Sheriff launches website for missing women

More than two years after Barbara Barnett vanished, the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office has launched a website seeking tips, facts and even unsubstantiated rumors about the case.

“Somebody knows something, I just pray that even God will help us out, because we need it,” said Mariposa County Sheriff Jeremy Briese in his weekly video address.

Specifically, investigators are seeking information about a mysterious new boyfriend Barnett had mentioned before her disappearance on March 26, 2024, and a gold bracelet she was trying to sell, “for drugs or money,” Briese said.

A deputy is now dedicated full-time to the case, in addition to working alongside a detective who has been working part time on leads.

Briese did not describe the disappearance as anything other than a missing persons case, but he did not rule out other possibilities.

“If someone did something nefarious we will hold them accountable,” he said.

And if investigators have a person, or persons, of interest, they aren’t saying.

“We’ve talked to people once, twice, multiple times. It doesn’t mean we’re done,” Briese said.

Toward the end of his video taped statement, Briese added cryptically, “We have some individuals we will be seeing soon.”

Reconstructing the timeline

Barnett, a long time resident of Mariposa County, was known to hitchhike along Highway 49 from her home on the 2700 block of Highway 49 South, located between Stumpfield Mountain and Triangle roads.

She was 60 years old at the time of her disappearance,

A roommate last saw her on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. walking up the driveway toward Highway 49. She was wearing a pink jacket, carrying a neon pink carry-on style suitcase and a brown purse.

She was reported missing three days later.

Investigators have retraced her steps in the days leading up to her disappearance and the sheriff’s office has reconstructed a general timeline.

On Friday, March 22, four days before she went missing, Barnett was captured on video surveillance leaving the Smoke Shop 2 in Mariposa at 2:20 p.m.

Barnett met with her son at his workplace that day and she was reportedly intoxicated and upset.

During the weekend of March 23-24, a friend gave Barnett a ride and she talked about a new boyfriend, who was an older Native American or Caucasian man, with a slender build, about 6-feet, 2-inches with shoulder length gray hair.

Briese said Barnett did not identify the boyfriend because she said her family may or may not approve of the relationship.

On Sunday, March 24, Barnett was seen leaving Yosemite Liquor and getting into a tow truck, heading toward Highway 49.

On Monday, March 25, Barnett’s roommate said she was dropped off at her home by a tow truck driver around 3 p.m.

She has not been seen since leaving her home the next morning.

A sheriff’s office spokesperson said investigators have identified the tow truck operator and spoken with him.

In April 2024, shortly after Barnett was reported missing, the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office Search & Rescue Team deployed a drone along Highways 49 and 140 to Midpines to see if anyone, or anything, could be spotted along the roads steep embankments.

The search revealed no clues.

The investigation

Investigators have executed search warrants on “a few different properties,” Briese said.

At one property, deputies collected “some items of interest” that are currently undergoing forensic testing by the California Department of Justice.

No potential crime scenes have been uncovered, Briese said.

Digital evidence has also been recovered, including Barnett’s cell phone.

The sheriff’s office released photos last week of a gold bracelet Barnett was trying to sell around the time she vanished, believing it was worth $1,000.

The sheriff’s office is asking anyone who has seen, sold or perhaps purchased the gold bracelet to contact law enforcement.

Briese said Barnett was apparently interested in selling the bracelet for drugs or money.

The sheriff’s office has chased down multiple sightings of Barnett, including at homeless camps in other communities. But those sightings have all turned out to be unfounded.

Briese acknowledged having to be slightly circumspect in talking about the case because he didn’t want to jeopardize the investigation.

He also made it clear that investigators are seeking any kind of information without judgment.

“We started to get more unsavory style of rumors, reports, maybe facts, so we are continuing to collect that information,” Briese said.

A daughter’s quest

Barnett’s daughter, Elisha Singh, has tried desperately to keep her mother’s case in the spotlight, including last weekend over Mother’s Day weekend.

“My gut feeling is something nefarious happened,” Singh told the Mariposa Gazette.

Singh said she was already concerned about her mother “walking along the roads, hanging out with the people she was hanging out with.”

Two weeks before she vanished, Singh drove her mother to see a friend of Barnett’s in Midpines who the daughter could contact “in case something happened.”

“She wanted to tell me something that day,” Singh recalled.

Singh was out of town visiting her grandfather in the hospital when her mother disappeared.

She sensed something was wrong and hurried back home to Mariposa County, where Barnett’s roommate told Singh her mother had been missing for a couple of days.

“She’s an amazing woman, all I wanted to do that day was to give her a hug,” Singh said.

Singh said her mother struggled over the years with mental health issues and substance abuse and the two had recently reconciled.

Barnett was looking forward to seeing her grandson graduate from eighth grade and “wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Singh said.

Barnett apparently removed her grandson’s picture from her refrigerator before she left home and vanished.

As torturous as the prolonged investigation has been, she gives credit to Briese and the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office.

“Anytime I’ve reached out, Jeremy has always taken my phone call. I’m so thankful for that,” she said.

How to help

If you have information about Barnett’s disappearance you can submit a confidential or anonymous tip at www.mariposamissing.org

There is a $1,000 reward in the case.

Tipsters can also contact the case agent, Deputy Jennifer Rodriguez at (209) 966- 3615, x. 2115.

The web site also features information on Crystal Blackburn, who disappeared Dec. 29, 2023, four months before Barnett.

Blackburn, who was 40 years old when she vanished, was last seen walking away from her home in the Mt. Bullion area.

Briese promised an update on Blackburn’s case soon.

A third woman who went missing in June 2022, Wendy Pullins, was found in November 2023.

Justin Allen Bolton, 44, is charged with first degree murder in the Pullins case. His trial is scheduled for later this summer.

A sheriff’s office spokesperson said at this point there is nothing indicating the three cases are connected.