Copyright held by The John Cooke Fraud Report. Reprint rights are granted with attribution to The John Cooke Fraud Report with a link to this website.
Angela Tucker Barnes was stabbed at least seven times in the back, throat and face. She was buried late in 1983. She was only 20 years old at the time. Angela left three young children, including 4-year-old twins Michael and Christopher, both born with a rare disease that causes premature aging. Only the twins could possibly help authorities, but their father, Earnest Barnes, would not allow either of the twins to be interviewed.
When Michael turned 18, the police got their chance. What he told them about that night almost 15 years ago filled in some of the long-missing blanks. They already knew that Angela had left Earnest and divorced him. They knew that she was dating other men at the time of her murder, and that she had recently announced she planned to remarry one of her boyfriends.
Michael, once he turned 18, told police that he recalled hearing his mother’s voice screaming, “Please stop. I’ll come back to you. I’ll come back to you.” The murderer was wearing a ski mask and no evidence was left at the scene of the crime. Next to her bloody body, police found a torn up love letter she had written to another man.
At the time of divorce, Earnest took out a $5,000 life insurance policy on Angela. He specifically asked the insurance agent if the double-indemnity clause meant he would get $10,000 if Angela were to die unexpectedly. In addition, there were stories told by Angela’s cousin and a co-worker … that Angela told them Earnest had said he’d see her dead and in hell before he would let her marry another man.
But Earnest’s second wife, his girlfriend at the time of the murder, claimed that Earnest was with her, in her home, the entire night of Angela’s death. Others talked about Earnest’s violent temper, jealous rages and his assaults on Angela. And Earnest claimed that he and Angela were in the midst of working out their problems and getting back together. Who to believe?
Police, 15 years after the fact, charged Earnest with the murder of Angela Tucker Barnes. A jury in the Muscogee Superior Court in Columbus, Georgia, will be deciding the fate of Earnest Barnes.
Better late than never.
© Copyright 1999 Alikim Media