Hey, there is Steve Fishman, and thank you for listening to Get the Money and Run. If you're into true crime podcasts, then I want to recommend one to you that I think you're going to appreciate. It's called Dakota Spotlight. It's hosted by James Woolner, and it investigates unsolved cases, suspicious death, and long forgotten stories. Most of them are from North Dakota and the surrounding region, thus the title.
But what makes this podcast stand out is its focus not just on the events, but the people, not just the crime, but the characters around it. It's deeply researched and it's driven by this kind of uncanny commitment to get at the truth. There are eleven seasons of original reporting. The sound design's immersive, The interviews are really powerful. You get victims, families, investigators, even some people connected to the accused. Dakota Spotlight offers a level of depth and humanity you
don't often hear in the true crime space. If that sounds like you're kind of podcast, then check out Dakota Spotlight wherever you listen, or you can visit Dakota Spotlight dot com.
You're listening to Dakota Spotlight. My name is James Woolner. It's been four decades since a fifteen year old girl vanished while walking home on the streets of Williston in the North Dakota oil country. And it all started on April eleventh, nineteen eighty one.
And we're waiting word on the President of the United States by George Washington hospital.
Mister Reagan as we saw him pop up and sit back down his grin.
Hospital and we get this story final aia wrapped up.
All of the executives are on the das applauding the president's entry.
A few moments ago in Washington, US, President Ronald Reagan has released from the hospital twelve days after being shot in the chest by a would be assassin. And in the state of Florida over at Cape Canaveral, NASA gives the green light for the first ever launch of Space Shuttle Columbia, set for the following day. The launch team has been breathed on the way in which a halt can be called to the countdown. The launch events are being controlled by the ground lawnch sequencer. Now that has
been initiated elsewhere in the United States. It's business as usual on this Saturday in the Upper Midwest, mother Nature is hinting here and there that she just might follow through on her pledge, her promise of the actual manifestation
of an actual springtime. All across this region. Northerners pack up the family car and head to the local shops and hardware stores, where parents inspect garden hoses and potting soil, and the kids are drawn to easter basket isles where they fondle bags of pink bunnies, yellow ches, and chocolate eggs wrapped in colored foild.
There's a put swung off fyeballs center field easy out. Gary Ward is there and he takes it.
In North Dakota, automobile owners who want to avoid a fine have just four days to get the snow tires off, and so all across the wide state, part of Saturday afternoon is spent out in the garage spring cleaning, listening to the Minnesota Twins lose again, this time against Oakland three to nothing.
Son has went away.
Saturday becomes Saturday night, and after the evening meal, many North Dakota's fall into one of three categories. First are those who have to stay home for the night kids and children with no say in the matter. They fall asleep in pajamas watching love Boat or Fantasy Island. The second category of those who just want to stay in for the night, the fatigued adults, many of them parents and homeowners. These North Dakotas sit up late and play
cards or watch Chevy Chase hosting Saturday Night Live. Some just go to bed, while others nod off on the couch, only to wake up with a jolt again and cast a panicked look at the clock.
Pleasant tomorrow.
Their day is not quite done yet, because they are the parents and occasional chauffeurs of the third category, teenagers who have no desire at all to stay home on a Saturday night In April, of course, on April eleventh, nineteen eighty one, the Saturday night options for teenagers are slim. Some go to the movies, others ask a parent to drive them to the indoor roller skating rink on this night. One such roller skating rink is wheel Aware, just outside of the town of Williston, North Dakota.
Was just a hangout where we'd all get together, you know, something to do on the weekends, especially in the cold, you know, winter months and stuff.
This is Sandy Evanson in nineteen eighty one, she was Sandy Schubert. On the evening of April eleventh, nineteen eighty one, Sandy was just sixteen years of age when she went roller skating with some of her friends at wheel Awhile in Williston. The skating rink was a favorite hangout for Sandy and her friends.
We were like, so hoot that, yep, I saved all my money and I think my first pair of skates were like one hundred and twenty dollars, which was a lot of money back then.
At the wheel a while, the teenagers of Williston could get out of their homes and yet stay out of the cold and for the moment spartan out of trouble. They socialized, bought popcorn and candy at the concession stand, and skated to pop music beneath the giant disco ball.
They would, you know, turn the lights down sometimes and have the strobe lights in the mirror ball and Joe, Yeah, there were boys there. There was ones that I had a crush on.
Sandy and her friends often stayed at wheel Awhile until closing, when a parent would pick them.
Up and there would be two sessions, like a usually like a seven to nine and a nine to midnight or something like that. I believe it was, but we would pretty much stay. I think we'd usually go from like seven to midnight.
On this evening, if her memory serves her correctly. Sandy's parents are out of town, and so her friend's mother picks them up at wheel a while and drives them back to her friend's house, where they hang out for a while. Her friend's house is a few blocks north of Sandy's.
Pretty close to eighteep Street and Ninth Avenue.
After some time at her friend's house, Sandy decides to go home to walk home alone. Sandy never feels fully comfortable doing this, even though Willson is considered a pretty safe place by most of her friends at the time. On this night, she's on edge, however, maybe because her parents left town on business and she knows she's returning to an empty house in the dark.
I'm scared. I'm like some parts I can remember running, you know, not because of the cold, but because I'm scared. It's dark and where are the weirdos? And things like that.
Sandy arrives at home and is greeted by nothing but an empty house. Still feeling cold and out of sorts, she takes one look at her own bed and then heads to her parents' bedroom. Maybe she'll feel a little safer if she sleeps in mom and dad's empty bed.
And I get covers all wrapped around me, and I had just drifted off, and I remember looking over. There was a clock by my mom's bedside table and it said like one. It was pretty much right on the dot at one, I believed, And I was like, who's calling at one? At first I thought it might be my mom and dad, but I thought, nah, they wouldn't be calling the sleeve. But maybe they're calling to see I got home from roller skating her. I remember thinking, though,
this probably isn't a good phone call. Nobody calls at that time of night, you know, for something good. And I pick it up and it's Louise.
Louise is Louise Cotton, a parent, the mother of fifteen year old Barbara Cotton, Sandy's childhood friend. But Sandy and Barbara don't hang out together anymore, you.
Know, And so Louise knew that she probably wouldn't be hanging with me, And I thought, that's where she's calling to ask? And I said, no, I haven't seen her.
And truth be told, nobody has admitted to seeing Barbara Cotton since that night. He didn't come home or call the next day, or the next year, or ever. Again. Some seemed to think she just ran away, ran away without her savings, without her eyeglasses, without any clothes, without taking anything with her. April of twenty twenty one marks forty years since Barbara Cotton vanished in Williston, North Dakota. What happened to Barbara Cotton?
I would go to the movies with friends all the time and walk through that park.
I'm standing at the corner of Main Street.
Did you see anything unusual that night? Or you know?
Her boyfriend watched her walk to Recreation Park, which is five blocks from her home.
That house was there. There was another little house that they first moved into right back here. She didn't she didn't have a boyfriend.
The pieces that I put together are not good. She does not end up into a good puzzle. I don't even remember the police coming to the house.
Be lost with you, but mostly gentle and kind is what I remember about her. She didn't want to share something. She was hiding something, and her mom told me it was a new boyfriend. I'm like, but she didn't tell me about this boy and I don't know anything about this boyfriend.
So are you telling me that law enforcement never interviewed you back then?
Never, She's not gonna You're gonna run away with more. Money's close.
I want to say, over three thousand, close to four thousand dollars in the savings.
Can and then we all be hanging out together now instead of doing a podcast about her.
According to the North Dakota Attorney General's website, Barbara Cotton's case is open and ongoing. It's a cold case. The full description on the website states, quote, during the evening of April eleventh, nineteen eighty one, fifteen year old Barbara Louise Cotton disappeared in Williston, North Dakota. Period end quote.
That's all. The attorney General's website says, as if maybe sending a fair warning to any would be detective, suggesting this case is starving itself to death, Slowly proceed with caution, capier expectations or dreams of finding out what really happened to Barbara Cotton, Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it. Anyway, I recently ignored this potential warning and headed to Williston with my camera and audio recorder. My first stop in Williston would be the corner of Fourth
Street and Maine. I'm standing at the corner of Main Street and Fourth in Williston, North Dakota, a cross the street from the Plainsman Building, which is the location where. The reason I headed to the corner of Forth and Maine and Williston is that although the Attorney General's website offers that minimalist version of the case, there is more information online and among other details, I've read that Barbara Cotton was seen leaving the area of the Plainsman Building
at the corner of Forth and Maine. From there, she walked two and a half blocks west into a small city park named Recreational Park. Once at the park, she was just five blocks from her home. The following is from the Charlie Project at Charlie Project dot org. I cannot at present verify the validity of the following, but in a way, that is what this journey is all about, getting clarity. I am currently attempting to get information directly
from the Williston Police Department. Ideally by the end of this paro will have a lot more facts for now, though, this is what the Charlie Project has for Barbara Cotton.
Barbara was last seen leaving a restaurant on Main Street in her hometown of Willison, North Dakota, during the evening hours of April eleventh, nineteen eighty one. She had dinner there with her boyfriend and another friend. Barbara's boyfriend offered to accompany Barbara home afterwards, but she declined and left the restaurant alone. Her boyfriend watched her walk to Recreation Park, which is five blocks from home. Barbara never arrived at
her destination and has never been heard from again. She did not take her clothes, eyeglasses, cigarettes, money, or any other personal belongings with her when she disappeared. She also left behind a paycheck from work. Her older brother stated he was very close to Barbara and she never told him of any plans to leave home. Barbara's case was originally investigated as a runaway case, and a missing person's
report was not filed for several days. As a result, authorities now believe she may have been abducted, but the prime suspect in our disappearance, a former boyfriend, of Barbara's is now deceased. Her case is considered open and unsolved.
I stood at the corner of Fourth and Maine, just outside the Plainsmen Building. The Plainsman was built as a hotel in the fifties during an oil boom. It's about five stories tall, made of brick, and sits at the northeast corner of the intersection. I thought, if Barbara's boyfriend's story was true, how well can a person see the park from that spot? If I'm stuttering here, it's really cold and windy, And I thought, could he actually see
Barbara that far? And yes, I mean here, standing here in person, I can definitely see the park and trees. It's you know, I don't know, is that three hundred yards? Maybe, As it turns out, you can see the park pretty well. The distance is three hundred and ten yards two hundred eighty four meters. Fourth Street actually runs right into the park.
That is, if you drive or walk from Main Street, you have two and a half blocks to travel, but once you get to Second Avenue West, you're at a dead end, stirring straight ahead into the southeastern end of Recreational Park. Barbara would have crossed Second Avenue and walked into the park before she vanished. We will be looking closer at the park and Barbara's remaining route home later. If you're like me, you probably have some questions you're
wondering about. Who was the boyfriend, how did he die? When, Why did Barbara decline a walk home and head out by herself? Did she have an argument with her boyfriend? And who was the third person at dinner that night? As you'll see, there is confusion about this. Another question I have is where did Barbara, her boyfriend, and the third person eat dinner. I assumed it was at the
Plainsman Building, but now I'm not so sure. I can tell you something about one of these questions, though, Sandy Evanson and others have told me that it was not out of character for Barbara to want to walk home alone. In fact, they remember her doing the same thing with them. She didn't need an escort. She felt more than comfortable walking alone. Hopefully, by the end of this podcast, we
will answer all of these questions and more. When Sandy Evanson was a little girl, she lived along Fifth Street West between sixth Avenue West and seventh Avenue West, and just like in many communities. The houses on one city block shared a common alleyway behind the houses. One day, a new family moved into a home across the alley
from Sandy. It was the Cotton family. Louise Cotton, a single mother divorced from her husband, moved in with three of her kids, a son Kent, a daughter, Barbara, and the youngest another daughter named Kathy.
Here well, like, there was a parking spot a little bit longer than this, and right on the other side of it was Barbe's house. Yeah, and then there was a kind of a duplex thing in front that house. Was there. There was another little house that they first moved into right back here. Then this used to be a big, huge courtyard where we all played. Ok. Yeah, And I believe it was my mom let me know that there were some new little girls in the neighborhood. And I think it was her idea, go out and
meet him and take your barbies. That'll break the you know, the ice. And so that was our first playdate that I remember. We were fast friends from that moment on.
Sandy was a year older than Barbara in school, but they soon became best buddies.
It was pretty much from like in the summertime, from the time we got up, but it was run across the alley and start hanging out together, you know.
Sandy, Barbara, Barbara's brother and sister, and the other kids around the block often played together.
And in that courtyard, all us kids would gather and we would play tag or you know, we would play ball, or we would ride our bikes in there. We would roller skates.
Sometimes they would ride their bikes down to the corner store and get penny candy. They also gave skateboarding.
A try, and then we'd get hung up our rock and go flying or something like that.
Like other kids all over the country, Sandy and Barbara and the others made up a cluster of kids thrown together by pure geography. They were just the kids on the block.
Oh yeah, it was like we were a gang, you know, because we were all so close in age. And then there was a couple of kids that lived across the street and up and down the block, and the other kids in the neighborhood, and sometimes we would play all together in that courtyard or whatever. But kid Kathy and Barbara and I were pretty much a fixture, especially in the summer. You know, we would be all together all summer long.
The Charlie Project also has this to say about Barbara at the time of her disappearance, Missing since for eleven eighty one, classification endangered missing sex female, race, white, Date of birth eleven ten, sixty five, age fifteen years old. Height and weight five foot two, one hundred pounds or one hundred and fifty seven centimeters forty five kilos. Clothing a blouse, jeans, loafers. Distinguishing characteristics Caucasian female, brown hair,
hazel eyes. Barbara's ears are pierced and her left ear is slightly lower than her right. She has a dark brown mole on the upper right side of her chest. Barbara has a pronounced S curve in her spine, which causes her to walk with a slight limp. She smoked cigarettes in nineteen eighty one. Barbara wears eyeglasses, but left hers behind when she disappeared. Her teeth were in excellent condition.
She was a very great and loyal friend. I can't remember ever having Really, if we had argument, it must never have lasted very long, because I don't remember ever being mad at her or her being mad at me. Ah, there's so much I wish I could get it all into words and remember everything. But she was very beautiful always, from the time she was little to she just got more beautiful as she got older. I'll read you something
that I wrote down, you know, before you called. I was just like, I want to get this right so much for her, I wrote down. She had this long, beautiful, slightly wavy hair that was just the thing about her.
When Barbara walked, she swayed back and forth a bit, and her hair swayed with her.
It was just unique. And then she had these skinny arms, long skinny arms that hang by her side and kind of go with this walk. But mostly gentle and kind is what I remember about her. I never remember, I don't. I'm sure there had to have been one between us after all those years, like where we got in an argument or a fight, you know, as kids do, and then get back together or whatever, But I don't remember one. I always remember being good to me and like we were besties.
As close as they were. Barbara Cotton did not share a whole lot of internal personal stuff with her friend Sandy, But.
At the same time, I never saw her depressed or sad, where I would have asked her like what's bothering you or anything. It's like once they had moved in across they started a whole new life, and she just really seemed to flourish in that.
As time passed on, Sandy not only got to know Barbara and her siblings, she got to know their mother, Louise, and she would spend time with the family and was included in the Cotton family outings.
She used to take us on little trips, like we would go to dumpster something more or run down houses, you know that we're abandoned or whatever, and it'd be like a treasure hunt and we come back with all this dumb stuff that you really wouldn't mean, you know, but it'd just be a fun outing.
The girls grew older, twelve thirteen years old, and one of Sandy's warmest memories are the nights the duo spent in a camper parked in the alley.
We had a bus camper. It had a big kitchen in it, living room and fridge and all that, and we would pack up the snacks and you know, maybe the radio and maybe some cards or Connect four or something, and we would just stay in there all night, having sleepovers and just stay up all night talking about everything under the sun.
Sandy recalls that when Barbara was in seventh grade, she had a crush on a neighborhood boy. I imagine Sandy and Barbara hunkering down in the camper during a North Dakota thunderstorm, playing cards and talking about their crushes.
And so he had more freedom than we did, and we always just go I wonder if he's out in the neighborhood riding around on his bike, you know, and things like that.
These were the good years, the innocent years before high school and the things that often come with it.
Barba and I hung together. There was never no drinking or smoking or anything like that. It was good, wholesome kid fun.
But somehow it seems all good things must come to an end.
I would say that really when we started the lake drift apart a little bit is when I went on too high school and she stayed in junior high being a year younger than me.
Their separation then would never be fully reconnected. They remained friends, but they just started hanging out with different people, drifting apart a bit. Sandy Evanson does not believe that her childhood friend Barbara just ran away one night forty years ago. She's never believed the story even back then.
Ah, but I think it was, Oh, she's a runaway and I have to stay back. You know, when that happened, we were all probably a little naive. Bad things didn't happen like that that much. You did it, you know, especially William Williston.
Sandy's mother was good friends with Louise Cotton, Barbara's mother.
So like, I would get all my information for my mom then, and my mom would tell me the police think she run away, and we all knew that she didn't run away. It was just annoying and bother some.
One thing Sandy learned early on is that it was assumed that Barbara had run away with this boyfriend who apparently worked in the oil fields.
And then after that, they think she's run away with that guys, she was saying. And they're certain that they're gonna like him being in the oil field seismographing. He was moving around from town to town, from job to job. You know, they would do a job site in this town or that town, and then they'd put him up
at a hotel. So they just for sure they were going to find her in one of his hotel rooms, and I do believe two times, if I'm not mistaken, they went and searched his hotel room, but never found any sign of her.
The sixteen year old Sandy Evanson or Sandy Schubert at the time, didn't buy it at all. According to her memory, she even did some neighborhood canvassing, knocking on doors along Fifth Street West where Barbara would have walked after leaving Recreation Park.
And we knocked on some doors, and we remember looking through the park yep, going through the park looking for any sign, and we saw absolutely nothing. I only remember one person answering the door, and it's like the second walk from the park, I think, and that person and that lady had says she didn't hear anything or see anything.
And speaking of canvassing the neighborhood, to Sandy's knowledge, the police never did that.
What did you canvas the neighborhood? I'm almost one hundred percent sure that they didn't. If the police had talked to any of us, we would have probably sent him over to the Luther's house because their house faced Barb's house, and they knew all of us very well. They had three kids that all played with us, and you know, did you see barb walking home that night, or did
you see anything unusual that night? Or you know, or do you know anything about who Bub's been hanging around with, because kind of Pat Luther knew everything in the neighborhood.
Of course, it's possible the police did canvass the neighborhood. I'm not certain at the time of this recording, but one thing Sandy is certain of. They've never spoken with her or asked her any questions. Her frustration is palpable.
I don't want a bad mouth the police, but in some ways I do. I don't know if the police when Barbera goes missing, did they ever talk to Kent and Cathy, because they never did me. I don't remember them asking any questions. And that's just the part where she was always chalked up to be a runaway, but nobody was ever asked any questions.
Some people in sandy situation would perhaps just give up on finding answers about a friend. They would leave it to the family and to the police, And basically she did leave it to them for the most part, but she never forgot about bar and others remembered Barbara too. Almost fourteen years after she disappeared. In January of nineteen ninety five, a reporter for the newspaper the Bismarck Tribune published an article about Barbara after speaking with Barbara's mother, Louise,
her younger sister Kathy, and others. According to the article, the last time the Cotton family had received any leads had been nine years earlier. Barbara's mother, who is now deceased, is quoted several times in the article. I want to try to find her one more time, she said, and I try to run down everything but never find anything. I don't know what to say. We miss her and love her and hope she's okay wherever she is. I'd like to know what happened. I wish she would get
in touch with me. She still has money in the bank, which I'd like to give to I was saving it for her college. I guess I should have let her spend it. Barbara's sister Kathy was also quoted. We were very close when she disappeared. I just want to tell her to please call home. Williston police Chief Don Wentz was also interviewed for the article. He noted that Barbara left without her glasses and a paycheck from work.
Quote.
Those aren't the actions of a runaway. He was also quoted as saying, at the time, we had posters out and her picture on milk cartons, et cetera. We checked out all leads. That was in nineteen ninety five. Fast forward now sixteen years to the year twenty eleven, thirty years since Barbara vanished. Sandy Evanson is not done looking and with renewed energy, she has an idea and a smidgeon of hope.
Thirty years down the road, I'm working for the Wilson Harold.
The Williston Herald is the newspaper in town. Sandy worked in the circulation department.
And I'm like talking to my boss and go on, you know, I wonder if the Harald be interested in doing a story. And I started telling him about my friend, and he's like, Sandy, put everything down that you can remember, you know, on paper, and I'll give it to the editor.
And so she did. She sits down and writes four pages in Longhand of her memories about Barbara's disappearance.
Yep, as a matter of fact, I still have the notes that I gave to the editor.
The Harald did run a story on April first, twenty eleven. You may recall that I said that I'd read here and there that when Barbara Cotton had dinner with her boyfriend, a third person was also present. The article in the Willison Harald, which seems to be based off of Sandy Evanson's four pages of notes, identifies the third person by name. According to the article, the third person was Louise Cotton,
Barbara's mother. If this is true, then before she disappeared, Barbara had dinner with her boyfriend and her mother, and therefore Louise Cotton was one of the last people to see her daughter. This part gets confusing and is potentially important. Sandy sent me her notes, the same notes she gave the editor of the Williston Herald ten years ago, in which seems to be the basis or main source of
that article. The following is from Sandy's notes. By the way, Sandy is uncertain today if this information came directly from Louise Cotton, or if Louise told Sandy's mother who told her. Louise said that Barbara and her boyfriend had dinner with her at the old Cakes and Cones restaurant, having a wonderful time. After some problems with Barb dating at her age, they separated on good terms. Barb left with her boyfriend and Louise returned home. After Barb never came home, she
got in touch with the boyfriend. He said that he offered to walk Barbara home and she refused, saying she'd be fine. One of the questions I've asked the Williston Police Department is exactly that was the third person Barbara's mother at the time of this recording. I've not received a response yet, but let me explain why this feels
so important and confusing right now. Ready, consider this, If the police have other information, meaning, according to them, the third person was not Barbara's mother, then wouldn't you think that after the article came out in twenty eleven in the Williston Herald, they would reach out to the reporter with the correction, or perhaps also to Sandy Evanson and ask her about this conflicting information. After all, Sandy heard this either from Louise directly or from her mother who
was friends with Louise. If you're an investigator looking into this, you might wonder if maybe Sandy's information is correct, not what you have in your police file.
I'm really be very disappointed about that article too. About I'm not kidding. There was no comment from the police department on it.
But they didn't reach out and at least I've found no correction. And Sandy states that she has never spoken with the police about Barbara, so that leads us to believe that it's true. Right, Louise Cotton is the third person who went to dinner with Barbara and her boyfriend. This would be all fine and dandy. But if that's true, why or why in the world did Louise Cotton, Barbara's mother never tell her kids, Kent and Kathy, that she'd gone to dinner with their sister on the night she vanished.
This is Kathy, Barbara Cotton's sister.
Yeah, I see, I had no idea until last year.
Was I believe.
That my mom had I guess supper dinner supper with barb and her boyfriend.
Barbara's brother, Kent Cotton, has also spoken with me about this. He doesn't remember hearing that his mother went to dinner with Barbara that night either. How is this possible? Did missus Cotton meet up with Barbara and her boyfriend and then not tell her other kids? About it for decades? Did she never say I remember the last time I saw a bar and then elaborate when and where and if she thought Barbara was acting normal or differently? Or did missus Cotton tell her kids and they both forgot?
Or is that story about Missus Cotton seeing Barbara and her boyfriend in town that night simply not true. We will be hearing more from Barbara's siblings later on. We will also visit the park where Barbara was reportedly last seen. We'll be looking closer at the five city blocks of streets and homes between the park and the Cotton residents, will look closer at Barbara's personal life and ask was she a candidate for being a runaway. We'll also talk
about abductions and look closer at Barbara's boyfriend. But before we move on to those things, I'd like to round off the saga of Sandy Evanson and her quest to find answers about her childhood friend. Sandy would like to see the police share more information with her. She thinks she might be able to help if just given a chance.
Come on, it's been forty years. Can you tell us if you ever like did Louise say that they went out to eat or is this something that maybe was made up by loew later on, or does this story about them, you know, them going out to eating them Bob going back with their boyfriend that night? All I have is hearsay to go on that from Louise telling my mom and my mom telling me.
And Sandy doubts that the person or person's responsible for Barbara's disappearance are still alive, but she'd still like answers, would still like to see the case moving forward. Sandy stays creative and optimistic, looking for clues and witnesses, witnesses who have aged forty years since that night.
It's not like you're going to prosecute him, but maybe, like some of these memories coming up about this boyfriend, did they really eat at Cakes and Cones? Is that what Louise said or is that just something I misremember or that was miscommunicated or you know, or those kinds of things, And maybe that'll spark a memory of somebody that worked at Cakes and Cones or you know what I mean.
Something tells me Sandy Evanson will never give up. Sandy Evanson, who knocked on doors and asked questions after Barbara vanished, was out a trace. Sandy who sent four pages of notes to the editor of the Williston Herald. Sandy who used to hunker down with Barbara Cotton in a family camper and together listen to music and talk about all
of the adventures that were still yet to come. You know, if you could say something to Barbara today, regardless if she's alive or not, what would you like to say.
I'm missed, sir. I'm sorry that I didn't do more back then. It I didn't call the police, spipe, but my dad was an ex cop. Why didn't I go to him more? And Oh, Dad, let's go down there and talk to him, man at talk to any of us. But I didn't understand how investigation worked, you know, at that age. And I feel guilty that we didn't do
enough early on. I feel terrible that this happened to her, and she should have the chance to live and live a good life and have kids and get married, and then we'd all be hanging out together now instead of doing a podcast about her.
Very recently, Sandy got excited. There was brand new hope, a new path forward, and an opportunity to help police find answers in any way she could. In twenty twenty, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children came to Williston to review Barbara's case, and suddenly Sandy got a call and a voicemail from a detective at the Williston Police Department.
And I don't have my phone on me when I'm at work or whenever she called me. I'm away from my phone a lot, and so I didn't get her phone call right away, and I literally called her back. And I had to be over two weeks, at least four to five times, going I missed your call. Here's what I'm going to be available if you want to talk to me. I'll set aside from two to five o'clock on Tuesday, or you know that kind of thing. Never ever, ever, once got a return phone call from her.
Still to come on this season of Dakota Spotlight a Better Search for Barbara.
I remember a guy sleep sleeping an art couch one day when I came home from school.
So are you telling me that law enforcement never interviewed you back then?
Never?
I don't even remember. The police coming to the house was awesome and came into the park and then we would always King corner up to that corner of fifth and Third Avenue, and then walked straight up Fifth.
The pieces that I put together are not good. Does not end up into a good puzzle.
She didn't handle boyfriend.
Dakota Spotlight is a production of forum communications researched and recorded and edited by me James Walner. This season is dedicated to my daughters and to all daughters everywhere. Some music in this season, including the song you're listening to now, provided by North Dakota born former Wishik Area resident and U n D grad Isaac Turner of Kalamazoo, Michigan and his seemingly infinite number of musical bands and projects. This band is named Wowza in Kalamazoo. We also heard a
little from his band's Out and the Hollis Group. Search for wowsa Out and the Hollisgroup on bandcamp dot com or see the links in the show notes. Thanks much, Isaac and friends. To learn more about missing kids, check out the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at Missingkids dot org. To contact me, shoot me an email
at Dakota Spotlight at gmail dot com. If you're loving this season, please tell your friends in real life and on social media, and give me a review and a rating on Apple Podcasts, and why not come and join us at the Dakota Spotlight Facebook group. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of season five, A Better Search for Barbara. Be safe, stay warm, and see you next time.