AL AL - Barbara Kettell Rushton, 45, Birmingham, 29 Aug 1984

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The Doe Network:
Case File 1356DFAL

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1356dfal.html

Barbara Kettell Rushton
Missing since August 29, 1984 from Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama.
Classification: Endangered Missing



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Vital Statistics
•Date Of Birth: October 22, 1938
•Age at Time of Disappearance: 45 years old
•Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'6"; 130 lbs.
•Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Blonde hair; blue eyes.
•Marks, Scars: Diabetes, pierced ears, glasses, contact lenses.
•Dentals: Not available
•Clothing: Light color blouse, gray gym shorts.



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Circumstances of Disappearance
Barbara Rushton left her home on Old Forest Road in Vestavia Hills on August 29, 1984, to play cards with friends. Her husband watched her drive away in her white 1980 Volkswagen Rabbit, and a short while later her friends called to say she hadn't arrived. Her husband called police, and a search was launched for her and her car. Neither has ever been found.
Authorities interviewed family, friends, and coworkers and dug deep into her life. She had resigned her job. Coworkers told investigators they had seen her and her husband arguing the day before she disappeared. He daughter told investigators that her mother wasn't behaving normally before she left for her card game - she had a blank stare and was upset and crying. Over the next days and weeks, authorities did ground and aerial searches. Authorities flagged Barbara Rushton's Social Security number, but it has never again been used, nor have any of her credit cards. About $4,000 in her bank account also went untouched.

Because she was a type-one diabetic who didn't have her insulin when she left home, some think she might thought she might have wandered away in a diabetic amnesia.
She was eventually declared dead.



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Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Jefferson County Sheriffs Department
205-325-1450

Agency Case Number:
83082922

NCIC Number: M-106897762
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:
California Department of Justice
Birmingham News

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/rushton_barbara.html

https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/2686/0/
NamUs Profile:
Dental: NA
DNA: NA
Fingerprints: NA

Snipped from case report on NamUs:
Circumstances Barbara Rushton left her home on Old Forest Road in Vestavia Hills on August 29, 1984, to play cards with friends. Her husband watched her drive away in her white 1980 Volkswagen Rabbit, and a short while later her friends called to say she hadn't arrived. Her husband called police, and a search was launched for her and her car. Neither has ever been found.
Authorities interviewed family, friends, and co-workers and dug deep into her life. She had resigned her job. Co-workers told investigators they had seen her and her husband arguing the day before she disappeared. He daughter told investigators that her mother wasn't behaving normally before she left for her card game - she had a blank stare and was upset and crying. Over the next days and weeks, authorities did ground and aerial searches. Authorities flagged Barbara Rushton's Social Security number, but it has never again been used, nor have any of her credit cards. About $4,000 in her bank account also went untouched.

Because she was a type-one diabetic who didn't have her insulin when she left home, some think she might thought she might have wandered away in a diabetic amnesia.
She was eventually declared dead.

Someone in LE has dental records for Barbara:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...4845,6251356&dq=barbara-rushton+missing&hl=en
The Tuscaloosa News - Oct 25, 1983
In this article remains were ruled out as Barbara's using dental records.

Question: Are there any bodies of water near that town/city? TIA!

Barbara has been missing 26 years. Come home soon.
 

Attachments

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still missing: http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/09/where_are_they_now_missing_peo.html#9
 
Did anyone ever announce where the card game was going to be held?
 
There is so much more essential info on this case through newspapers it looks like.

I don't have a subscription but was able to get some of it through searching the words on this article by Birmingham Post-Herald on October 3rd 1983 (Year seems wrong based on this?)

"Somewhere between the Rushtons' Rocky Ridge apartment and the bridge game at 3608 Ridge Ranch Circle in Hoover, Rushton vanished."
"Mrs. Rushton, who is diabetic, was a branch manager at Troy E. Hardin and associates in Birmingham. She left home shortly before 7 p.m., wearing gray gym shorts, a light-colored blouse and sandals and driving her white, 1980 Volkswagen Rabbit - tag number 1D 25135. Her husband says she would probably have stopped to buy cigarettes."
"Dolores Lowrey, a bridge friend of Rushton's who hosted the Aug. 29 game says the missing woman almost
always stopped for cigarettes. "We used to play bridge together a lot, and nine times out of 10 we'd have to
stop for cigarettes." Lowrey says."
"Sheriff's deputies have circulated her picture among those stores but employees say they have not seen her.
Nor have aerial and ground searches of the area revealed any sign of Mrs. Rushton or her diesel-engined car.
The searches were conducted during them first few days after Rushton reported his wife missing.
The route to Mrs. Lowery's is sparsely populated, with exclusive residential sections - such as Vestavia Hills'
Tanglewood - interrupting the weeded, sometimes steep shoulders of the road.
Explorer Scouts and helicopter pilots joined Jefferson County Sheriff's deputies in the hunts,
using spotlights at night."
"Rushton also retraced the route the night of Aug. 29 - first alone and then with deputies thinking his wife may have become ill and wrecked her car. His theory was based on an insulin seizure Mrs. Rushton suffered two nights before she disappeared. An insulin reaction occurs when a diabetic's blood sugar level becomes too low. The seizures - in which the diabetic can become irrational and confused - can lead to a diabetic coma if left untreated."
"So Rushton stays near the phone. He left his job as a vice president at Liberty National Life Insurance
in February to spend more time with his wife."
"Jack Rushton spends most of his time near the telephone, waiting for word about his wife. He usually
answers on the first ring, but no word has come in the five weeks since his wife, Barbara, disappeared.
"It's like.. Did you ever see that movie 'Psycho'? I've been living four weeks of 'Psycho,'" he says.
"I've been waiting for the curtain to part and for some horror to be discovered."


There is more, if anyone has a subscription and can post the whole thing that would be very helpful, it's hard to organize it and time consuming the way I'm doing it.
 

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