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The original was posted on /r/unresolvedmysteries by /u/JeliPuff on 2024-01-07 20:55:18+00:00.
On March 15, 1989, Tracey Kirkpatrick was only minutes away from going home on a slow Wednesday night in the small town of Frederick, Maryland when she was brutally murdered.
No motive has ever been determined, and no arrests have ever been made, leaving this baffling crime unsolved over 34 years later.
But who was Tracey Kirkpatrick? Tracey had been an advocate for those in need since she was a child. Known as a kind and quiet girl who loved helping both people and animals, she had insisted on working multiple jobs so she could put herself through college to achieve her dream of becoming a lawyer for those too poor to afford one. She was only a few months from achieving her dreams when she was killed, making an already sad case that much more tragic.
FINDING THE BODY
On March 15, 1989, at around 10:40pm, a security guard named Donald Barnes Jr noticed something strange at the Eileen’s Ladies Sportswear store in the West Ridge Square Shopping Centre. All the lights were still on when the store should have closed almost 2 hours before.
On a hunch, Barnes, who was also a deputy with the Frederick County Sheriff’s office decided to check the store out and make sure everything is ok. He goes to open the door, and finds the store completely unlocked. Finding the store empty, he made his way through the store, until he found the storeroom, and is met by a crime scene that has haunted investigators for nearly 35 years.
The body of 17 year old Tracey Kirkpatrick is lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood. Barnes could immediately tell that whatever had happened to Tracey, it had been brutally violent, and the disturbing amount of blood all over the storeroom told him that she’s already dead. He immediately calls 911.
THE SCENE
Investigators soon arrived at the scene and would find stab wounds across Tracey’s chest and back. Despite the sheer amount of blood at the scene, there was very little evidence to go off. The only other clue investigators could find was a blood smear on the back door, along with a partial fingerprint.
The back door led to a hallway, which then led to the loading docks behind the mall, and investigators conclude that this was likely the path the killer took to escape the scene after the murder. Strangely however, other than a few drops, there was very little blood in that hallway. There was also no sign of a struggle inside the storeroom, and no signs of forced entry. The front of the store also seemed undisturbed. It seemed that whoever had killed Tracey, she had let them into the store herself.
The cash register was still full, and cash receipts were still stashed on the counter, likely eliminating the possibility of a robbery gone wrong, however the stores keys, as well as any personal items Tracey may have been carrying were missing. Tracey’s car was still parked in the parking lot, but her keys were missing. There was also no sign of a murder weapon.
Because of the lack of anything from the store itself being stolen, and the violence displayed during the crime, investigators would conclude that this was likely a targeted attack, by someone Tracey knew personally.
As officers on the scene collected evidence, Tracey’s parents would burst into the store, asking them to please tell them that she’s ok. They had originally shown up to make sure she was alright, as it was very late (around 11pm by this point) and Tracey’s care was unreliable. Thinking her car might have broken down, her parents had gone to make sure the 17 year old had a ride home. Officers were forced to break the news that their daughter has been murdered. Tracey’s mother Diane doesn’t remember anything else from that night and would later be treated at a hospital for shock.
While this seems like a tragic circumstance of the case that I added for effect, it’s actually an interesting clue in the case. After breaking the news, and finding out why the parents showed up, Tracey’s father would tell officers something interesting. She had told them that if she wasn’t home by 11 that night, to assume that something had gone wrong.
Despite the seemingly significant implications that come from someone informing their parents something bad might happen to them that night, and then getting murdered, it seems that it wasn’t been expanded upon. Nothing I was able to find goes into any detail on why she may have said this, or what she might have been worried about.
The second thing investigators would learn from Tracey’s father is that this is the second time in 2 nights that they had made the trip down to the mall. The night before, they had rushed down only to find Tracey safe, but not alone in the store. She had been talking with her ex-boyfriend, a 19 year old named John German. Apparently the 2 had decided to get back together the night before, which is why they had both stayed at the store so late.
Strangely, this also isn’t expanded upon in any media I was able to find, I wasn’t able to find out if he had an alibi, whether the relationship was rocky, whether he might have had a motive. Nothing.
THE INVESTIGATION
Investigators would spend the next 2 days interviewing everyone who knew Tracey. Teachers, friends, family, anyone, and everyone who knew her, to piece together what they could.
Diane would tell investigators that Tracey had headed to the mall at around 1pm to start her shift as a clerk, before clocking into work at the ladies sportswear store at around 4pm. Diane had stopped by at around 6:30-7pm to bring her some food to eat, and described her daughter as acting normal if a bit bored, because the store was complete empty. The store manager also says that they checked on Tracey at around 8pm and also described the store as empty.
The stores computer system showed that the register hadn’t been used since around 8pm, meaning that unless someone walked in and didn’t buy anything, no customers entered the store for the rest of the night.
There were no security cameras inside the store, but investigators decide to interview Donald Barnes Jr, the security guard who found Tracey’s body in the hopes he might have seen something or heard something. Barnes simply repeated the same story as he had when he first found the body. Nothing suspicious except the lights. He also took and passed a polygraph test.
Apparently, the mall closed at around 9, and the only other person investigators can verify as having been at the mall around the time of murder is a man seen in the parking lot, who tells investigators that he was parked there waiting for his girlfriend to finish her shift. Once she had finished her shift, the 2 drove home, without seeing or hearing anything suspicious.
After this, Tracey’s autopsy results come in, with the medical examiner concluding that she had been stabbed around 7 times, defensive cuts on one of her hands and died around 9pm. There was no evidence of sexual assault, but the wounds were deep, and this backed up investigators belief that this was an angry, personal attack.
After this though, the trail seems to go cold.
A CONFESSION?
Months later, investigators get a call from the producers of a TV show called confession hotline. The show is where people would pay to confess to secrets. The producers say they got a call in June that investigators might like to hear and send over a tape recording.
In the recording, a man who introduces himself as Don, confesses to Tracey’s murder. He says that “about 3 months ago I stabbed a girl to death” and specifies that he did it inside the stockroom of a women’s sporting goods store. He even calls Tracey by name as he’s apologizing for the murder. Despite apologizing, he would say that he wouldn’t turn himself in because Maryland has the death penalty and that it wouldn’t bring her back.
He said that he had been to the store several times already to talk to Tracey when she was alone, and that after the conversation turned hostile that he had attacked her with a knife he carried with him in his pocket at all times. This matched the investigators theory that Tracey had known her killer.
Despite the apparent risk of making this call, he stated that he wasn’t worried about the call being traced back to him because “there are a lot of guys named Don in Frederick.”
https://youtu.be/RHfDKN6nzXo - This is a video of the phone call.
Noted in the Crime Junkie Podcast, one of the main sources I used for this write-up, one of the first thoughts when hearing this name is Donald, the security guard. But despite this, it seems investigators cleared him. Apparently, Donald never went by Don, having friends and family call him Donnie, or even Charlie, which was his middle name, making the fact that caller is named Don more of a weird coincidence. At least in their mind.
Their mind, however, is not the publics mind, and the public was quick to make the connection. Despite law enforcement specifying that Donald Barnes Jr had nothing to do with the crime, public opinion differed. To this day, there are theories that Barnes killed Tracey, and that the investigators covered it up as Barnes was one of their own. Not only this, but there is also speculation that Donald Charles Barnes Jr is the son of former Frederick Sheriff Donald Charles Barnes Sr. Not exactly hard to see why.
There is however nothing to officially back up this claim.
Investigators quickly trace the c...
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