The Unsolved Murder of Barbara Blackstone

At 1:40 P.M. on the afternoon of Thursday July 9th, 1987, 30 year old Barbara Blackstone stopped at a gas station near the Interstate 90 exit at the central Wisconsin town of Lyndon Station. She filled up her car and a five gallon gas can for her lawn tractor, then headed back to the rural home she shared with her husband Tom. Barbara, a Business Ed and computer teacher in New Lisbon, Wisconsin, was mowing an area of their property for a family picnic. When Tom Blackstone returned home from his lawn service job about 6 P.M. he found the car with the keys in it parked by a shed, but Barbara was not home.

There was no note or any other indication as to why Barbara was gone, so Tom started calling the neighbors. When that turned up nothing, he called the Juneau County Sheriff's Department about 9:30 P.M. For the next two days, volunteers on foot, on horseback, and in four wheel drive vehicles searched the area. They were joined by bloodhounds and a National Guard helicopter. But no clues whatsoever turned up. For all intents and purposes, Barbara Blackstone had simply vanished.

Likely Abduction

Authorities believed that it was possible someone followed Barbara home from the gas station to her rather isolated home located on a dead end road. There were no signs of struggle, but the sheriff believed it was "highly unlikely she left willingly" and was abducted. If she was surprised at gunpoint, she would have had little recourse but to go along with the abductor. Tom Blackstone offered a $10,000 reward for information about her whereabouts, and Barbara's father offered an additional $5000. About all the authorities had to go on was a witness who drove past the Blackstone property at about 2:30 that day. The witness reported seeing Barbara's car parked near the shed, but Barbara herself was not there. The time of abduction was believed to be between 1:45 and 2:30 on July 9th.

During the summer of 1987, two other women were abducted and in both cases brutally murdered in central Wisconsin, and it was feared that a serial killer was on the loose. However, none of the three were related, as two separate men were eventually caught and convicted of those murders. But doors were locked, and sales of firearms were brisk that violent summer.

Body Found

On August 4th, a hunter scouting some woods two miles southwest of Blanchardville, Wisconsin came upon a decomposing body. Through dental records, it was determined that the body was the remains of Barbara Blackstone. She had been dead 25 to 30 days according to the autopsy. The body was located roughly 75 miles south of the Blackstone home.

Mystery

At first glance, it would appear that the killer wanted to hide the body well away from the scene of the abduction. What makes the case more mysterious is the fact that Barbara Blackstone grew up on a farm near Argyle, Wisconsin--less than 10 miles from where her body was found.

It would be an unlikely coincidence that the killer would dump the body so close to where Barbara grew up. There is no direct route between Lyndon Station and Blanchardville. Barbara's father speculated that she may have told her abductor about a savings account she still had in an Argyle bank in the hopes of having her life spared.

Barbara Blackstone was a popular teacher who apparently had no enemies. There were no suspects, no witnesses, and almost no evidence in the case. The trail was cold.

Case Reopened

In 2009, authorities reopened the 22 year old murder case. Marc Andreessen, a former student of Barbara Blackstone at New Lisbon High School who went on to help create the Netscape web browser and other innovations in computers, offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer.

Two years after reopening the case, it remains unsolved and no suspects have been publicly named. Was it a transient serial killer who just happened to be passing through Lyndon Station on the interstate at that time? Or someone more local? Perhaps someone someday will come forward with information that will finally solve this murder, or perhaps the killer himself is already dead and has taken the secret to his grave.

Sources:

Blackstone Family's 'Living Hell' Ends. The Capital Times, August 7th, 1987.

Family Waits for Missing Woman. Wisconsin State Journal, July 17th, 1987.

Got Murder? The Shocking Story of Wisconsin's Notorious Killers by Martin Hintz Madison, Wisconsin: Trails Press, 2007.

Lyndon Station Woman Missing, No Clues Found. Wisconsin State Journal, July 12th, 1987.

Police Suspect Woman Abducted. Wisconsin State Journal, July 14th, 1987.

Reward for Info About Old Juneau County Slaying Comes From Internet Mogul