NC NC - Donna Barnhill, 13, Lexington, 18 March 1981

[Diane Redfern]

From what i understand is that Donna was last seen at a lady named Carol?? not %100 sure on name. After Donna went missing her parents divorced and her dad married this woman. I do know that some ground searches have been done at the house they lived but nothing was found. Last I heard her dad had passed and her mom was in a nursing home.

I just do not see how they could ever id'd her unless someone in her family gives DNA. You know what I mean? I pray that one of her brothers or sisters come foward. Sad very Sad.

Could you tell me where did you read that? I can't find that information. Thanks!

 

[Gruffin]

There are a good many spooky things about the circumstances that might suggest some serial killer motivated by occultism. Fred Coffey, in particular, might be a good candidate:

March 18: Quite possibly the day James Earl Ray left St. Francis Hotel. Anniversary deadliest US tornado and deadliest US school disaster.
Hemstead Street: Similar name to Hempstead, NY, as in where the lead train in Kew Gardens wreck was headed (I've for a while thought JFK may have been killed mainly over this wreck). Oswald's half brother John Pic was stationed at Hempstead for a when in the Air Force I think it was.
Davidson County: Fred Coffey's mother's obituary in the October 13, 1991, Bristol Herald Courier lists her as a Davidson, and so I guess she remarried a Davidson. And John Davidson was the main entertainer the night of the 1977 Southgate Supper Club Fire.
Lexington: January 13, 1840, sinking of sidewheel paddle steamer Lexington.

Thing is, though, none of these things seemed to relate to each other or her birthday, and so for a while I have been leaning towards all mere coincidence, but today I noticed Donna Barnhill was born (April 19, 1967) on the 192nd anniversary of the Battle of Lexington (April 19, 1775) that started the Revolutionary War, probably what the sidewheeler was named after. And Train 192 was the eastbound train in the Rockville Centre train wreck on the same line as the Kew Gardens wreck, only about nine months (one human gestation period) earlier. And just other day I noticed (period newspapers about the collapse mentioned the number prominently) that 192 also was the number that had been assigned by North Carolina to the bridge that failed at Siloam, NC, February 23, 1975, killing four, including the paternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Atkinson, of the recent Sheriff of Surry County, Graham Atkinson (now one of the four Commissioners on the North Carolina Parole Commission), who was following his grandparents in his parents' car when it, too, went off the bridge. Sometimes I think the August 26, 1980, murder of Ronda Mechelle Blaylock, 14, from Rural Hall (other side of Winston-Salem from Davidson County), whose body was dumped in Surry County a few miles from Pilot Mountain, may have been at least partially motivated by this bridge disaster, since she was walking home from Atkins High School, and DNA and subsequent confession and conviction shows her attacker to have been Robert James Adkins of Dobson, the county seat of Surry County. Maybe Adkins also had something to do with Donna Michele Barnhill's disappearance? (Perhaps irrelevant, but notice Blaylock and Barnhill have similar middle names.) Maybe Fred Coffey or someone like him used occultism and nastiness to motivate Adkins to do one or both murders?

 

[partybagel]

I wanted to bring back some attention to this case since this thread has been inactive for a while and Ms. Barnhill deserves to be remembered and recognized. I haven't heard very much about this theory, but I believe it has been suggested before. I don't have a NAMUS account so am unsure if she is an exclusion. Please let me know if she is! A woman who identified herself as Donna before her death was found in Florida in 1982, a year after Ms. Barnhill's disappearance in 1981. The Doe was said to have a thick Cajun or Southern accent which could make sense for someone from the North Carolina area. Is it possible Ms. Barnhill was not murdered by her abusive family but instead ran away? The postmortem photo looks a lot like one of the photos of Ms. Barnhill regularly circulated as does one of the reconstructions. There is a gap in their heights but missing persons heights are often incorrectly reported. Although this could all be one major coincidence I wanted to run the idea by the experts on this thread and give Ms. Barnhill and her case some attention. Thank you for your time!! I attached two images to this post: Ms. Barnhill and a reconstruction that strongly resembles her. The left is the Doe and the second 2 are Ms. Barnhill.