Daniel Barter Missing 6/18/59 AL
Endangered Missing DANIEL BARTER DOB: Dec 12, 1954 Missing: Jun 18, 1959 Age Now: 53 Sex: Male Race: White Hair: Brown Eyes: Brown Height: 3'0" (91 cm) Weight: 50 lbs (23 kg) Missing From: PERDIDO BAY AL United States Age Progressed Daniel's photo is shown age-progressed to 46 years. He was last seen playing near the banks of Perdido Bay, wearing only shorts. ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT National Center for Missing & Exploited Children 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Baldwin County Sheriff's Office (Alabama) - Missing Persons Unit http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewPoster&caseNum=600229&orgPrefix=NCMC&searchLang=en_US

Reward offered in Baldwin Co. missing-child case Posted: Sep 23, 2008 04:46 PM EDT Updated: Sep 23, 2008 04:46 PM EDT BAY MINETTE, Ala. (AP) - After nearly four decades with no new information, a California foundation has offered a $5,000 reward for information about a boy who disappeared from a Baldwin County campsite. One of the largest manhunts in county history turned up no substantial clues to 4-year-old Danny Barter's whereabouts. Barter's sisters, who now live in Texas, have pushed to restart efforts to locate their brother and the sheriff's office has renewed its interest in the case. Wanda McNelly was 8 at the time of her brother's disappearance and says the reward is the latest attempt to mine the public's memory. The money is being offered by the Carole Sund/Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation of Modesto, Calif. and was announced by the sheriff's office Monday. http://www.wsfa.com/global/story.asp?s=9060596

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT DANIEL Daniel Barter was born on December 12, 1954 to Mr. & Mrs. Paul Barter. He was the 3rd youngest child of 7 siblings at the time of his disappearance. The eighth child was born after making it a total of 8, he was 4 years old, just 6 months away from his 5th birthday. Danny weighed 50 lbs and was 3'0" tall. He was last seen at his family's campsite in Perdido Bay, AL wearing only a pair of gray boxer shorts. How could such a handsome little boy just disappear? Was his wavy brown hair and big brown eyes the reason he was kidnapped, if indeed he ever was? His mother seemed to think so. In fact, these are her exact words as told in the Mobile Register 6/21/59, "I can understand why someone would want to take him because he's such a pretty child." DANNY'S STORY Since the only one who knows Danny's story is Danny, we are only able to assume what really happened that day on June 18, 1959. According to news articles compiled from the Mobile Register, many thoughts ran through the minds of his family and those involved in the desperate search to find little Danny Barter. Over 500 people helped in the search for Danny, 150 of which were Law Enforcement and Firemen. The Navy brought in 115 men to search the waters and land by ship and helicopter. Civilian Volunteers in bands of 25 teamed together and walked almost shoulder to shoulder over a 5 sq mile radius through woods and swamps in search of Danny. Three champion bloodhounds were donated by a doctor from Gadsden, AL. Unfortunately, the dogs were unable to find a trail leading from the site. A skin diver even volunteered to search the bottom of the bay for Danny. As a last resort, dozens of water holes were dynamited in an effort to bring up a body and large alligators in the area were hunted down and killed so stomach contents could be examined. All of this was done but to no avail. Danny was still missing. By this time, Danny's parents considered the possibility that Danny may have been kidnapped. A DESPERATE MOTHER'S WORDS Danny Barter's mother seemed to be such a sweet lady who only saw good in people. The next few paragraphs are quotes from her that were printed in the Mobile Register. Has Danny Barter been kidnapped? His mother seems to think so. "I definitely believe now that someone picked him up and carried him away." A note of hope crept into her voice as she said "I hope now that someone did take Danny because I know if anyone wanted him bad enough to kidnap him they would take good care of him." Why would someone kidnap Danny? His mother's opinion. "I can understand why someone would want to take him because he's such a pretty child." "I know it wasn't for ransom because we have no money saved and are supporting our children on my husband's income." (Paul Barter was a stockroom manager at Morrison's Cafeteria.) With her voice forlorn, Mrs. Barter says, "I know that I will get my Danny back.....He's such a very pretty and sweet child......I felt that nothing could ever happen to him..." What happened the day Danny vanished? Mrs. Barter's detailed recollection. "Paul had gone to a store and bought some drinks for the children, taking Danny with him. When they returned, the children opened their drinks and Danny got one for himself. Danny and my husband were playing together on one of the roll-away cots for a short while then Paul got up and began preparing for the fishing trip. We had rigged three poles for the fishing trip when suddenly we noticed that Danny was not in the tent. I didn't become alarmed at first, even though he was not at the immediate campsite." (Mrs. Barter thought he had went to play with some children who lived about 150 feet away). "I had first believed that despite Danny's fear of water he had wandered into the water and drowned. But not now. I believe he probably walked up the road and someone picked him up." Did this couple take Danny? The Barter's witnessed a truck ride by with a man and woman inside the morning Danny disappeared. The road leading to the campsite is seldom traveled. "If they or someone else did take Danny it could have been because they were strongly attracted to him." Mrs. Barter stated. The Barter family would like to Thank a special lady Lynn Ruess who has worked hard on finding Danny. All the above information is from Lynn's site Copy and paste this Banner at the top of your Website. Hopefully someone will spot him and call or send an E-mail to the Police. http://www.dannybarter.com/

Upcoming vigil in June 2009 In June 2009 Lynn and Danny's family are planning a candle light vigil for Danny. This will mark the 50th anniversary of his disappearance in 1959. It seems with all the new publicity Danny's story has received recently, there has been a lot of confusion as to the location of the campsite. Yes, this was a family camping trip, but this was not a public camping area. This was not a state park or anything of the like. This was a private lot on private property. This area was very remote back in 1959. The family's beach site could not be seen from the road because it was a wooded area. We appreciate opinions and ideas, but wish they would not be put into public statements without prior approval from the family. Danny's disappearance is a very sensitive issue to us, as well as, an ongoing and open investigation. We understand there are many who only wish to help and we are very grateful. Those who show interest only for selfish intentions are not desired. We take our missing loved one very seriously and do not have time for malicious ambitions. We only want to find our brother and live our lives in peace. We respect and appreciate everything that the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office, the Mobile FBI, and the media has done for us over the years. Without them, we would not have gotten this far. The late Sheriff Taylor Wilkins of Baldwin County was very devoted to finding Danny and spent 3 nights in his car after the search was called off. He wanted to make sure Danny was not alone if he wandered back to the site. Sheriff Wilkins never forgot Danny, even after his retirement. Our hopes for the vigil on June 20th is to bring together our family, friends and community to help remember Danny and promote awareness, not only for Danny's disappearance, but other missing persons as well. The missing of a loved one is one of the hardest ordeals a family could endure, especially when the victim is a child. We strongly believe that someone out there knows what happened to Danny and possibly knows him as another identity. We hope to find him safe and sound, but most importantly, we seek closure. It has been 50 years and we feel it is time for some answers. Thank you, The Barter Family http://www.dannybarter.com/

Baldwin County cold case remembered RYAN DEZEMBER • Mobile Press-Register • June 22, 2009 FOLEY, Ala. — Fifty years ago, a 4-year-old named Danny Barter, camping with family on the banks of Perdido Bay, vanished, prompting perhaps the largest manhunt in Baldwin County’s history and launching a case that would become one of the area’s coldest. Advertisement On Saturday three generations of Barters, many of whom made trips of 12 and 14 hours from their homes in Texas, convened in south Baldwin County to rekindle interest in the case and remember their lost brother, cousin, uncle. As vexing as Danny’s disappearance is, his family holds out hope that he is alive today, unaware of his true identity. “This is not an ending for us,” Mike Barter, Danny’s younger brother, told about 50 people gathered Saturday evening in the conference room of a Foley hotel. “This is just to remind people that it’s been 50 years, and if it takes another 50 years, there will be some of us working on it.” After brief remarks by investigators, family members and Lynn Ruess, an Auburn woman who has privately researched the case and worked to bring attention to it for the past three years, the group traveled to the site of Danny Barter’s disappearance to hold a vigil. A house, the owners of which allowed the Barter family to convene in the yard Saturday night, now sits on the location. But on June 19, 1959, the site was a vacant patch in a fairly remote spot north of the U.S. 98 bridge into Florida. The Barter family owned the property and used it as a bayside retreat. On the day he went missing, Danny was camping with his parents, Maxine and Paul Barter, both of whom are now dead; three of his seven siblings; an uncle and two cousins. About 9:45 a.m., as the group prepared for a fishing trip, they realized that Danny, last seen barefoot, wearing a pair of gray boxer shorts and drinking from a bottle of soda, was gone. The search for the brown-haired boy with a fear of the water began at the beach, but no footprints were found leading to the water. By afternoon, 150 people — sheriff’s deputies, firefighters, enlisted men from Pensacola Naval Air Station — had joined the search. (2 of 2) Before nightfall, Navy pilots gave family members hope when they reported that no body had surfaced on the bay. The next day saw 500 people come out to look for the little boy from Mobile. Mounted deputies combed wooded areas. Strings of men walked shoulder-to-shoulder through nearby Lillian Swamp, scouring sinkholes and thickets. Boats dragged nets along the bay’s floor. One the third day, the search grew more desperate. Alligators were gutted in a search of human remains. Dynamite, aimed at dislodging a three-foot-tall body from the bottom, was dropped into the bay. An abduction theory grew as bloodhounds brought to the scene tracked Danny’s scent from the campground to a nearby road, where a Nehi soda bottle, like the one he’d been drinking, was found. Because of the persistence of Danny’s siblings, investigators reopened the case last year, working under the assumption that it was a kidnapping. “For the FBI, child abductions are without a doubt the most important cases we work,” Joseph Fierro, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Mobile field office, told the Barters on Saturday. “If that had been the case when Danny disappeared, there may have been a different outcome.” One of investigators’ main strategies over the past 18 months has been to publicize the case, be it in the local media or national crime shows, hoping that doing so might shake loose a fresh tip or perhaps even a recollection by Danny Barter himself, who would now be 54. “Since we reopened the case 1½ years ago many, many leads have come up, and none of them have panned out,” Capt. Steve Arthur of the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office said. Arthur, addressing the Robertsdale Rotary Club last week, said investigators thought they had a breakthrough six months ago after a Milwaukee man committed suicide, and his therapist told police that the deceased man may have been a pedophile who had committed crimes. A search of the dead man’s home revealed a photograph of a young boy dated 1959, but investigators in Wisconsin eventually discovered that the photo was not of Danny Barter and that the Milwaukee man purported to be a psychic and had solicited the photograph from the family of another missing person in an effort to solve the mystery. On Saturday Arthur said the Barter family’s persistence and optimism over five decades is something he has not seen before in his 34 years career in law enforcement. “If I live to be 100,” he said, “I won’t forget this case or the family’s dedication.” http://www.pnj.com/article/20090622/NEWS01/90622021/1006/RSS01

FBI reopens 1959 case of missing 4-year-old updated 2:31 p.m. EDT, Mon June 22, 2009 By Gabriel Falcon AC360° Writer NEW YORK (CNN) -- Before Adam Walsh, Etan Patz and Madeleine McCann, before the first Amber Alert, before a young face stared back from the side of a milk carton, there was Danny. Danny Barter was 4 when he vanished in 1959 while on a family camping trip. Danny Barter vanished in 1959. He was on a family camping trip to Alabama's Perdido Bay. He was playing with his dad one minute, gone the next. "Just like that," recalled his brother Mike Barter. Danny was 4 years old. Last weekend, his loved ones returned to the campsite and to the scene of the presumed stranger abduction. They came to remember Danny and to rededicate a half-century mission to find him. Even with the passage of time, their faith has not wavered. "We've never doubted that he's ... out there," Mike Barter said. "Until they prove otherwise, we hope one day we will be reunited." Their hope has been bolstered by investigators with the FBI and the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office, which reopened the case last year after hearing of a recent conversation. "A lead was sparked when someone was sitting in a public area talking about what happened," FBI spokeswoman Joyce Riggs wrote in an e-mail to the media. As cold case cops know, a wisp of a lead can turn into a big break, a fact FBI Special Agent Angela Tobon believes can solve the Daniel Barter mystery. "Even if think it's insignificant, it's probably not," Tobon said. "Each little piece of the puzzle may not mean something, but when you put it all together, you get the big picture." Danny was the third youngest of Paul and Maxine Barter's seven children. He had brown hair and big brown eyes. "He's such a very pretty and sweet child," his mom told the Mobile Register in an article published June 21, 1959. "I can understand why someone would want to take him, because he's such a pretty child." Three days earlier, Danny, his parents and his siblings were enjoying a family outing near the Gulf shore. Danny and his dad had just returned from getting some drinks at a store. Tents were pitched. Fishing poles were prepared. And then someone noticed that Danny was gone. "I had first believed that despite Danny's fear of water, he had wandered into the water and drowned," Maxine Barter told the Mobile Register. "But not now. I believe he probably walked up the road, and someone picked him up." The search was extensive and immediate. Hundreds combed the land and the waters, looking for Danny. Bloodhounds were given his scent and dispatched to follow it. Alligators were killed and cut open. But there was no trace of Danny, then or now. For his parents and the police, the sickening conclusion was quickly reached: He was stolen by a human predator. Danny's mom could not fathom that the kidnapper would bring harm to her boy. "I hope now that someone did take Danny, because I know if anyone wanted him bad enough to kidnap him, they would take good care of him," she said. Fifty years later, the family longs for closure. Paul and Maxine Barter are both deceased, but their children carry on the decades-long pursuit to know the truth. On dannybarter.com, a Web site dedicated to finding answers, the family posted this plea to the public: "We strongly believe that someone out there knows what happened to Danny and possibly knows him as another identity. We hope to find him safe and sound." The FBI is also seeking information on Danny Barter. It has published two photographs of him on its Web site. One shows the smiling child, taken in the months before Danny was abducted. The other picture is age-progressed, depicting what Danny would look like today at 54. If you have any information on the Danny Barter case, go to http://www.dannybarter.com or contact the FBI, your local police or the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office in Alabama. http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/22/alabama.barter.mystery/index.html