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

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Donna Michele Barnhill Missing 18 Mar 1981 from NC

Donna Michele Barnhill
Missing since March 18, 1981 from Lexington, Davidson County, North Carolina
Classification: Non-Family Abduction
The Doe Network: Case File 35DFNC
NCIC Number: M-434080016

Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: April 19, 1967
Age at Time of Disappearance: 13 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'7; 125 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian. Brown hair; brown eyes.
Marks, Scars: A mole / birthmark on her right arm.
Clothing: An orange sweatshirt; jeans; and a dark jacket.

Circumstances of Disappearance
Banhill left her family's home at 8:30 PM on March 18, 1981 to walk to a nearby friend's house. She never arrived and has not been seen since.

Lexington Police Department 336-249-8947

Source Information: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Click here: The Doe Network: Case File 35DFNC
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/35dfnc.html
 
Donna Michele Barnhill Missing March 18, 1981 from Lexington, NC

Donna Michele Barnhill
Missing since March 18, 1981 from Lexington, Davidson County, North Carolina
Classification: Lost, Injured, Missing

Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: April 19, 1967
Age at Time of Disappearance: 13 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'7; 125 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown straight hair; brown eyes.
Clothing: An orange sweatshirt; jeans; and a dark jacket.

Circumstances of Disappearance
Banhill left her family's home at 8:30 PM on March 18, 1981 to walk to a nearby friend's house. She never arrived and has not been seen since.

The Doe Network: Case File 35DFNC

NCIC Number: M-434080016

If you have any information on this case, please contact:
Lexington Police Department, Det. Angie Price 336-249-8947

Link:
http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/35dfnc.html
 
Lexington, NC is just 60 miles north of Charlotte, NC - which was Fred Coffey's home at the time. Fred was convicted of murdering 10 year-old Amanda Ray in Charlotte in 1979 and is suspected of killing 5 year-old Neeley Smith in 1981, also in Charlotte. He was not prosecuted and convicted until 1987.

Interesting that Donna disappeared almost 6 years to the day after the Lyon sisters, Sheila and Katherine. Coffey just happened to be in the Wheaton, Maryland area at that time. Donna and Sheila were both 13 years old. Coincidence just always seems to follow Fred around like a cloud over his head.

Fred Howard Coffey, Jr. is currently serving a life sentence for murdering Amanda. He will be up for parole again in July.
 
Up for parole??? That seems crazy!
Is there a place where we can write to keep him behind bars????
 
sharon25 said:
Up for parole??? That seems crazy!
Is there a place where we can write to keep him behind bars????
For more information on Fred Howard Coffey, Jr. see the Cold Case Threads on Sheila and Katherine Lyon, and on Neely Smith. There are some links which tell in detail how Coffey went from North Carolina's death row for the violent murder of a little girl, to a Life sentence, and to his having been up for parole every year since 1995.

Here is a link to a website which contains information concerning how the Parole system works in North Carolina. Fred Coffey comes up for parole again in July. There are samples of letters to the parole board which can be used to address and model your own letter (or e-mail) to the parole board.

It all boils down to rights. Coffey has the "right" to go before a parole board every year to ask for his freedom, after having denied little Amanda Ray ALL of her rights. Feel free to exercise YOUR right of free speech, and let the Parole Board know your position on the idea of Parole for Fred Howard Coffey, Jr. You can mail them a letter or send an e-mail.

link
http://www.charmeck.nc.us/Departmen...y+Committee.htm
 
I've been working on Donna's case for nearly 10 years....she also had a sister that was killed by caregivers/child abuse in 1966...I uncovered the truth on that part of the case in 1999....still can't find whereabouts of Donna.
 
Brynews said:
I've been working on Donna's case for nearly 10 years....she also had a sister that was killed by caregivers/child abuse in 1966...I uncovered the truth on that part of the case in 1999....still can't find whereabouts of Donna.

ani-welcome4.gif
To WS!

Can you tell us more about her sister's death- who did it, were they convicted, how it occurred, etc?
Also any information that you have that is not listed would be helpful. Please feel free to add to what is here, the more info given about Donna and her sister the more insight we will have.
 
Donna Barnhill was reported missing in 1981. If you do a google search for her name...her poster, etc should pop up.

As for her sister, she was murdered in 1966 by caregivers...being her parents were the only known people in the house at the time of her murder. They said she fell out of a high chair and died...but she was severely beaten, victim of child abuse. This was not uncovered until 1999, while looking into the whereabouts of her sister, Donna.

No one was convicted in the 1966 death, authorities said lack of evidence...but sounds like lack of enthusiasm....and you have a missing sister in the same family -- doubt she ran off with the circus?
 
Brynews said:
No one was convicted in the 1966 death, authorities said lack of evidence...but sounds like lack of enthusiasm....and you have a missing sister in the same family -- doubt she ran off with the circus?


It seems that her parents were not looked at enough. When one child is murdered and years later another disappears, it should raise some eyebrows !
Someone needs to look at the parents a little closer.
 
March marks the 25th Anniversary of Donna Michele Barnhill's disappearance. Such a coincidence that it is exactly one month after Neely Smith Disappeared - also from NC.
 
please find link to Donna Barnhill case now on www.findmarkalley.com

Donna's mother passed away recently and is buried beside Donna's sister ( who was killed victim of child abuse in 1966)

did anyone hear back from LE on the possible match??
 
Brynews said:
please find link to Donna Barnhill case now on www.findmarkalley.com
Donna's mother passed away recently and is buried beside Donna's sister ( who was killed victim of child abuse in 1966)
did anyone hear back from LE on the possible match??
The link at the bottom of Mark Alley's website repeats the same info as the Doenetwork (same misspelling of her name in the text, too). Does anyone have more information about this case? Maybe a newspaper article or summary? What was the neighborhood where she lived like? Were there any busy roads, parking lots, or businesses where she would have walked that day?

Were her parents considered suspects in her disappearance? Were any suspects ever identified or invistigated?
 
thanks for catching the spelling error...we'll fix

I have lots of info on this case....Donna could have run away, but I've interviewed family/friends that tell a different story. The family lived in Lexington, NC about 1 mile from main street, and 2 miles from U.S. Highway 64 and what is now Business 29/70.

However, family history presents a more troubling tale of abuse/and or sexual abuse and that the family members are people of interest in the case, but NOTHING can be proved ( including the death of her sister in 1966 from child abuse)
 
Brynews said:
....However, family history presents a more troubling tale of abuse/and or sexual abuse and that the family members are people of interest in the case, but NOTHING can be proved ( including the death of her sister in 1966 from child abuse)
An abusive family and home life might certainly be an indication that a child was murdered by a family member. But it could just as likely been only one of several factors which caused a child to run away and fall prey to a preditor.

So many of the cases of run-away or missing children have as a factor family difficulties or abusive home life. Or, if not actually abusive, the feeling by the child that they are not wanted. Preditors seem to be able to sense this and take advantage of it. They look for children who are alone, unhappy, and obviously away from home or away from parents or guardians.
 
March 18, 2006....today marks the 25th anniversary in the disappearance of 13yr old Donna Barnhill of Lexington,NC

visit www.findmarkalley.com for more info on her case

Sad bench mark for this small town in NC, are we going to let another 25 years pass before someone comes forward in this case?
 
I recall seeing details of Donna Barnhill's missing report many years ago to involve a witness seeing what they believed was her, riding in a older model bright yellow pick-up truck the day she went missing. Can anyone verify this as true?

At that time, I lived about 10 minutes from the Davidson County line, on the southside of Winston-Salem and was approached by an elderly man in a bright yellow pick-up truck who asked me if I wanted a ride. I was on my bike at the time and said "no, bug off!" and rode off. He tried opening his driver's side door to grab me but I slipped by him and hid behind my house. I contacted Lexington Police years ago with this info but no one has returned my calls. Yet, I have moved since my last contact with them. If anyone is interested in hearing if this could be a possible development in her case, please feel free to contact me. It has always been in back of my mind that what happened to me could be related to her case.
 
Most children who are killed by child abuse are quite young and too little to defend themselves. Donna would not fit that criterion; at 13 she was old enough to fight back. Of course it's still possible that she was killed by a family member, but I think it would be more likely a deliberate murder rather than a "lose it and start hitting kid" child abuse death.

(I'm not saying the latter killings are not just as terrible and just as much murders. I just think they're a different class of murder.)
 
Dana Ganyer said:
I ... was approached by an elderly man in a bright yellow pick-up truck who asked me if I wanted a ride. I was on my bike at the time and said "no, bug off!" and rode off. He tried opening his driver's side door to grab me but I slipped by him and hid behind my house. I contacted Lexington Police years ago with this info but no one has returned my calls. ....
You should put all of your information into an e-mail and send it to the cold case investigator assigned to the case, and send copies of that same e-mail to the Doenetwork and to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). What you have to say may be important in regard to the case. It is possible that they could get you to describe the suspect in the yellow truck more completely. They might even ask you to look at a group of photos to see if you might recognize him.
 

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