BAKER COUNTY, Fla. – Suwannee Valley Unsolved (SVU) is shedding light on an over 30-year-old unsolved murder case in hopes of helping the Baker County Sheriff’s Office finally get answers in the 1991 death of a Jacksonville woman last seen alive at a truck stop in Columbia County.
On Dec. 12, 1991, 24-year-old Kathy Barnaik was dropped off at a Lake City truck stop after a job fell through. She called her stepfather to pick her up, but he declined, so Barnaik told him she would get a ride back to Jacksonville from two truck drivers.
About a week later, her family hadn’t heard from her so they reported her missing to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Barnaik’s body was found in a garbage bag 18 months later under a bridge on Interstate 10 in Baker County.
Jason Futch, executive director for SVU, hopes that by bringing the case to light, it will change from unsolved to solved.
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“I believe that every case can be solvable,” Futch said. “Especially with the way modern forensics has moved along, I think that evidence could actually be salvaged, possibly, within the containment, so that duffel bag. Just because the integrity of the outside of the bag [was] damaged over time, what was inside could have probably been preserved.”
Futch said while DNA evidence is not available, he thinks fingerprints could be on the bag with Barnaik’s remains.
“I can’t necessarily delve into investigative methods at this moment. But we did suggest a method that they could use to try to do that. As far as if they will do that, that would be entirely up to the agency. But we think that would actually be a very helpful method,” Futch said.
Futch also hopes the renewed interest in the case will encourage the other woman who was hired to work in Lake City with Banaik will come forward with more information.
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Retired JSO Director Tom Hackney said technology can play a big part in solving cold cases, which was the case for JSO when investigators used a cold case grant to solve the Tammy Welch case from 1984.
“We decided to rerun everything in her case that had been ran before. And we wanted to take a new shot at it. That information that we got from that led us to a suspect and we were able to make an arrest in her case, decades later,” Hackney said.
Sharing unsolved cases can promote renewed interest or bring tips forward to help solve the case. After a News4JAX report about a 5-year-old girl referred to as Baby Jane Doe because her remains were found dumped in a trash pile in Ware County, Georgia, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations said a woman’s tip led a break in the case.
Hackney said the smallest piece of information can help bring closure to an unsolved case like Barnaik’s.
“It’s never too little. It’s never too late. And, you know, that little piece is what the detectives are going for. The fact that it’s listed as a cold case. You can make it the hot case, you pick up that phone and make it the hot case now,” Hackney said.
Anyone with information on Barnaik’s case is asked to contact Lieutenant Mancini with the Baker County Sheriff’s Office at 904-259-2861. You can also contact Crime Stoppers of Columbia County anonymously at 386-754-7099.