The Case of 'Tent Girl'/Barbara Ann Hackmann Taylor

[danielsan1971]

On May 17, 1968, a well digger named Wilbur Riddle was walking down a dirt road near Route 25 just outside Lexington, Kentucky. He came across a large green tarpaulin normally used for transporting carnival tents. It turned out that the nude, decomposing body of a young woman was wrapped up inside.
She appeared to be in her twenties and had been dead for months. Her exact cause of death could not be determined, but it was theorized that she was knocked unconscious and died of suffocation after being wrapped in the tarpaulin. The victim could not be identified and became known as “Tent Girl.”

Decades later, Wilbur Riddle’s son-in-law, Todd Matthews, become obsessed with uncovering Tent Girl’s identity. He created a website devoted to the case, and eventually, he came across a classified ad from a woman who was searching for her missing sister, Barbara Ann Hackman-Taylor. At age 24, Barbara had mysteriously disappeared from Lexington in December 1967. Matthews thought she bore striking similarities to Tent Girl and arranged to have the unidentified woman’s body exhumed. In April 1998, DNA testing determined that Barbara Ann Hackman-Taylor and Tent Girl were the same person.

The exact circumstances of Barbara’s death are still unknown, but the prime suspect was her husband, George Earl Taylor, who happened to be a carnival worker. He never filed a missing persons report and told Barbara’s family that she had left him for another man. However, George took all of his secrets to the grave when he died of cancer in October 1987. Todd Matthews has since gone on to found the Doe Network, an online database containing thousands of profiles for unidentified decedents.

[Buckafuffalo]

It's nice to see that she has been identified and that there are people dedicated to identifying these poor lost souls. Nobody deserves to be only known or remembered as John Doe, Jane Doe or 'Tent Girl'.

[U2Addict]

danielsan, thank you for posting this story. I spend time on the Doe Network and it's remarkable how many missing and unidentified people there are in this world. I am surprised I've never heard of this before.
It's terrible Barbara was murdered and she was lost for so many years, at least she has her name back and her family was able to claim her.

Buckafuffalo, your so right, everyone is deserving of their name.

Godspeed Barbara

[K53]

Now after long last, her family has some peace.

[Ninjavandal]

Damn, it took 30 years to identify her.