The Murder of Barbara Howe
For this case I watched an episode of Murder in the Heartland. It’s season 2 episode 8, titled ‘If Walls Could Talk.’
An 87 year old mother and grandmother is killed in a retirement community.
Background
Barbara Howe
Barbara Howe lived in the small town of Monroe, Ohio. She was described as a kind and loving person. She was very close with her sister Patty Marshall and her daughter Donna Wesselman. Unfortunately, they would be the ones to file a missing persons report with the police.
The Disappearance
On October 29, 2012, Patty knew something was wrong. She tried contacting her sister to let her know about a party she had gone to. By the following day, she still hadn’t heard from her. Patty called her niece Donna, and together they filed a missing persons report with the Monroe police, a small police department that didn’t even have their own homicide unit.
Detective Gregg Myers was the lead investigator. On October 30, the police arrived at Barbara’s home, which was located in the Mt. Pleasant Retirement Community. There were newspapers on her front porch, a glass of iced tea was on the table in the living room and a bath towel was lying on the floor of Barbara’s bedroom. Donna was also there, and she pointed out that Donna’s life line machine was put on the away mode, which was unusual.
The police discovered that Barbara’s 2005 Cadillac was missing, and a BOLO (be on the lookout) was put out for it.
A Horrific Discovery
On November 1, 2012, Barbara’s car was found in Middletown, Ohio, just 6 miles away from Barbara’s home. It was backed into a parking space in an apartment complex.
A search of Barbara’s car was done. There was an overwhelming smell of bleach, and a tuft of hair was sticking out of the trunk of the car. When the police opened the trunk, they discovered Barbara’s body.
The car was transported to a local firehouse, so they didn’t have to take Barbara out of the car in front of a group of people that had gathered around the scene. Barbara was practically nude, and chunks of her hair had been cut. Her throat had been slit, and she had multiple deep cuts. She had also been soaked in bleach, and there were large dust particles in the car, that looked they had come from a vacuum.
The police knew that the car wasn’t the primary crime scene, and they wanted to go back to the home to do another search.
The Crawlspace
When the police went back to Barbara’s home, they searched room by room. Inside the utility room, they discovered a crawlspace. Inside the crawlspace, there was a rug and a large pool of blood. They determined that Barbara had either been attacked in the crawlspace or kept there until the killer returned to finish what he started.
In the early days of the investigation, Barbara’s granddaughter and a maintenance worker had both come on the police’s radar. The granddaughter had apparently inserted herself into the investigation and the maintenance worker had driven to the scene when he saw police cars. They were both eventually ruled out, but the police knew that the killer had to have had intimate knowledge of the home because the crawlspace was hard to find.
All maintenance workers were interviewed, and gave the police samples of their DNA. The DNA was determined to be from an unknown male, which eliminated all the current maintenance workers.
By November 15, the case was going cold, and the police had no new leads.
A Former Employee
After a $10,000 reward was put out for any information on the case, it led to a very promising lead.
On December 7, a man named Kenneth said that he had a brother named Daniel French, who used to work as a maintenance worker at the Mt. Pleasant Retirement Community. Kenneth said he saw Daniel right after the murder, and he was acting differently.
The police spoke to Daniel’s former employer, and they said that Daniel knew Barbara, and knew where she lived. The police obtained a warrant for Daniel’s phone records. On November 30, Daniel called Ace 1 Taxi around 6am.
Brandi Perry, the cab driver, said that she received the call from her dispatch to pick up a man from a local grocery store. The story that Daniel had given was that his car broke down, and he needed a ride back to Monroe. Brandi thought it was weird that Daniel didn’t stay with his car, but she was just doing her job.
The police contacted the grocery store for the surveillance footage. Daniel French is seen calling the taxi company inside the store.
A Strange Fantasy
On January 18, 2013, the police tracked Daniel down in Berea, Kentucky. Daniel had been living in the woods, had lost a lot of weight and looked like he had been through it.
Daniel immediately said he didn’t do it. Detective Myers said he tried to show Daniel a picture of him at the grocery store, and that Daniel believed he was going to be shown a picture of Barbara’s body.
Daniel provided a sample of his DNA, and it was a match. Detective Myers asked Daniel what he had been doing in the woods. Daniel said he had made up a life, and acting as different characters. He said he had a character that destroyed 80% of everything.
The police had Daniel’s DNA, but Daniel said he had worked there, so his DNA would still be there. The police needed more if they were going to be able to arrest him.
Arrest and Conviction
In October 2014, the police tracked down a critical witness. Shortly before the murder, Barbara’s cleaning woman had been called in because the heater had leaked. Barbara had written her a check, and the cleaning woman kept a ledger of who paid her. The police were able to determine that Daniel’s DNA wouldn’t have been there still, unless he of course killed Barbara.
Daniel was arrested in Kentucky, and he later confessed. He said his intent was to rob her, and he tried killing her with a stun gun. When that didn’t work, he choked her, and dragged her into the crawlspace. He then slit her throat, and put her into the back of her car. However, Barbara’s daughter Donna believes the murder was sexually motivated.
Barbara had a 3.3 karat diamond ring that she always wore. It had gone missing after the murder, and the police believe Daniel took it as a trophy.
Barbara’s diamond ring
On November 5, 2015, Daniel French was found guilty aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. He asked for death, but was sentenced to life without parole.
Daniel French
FINAL THOUGHTS
WHY ARE MAINTENANCE WORKERS KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE??? Okay, not all maintenance workers, but this is probably the third or fourth case that I’ve covered where a woman is killed by a maintenance worker. Barbara didn’t do shit to this man. He was a greedy asshole, who preyed on elderly women. I’m glad that the justice system didn’t listen to him and give him the death penalty. He deserves to sit in his cell everyday and think about what he did to Barbara and her family.
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