Barbara Blount was a strong southern woman enjoying her country life in 2008. She lived alone in a secluded rural home, surrounded by her gardens and her cows.
Barbara hadn’t always lived alone, however. She spent many years with her husband Henry, known to everyone as ‘Junior’, until his tragic accident in 2004 which left Barbara a widow.
But in 2008, Barbara managed to put together a wonderful life for herself as a widow.
She stayed busy raising cows on her property and truly enjoyed her very close-knit family, which included two grown children who lived on the same rural road as Barbara.
Barbara and her family lived in the small town of Holden, Louisiana. She was strong in her faith and was a longtime Sunday school teacher.
Barbara also knew the risks of living alone in a rural area and took all the precautions- including locking her doors and even carrying a gun when she tended to her cows.
On May 2, 2008, Barbara visited with her daughter Kristie in the morning. Later, around 11:30 she spoke to a neighbor on the phone. Barbara said she had a day of deep cleaning planned, which was mainly focused on her kitchen. Barbara kept a very tidy home and was known to be very clean and organized, so this was no surprise to anyone.
As the afternoon progressed, Kristie continued to try and reach her mom on the phone, with no luck. Finally, Brandon, Barbara’s nephew went over to check on her. He found Barbara’s car missing, but her cell phone and her glasses were inside the home.
He also found her cordless phone on the ground underneath the carport, with the batteries lying next to the phone.
Something was wrong and the authorities were alerted. There would be a strange sighting of Barbara that day, and her car would be found abandoned, but there was no sign of Barbara.
Barbara Blount was 58 years old in May of 2008. She had two adult children, a son, Ricky, and a daughter, Kristie. Both of her children lived nearby and the family remained close. So close in fact, that Barbara made dinner for everyone every evening.
Barbara and her husband Henry enjoyed the quiet, country life in Louisiana.
They raised their children together, and Barbara was known to be an excellent housekeeper, gardener, and Sunday school teacher. She was devoted to her faith and her family.
But in 2004 something tragic happened that turned the Blount family’s lives upside down.
Henry Blount, Barbara’s husband, was 55 years old in 2004. He was working as a truck driver, specifically hauing gasoline tanker trucks.
In June of that year, Henry was driving down the road towards some train tracks. These tracks are we marked, and had lights, however, they didn’t have the barricades that come up and down to stop traffic when a train was approaching.
Henry had crossed these tracks often.
However, on this one day, something made Henry cross those train tracks even though the lights had started blinking. A fast-approaching CSX Freight train blared its horn, but it was too late.
The train collided with the truck, sending it over on its side when it suddenly burst into flames.
Remember, Henry was hauling highly flammable gasoline.
No one can quite say what prompted Henry to do this. Some thought it was intentional. Others believed it was just a tragic accident.
Sadly, Henry succumbed to his injuries during that crash, as did two train workers aboard the train.
The employees of CSX were furious and made their thoughts known. They accused Henry, even though he was also deceased now, of murdering their coworkers. This was said to many media outlets right after the accident.
Henry’s family had to pick up the pieces and move on. Barbara struggled at first, but her close bond with her family, and with God, helped her keep going.
She turned her energy into gardening, caring for her cows, teaching Sunday school, and cooking dinners for her family.
A few years went by, and the Blount’s had developed a new normal.
The morning of May 2, 2008, was like any other Friday in Barbara’s life at the time.
She spoke to her daughter Kristie that morning and mentioned how she was going to spend the day cleaning, and that she’d see Kristie alter that night.
Around 11:30 a.m., Barbara spoke to a neighbor on the phone. The conversation was typical, and Barbara said she was spending the day deep cleaning her kitchen. Barbara was known to keep a very clean house and this was a normal activity for Barbara.
As the day progressed, a few people tried to call Barbara at different times, but she didn’t answer. In the afternoon, her daughter was worried, as was her nephew. Her nephew decided to run over to Barbara’s house and check on her.
Barbara lived in a rural area, with no other houses in sight.
When her nephew arrived, he noted that Barbara’s car wasn’t there. He glanced around the home and found the back door unlocked and slightly ajar.
Barbara always locked her doors.
He noticed the pots and pans stacked up on the floor and the cupboards empty, but this fits with her deep clearing of the kitchen.
He also found her cell phone on the counter, along with her glasses, which was odd. Sure, in 2008 Barbara might have left her cell phone behind, but not her glasses. She wore her glasses, so he was confused.
Outside under the carport, he found Barbara’s cordless home phone on the ground, with the battery out and sitting a few feet away, almost as if it had dropped and the battery popped out.
The scene of the empty home was ominous. There wasn’t exactly an sign of a struggle, just a few strange clues that seemed ff
An open back door, which is definitely not like Barbara.
Her eyeglasses were left behind.
The cordless phone on the ground outside.
But Barbara’s car was missing, could she have just driven off to go somewhere? Maybe she had dropped the cordless phone outside and didn’t realize it. Maybe her back door just didn’t latch as she thought it had.
But her eyeglasses? Would she go off and drive without them? Did she have a spare pair by chance?
It was mystifying and her family decided something must be wrong. They reported her missing to local authorities and the search would begin.
Barbara Ann Blounts had disappeared.
THE SEARCH.
Law enforcement came out immediately to take a report. Holden, Louisiana is a small town- just over 6.000 residents- and Barbara was well-liked. She was an active Sunday school teacher, and church members were concerned. This wasn’t like Barbara at all.
But initial searches turned up no additional clues as to Barbara’s whereabouts.
Where did she go? And why? Everyone was completely baffled.
There was no sign of a breakin, or a robbery. Everything of value was still in the home, in fact, nothing was missing at all, except Barbara’s car keys and of course, Barbara.
The first clue came in later that afternoon. A local teenager had been driving down Route 7 when he spotted a car pulled into the woods, down a hunting road. He thought he recognized the car as Barbara’s, someone he knew. He stopped to check.
The car did indeed look like Barbara’s. A 2006 silver four-door Toyota. He found her car keys on the ground a few yards from the vehicle but found no sign of the Sunday school teacher.
He called his mother, and she in turn phoned the Livingston County Sheriff Department.
Soon everyone was putting the clues together that this was Barbara’s car, and Barbara was missing.
The location of her car was just ¼ mile down the road from her home. And it was pulled about 25 yards down a dirt hunting camp road.
No one could think of any reason why Barbara herself would have driven there.
Her car didn’t provide any additional clues as to Barbara’s whereabouts, and neither did the surrounding wooded areas, which were searched. Authorities utilized ATV’s, search dogs, helicopters, search and rescue personnel, and even volunteers, yet nothing was found to indicate where Barbara was, or where she may have gone.
To make matters worse, later that afternoon and evening, a hard rain hit the area flooding the area where Barbara’s car was found. The area was known to flood because of poor drainage, and sure enough, this rain flooded Barbara’s car.
If there was any additional evidence to be found forensically, fingerprints, etc, it may have been washed away.
As her photo was pushed out through social media in attempts to find Barbara in those early days, a woman from Alabama came forward with a sighting.
She said that she and her husband were driving to visit family near Holden, Louisiana area that day. They were pulling their camper, and that particular stretch of road was quite curvy, so they were driving pretty slow.
As they rounded the area where Barbara’s car would later be found, they saw a woman matching Barbara’s description standing at the door of a silver pickup truck talking to a man.
They said she was holding something, which they thought was a pair of glasses. It had begun raining, so that made sense to them, you might take your glasses off in the rain to dry them off or even to see better.
Barbara saw them too, as she turned to them and smiled. It seemed like the man in the truck had just pulled over to talk to Barbara.
The couple even described what Barbara was wearing, which was confirmed to be correct by Kristie, who had seen her mother earlier that day in those clothes.
Authorities thought this was a probable legitimate sighting of Barbara.
But it left everyone with more questions than answers.
Who was in the red truck?
Why had Barbara driven down there? Was she lured down there, and if so, why?
We’ll talk more about that when we discuss theories.
Authorities have come out every few years announcing they feel they are close to solving the case. However, nothing much as developed as of yet, at least that the public is aware of.
A local journalist has also said that it seems every election in the area brings out these statements, and they just don’t put any weight into what they are saying anymore. This is sad if local politicians are using this case to help gain popularity and votes within their local area of Louisiana, but I suppose they wouldn’t be the first politicians to take such actions.
Holden is a small town in Livingston Parish, located about a 45 minute drive east from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
In 2008, the population was barely over 6,000 residents. The railroad running through the town was a major point in the town being developed in the early 1900’s.
Today, in 2024, Holden is still a pretty small town. There’s a Dollar General of course, a post office and a small school district. A small residential area, but the majority of the outlying areas are rural.
Barbara’s car was found on a hunting club dirt road just off of Road 1036.
As for water sources, while I’m sure there are wetlands throughout the area, the only labeled water source on the map is East Hog Branch, a creek running parallel to Road 1036.
The Livingston Parish sheriff also said the area is prone to flooding, specifically where Barbara’s car was found. And that’s exactly what happened the day she vanished. Within an hour’s time, the area flooded so badly that by the time law enforcement had a tow truck to Barbara’s car, there was over an inch of water on the floorboards.
Here is what Crimegrade.org has to say about crime rates in Holden:
The D+ grade means the rate of violent crime is higher than the average US city. Holden is in the 27th percentile for safety, meaning 73% of cities are safer and 27% of cities are more dangerous.
Your chance of being a victim of violent crime in Holden may be as high as 1 in 59 in the west neighborhoods, or as low as 1 in 299 in the northeast part of the city.
It does seem that Holden has a higher than average violent crime rate.
THEORIES.
As in many cases when we have very, very few clues, almost any theory is a viable one.
There are five talked about theories in Barbara’s case, and I want to start with one that you might not have thought about.
THEORY #1: Henry’s Untimely Death in 2004. How could Barbara’s husband’s death be a theory in her disappearance, which would occur four years later?
Henry’s death was a mystery. It was an accident as he crossed a train track with an oncoming train. However, everyone at the oil company that Henry had worked for, for many years actually, said Henry was an exceptional driver and had two decades of a perfect record.
But accidents can still happen. It just takes one time, right? There were rumors Did Henry do it on purpose?
Henry’s family said no way, but the railroad workers weren’t so sure, and they were furious because they would lose two of their own in the accident. The railroad workers were quite vocal about their anger towards Henry, even calling him a ‘murderer’ during one interview.
It was ruled an accident, but without Henry here to tell us his side of the story, there may always be questions.
When Barbara disappeared, many people started to wonder if her disappearance was related to Henry’s death. Was there more going on behind the scenes? Was Henry involved in something, or were the railroad workers out for revenge?
Did someone show up at Barbara’s house and lure her out quickly? Perhaps saying there was an accident or something that she needed to get to fast- where she’d drop her phone and get in her car, driving away with pretty much nothing?
Was their goal to get her away from her home? But why? Did they want to avoid leaving evidence at the home, so lured her to the wooded area?
Seems a longshot to me, to target a sweet, older lady whose whole life was dedicated to her kids, her farm, and her church, just to get revenge for a possible accident four years earlier.
I don’t know. I suppose anything is possible, as I’ve said, but I’m curious to know what your thoughts are on this possible theory.
THEORY #2. A friend or relative caused her harm. I think this theory comes up in a lot of unsolved cases, and rightly so, because we believe that most crimes against someone are usually committed by someone they know.
However, when I researched statistics, I found on the FBI website- FBI.gov- that 53% of people are victims at the hands of a friend, relative or acquaintance, and 47% are at the hands of a stranger.
Honestly, I thought the gap would be wider than that. You ARE more likely to be harmed by someone you know, however, just barely.
I have trouble with this theory because nothing was missing at the home and it seemed no one had anything to gain at Barbara going missing, or worse.
Was someone looking to inherit something?
There was absolutely zero evidence that there was life insurance, or that someone stood to gain financially from her disappearance.
Also, because Barbara went missing if someone wanted to inherit money or property, they would have to wait until she was declared legally deceased before doing so. This is a process that can take years. We’ve seen familial murders happen for this reason, but a disappearance certainly doesn’t give anyone anything to gain, at least immediately.
Again, there has been no evidence leading law enforcement to believe that a family member,or friend, was behind her disappearance.
THEORY #3. The Witnesses from Alabama. The last people to see Barbara was the couple driving their camper to Holden. They saw Barbara at her vehicle, where it would later be found, and said she was talking to someone in a pickup truck.
But no one else saw that truck that day, leaving many to wonder about the credibility of these witnesses.
Their description of Barbara was spot on, down to the clothing she was wearing and the location they saw her at.
But what would their motive be to do something to Barbara? And if they just encountered her on the road as they said, what made Barbara drive there to begin with?
I do see why people are leary of this couple, and honestly, they were my first thought as well, but the more evidence we have uncoovered, I just don’t see any reason for them to harm Barbara.
Perhaps they went to Barbara’s house and they are the ones that brought her out of her house?
But again, why? There was no robbery motive, and even if it was an accident they were trying to hide, how did Barbara’s car get where it was, and why did she leave her house open and her phone on the ground?
I don’t know about this theory either, there’s just nothing that really points this way in my opinion, except for them being the last to see Barbara that day.
THEORY #4: A medical emergency. This theory is interesting to me. Barbara was 58 years old, in good health as far as we know and was a strong woman. This is the woman who took care of her property, even hauling heavy buckets of cattle feed daily to feed her cows.
She was in the middle of deep cleaning her kitchen when she suddenly vanished. Did something happen, medically speaking, to cause her wander away from her home? Specifically, getting into her car and driving ¼ of a mile. Was she disoriented?
Had the pickup truck just stopped to offer help to Barbara?
If that’s the case, however, how come the driver of that truck hasn’t come forward? It’s a small town, if it was a local they certainly heard of Barbara’s disappearance when it happened.
Or, did the pickup truck happen upon her and take advantage of her disoriented state in one way or another? Taking her away from the area?
There wasn’t any sign of a fall, or an episode at the home, except perhaps the fallen cordless phone in the carport.
The home looked as it should have, with pots and pans neatly stacked up on the floor as she was most likely in the middle of clearing her cupboards when she left the home.
We have covered cases of a few younger women with dissociative fugue- a sudden memory loss that occurs in the brain with no warning.
Hannah Upp, is a young woman who vanished three times before disappearing the last time from the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2017.
There is also the story of Amber Gerwick, a young woman who vanished from her apartment in the middle of studying. She was spotted in Georgia, and then ultimately found in Illinois, with no memory of how she traveled to all the places she had.
Could something like this have befallen Barbara? She could have wandered away and be someone else completely unaware of who she is, or possibly fallen victim to an accident and remained unfound.
Dissociative Fugue is pretty rare, but it has happened. It’s also a disorder that continues to mystify doctors so it’s hard to say whether Barbara would fit the profile of a dissociative fugue patient.
THEORY #5. A serial killer. Could a serial killer have been passing through the area? Someone with a notion to kill, harm or kidnap someone for no reason at all?
This theory is talked about online sometimes in Barbara’s case, because not only is it possible, it’s the only theory that is completely random.
Since no one can find a motive to harm Barbara, a random attack is the only one that might make sense.
Again, there is no evidence pointing to any theory at this point, at least per what investigators have shared with the public.
I don’t share theories with you to raise speculation or encourage rumors, but knowing what directions to look in can be important to the public when searching for missing persons.
I am curious, what your thoughts are on the disappearance of Barbara Ann Blount?
Barbara is described as a caucasian female, standing 5’5” tall and weighing around 150 pounds when she was last seen in May of 2008. Barbara was 58 years old then, and would today be 74.
She has short, greying hair, and hazel eyes. She was last seen wearing a tank top, pinstriped shorts and purple Crocs.
Anyone with any information on the whereabouts of Barbara Ann Blount is asked to contact the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office at 225-938-4323.
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