When 48 year old, divorcee and mother of two, Virginia Barbaro, failed to show up for work at Tony’s Steak House on Friday, August 17th, 1973, her friends went looking for her. She was discovered to have been murdered at some time in the early hours of that day in her apartment located over Boatright’s Electronics on the public square. Suspicion shifted quickly to an ex-boyfriend, 43 year old, disabled coal miner Boyd Moore, who lived in Christopher. Moore’s body was found that same afternoon not far from his home, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Located near his body was a suicide note confessing to the death of Mrs. Barbaro.
Marion Woman Slain, Friday, August 17, 1973
The search for a suspect in the slaying of a Marion woman was intensified today.
Russell Oxford, Williamson county Sheriff, said and airplane, helicopter and bloodhounds were to be used this morning in the search in Franklin County between Christopher and Sesser.
The nude body of Virginia Barbaro, 48, was found in her apartment on the Public Square in Marion about 5:15 P.M. Thursday. Friends had checked after she failed to appear for work.
Oxford said the suspect sought for questioning is Boyd Moore, about 48, a coal miner retired because of a disability. Oxford said Moore formerly dated Mrs. Barbaro.
Oxford said when authorities went to Moore’s house Thursday after the body was found, Moore ran out the rear door into a field when he was the police cars. The search was stopped after 1 A.M. until daylight today.
Strangulation
Williamson County Coroner James R. Wilson said a preliminary investigation showed Mrs. Barbaro died of strangulation at the hands of her assailant.
Wilson said there were finger marks on her throat and bone in her neck was fractured. Wilson said she had also been beaten on the head and shoulders.
Mrs. Barbaro was last seen about 12:25 A.M. Thursday after her and another waitress at Tony’s Steak House, where both worked. The restaurant is a short distance from the apartment where Mrs. Barbaro lived. Wilson said the time of death was after 1 A.M. Thursday.
Robbery apparently was not the motive, Wilson said, since Mrs. Barbaro’s purse was open on a dinette table with $44 in bills, two $20 travelers’ checks and a black pouch filled with a large number of coins.
Wilson said Mrs. Barbaro slept in the nude, according to friends. He said an autopsy will determine if she had been sexually assaulted.
The body was found beside her bed with the bedcovers on the floor near her. A circulating fan in the doorway had been knocked over. Wilson said that was the only evidence of disarray.
Failed to Appear
When Mrs. Barbaro failed to appear for work at 4 P.M. her friend Mary Lou Herring, a dispatcher at the Marion Cab Co. office across the street from the restaurant was asked to find her.
Mrs. Herring, when she got no answer to the telephone calls and also found the apartment door locked, went to Boatright’s Electronics, the business on the first floor of the building to see if there was a key to the apartment there.
Benji Cooksey and Sam Lattuca, Jr., employs at Boatright’s found a key and accompanied Mrs. Hering upstairs to the apartment.
Cooksey said, “We unlocked the door and started in. There was a light on. Just after we got in, Sam said, “There’s a body.”
Cooksey said at first he thought Mrs. Barbaro may have become ill and fell to the floor. He said he ran downstairs and called the police immediately.
Wilson said Mrs. Barbaro had been dead for several hours when the body was found but the exact time cannot be determined.
Charles Boatright, owner of the building, said Mrs. Barbaro had lived in the two bedroom, living room, kitchen-dinette apartment since about 1965.
Born in Paulton
She was born in Paulton, August 14, 1925, a daughter of Troy and Maggie Swafford. She was formerly married to Frank Barbaro, now of Lombard. Sam Barbaro built a cocktail lounge and restaurant, The Planter, which his sons Frank and Pat operated with him for a time. Tony’s Steak House opened in the building after the Barbaro’s closed their business and Mrs. Barbaro continued to work there as a waitress.
Mrs. Barbaro is survived by sons, Steven Keith Barbaro and Frank Girard Barbaro of Lombard, mother of Johnston City, and brothers, Troy Swafford of St. Charles, Mo., and Lloyd Swafford of St. Louis, mo. Her father died on March 12, 1973.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete. The Wilson Funeral Home of Marion is in charge.
(Southern Illinoisan, Friday, August 17, 1973, by O.R. Welley)
Suspect’s Death Probed, Monday August 20, 1973
The death of Boyd Moore, 43, Christopher, pursued by police in connection with a Marion woman’s death, is being investigated as though it were a homicide despite a suicide note found near his body.
Williamson County State’s Attorney Robert Howerton today said that he asked Franklin County authorities for the homicide investigation to be “100 percent sure” that Moore killed himself and wrote the note which said he killed Virginia Barbaro, 48, and himself.
Howerton said the note being analyzed and fingerprints on a .22 caliber pistol checked.
He said an autopsy is being performed and he is to receive a report.
Moore was found dead of gunshot wounds to the head Friday afternoon near Christopher. The pistol and a note claiming he shot himself and had killed Mrs. Barbaro were found at the scene of this death.
Williamson County Sheriff Russell Oxford said Moore was a former boyfriend of Mrs. Barbaro.
(Southern Illinoisan, Monday August 20, 1973)