suspected her husband. As it turns out when she left her apartment to go to work, her neighbor asked her for a ride to work because he said his motorcycle wouldn't run. She agreed and he kidnapped her, took her to a secluded area, raped her, killed, dumped her body and then drove back to town and dumped the car in a Walmart parking lot. Her name was Whitney Heichel. You can read her story on WS here: http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?188035-OR-Whitney-Heichel-21-Gresham-16-Oct-2012-1
Click to expand...

Portsmouth Police did not assign a detective to the case until June 8 -- 11 days after Katie was reported missing. Police were at the complex Tuesday afternoon, canvassing the area. 13News Now asked police why they waited so long to investigate. They sent us this statement:

At this time, we are conducting an internal review to determine what caused a delay in assigning the missing person case of Kathleen Barham to a detective for follow-up investigation. Ms. Barham's case is being investigated to the fullest extent possible to determine the facts and circumstances surrounding her disappearance. The department will ensure the family is completely aware of all our investigative efforts, and we are working assiduously to locate Kathleen "Katie" Barham."[/QUOTE]

http://www.13newsnow.com/story/news...h-mother-missing-for-nearly-2-weeks/28733137/

The police admitted it themselves .......................
 
Seen many of cases where the person who filled the missing reports ends up being the person responsible for that person being missing.

Most of the time this turns out to be a person in a close relationship with the missing person such as significant others or even parents and children.
 
Katie's boyfriend and father of her two children, Rich Fegan says he was falling asleep on the couch that night, when Katie went missing.

"She started washing the clothes in the laundry facility in the building. A little while later I woke up with her complaining saying the dryer's not working, and she had to go to the building right here (points to next apartment building) to dry the clothes," he said.

He says he woke up around 1:30 a.m. and Katie was gone.

"All the lights were on, the TV's on and she's not in the house. I walked out to our laundry room and then that other laundry room and she wasn't there. But her clothes were there. The clothes were slightly warm. Til 2:30 in the morning or whatever, I was walking around yelling her name. I came home and the next day I called the police," he said.

Portsmouth Police did not assign a detective to the case until June 8 -- 11 days after Katie was reported missing. Police were at the complex Tuesday afternoon, canvassing the area. 13News Now asked police why they waited so long to investigate.

Fegan admits he and Katie had their share of problems, but says she would never leave her children behind.
"We've had arguments before or whatever. We've been together nine years. There's been two or three times in our nine years where she went away for the weekend to her mom's, but I know she didn't walk away from us is what I know. I think someone took her. I know that she wouldn't leave ," he said.

Katie's last Facebook post was an inspirational quote about friendship, posted at 12:24 a.m. on May 28. (That same night)
Click to expand...

http://www.13newsnow.com/story/news...h-mother-missing-for-nearly-2-weeks/28733137/
 
I hope LE has searched their apartment for evidence and his/her car/family vehicle etc.

I'm still up in the air about the person they found near her apartment complex is actually her.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

DNASolves

Who is Fairfield County Jane Doe (1993)?

Members online

... and 158 more.
Total: 408 (members: 159, guests: 249)

Online statistics

Members online
159
Guests online
249
Total visitors
408
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
609,341
Messages
18,252,909
Members
234,630
Latest member
Marquello
Back
Top