I just noticed that while she went missing late on May 26 or early morning May 27, her car wasn't found until June 1.
Maybe he grabbed her when she left the Ramada Lounge, and either forced her to drive somewhere, or killed her and drove her somewhere to dump her, then returned the car to the parking lot.
Looking at the 1978 calendar -- May 26 is the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. I wonder if it was somebody who didn't have to work for the long weekend.
I am still trying to make sense of the whole restroom thing. It just doesn't sit well with me. According to one of the articles, she sipped half of a drink, then got up to use the restroom and never came back. I took one of the quotes from her family members as an implication that they were somewhat suspicious of the group she was with. It sounds like they did not say anything until the police tracked them down and questioned them the next morning.
I think if I were out at a bar with a group of friends or co-workers, and someone said "I'll be right back" and never came back, I would be concerned and start looking for them, asking around the place, etc.
A couple theories that I have thought of, is that maybe someone in the group was making her uncomfortable (unwanted advances?) and she said she was going to the restroom but actually planned to leave. Or possibly that she never said she was going to the restroom, but her friends told the police that to cover something up.
It may be possible that she did go to the restroom and if the restrooms were near an exit, someone may have pulled a Bundy-type ploy on her and lured her outside but that would really depend on the layout of the place.
It is worth mentioning that there was an unidentified serial killer (as far as I know, he's never been identified) in the area at the time but all of his known victims were prostitutes or exotic dancers - which Patty Action and Barbara Barkley do not fit.
There was another one that I think fits this case (and Barbara's) much better - his name was James Winkles. He seemed to preselect his victims, scoping places out ahead of time. He mostly seemed to find his victims in their places of employment. One was a dog groomer, one was a sales agent at a new housing development, a convenience store clerk. There was one victim who escaped/survived and was able to identify him - he was charged with 2 of the murders but he claimed to have been responsible for many more in Pinellas County.
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/02/17/TampaBay/Man_who_claims_he_kil.shtml
James Delano Winkles admits abducting, raping and killing at least two Pinellas County women in the 1980s. He says he held them captive for days before beheading them.
Winkles is suspected of killing two other local women. He claims to have murdered dozens. He's either a serial killer or a big talker, or both.
"Things I've done make Ted Bundy look like a choirboy," he once boasted.
The question now is, should Winkles be put to death for these crimes? Already he is serving a life sentence in another case.
Today, at a sentencing hearing, a judge will begin deciding Winkles' fate. He'll either go to death row or be sentenced to life in a maximum-security prison without parole.
"He's going to die in prison one way or another," said Tampa attorney Daniel Hernandez, one of Winkles' court-appointed lawyers. "It's just a question of whether the state accelerates the process."
Winkles, 62, pleaded guilty last year to murdering two women -- Elizabeth Graham, a 19-year-old St. Petersburg dog groomer, and Margo Delimon, a 39-year-old Clearwater real estate agent. The women disappeared in 1980 and 1981, respectively.
Two other Pinellas County women -- Cynthia Clements and Bobbie Barkley, both 19 -- disappeared during the same time period. Winkles, who was a lawn-maintenance worker living in Pinellas Park at the time, has long been a suspect in their deaths. But he has not been charged in those two cases.
A burly, gray-haired man, Winkles has been behind bars for two decades. He's serving a life sentence for abducting an Orlando-area woman in 1982, shortly after the Pinellas women disappeared. The Orlando woman escaped from Winkles, running and screaming from his car when he stopped for gas. That's when Winkles was captured.
Almost five years ago, Winkles contacted Pinellas sheriff's detectives from state prison and offered to tell them how Graham and Delimon died. He was brought to the Pinellas County Jail for questioning.
In interviews with detectives and the St. Petersburg Times, Winkles claimed to have abducted, raped and killed 62 women, including 41 in Pinellas. He seemed to be seeking notoriety.
Detectives don't believe the body count.
"The bottom line is, he's only told us about two," said Pinellas Sgt. Mike Ring, head of the county's homicide squad. "He's hinted around that he's responsible for other cases, but he's never given us anything concrete. If he wants to talk, we'll listen."
Winkles, however, knew a lot about Graham and Delimon. He nonchalantly described the women as random victims he abducted to satisfy his sexual urges.
Graham was a dog groomer who drove a van for Pampered Poodles mobile pet grooming. In 1980, Winkles called the business and asked for someone to come groom his dachshund at a house near St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport.
Graham's van was found at the vacant house the next day, but she had vanished. Winkles claims he abducted her, kept her for days for his sexual pleasure, then shot her and beheaded her. Her skull was found in a river. The rest of her was not found.
Delimon disappeared in 1981 after making a phone call from her Clearwater apartment.
Using techniques similar to serial killer Ted Bundy's, Winkles said he got Delimon into his car with a ruse and rendered the passenger's door latch inoperable so she couldn't escape. He said he kept her alive for a few days.
Delimon's body was found in Citrus County, her head in Hernando County. Winkles said he tossed her head out a car window as he drove along U.S. 19.
"If you think of what he did to these women, he deserves the death penalty," said prosecutor Fred Schaub, who will present the state's case against Winkles at today's hearing. "Being kept alive for a week, almost like a slave, knowing he's going to kill you -- mentally, it would just play on somebody's mind."
Winkles' defense attorneys, seeking to keep him off death row, will note that Winkles contacted police and confessed.
"Without him coming forward and assisting law enforcement, these crimes would still remain unsolved," said Clearwater attorney Bjorn Brunvand, who is Winkles' other court-appointed lawyer.
Brunvand also makes a pragmatic point: At age 62, Winkles is unlikely to live long enough to die of lethal injection, considering that Florida's automatic death penalty appeals process can last for a decade or more.
Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Richard Luce will decide Winkles' sentence; Winkles waived his right to go before a jury. The hearing should take one or two days, and Luce could rule immediately or later.
Gary Muchmore of St. Petersburg will be at today's hearing. He was Elizabeth Graham's boyfriend and planned to marry her. He's only sorry that Florida's electric chair is no longer an option for Winkles.
"I regret that he can only die one time. Every day since Sept. 9, 1990 (when Graham disappeared), I wish he could die that many days," said Muchmore, 47. "You have no idea the torture he put the families through. It's something that never goes away, like a thorn in your foot for 20-some years.
"I would say, 'May God have mercy on his soul,' but he has no soul."
