Phylicia Barnes Found Dead

You do some really great rants but I’m sure this is the best rant you have ever done.

Agree with you COMPLETELY… Your rant is totally true. Most of the time when we call out for help, it’s not the police that come flocking to our rescue, but our friends and neighbors. >.> It’s sad really. That stereotype of cops will never go away. As well as what’s on the media as well.

great write up Morbid. sadly, it’s right on.

great write up Morbid. sadly, it’s right on.

I’ve noticed that as well! Bunch of assholes!

Great little rant there, Morbid. Reminds me of the cutaway in Family Guy where they were reporting on a missing white girl (“Oh no, how awful!”) but then the newscaster corrected it to be a Hispanic girl (“Oh…oh, well, that’s not news.”). Plus, this phenom has a name: “Missing White Woman Syndrome”.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome

Tropes is a good site for anyone who loves TV, BTW.

I’ve been checking on this case off and on since she went missing but there was never enough information out there about it. I just wish there was a better out come in this story but in a way, I am glad she was found. It’s just so sad, she was such a pretty girl.

Nancy Grace plays to an audience of white trash women throughout the Unite States (oh yeah, her twins are hideously ugly).

I don’t care what color this young lady was; she is obviously beautiful.

Baltimore has a huge black population and has a big city small town feel. I doubt seriously the Baltimore police will let this go. I also find it hard to believe she died at the hands of someone outside of her half sister’s circle.

Another body was found near the same place this girl was found.

Another body was found near the same place this girl was found.

I hope there is more information released about this girl and the other body so that we learn what happened. Has she been dead all this time? Poor girl. I will hold off my feelings for the other body for now, as it could be that he was the one who killed her. Perhaps she put up a good struggle and took him with her.

Criminals can remain undetected much, much longer if they target people of color.

Yes, she was awfully pretty, wasn’t she? So sad. Such a waste of a beauty and obviously gentle young lady.

I started noticing that the media at large didn’t cover or didn’t care about minorities, males, or poor missing people as much when I heard about the Raven Jeffries case. Little poor biracial girl abducted and later found dead in a field, her body burned. No one was ever found responsible, but if Raven had been a cute little middle class white girl, they might have tried a little harder to get the word out and maybe find some evidence. Glad to see other people notice this stuff.
Very sad end to Phylicia’s story as well. I wonder if the male body was the perpetrator or another victim?

Such a beautiful girl. She seemed to have a lot going for her.

Morbid, you are spot on and Nancy “Dis”Grace make me sick with he little nicknames… TOT MOM? Really? The Country Stars Cousin? Seriously, she is a ratings whore.

I was thinking the same thing, and if she was alive for months that means that there was an immense missed opportunity to save her. An opportunity that mass media coverage could have definitely taken advantage of. Really horrible to think that might be the case.

Too little too late. Please tell me how many shows she dedicated to Phylicia before she was found floating in the river and then compare that to the shows dedicated to all the other “tot mom” cases she covers religiously.

It also saddens me that you only found out about Phylicia from Nancy Grace as it hammers home even more the lack of coverage this girl got in the media. I wasn’t singling out Nancy Grace…she’s just the more popular of all of the people like her who do it.

The body had a tattoo on her leg. That’s how they knew it was her.

They mentioned in one article that they believe the fridgid waters may have kept the body in tact. That was one theory anyway.

My theory, the 2 were connected, she witnessed someone murder that guy and was killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Still not convinced she wasn’t alive for a while.

“Timing of the “floating” depends upon several factors, including water temperature, currents, the size of the victim, and other variables. For example, a body will “float” after 8-10 days in warm water and 2-3 weeks if in colder water. Cold slows the process of decomposition.”

http://www.dplylemd.com/Articles/timelydeath.html

She wasn’t missing for 2-3 weeks – she was missing for 4 months! A body floating down the river would have surely been spotted had she been dumped 4 months ago.

A body dropped in cold water doesn’t decompose very quickly. It’s cold in Maryland. Parts of the river may have even been frozen. Consequently, officials were able to see the tatoo and the identity was confirmed by dental records according to a news source.

Never knew of this bias when I was growing up; but then where I lived then practially all people were white. The minority that was not was so small and so different that they would warrant extra attention if one of their was killled/went missing. (Very affecting child murder with a Kurdish victim from central Copenhagen still not solved.)

They did give missing children more coverage, and this would taper off once people were closing on adulthood. Females got more coverage because males were considered more rash, more hot-headed, and more likely to have upped and left on their own accord. Not fair, but there it is.

They were both found nude which might be a good indicator they were put there by someone else.

I apologize for not reading the last few sentences.. You were thorough.

I was so caught up with the story of the Barnes’ girl and the editorial regarding the discrepancy between the hunt for the killer of the a white girl and a black girl.

One thing I have noticed between murders of white girls, Asian girls, and African-American girls is the relentlessness of the white and Asian families. Perhaps it is a cultural thing, but when there is an African-American murder I don’t see the family pushing the police and the media to follow the incident.

The only African-American I remember the family doing everything to push forward through the media was that of Emmett Till. There may have been others, but I haven’t heard of them.

I apologize for not reading the last few sentences.. You were thorough.

I was so caught up with the story of the Barnes’ girl and the editorial regarding the discrepancy between the hunt for the killer of the a white girl and a black girl.

One thing I have noticed between murders of white girls, Asian girls, and African-American girls is the relentlessness of the white and Asian families. Perhaps it is a cultural thing, but when there is an African-American murder I don’t see the family pushing the police and the media to follow the incident.

The only African-American I remember the family doing everything to push forward through the media was that of Emmett Till. There may have been others, but I haven’t heard of them.

THE MAN IN THE RIVER….SHE SAW TOO MUCH….NO ON CAN KNOW ABOUT THE:-)

Ok, I seriously got the sads seeing this post. : ( I guess I’m always hoping when it’s a young person that they ran away. I try to keep that hope. Not that a runaway is a happy story, either…but it’s easier than thinking some goul got to a child. Poor beautiful girl.

Morbid, thanks for having the cajones to write something that many people probably don’t want to hear. The WHY THE FUCK does one story (Kaylee Anthony? Natalie Halloway?) get so damn much media exposure and others don’t??. I mean, they get their teeth in the story and chew it over and over and over and over and over. Jeez. I’m STILL seeing stories about the Anthony trial. WHAT ABOUT ALL THE REST OF THE CHILDREN OUT THERE!!!!?????!!!!! It makes me so damn angry! I’m Caucasian and it’s a damn injustice even I CAN SEE.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen a story about a non-white child who’s disappeared, was raped, or murdered and the only place you see the story is in a short piece in local news. Sometimes the story moves me so much, I continue every few weeks to Google the story to see if there are any updates. NOTHING.

If the media spent 1/10th of the time it expended on some of these stories and spread it around, maybe we’d find more missing children. Maybe more offenders would be caught. Every innocent life matters. Every single last one.

gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!

You spent the whole article self hating instead of talking about the fact that this young lady died and there is still a killer out there. real nice. Who’s the racist now?
Oh god get over it. Did the young african american females family call nancy grace and ask her to talk about it? Im sure they did not. I hate self hating people. If your so worried about mexicans or black people go move with them and help them out. Get over it! I’m mexican and really dont give a shit if they talk all day long about white, black, whatever. But then again its all about race right. Not that she is dead. I just lost respect for Morbid posts.

Not once did I ever say anything about reporting on all black crime. I thought I was pretty clear in my thoughts that missing blacks and males do not get the same type of coverage as missing white blondes. In fact, it’s not a thought, it’s a fact. What is up for debate is why that’s the case.

Your point of the news reporting on what Casey did in jail only makes my point more valid. In the time it took for someone to research that, produce it and get it on the air,they could have instead reported an update of some sort, even if it was the fact that there wasn’t an update at all, regarding the Barnes case would have been more productive.

It’s a known fact expressed by families of missing people, that the more the media focuses on a missing person case, the more the local police are pressured into action. How you feel turning a camera away from Barnes’ case and on to Casey’s snack list is not a sign of media bias is beyond me.

And I learned a lot about your lack of intelligence. It’s a win-win.

You’re right. I wasn’t nice about Ms. Grace’s spawn. I think she is a very nasty person whose children will doubtfully be any better. But if only I could see the future…

I doubt you are white trash. You seem to be helpful to other people and that is an amazing quality for the very poor, the very rich, and everyone in between.

Now the step dad thing caught me off guard, but my guess that he was your dad’s brother and not your mother’s.

Now for two sons named Jeremy, I am puzzled. How did you decide to name them the same?

From my perspective, there’s no question as to why white females own the media coverage when they go missing. The true crime demographic is, from my experience, overwhelmingly female and white. I think reason #1 is that the media is giving its viewers what they want.

Speaking very generally, “we” respond more to that which we can identify with and, from a biological standpoint, we identify best with individuals who look like us. This is not rocket science. It’s Marketing 101: Target your audience. How many white folks do you see in commercials on BET? As few as possible. Has anyone here seriously had to ask themselves why that is? Statistically, white females represent the biggest demographic in the U.S (women outnumber men ever so slightly and whites outnumber anyone else by a fucking landslide). That’s a market share ANYONE would be pleased to get their hands on.

The second contributing factor is racism. Straight up. It’s not conscious racism, necessarily. It’s not because people are looking at this lovely young woman’s picture and thinking, “Thank GOD. One less darkie on the planet.” That’s not the kind of racism I’m talking about. BUT, what people constantly seem to forget is that this nation is overwhelmingly white (at roughly 80%) and pretty fuckin’ ignorant. Recently, a poll was conducted on a handful (400 or so?) of Republicans from all over the country. They were polled on a number of issues, but one question posed was whether or not the respondent believed interracial marriage should have remained illegal. Over 50% said yes. OVER 50%!

And it’s not limited to Republicans in any way, shape or form, so don’t get that idea. I live in Seattle, perhaps the second most significant bastion of liberalism in the U.S. (behind San Fran, of course). Just last week, I saw a woman driving a Prius with a motherfucking Obama sticker on the back lock her doors because a young black man was walking down the street by her. And if I had a nickel for every time I’ve seen that, I’d be able to buy myself a something nice by now. How could I possibly know why she locked the doors, you ask? Because she gave me one of those white people looks fishing for sympathy. You know the look I’m talkin’ about. Bitch may as well have shrugged her shoulders. “Hey, I voted for a black man. You know I’m not racist, right?” I could almost hear it.

Three cheers to Morbid for, yet again, bringing attention to the issue. The cards are stacked against him, though, as I don’t see this changing any time soon. But there’s really no mystery, here.

Also http://www.dundee.ac.uk/forensicmedicine/notes/water.pdf

Read page 11. Granted, the bodies of water are surely different, since they’re talking about the Thames River and oh hell it’s cold as balls there in the winter. Sorry. I’m being a nerd =P

I wasn’t trying to convince you otherwise. You stated you were perplexed how they identified her so quickly, and I was just letting you know it was because of a tattoo on the body.

Understood. Our comments came in very close to one another – I posted before yours had shown up on my screen..lol. Wasn’t disagreeing or debating that – just hadn’t had the chance to read it before I posted. Appreciate the info

I just hope this young woman didn’t suffer and was NOT alive for months (or even weeks), waiting, wondering, hoping and praying for a rescue that was not to be. Color of your skin or size of your bank account should NEVER, EVER determine your “worth” as a human being! Phylicia Barnes was NO LESS deserving of every effort by law enforcement and community support as Holly Bobo! The obvious discrepancy in coverage is shameful to say the least! Issuing an “Amber Alert” immediately for a 20 year old – while twiddling thumbs on a 16 year old is ludicrous! I thought “Amber Alerts” were for CHILDREN?? Last I checked, 20 year olds did not fit that category – but 16 year olds do.

We *know* there’s a problem – but what is the solution? How can you force the media or LE to step up and treat all missing persons equally?

You can’t force anything. As Athena pointed out, and a factor I believe is the root cause, the media only gives the public what it wants…and the public has shown they do not care about anything but missing white girls.

It’s quite apparent. Go to our own forums where only certain girls have a forum dedicated to them. Watch the news where certain missing girl cases are still talked about years later. Go to other crime blogs who are dedicated to talking about the missing white girl of the month. Listen to other crime based podcasts whose time is spent discussing every mundane detail and crackpot theory regarding certain missing girls…I will bet you that you’ll be hard pressed to find anything BUT the white girls that went missing. The Holly, Caylee, Hayleigh, Natalie, and the Zahra type cases.

In this day and age of 24-hour, instant news, ratings are necessary. So it just makes sense that the news outlets will mention Barnes, but totally cover every aspect of Bobo because that’s what the public is interested in. Their is also the soap opera nature of some of these cases, and I talk about that a lot as well. If you go missing, you can guarantee a lot of media coverage if your family consists of a bunch of idiots who love the camera. But again, that points right back to my feeling it is nothing but a ratings game.

I can’t blame the media much for that, as without ratings they cannot report on anything. So I guess at this point, I have to feel it is simply a society thing…and that’s not really a problem that can be fixed as much as something you can hope changes over time.

Wow. Did you actually read his rant, and see its dire tone stemming from the fact that she was forgotten by the mass media and turned up dead months after the initial report of her disappearance that’s been lost in time? I seriously doubt it – you simply focused on ‘race’ and your puerile little brain screamed ‘RACISM!’ then proceeded to shut down any and all other functions. Perhaps you should look up the definition of racist: one who has a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.

Otherwise known as: Morbid is not a racist. Dur. Even this imbecilic twit knows that.

Rather than losing respect for Morbid, perhaps you should reread the article, reread your post, and lose all respect for yourself.

Oh, and have a nice day.

I thought quite a bit before I decided to write this, and decided what the heck, I’ll speak my piece to you. What you are practising , in writing this, is just racism in disguise. As long as you or anyone else thinks of any group as “us” and ” them” prejudice and bigotry will always exist. Get over it? It’s not OVER. I don’t think anyone who posted on this thread is self hating, we just feel bad for how people are sometimes treated ( or ignored) because of their race. If you haven’t suffered through this, I’m glad. But the prejudice exists and not just in the USA or Canada. And I suppose any change starts with one person speaking out.

It sounds like you have a great family with a good sense of humor. I am sorry about your foreclosure too. Life can get rough sometimes by it sounds like you are rolling with the punches!

This one, the Parents were involved.

http://geogee.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/racial-disparity-and-the-nes/

I have been watching the parents on the news and they are keeping the media and police on top of this one. This family is doing what needs to be done. I hope they find the killer and get answers as to why their child was murdered.

You’re not comparing apples to apples here Morbid. Holly Bobo was abducted (or supposedly abducted), and there are witnesses to it. Barnes just simply “disappeared.” Now I’m by no means making light of her disappearance, but there are several hundred “white girls” who’s also “gone missing” just over the past 4 months, and I haven’t seen ONE news story about each of those girls either. 2,300 Americans are reported missing every day, including both adults and children. However, only a tiny fraction of those are stereotypical abductions or kidnappings by a stranger. That said, when a story is released regarding an actual “abduction,” it’s going to get far more attention then someone who’s just gone “missing.” Do you see the other 2,299 people who’ve gone missing all over the news? No you don’t, and it has nothing to do with race.

I guess I’ll repost this, since it’s seemed to have disappeared “unexpectedly.”

“You’re not comparing apples to apples here Morbid. Holly Bobo was abducted (or supposedly abducted), and there are witnesses to it. Barnes just simply “disappeared.” Now I’m by no means making light of her disappearance, but there are several hundred “white girls” who’s also “gone missing” just over the past 4 months, and I haven’t seen ONE news story about each of those girls either. 2,300 Americans are reported missing every day, including both adults and children. However, only a tiny fraction of those are stereotypical abductions or kidnappings by a stranger. That said, when a story is released regarding an actual “abduction,” it’s going to get far more attention then someone who’s just gone “missing.” Do you see the other 2,299 people who’ve gone missing all over the news? No you don’t, and it has nothing to do with race.”

I guess I’ll repost this, since it’s seemed to have disappeared “unexpectedly.”

“You’re not comparing apples to apples here Morbid. Holly Bobo was abducted (or supposedly abducted), and there are witnesses to it. Barnes just simply “disappeared.” Now I’m by no means making light of her disappearance, but there are several hundred “white girls” who’s also “gone missing” just over the past 4 months, and I haven’t seen ONE news story about each of those girls either. 2,300 Americans are reported missing every day, including both adults and children. However, only a tiny fraction of those are stereotypical abductions or kidnappings by a stranger. That said, when a story is released regarding an actual “abduction,” it’s going to get far more attention then someone who’s just gone “missing.” Do you see the other 2,299 people who’ve gone missing all over the news? No you don’t, and it has nothing to do with race.”

I guess I’ll repost this, since it’s seemed to have disappeared “unexpectedly.”

“You’re not comparing apples to apples here Morbid. Holly Bobo was abducted (or supposedly abducted), and there are witnesses to it. Barnes just simply “disappeared.” Now I’m by no means making light of her disappearance, but there are several hundred “white girls” who’s also “gone missing” just over the past 4 months, and I haven’t seen ONE news story about each of those girls either. 2,300 Americans are reported missing every day, including both adults and children. However, only a tiny fraction of those are stereotypical abductions or kidnappings by a stranger. That said, when a story is released regarding an actual “abduction,” it’s going to get far more attention then someone who’s just gone “missing.” Do you see the other 2,299 people who’ve gone missing all over the news? No you don’t, and it has nothing to do with race.”

That’s the point. I get more news alerts regarding rehashed Bobo news and what color Casey Anthony’s last shit was in a week than I did the entire four months Barnes was missing. No one was talking about it because no one but the immediate family gave a shit.

You know, I have to admit the stories in this category that interest me usually involve some creepy-witness thing. Like with Elizabeth Smart: It was what the little sister saw – just this weird whispering dude with a knife and a cap – taking her sister. It was like right out of a Danielle Steele made-for-TV-movie. And it ended like one too.

The Bobo case is similar in lots of ways. You have an attractive person and a creepy-dude in an evolving story of stranger-danger. And just like with the Smart story there’s this cast of characters and witnesses that makes soil and fertilizer for the consumers of this stuff to start growing green shoots of their own about what happened and voila: Nancy Grace feeding-frenzy.

Poor Ms. Barnes has nothing going that way. She’s pretty and by all accounts was nice person, which I think is why her sad story made national wires at all. But in urban landscape she disappeared in, there is no giant search parties really possible. And there’s no witnesses…no cast of characters or ‘The brother did it’ type-hook to make a little murder-parlor game with. Barnes just went poof, even the cops were quoted as they just didn’t have any leads. They need that phone call.

If a seemingly beautiful, pristine girl gets abducted from a well-to-do family in some James Patterson narrative with ethereal witness accounts, it will be big story no matter the girl’s ethnic composition. I think reason we don’t have particular example of such is because it hasn’t happened yet frankly.

Someday I guess the true-crime crew will feel all PC and better about themselves after some heinous delicious story about a twelve-year old Beyonce-lookalike getting eviscerated by a psycho after she’s been missing in some catchy mysterious circumstance for a couple weeks. All the voyeurs will stand around in internet forums like this and congratulate themselves on caring at all. And the Nancy Grace will grunt contentedly on another bone in her little corner as usual.

I feel sorry for that poor kid already.

Arrest made in Barnes case.

The attorney for Michael Johnson, the former boyfriend of Phylicia’s older sister, confirmed that his client had been taken into custody at about 11:30 p.m. on unknown charges. Johnson had been the last person to see her alive.

Baltimore Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed that Johnson was arrested in connection with the Barnes’ killing, but could not elaborate on the charges filed. An announcement was expected Thursday morning.

Russell Neverdon, Johnson’s attorney, said his client maintains his innocence. He said members of the Warrant Apprehension Task Force came to Johnson’s house, arrested him, and took the keys to the house. He said he had previously instructed his client not to answer any questions in the event of his arrest.
[...]

Reached by phone, Phylicia’s father, Russell Barnes, said the family was “rejoicing” over news of the arrest. He said the family had long suspected Johnson.
[...]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bal-arrest-in-phylicia-barnes-murder-20120425,0,3064964.story