The Barton McNeil Story

Police murder investigators live by two mantras:  “No killing shall go unpunished.”  “There is no such thing as coincidence.” 

Police also are to follow the evidence.  Make an arrest only after an investigation has been completed.  An investigation should not follow an arrest.

For Barton McNeil, the local police in Bloomington, Illinois, were willing to go to any length to secure a conviction. 

If a guilty person claimed another person was the actual murderer, and then thirteen years later, the person accused of having been the murderer all along by the one convicted kills again, using the same methodology as was the first murder, is this mere coincidence?  Or as the police mantra goes by murder investigators in all large city police departments, there is no such thing as coincidence.  For Barton McNeil, the local police did not follow any of the above in their zeal to obtain a conviction.  After all, careers, promotions and handsome pensions were at stake.  We hope that for the small town of Bloomington, Illinois, where this story takes place, a relatively small town that experiences on average just one murder per year, that everyone involved in the Christina McNeil murder that occurred in 1998 come to realize the profound mistake they all made in incarcerating an innocent man.  As a result of their grave mistake, another life has now been lost.  One murder, has now become three including the wrongfully convicted father, now serving a 100 year “death by prison” sentence for a crime he did not commit.

PREFACE

The following is the true tale of ongoing tragic justice that we would like to have thoroughly reviewed and reinvestigated  by any combination of authorities in Bloomington, Illinois and the County of McLean, to include the Bloomington Police Department , The Illinois State Police, The McLean County Coroner’s Office,  and the McLean State’s Attorneys.   We would also be very grateful for any interest in our just course on the part of Innocence organizations and concerned defense attorneys.  Similarly we would appreciate any involvement by the public, particularly in the Bloomington area, but also throughout the region and the country, even if that involvement were limited to the simple, but valuable act of sending an email or two, or depositing a few dollars in Barton McNeil’s prison account so that he can afford a few luxuries at his Maximum Security commissary, such as a soft drink and a snack. 

An innocent man has already spent thirteen years out of a sentence of one hundred years for a crime he did not commit.  If you are reading this plea, you too can contribute, if only in a small way, to help correct the multiple grave injustices now suffered by so many.

CHAPTER I

A sudden death

One evening in June 1998, a divorced father, Barton Monroe McNeil, also known as Bart, then 38 years of age, had custody of his daughter for the night, as per child care arrangements between Barton and his ex-wife, Tita McNeil, who worked the third shift at the local hospital. Proud to be such a large part of raising a three year old of Christina McNeil, Barton routinely had custody of his daughter 4 or 5 nights (and days) per week, often for twelve or more hours straight.

At about 10:30 PM on the night of June 15^th 1998 Barton laid Christina down to sleep for the night in the lone bedroom in his ground floor apartment.  Strangely, Barton found Christina mysteriously awakened in the bedroom a few hours later.  He then laid Christina back down to sleep unaware of any possible threat lurking nearby.

Needing to get up early to get Christina dressed and ready for her childcare school, since Barton himself had to go to work in the morning, Barton awoke from the living room sofa at 7:30 AM, where he routinely slept when  Christina spent the night at his home.  After showering and checking his emails, as was his usual routine, he then went to wake the sleeping princess that was his dear child.

Upon entering the room after calling out to Christina several times to no response, Barton nearly tripped on the window fan lying on the floor beneath the open window, apparently having fallen out of the window during the course of the night, as the disturbed venetian blinds also seemed to suggest.  At that same moment Barton saw the gray face of his obviously lifeless child, eyes wide open “staring “straight at the open ground floor window behind the blinds. Barton dashed to the phone to dial 911 and came back to attempt CPR, but it seemed to him that his otherwise healthy and happy child had been dead for some time.  Stricken with grief, Barton was unable to think clearly as he struggled for an answer as to how his daughter could have so suddenly died without any obvious cause or precursors, in concert with the sudden emptiness of his life that only his child had given any innocent meaning to.  Inside, Barton was just as dead as was Christina, as he faced a hopelessly sad future never again to be graced by the presence of his child—a daughter too special for any other to fill the seemingly eternal emptiness of his heart.

Having held Christina’s lifeless body in his arms, in addition to his fruitless CPR attempt, Barton observed no evidence that could give him a clue as to the cause of her death.

During their presence on the scene, paramedics, coroner’s assistants, nor police authorities gave any hint as to what might have caused Christina’s sudden seemingly mysterious death.  Struggling for answers, Barton presumed that Christina had died from “natural causes”, perhaps the result of some sudden illness, maybe relating to her otherwise non-life-threatening asthmatic condition.  At first Barton never entertained the possibility that his child’s death might have been from an unnatural cause.

As the day wore on, Barton tried to recount all of the noteworthy events of the last 24 hours in his search for some accounting of the suddenness of Christina’s death.  Unable to justify key relevant circumstances in some coherent manner that otherwise would have taken minutes, Barton’s thoughts kept returning to the window fan found on the floor beneath the window.  It had been securely braced in the window the night before, where it had been since the day he moved into the apartment after moving out on his own two months earlier, away from his increasingly erratic girlfriend.  Also nagging on Barton’s thoughts was fact of his now estranged girlfriend’s presence at the scene of Christina’s death who unexpectantly showed up just moments after paramedics arrived.  Indeed, Barton’s dysfunctional increasingly estranged relationship with Korean born Misook Nowlin (later to be known as Misook Wang) had come to a dramatic climactic showdown ending  in a bitter breakup just the day before, not even minutes before Barton left Misook to pick up Christina for the night.  At the latest, Christina died no later than 12 hours after Barton’s breakup with Misook, and may have even died as little as five hours afterwards.

The grief of Christina’s death did not completely replace in Bart’s thoughts his dramatic public breakup with Misook at a local restaurant the evening before, but Barton’s grief did not allow him to concretely connect these two events together.  With utmost despair and reluctance Barton began to consider the unavoidable possibility that his bitter breakup with Misook might the night before have been related to his child’s death some hours later.

In the meantime Barton needed to return to his apartment to pick up his clothes for his intended stay at the home of his ex-wife, Tita, Christina’s mother.  Not wanting to spend any time at the scene of his daughter’s death, ever.  Upon his arrival at the apartment, Bart walked down the narrow secluded pathway abutting the building which connected the back parking lot to the apartment’s entrance, a pathway he had walked to and from twice the day before as is normal for whenever going to and from his apartment to his car.  

As he passed  by his daughter’s still open  ground floor bedroom window, Barton discovered two slit holes cut into the window screen immediately above the latch releases, holes that were not previously in the screen, with the screen itself now unlatched and off its track, precariously resting  in the window frame along with a host of other tampering conditions that were not present the night before.  Much to Barton’s horror, he now realized the bedroom window fan had not merely fallen out of its window mount; someone had removed it, obviously to get access to his daughter.  Barton now confronted the inescapable conclusion that Christina had been murdered by a cunningly silent intruder.  It didn’t take much for Barton to deduce who this vengeance fueled intruder must have been.

CHAPTER II

The Panicked Revelation

Barton then ran to the phone and made a series of frantic 911 recalls requesting the presence of detectives back to the scene of Christina’s death.  Upon the arrival of a detective, Barton explained his now certainty that Christina’s death had been a murder, by someone who had gained access to Christina and the open (and obviously severely tampered with) bedroom window.  Barton called for the immediate arrest of his estranged girlfriend, Misook.

CHAPTER III

Impending Arrest

A few hours later at the Bloomington Police station, Barton recounted to the detectives all that occurred during the course of 24 hours, much of which directly involved his estranged girlfriend, Misook.  Incredibly, two of the detectives present at the interview that had also been at the scene earlier that morning on the heels of the paramedic’s arrival, claimed that they had not examined the open bedroom window only two feet from where Christina lay dead.   Barton found this claim by the detectives to be astonishing, and frankly, unbelievable.  In point of fact, Bart witnessed detectives inspecting the bedroom window closely, and had even photographed the window from inside and outside, but curiously had not drawn Barton’s attention to the presence of this intruder evidence while at the scene.

During the course of this two hour interview on the evening of 16 June, Barton discussed in some detail  countless events and circumstances related to his increasingly  bitter relationship with Misook,  all of which was easily verifiable and could be corroborated for the investigating police with minimal effort—, all of which were consistent with Barton’s near certainty  that Misook had killed his child.  Indeed, Barton’s final bitter breakup with Misook, related in large part to Misook’s obsessive “competition” with Christina over Bart’s attention, and for this very same reason, his fear for Christina’s safety in the presence of the increasingly unstable Misook.  Similarly, Misook was enraged by the control that Bart’s ex-wife, Tita, Misook’s longtime arch nemesis, seemed to exert over Barton’s through Tita’s hold on him via Christina.   Further details are beyond the scope of this summary, suffice to say that, given Barton’s own personal involvement in the bitter relationship related events in the months, weeks, days, and hours leading up to Christina’s death, along with Barton’s first hand observation of Misook’s increasingly thinly veiled psychopathological demeanor, only Misook alone could have been responsible for his daughter’s death on the immediate heels of his final showdown with his stalking crazed girlfriend.  Having filled in the detectives in all of this crucial information, Barton was certain that Misook would be arrested within hours. 

In the meantime, Barton returned to Tita’s home to spend the night and grieve together.  Despite all he had discovered in the past few hours about Christina’s  now obvious murder, beginning with the ground floor bedroom window intruder evidence, Barton could not bear to tell Tita  that their dear child had been murdered by Misook, no less.  Barton was certain if Tita were to learn this, that Tita would try to confront Misook personally over what she had done, perhaps costing Tita her life at the hands of Misook also.  More than that, Barton lacked the courage to face up to his share of the blame he rightfully deserved.   After all, Barton had left Tita (and Christina) for Misook who was also married at the time, when Christina was just an infant, three years earlier.   Accordingly, Barton had invited into the lives of his family the very instrument of Christina’s later murder, Misook.  For obvious reasons, Tita hated Misook.  Had Barton shared with Tita his certainty that Misook had killed Christina, which in fact Tita herself had intuitively sensed (and suggested to Barton) prior to Barton himself considering the possibility, Tita would certainly have scorned and blamed Barton himself for Christina’s death, and with good cause, for had he been a loyal husband and father, Christina would still be alive. Crushed by feelings of despair, grief, and even guilt at ever having invited the venomous Misook into their lives, Barton could not bear the added weight of Tita’s demand for his own accountability for the presence in their lives, the eventual instrument of Christina’s death. 

To this day, Tita probably wonders why if Barton came to discover Misook’s responsibility for Christina’s death, he did not tell this to Tita, but instead she heard Barton’s claims from the police.  Surely she must have found this suspicious of him.  But the fact is, lacking the courage and strength to face up to Tita’s certain condemnation  of him, Barton preferred Tita to hear about Misook’s responsibility for Christina’s death from the police on the heels of Misook’s arrest, which Barton expected hours from then.

The next day Barton returned to the Bloomington Police Department to provide more information about Misook, as surely he would be the lead witness for the prosecution at her murder trial.  Instead Barton was whisked into a camera-equipped interrogation room, where the detectives were not as friendly as the day before.  Much to Barton’s dismay, Misook had not even been arrested.    Incredibly, no investigation at all had yet begun, least of all concerning all of the information he had shared with the police that night about Misook.

Barton was beginning to sense the worst as it appeared the police were not in pursuit of his child’s killer after all.   Instead, they seemed to be after Barton himself.  Witnessing the implosion of the would-be investigation of his child’s death, and all of its unjust implications, Barton agreed to be interrogated by his non-interrogators on the condition that his precise words be recorded on the video/audio tapes from the ceiling-mounted camera in the interrogation room. (Police and prosecutors have since refused to disclose the existence of this interrogation).  Fending off vile untrue accusations Barton vehemently maintained his innocence throughout the seven hour interrogation, while countering his interrogators with a litany of events and circumstances far more consistent with Misook’s responsibility for the murder, most of which were either documented, verified, or could be corroborated with minimal investigative effort.

It was all for naught, for Barton was already on a high speed railroad train straight to the big house.  As the interrogation wore on and Barton was arrested, worse even than his own bleak fate, his child’s killer had gotten clean away at her innocent father’s own expense.    Worse still, Barton slowly came to realize  that, as per Misook’s designs,  Christine’s murder was intended to result in Barton’s wrongful arrest  and imprisonment, and that in all certainty Misook had been planning this out and setting the stage weeks before what Barton thought was his final bitter breakup  with Misook the night of the murder.

CHAPTER IV

A Cast of Characters; Barton, Tita, Christina and others

Barton makes no claim to being a saint. On the contrary he readily admits to his failings and character flaws.    Though intelligent, Barton lacked anything along the lines of ambition.  More interested in paling around with his buddies and partying, the future only consisted of next week’s nightclub events.    Barton quit high school and later earned his GED   by his mid twenties he was in college, earning average grades, while still working a full time job (often two jobs).   But just short of earning a degree, Barton dropped out of college also, as marriage neared.

 Unlike many of his friends, Barton managed to stay single and childless up until his thirties.  Eventually he began to seriously consider the merits of getting married, but he thought the opportunities few at this late date.

Barton was hardworking and always employed, but mostly at low paying food service jobs, another consequence of his lack of ambition and misplaced priorities.  But he lived a debt free lifestyle until he eventually bought a home.

In the meantime, through a mutual friend, Barton had been regularly exchanging letters with Tita; a native of the Philippines, who at the time was employed as a midwife at a hospital in Saudi Arabia. Eventually Barton was to meet Tita and her family in the Philippines, and marry her.   Tita had little experience in romantic relationships, and was a woman of the highest moral character.   Through no fault of Tita’s, the marriage was not ideal, but by the same token was not particularly rocky either.  

Barton’s worst character fault was his infidelity, a fault that would have ended lesser marriages sooner, were the saintly Tita not so determined to make her marriage work.  In a manner of speaking, Barton’s domestic failures would lead to the death of the child that Tita bore him. Aside from dear Christina, Tita had been the victim of this multi-faceted tragedy of which she was wholly innocent. By mid 1994 Tita was pregnant with her first child, who was born in January 1995.  By this time, Barton had long been involved with Misook Nowlin, herself married to Andy Nowlin.  Misook also had a daughter, Michelle, born in 1990.  The demise of the McNeil marriage and family centered on Misook alone yet Barton could not shirk responsibility for his actions that would eventually lead to so many tragic miseries.

Barton left Tita soon after Christina was born and was at first unenthusiastic about his new responsibilities. Yet he never passed any opportunity to visit with his daughter during his limited court restricted visits and soon found himself immersed in the notion of fatherhood, to the extent his divorce would allow.  Presumed to be hopelessly undomesticated, Barton found the foreign concept of parenting to be oddly appealing.  Moreover, too little too late, Barton began to recognize in Tita her true beauty as the mother if his child, and he could rest easy knowing that his daughter would never suffer  for lack of care and love at the hands of her mother.

CHAPTER V

Dysfunction Junction – Misook Nowlin… Countdown to Murder

In the meantime, Bart’s live-in relations with his girlfriend, Misook,  began to show serious cracks  early on.  While Misook  and her ex-husband had little parenting skill or  enthusiasm, Barton’s custody of Christina and involvement in her life with her increased  as Tita took a third shift job at the hospital.   Rather than hiring an overnight  babysitter, Barton insisted that he care for Christina whenever Tita worked, or whenever else they needed such. 

In contrast, Misook had only sporadic  weekend custody of Michelle, who Andy seemed to have full custody of.   Nonetheless Michelle, Misook’s daughter, and Christina, six years younger,  became close and genuinely seemed to love each other as “sisters”.   While Misook seemed not to want the children to be around ever,  and like Andy, had poor parenting skills,  Barton enjoyed this mixed family togetherness when Michelle, Christina, Misook, and Barton spent quality time together.  Ironically, it was now Misook who only wanted to party, a life style Barton had introduced to her, while Barton became a doting father and something of a family man.  He even began seeking out  more meaningful employment.

Though separated from Andy in 1995, Misook remained married to him until 1998 the year of Christina’s murder.  Barton observed that Misook and Andy maintained a peculiar and close relationship quite separate from their marriage, grounded in some dark secrets they shared from the past, or so Barton later discovered.  Similarly, their relations with Michelle were most unusual, Barton thought, with no division of authority between parent and child, and no parental guidance whatsoever.  Though Michelle sometimes resented it, as Barton her acting step father, Barton alone exercised any meaningful  parental guidance over Michelle.  More than once, the domestic strike between Barton and Misook, centered upon their intensely conflicting parenting practices.   Nonetheless, Barton failed to detect any sign that the Nowlins might have presented a mortal danger to he and/or his daughter.

Throughout 1996-1997  Barton grew closer to Christina as his custody of her increased, while his relations with Misook became increasingly rocky.  This was compounded by Misook’s continuing peculiar relations with Andy, as well as Misook’s step (or half) sisters, Yuman Aldridge and Susie Kaiser, who also seemed to share with Misook the seemingly dark secrets that her peculiar relations with Andy sealed.  This entire group would be questioned by the police about Christina’s later murder.

During the course of Barton’s three year live-in relations with Misook,. The police were called to their apartment three times as a result of Misook’s violent rages, twice while Christina was in her father’s custody.  No arrests ensued.  Numerous other violent incidents arose, though not resulting in any police involvement.   In one instance that Barton witnessed, Misook became violent with her own daughter, Michelle, but he suspected there were other incidences when he was not around.  Finally, at Barton’s insistence, Misook began attending domestic violence counseling at the hands of psychologists/social workers at the McLean County Center for Human Resources, but later were proven to have been of no avail.

In nearly every instance, Barton maintained, this intense domestic strife centered around Misook’s jealousy and hatred of Tita on account of the pull Tita had over Barton  through Christina, that Misook viewed as a manipulative imposition  on Misook’s domestic affairs.   This all came to a head one day when Tita, financially strapped and in need of some extra working hours, asked Barton to watch Christina for the night.   Resenting the financial aid he paid to Tita through child support payments, Misook was further enraged by Barton’s  eagerness to have custody of his daughter on short notice when it was not otherwise a part of his scheduled child care routine.

During the course of Misook’s violent episode, Barton attempted to flee the apartment with Christina in his arms.  Blocked from leaving by Misook’s hysterical self, and not wishing for an escalation in violence.  Particularly not in Christina’s now crying presence, though feeling for the safety of he and his daughter in the heat of  this drama, Barton phoned the police.

Misook was subsequently arrested for domestic violence (for the crime unlawful restraint) largely because she became combative with the police officer responding, and because she refused to avoid arrest by agreeing to spend the night elsewhere.  Andy promptly posted Misook’s bail and she immediately returned to the apartment.

Because of prior violent domestic events like this one Barton had twice briefly moved out on Misook.  Upon Misook’s pleading and promises to change her violent and obsessive ways, Barton would soon return to Misook, far under-realizing the danger Misook posed to him and his daughter.

Rather than pleading guilty to this minor domestic violence charge,  Misook opted for a bench trial in which Barton would have to testify  for prosecutor,  Assistant State’s Attorney, Stephanie Wang,  who had also sent  to Barton, Order of Protection forms, for him to get a restraining order against Misook.   

Foolishly he instead remained Misook’s live-in boyfriend in the months to follow.  Misook was convicted of this domestic violence  offense in February 1998, and after several postponements, was scheduled to be sentenced on June 17^th.  Prosecutor Wang also encouraged Barton to attend the sentencing hearing to give victim impact testimony  but for the time being, Barton did not want to add fuel  to Misook’s  increasing self inflicted misfortune.  In addition to the domestic violence psychiatric counseling above, on the advice of McLean County prosecutors and at Bart’s insistence,  Misook began attending further domestic violence counseling  at the AVERT  program run by the State’s Attorney’s Office.  This too was to no avail as later events, including one involving her own daughter Michelle, unfolded.

Instead Misook became increasingly obsessive and demanding while her violent tendencies became more frequent.  Finally, Barton moved out for the last time, and into a small apartment of his own.  Misook’s need to maintain her hold over Barton only increased as she tried to maintain this relationship at all costs.  Under Misook’s threats of suicide, Barton continued to see Misook on and off.   By this time Misook was frequently missing work, so enraged was she at Barton and her rapidly deteriorating relationship.  Filling this void was the increased presence of recently divorced ex-husband Andy.  Similarly, when  Misook could not compel Barton  into spending the nights with her,  one or the other or  sometimes both of Misook’s step (half) sisters , Yuman and Susi,  routinely spent the night at Misook’s home, while cheerleading  Misook and fueling her passions in Misook’s struggles with Barton,  and with her obsessive need to do battle with her arch nemesis, Tita, who Misook viewed as  Misook’s Christina-wielding tormentor.  Though with good reason, Tita loathed Misook also, but Barton  had kept Tita in the dark  about the violent dysfunction of his relations with Misook, out of Barton’s selfish fear that Tita might end his custody of Christina were Tita to fear for Christina’s safety in Misook’s presence… a fear that Barton felt was unwarranted since he believed he could “handle”  Misook himself.  On this count too,  Barton today carries a heavy burden .  Tita was largely unaware of Misook’s vengeance fueled  hatred of her  and insane jealousy of Tita and Christina alike.

For his part, Barton’s investment in his relationship with Misook had been enormous, though mostly his own fault, costing him his marriage, wife, and child.  Accordingly, he did all he could, short of completely discarding Christina, to make his relations with Misook work out.  Long after it should have been obvious to him that the relationship was doomed, Barton had had enough.  Tragically he never came to fully recognize the mortal danger he and Christina faced, despite all the growing evidence in retrospect.

Through a chain of events in early June 1998, Barton realized that Misook was outright stalking him.  Worse, Barton discovered that she had implanted in her daughter, Michelle, a recent intense hatred and jealousy of Christina also.  Too little too late Barton realized that this mother and daughter duo did in fact pose a danger to Christina’s safety, and Barton vowed never to allow Christina to be in their presence again.  Slightly less apparent was that Misook’s tight circle of above associates, were 100% in league with Misook’s crazed obsessions, and in fact, encouraged them.

 In the meantime, Barton had long been seeking a managerial job at a local restaurant chain rather than at a distant one in order to maintain his parenting role with Christina.  Yet he agreed to accept a job at a Peoria area restaurant to put some significant physical distance between him and the ever-stalking Misook.   Barton would try to encourage Tita into moving to the Peoria area also, to maintain her much needed parenting help and childcare services he was privileged to provide, and to reduce any threat to Tita and Christina  Misook might happen to pose, that Barton was increasingly concerned with. 

Barton had long ago regretted becoming involved with Misook, and further regretted leaving his wife. Though not quite completely severed from Misook living separately, Barton had a freer hand at spending time not only with Christina but also with Tita.  Throughout the last several weeks, the three of them  were spending time together almost as the family once could  had been.  Finally the role of father and husband appealed to Barton as he recognized the beauty of Tita’s love and care for their precious child.  For her part, Tita was surely aware that Barton was gravitating  back to Tita, which for Misook would likely become the ultimate humiliation. 

Finally on June 15^th Misook made repeated demands that she come over to Bart’s apartment, where Christina would soon be spending the night, as Misook well knew.   Throughout the day, Misook had made repeated attempts to find out Christina’s whereabouts at present and where she would be later on.  Barton flatly refused Misook’s demands to come to his apartment, specifically because before too long Barton was to pick up Christina for the night at Tita’s home, and he refused to risk exposing his daughter to any of Misook’s violent theatrics, nor to allow Christina to be in her presence anymore at all.  Moreover, even in Christina’s absence Barton did not want Misook present at his home, as inevitably her presence would turn to intense strife and drama that only ended when Barton threatened to phone the police, were she not to leave the premises.

Instead, Barton reluctantly agreed to meet Misook for dinner at a local restaurant, though only without Christina.  While at dinner, Barton and Misook argued intensely creating a scene witnessed by many.  Misook confronted Barton with what she had recently learned through the “grapevine” about his job acceptance and pending move to Peoria, which Barton had kept from Misook for obvious reasons.    She had also learned, through her employer, that Barton showed interest in meeting and making relations with some women friends, over the phone and online.

For his part, Bart confronted Misook with her obsessive stalking, to include her parking in front of Tita’s home for long stretches trying to catch Barton’s coming or going; Misook’s collection of garbage from the curb to sift through in search of what Barton had been up to; Misook’s stalking of his personal phone records she obtained through her employer (that did billing for AT&T), and worst of all, Tita’s revelation that Misook had attempted to “confide” in Tita a “friendly warning”  several days prior to the effect that Barton posed a threat to Christina of the utmost vile nature, with the plan to drive a wedge between Christina  and Barton by the safety concerns  that Misook had suggested to Tita in her intended secret get together.  This untrue accusation was only learned by Barton when Tita repeated Misook’s devilish warning to Barton against Misook’s wishes.

For Barton, that was the final straw.  Barton unequivocally ended the relationship then and there, vowing to testify  at Misook’s domestic  violence sentencing hearing the next day—his victim impact testimony.  On that note of extreme hostility and estrangement, so ended Barton’s three-year  relationship with Misook.

For his sins against Misook, Christina would not live to see tomorrow.  As per Misook’s long planned designs, Misook would get clean away and Barton would be arrested (and soon convicted)  for his own daughter’s murder.

Still oblivious to the mortal dangers he and Christina faced, Barton then proceeded to Tita’s home to pick up Christina for the night.  Tita reported to Barton that over the course of the last few hours,  Misook had phoned Tita several times to find out if he had yet picked up Christina.  After stopping at McDonalds to pick up a Happy Meal,  Christina’s last meal, father and daughter returned  to Barton’s apartment for the night, arriving about 8:30 PM on this Monday night.  Christina’s death loomed ever nearer. 

Under a false pretext, Misook phoned Bart’s cell phone to subtly inquire as to what Christina was doing and where in Barton’s apartment Christina was sleeping about 10:40PM.  Curtly answering Misook’s odd questions, Barton informed Misook that she should no longer phone him, ever.

Under another false pretext, Misook phoned Barton’s apartment the next morning  less than a minute after the first responders who arrived at the scene on the heels of Barton’s discovery of his lifeless daughter.   Because of the above events that Barton himself was a party to, along with a host of related circumstances beyond what is included on these pages, once Barton discovered the presence of evidence of a silent intruder into the ground floor bedroom window.  Barton has never doubted that behind his child’s murder lurked his estranged girlfriend, Misook Nowlin.

See below local area Pantagraph news article headlines and many references Bart made to Misook throughout

CHAPTER VI

A Pause to Reflect

In thousands of pages of letters over the years from Barton to his few remaining friends and family, beginning in the weeks following his arrest, he has recounted the above events without deviation down to the smallest details.  To varying degrees the above events have been corroborated and verified by the records of the following public institutions, many documents of which we now possess:

Bloomington Police Department

Illinois State Police

McLean County Coroner’s Office

McLean County State’s Attorneys’ Office

McLean County Courthouse

McLean County Center for Human Services

AVERT Domestic Violence Program

Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS)

McLean County Public Defender’s Office

And others.

Note also that for the sake of economy this is only a summary of relevant key events relating to Christina’s murder and her innocent father’s wrongful prosecution and conviction.  At the readers’ request we, Barton’s supporters, would be willing to provide further details and accompanying documentation where available.  To read a fuller account of events in the weeks, days, hours, and minutes leading up to Christina’s murder.

CHAPTER VII

Awaiting Trial and Beyond

Prior to any investigation at all, Barton was hastily arrested without pause.  Unable even to attend his child’s funeral, with all his might Barton tried to keep at bay the oppressive weight of grief, despair, and helplessness, to limited effect.  Facing a potential death penalty, more important that saving his now-empty self, Barton’s single-minded task was to pursue his child’s killer until justice was served.  To that end Barton found himself locked in intense opposition with the collective resources of the many that sought only to prosecute he who loved Christina the most.  As a consequence, Barton alone had to do battle with the authorities who, in effect, were vouching for the innocence of his daughter’s true killer…no small task to be sure.

Though facing a mandatory life sentence if not a death penalty upon his (wrongful) conviction, Barton was appointed Public Defender Tracy Smith, who had himself never tried a murder case.  Joining Smith a little later on was Public Defender Kim Campbell who, just three years earlier had been Barton’s lowly divorce attorney during the course of which she had a personal hostile run-in with Misook.

Barton’s biased appraisal of his legal representation has been harsh.  At the end of the day his “defense team” presented no affirmative defense, no defense testimony, no expert testimony, called no witnesses of any sort, and generally left uncontested any flimsy claims by prosecutors.  The defense portion of Barton’s lightning-fast trial lasted a mere hour, lacking any adversarial test of the prosecution’s case.  In effect, the trial was a high-speed railroad bridging the accusations to his wrongful sentence of death-by-prison, with little ado.

As late newcomers to Barton’s cause of justice, we were at the distant sidelines as the judicial events of 1998 and 1999 ran their course on autopilot.  During recent months we have studied the many facets of Barton’s case in consultation with some legal experts.  Indeed, we also have come to believe that Barton’s attorneys greatly contributed to his wrongful conviction.

Yet there is plenty of blame to be shared.  Heading Barton’s prosecution was Assistant State’s Attorney Teena Griffin, who was soon joined by Assistant State’s Attorney Stephanie Wong, who you may recall personally prosecuted Misook for her above domestic violence offence, during which Barton testified for the prosecution himself – a domestic violence offense that resulted from Barton’s attempt to flee Misook’s violent ways with his daughter Christina in his arms during this incident.  This thoroughly documented event, though relevant to Barton’s defense and to his innocence, was concealed from his attorneys and from the court, as were quite a number of events, circumstances, witness accounts, and pieces of provocative evidence relating to Misook.  As with Barton’s appraisal of his defense attorneys, Barton’s characterization of the behavior of prosecutors is not without merit when it comes to their unfounded dismissal of a litany of events, circumstances and evidence consistent with Misook’s own responsibility for Christina’s murder, and in turn consistent with the innocence of Barton.  Again, only recently have we discovered through our own largely layman’s study of the investigative reports and court records, that Barton’s 14-year steadfast claims are substantially and grounded in the reality of all that Barton faced as the investigative and legal-process unfolded.

Upon being jailed, Barton reasoned that, since no investigation had yet begun, surely once the police and prosecutors were able to confirm everything he had recounted to them about Misook, and once the belated (“post-arrest”) investigation took off, their mistake would be recognized, Barton’s charges would be dropped, and his daughter’s true killer would be arrested.  Such as his naiveté’ at the time.  Early on his fate had already become sealed.

As the weeks passed without any of Misook’s “inner circle” having come forward with what they surely knew or suspected, Barton began to consider that alongside Misook, others might have been also involved in his child’s murder.  He swore that he was not going to rest until everyone who was involved was brought to justice.  From within the jail Barton began the task of investigating his own daughter’s murder.

To this end Barton poured over all of the investigative reports that he obtained from his attorney, and further conducted interviews using the jail’s telephone.  As a result of a number of revelations that he uncovered largely through the very same investigative documents originating from those authorities who were wrongfully prosecuting him, including even some Forensic revelations, with the utmost reluctance Barton became convinced that Misook was far from alone in her murder of Christina.  To this day Barton believes that alongside Misook was her ex-husband, Andy Nowlin, who jointly forced their own daughter, Michelle, to participate in Christina’s murder in some manner.

Indeed, all of those persons most closely associated to Misook were eventually questioned by the police including Andy and Michelle Nowlin, step (or half) sisters Yuman and Susi, and Misook’s brother.  But this line of the post-arrest investigation was at best, token, and was hopelessly tainted by Barton’s own highly premature pre-investigation arrest made by the Bloomington Police Department.

For her part, Misook was eventually questioned by numerous authorities including a a number of Bloomington Police detectives, Illinois State Police (polygraph and forensic scientists), Coroner’s Office staffers, and by Department of Children and Family Services investigators.  Aside from Misook’s failed polygraph test, she was further questioned by detectives numerous times at the police department and at her apartment.  Through her then private attorney Misook refused token requests to submit her hair samples to compare to hairs found in Christina’s hands.

In addition, countless others were questioned about Misook’s relations with Barton and Christina more generally, and about Misook’s activities near to the time of Christina’s murder.  Phone records subpoenaed by the Grand Jury demonstrated that Misook had repeatedly lied to investigators about her activities and whereabouts near to the critical hours nearest to Christina’s death.  And the detectives were unable to account for the whereabouts of anyone in Misook’s inner circle on the night of the murder.

Also present in the investigation of Misook* was her soon-to-be boyfriend and eventual husband Dong Wang who Misook had attempted to use as an alibi witness, through his value in her alibi ended at 9:30 p.m., long before Christina’s murder, and conflicted in many significant aspects with accounts given by Misook herself and by Susi Kaiser.  In a later chapter Don Wang will return. 

* The (post-arrest) investigation of Christina’s murder was not meant to solve it.  On the contrary, prior to any investigation it had already been decided that Barton himself would be prosecuted.  To the extent that any meaningful investigation ensued, it was only meant to result in evidence consistent with Barton’s guilt, and for purposes of undermining any inconvenient evidence that someone other than the arrestee/defendant had committed the murder.

When all was said and done Misook was under investigation to some extent or another during the course of the 3 months following Christina’s murder.  By any definition Misook was the lead suspect in the investigation of Christina’s murder, bearing in mind that the entire investigation FOLLOWED Barton’s own highly  [INSERT POLICE REPORT HERE OR LINK TO DETECTIVE SHEPHERD’S 9/5/98 INTERVIEW OF DON WANG AND SUSI KAISER ABOUT THEIR “BILLIARD’S ALIBI”] premature arrest.  However, Misook’s suspicious central presence in the facts and circumstances of Christina’s murder did not in any way slow the railroading of Barton. 

Below is an example. Misook’s two central alibi witnesses for the evening of June 15th is her best (Korean born) friend Susi Kaiser and her to-be future husband Don Wang whose mother she later strangles to death. In their interviews they give differing accounts as to who drove and who was in the car for when they tell the tale that they went together to the ISU Billiards Hall. Don later testified in order to correct his previous statement to police that he picked Susi and Misook up and the three of them then drove to the ISU Billiards Hall the night Christina was murdered.

On the contrary, the greater the evidence implicating Misook, the greater the conspicuous effort to downplay, dismiss, retract, subvert, undermine, or outright conceal such evidence, commonly referred to in legal-speak as Brady material that in a landmark Supreme Court ruling, requires that prosecutors turn over to the defense all evidence that is both incriminatory as well as exculpatory in nature.  In point of fact, the post-arrest investigation produced no “additional” evidence in any way consistent with Barton having killed his only child.  But it did not matter…

CHAPTER VIII

Misook Nowlin, Exposed Again

Hot on the heels of Misook and her cohorts, some weeks after Barton’s arrest, he learned that Misook had been recently arrested, yet again, and again for domestic violence.  These events are all thoroughly documented throughout several court cases.  In any event, Misook was arrested for a violent beating attack with a wooden road inflicted upon her own daughter, a stark confirmation of Barton’s account to the detectives of Misook’s own brutal child-abusing character – an offence committed while she had just begun her probation for the above prior domestic battery conviction which happened to also involve Christina.  Misook’s post-murder attack upon her daughter Michelle occurred in the late summer of August 1998 at the very height of the police investigation of Misook for Christina’s murder that occurred just two months prior.

Aside from the beating offense itself, during repeated interviews stemming from this incident, Michelle made a host of revelations to her school officials and the investigating authorities that seemed intended to implicate Misook in Christina’s murder, so obvious was this beating offense and Misook herself connected to the child murder some weeks earlier.

During multiple interviews with her grade school teacher, principal, police detective Larry Shepherd (who also happened to be the lead detective in Christina’s murder investigation), and Family Services investigators, Michelle recounted how Misook had also committed a smothering attack upon her while threatening to kill her in the same manner in which Christina had been killed, and that, according to Michelle, this peculiar manner of smothering involved Misook pinching closed Michelle’s nose while covering her mouth with her other hand.  Surely by no coincidence, Christina’s own smothering injuries were wholly consistent with the manner in which Michelle claimed to have been smothered by Misook.

Michelle also claimed that both attacks occurred on the very same bed that Christina had been smothered to death upon some weeks earlier.  Following Barton’s arrest his landlord had donated Barton’s furniture, including Christina’s deathbed, to the Salvation Army.  As part of her sentence of probation for Misook’s previously discussed 1998 domestic violence conviction (an offense involving both Barton and Christina alike), which was initially scheduled for sentencing June 17^th with Bart called by the Prosecutors of the case to testify, the day following Christina’s murder, but was postponed until sometime in July, the court also ordered that Misook perform “community service” volunteer work at the Salvation Army.  While there Misook recognized Christina’s deathbed, a bed she was long familiar with since it had once been the lone bed in the children’s bedroom in the apartment that Misook and Barton had shared up until the past April.

According to Michelle, Misook then had ex-husband Andy come and deliver Christina’s deathbed from the Salvation Armey back to Misook’s apartment where, during her visits, Michelle would be forced to sleep upon – Michelle being Christina’s 3-year acting step sister ending with her death.

Despite these events stark relevance to Misook’s then lead suspect status while in the midst of the investigation of Christina’s murder, in consultation with Barton’s prosecutors, Teena Griffin and Stephanie Wong, the authorities attempted to retract, undermine, and sweep under the rug Michelle’s credible claims.  As Barton observed this process unfolding, he could not escape the implications to his increasingly dire future, and to the character of those, by intent or incompetence, who were facilitating Barton’s wrongful conviction as well as his child’s killer(s) getaway.

The following was testimony given by Michelle Nowlin’s school principal, Ms. Frazier. As this testimony was given in a juvenile related case it was not ever disclosed to have taken place to Bart or his attorneys. In 2013 Barton McNeil relative Grace Schlafer was tipped off to its existence and profound and indisputable relevance to the Christina McNeil case . As this known to exist testimony highly incriminatory toward Misook and exculpatory toward Barton was never provided, this is known as a Brady Violation in which prosecutors are to turn over all evidence incriminatory or exculpatory in their possession that has a connection to the case.

Beyond the scope of this summary of events, a number of other revelations would ensue that were as exculpatory to Barton as they were incriminating to Misook and her abettors.

Nonetheless, prosecutors set about to bar any jury from hearing any evidence consistent with Barton’s actual innocence, nor any evidence incriminating to his child’s real killer.  In effect, prosecutors were vouching for the innocence of a child killer in their single-minded quest to pin Christina’s murder upon her innocent father.

In concert with Barton’s grossly inept appointed public defenders, prosecutors managed to get the court to suppress all evidence relating to Misook, ruling upon a favorable Motion of Limine, despite her long lead-suspect status and the litany of events and circumstances discussed above.  Aside from the grave injustice of the final escape of his daughter’s killer, Barton’s future wrongful conviction was now a foregone conclusion.

What this court ruling meant was, Barton could present no evidence of his innocence to a jury, at the expense of his daughter’s true killer.  Given that Christina was indeed murdered in Barton’s home while in his care, the above order barring any defense presentation of evidence incriminating to Misook, meant that Barton could present no evidence consistent with his actual innocence.  By default Barton would be found guilty.  Moreover, since the court ruling only concerned what a jury could hear, Barton was effectively barred from having a trial by jury.  After all, what good is a jury trial when the defense is barred from presenting any evidence in a supposed truth-finding adversarial process?

Prosecutors had succeeded in removing Christina’s life and death from its true context in which Misook was a the center, and put it in a bubble in which was confined only cherry-picked “evidence” and circumstances of prosecutors’ own choosing.  At best Barton’s trial would be a mere formality, for absent an ability to present any evidence consistent with his actual innocence, the uncontested accusations of prosecutors, in and of themselves, would result in a guilty verdict by default.  Barton would be his only defense witness, but even then he was prohibited from mentioning anything about Christina’s true killer, nor the litany of circumstances and evidence relating to Misook.

Because of the defense attorneys’ refusal to investigate the case themselves and pursue obvious leads and evidence that Barton himself handed to them on a silver platter, on top of the questionable actions of prosecutors themselves, his relations with his assigned Public Defenders Tracy Smith and Kim Campbell deteriorated as he watched the escape of Christina’s killer unfold, paid for by his now-certain wrongful conviction.  Not wishing to associate themselves with an accused child killer villainously portrayed by the local newspaper, Barton’s many longtime friends had long ago felled by the wayside.

CHAPTER X

The Second Beginning

Wrongly convicted and sentenced to life in prison, Barton pledged to pursue those who had stolen his daughter’s life, even if he could only do so from prison walls of the maximum security prison he was sentenced to.  If he would have anything to say about it, justice would not be denied to Christina.

CHAPTER XI

Wishful Thinking

So began Barton’s efforts all over again.  So far as the local McLean County criminal justice process was concerned, his innocence had meant nothing at the end of the day, nor had the evidence implicating Misook in Christina’s murder for that matter.  Surely the State of Illinois appeal process would right these multiple wrongs.  Just as Barton had reason to expect his prompt release from jail (and Misook’s arrest) shortly after his highly premature pre-investigation arrest by the Bloomington Illinois Police Department, so too was Barton’s delusional belief that his prison incarceration would be short upon a reversal of his wrongful conviction once “the truth came out”.  Such was the remnants of Barton’s still gross naiveté’. 

CHAPTER XII

 Inconvenient Facts – A Pause to Reflect part 2

The singular circumstantial evidence that resulted in Barton’s wrongful conviction was the uncontestable fact that Christina was in fact murdered in his home. During his several police interviews and intense 7-hour interrogation Barton never said anything that would remotely rise to the level of a confession.  On the contrary, then and to this day Barton vehemently maintained his innocence throughout, and instead responded to his interrogators’ vile accusations with countless verifiable events, leads, and circumstances far more consistent with his child’s murder at the hands of his bitterly estranged girlfriend, Misook Nowlin.

To the extent that prosecutors might claim that Barton may have said something suspicious during his interrogations, Barton replies that had the videotapes of his 7-hour interrogation been disclosed, an interrogation that Barton himself is documented as having insisted be videotaped; his precise words then could not be misconstrued.  This videotape’s conspicuous absence from the truth-finding legal process should speak volumes as to the issue of whether Barton’s precise words furthered the prosecutors’ case against him or were instead exculpatory.

Along with the complete absence of anything resembling a confession, equally absent was any prior felony record, except for a minor prescription drug offense dating back to 1980.  Throughout the (post arrest) investigation police/prosecutors were unable to find the slightest hint of evidence that Barton had ever raised an improper hand to his child.  Instead, by all witness accounts without exception, Barton was a doting father to Christina.

Absent also was any sort of murder weapon, or any sort of physical or forensic evidence that in any way implicated Barton in his daughter’s murder.  Lacking also was any plausible motive for him to kill his child.  Indeed police/prosecutors conspicuously neglected to try to reconcile the timing of Christina’s murder, or provide some plausible account as to why Barton himself would be compelled to murder his only child just hours after his bitter breakup with his obviously psychotic, stalking, violent, child-abusing girlfriend with her own multiple motives to murder her estranged boyfriend’s daughter.

While the circumstance that Christina died while in Barton’s care may indeed be probative, there were no accompanying circumstances, nor evidence, to support the highly improbable theory that, out of the blue, Christina’s father decided to end her life.

The extensive intruder-related evidence on and about the window screen in the otherwise wide open ground floor bedroom window was substantial.  In concert with the evidence, events, and circumstances relating to Misook only part of which is briefly addressed within this summary, had Barton’s right to a jury trial not been so subverted through the successful Motion of Limine, it is unlikely that prosecutors would have followed through with trying Christina’s father. And it is further improbable that, had a jury been allowed to consider the defense presentation of evidence consistent with Barton’s innocence, the full extent of which is summarized above only in part, Barton would not have been wrongfully convicted.

CHAPTER XIII

Behind Bars, Down, But Not Out

Once in prison Barton reconstituted his efforts all over again.  He was soon appointed an appellate defender, a sort of public defender for the appeals process.  The central issue of this appeal, indeed the only issue of all of his appeals, was the issue of the trial court’s granting of the State’s (prosecutor’s) Motion to Suppress (otherwise known as a Motion of Limine) from a jury any and all evidence relating to his bitterly estranged girlfriend and lead suspect, Misook Nowlin, now also known as Misook Wang, who herself had the means, multiple motives, opportunity, intimate familiarity with the habits of the victim and crime scene, proved-false and conflicting alibi accounts, documented stalking tendencies, an obvious psychopathology, multiple domestic violence convictions, a propensity for violence against children, the common design between her smothering attack upon her own daughter and that of Christina’s smothering murder )to include injuries to Christina consistent with the peculiar nose pinching manner of smothering described by Michelle) and more beyond the scope of these pages.

The Motion in Limine was shown earlier but if you did not pause to review it click this link: December 1998 Motion in Limine

The following from Christina’s 1998 autopsy showing bruising around the mouth and a bloody nose

Without missing a beat the appeals courts dismissed, rejected, and denied Barton’s appeals, essentially affirming his wrongful conviction.  In yet another cruel irony, the mere act of appealing his wrongful conviction dug his grave even deeper.  To put it another way, the louder that Barton maintained his innocence, the greater the strength of his wrongful conviction.  Eventually Barton was forced to appeal his case without the aid of any legal counsel whatsoever.  Without pause, his wrongful conviction was rubberstamped again by the same judge, Michael Prall, who convicted him in the first place.

While Barton attempted to school himself in the law, he intently studied his court records and transcripts, while taking extensive notes.  In addition to his strictly legal efforts, Barton returned to all of the raw investigative materials, which by now had resulted in hundreds of pages of Bartons’ own detailed notes.  To the best that he was able, he also immersed himself in the intricacies of scientific truth-finding, hair microscopy, stain-related forensics, DNA, and forensics more broadly, in his single-minded effort to find answers to as-yet unresolved mysteries – in particular relating to hair evidence found in Christina’s hands and stain evidence found on Christina’s clothing and bed sheet, none of which originated from Barton and which, in all probability, originated from Christina’s true killer.

Concurrently, Barton began writing letters, sometimes of great length, to all of the innocence organization addresses he could find.  He further wrote at length to his unenthusiastic appointed appeal attorneys, and to prominent attorneys known for getting wrongful convictions overturned.

These efforts bore no fruit.  At best Barton would only receive a request for tens-of-thousands of dollars for expert legal representation.  Sometimes he would receive some form letter declining his desperate plea for help from one of these innocence organizations who are no doubt swamped with pleas for help every bit as deserving as Barton’s.  More often Barton received no reply at all to his pleas of help.

Barton’s day-to-day prison life was no picnic either.  The reader can only imagine the creeping despair and helplessness of the twin injustices of the complete escape of his innocent child’s killer(s), at the high price of his own increasingly likely death-by-prison.

Meanwhile, Barton also directed his efforts at Family members who might provide some level of support, no matter how slight.  He found no takers.  On the contrary, his nearest Family members promptly ended all relations with him, continuing to this very day.  Months on end passed without his receiving any mail at all.  At best Barton might receive a Christmas card along with a few desperately needed dollars from some distant relative who otherwise showed no interest in the cause of his innocence nor in his plight.  On one hand Barton could count the number of visits he has had in prison during the course of his 14 years.

Reaching out a little further Barton had better luck in re-establishing some long lost family relations dating back to when he was a child, centering around his saintly elderly maternal grandmother who was his lone support pillar until she passed away some years back.  She and her daughter’s, Barton’s maternal aunts, were a part of his wider circle of family that largely faded away with the passage of time as a natural consequence of the death of his mother while he was still a young child.  Thankfully some from this end of his distant family were willing to exchange some letters with Barton, but would remain otherwise not particularly involved in his seemingly obsessive pursuit of his former estranged girlfriend, this Misook Nowlin character, who he cast blame upon for his child’s murder.

CHAPTER IXV

We the People – Letters from Hell

Today we are Barton’s core of enthusiastic supporters – the maternal relatives referred to above.  For reasons resulting from a dramatic murderous event discussed in a chapter to follow, we have belatedly come to realize the stark truth of Barton’s words, which up until recently were not that obvious.

From afar we only knew of the general circumstances of the death of Barton’s daughter, who we never had the privilege of knowing.  Indeed, we had heard little from or about Barton during the course of the previous decade, thus knew little of his character as an adult.  In little detail we knew some of what transpired during his quick murder trial and some cursory awareness of “the evidence”, but not much else.  Likewise we knew little about the criminal justice process, since no one in our family has ever had the misfortunes as had befallen Barton.  We also were only vaguely aware of his presumably unsubstantiated claims against this estranged girlfriend of his, Misook Nowlin.

As a family we normally always defer to the judgment of law enforcement authorities, and to the integrity of the criminal justice system’s verdicts. 

When Barton began writing to us shortly after arriving in prison fourteen years ago, we did no more than read his words and become his nearly only lifeline to the outside world, limiting it to occasional letters and financial needs from time to time.  Since no one else seemed to be in Barton’s corner, we just presumed the guilty verdict to be sound.  After all, who were we to question the judgment of law enforcement and judicial professionals?  Not eager to believe the worst of our distant relative, by the same token, his words carried little weight when he wrote of the magnitude of the injustice to which he claimed he and his late daughter were suffering.  To have believed any of what Barton wrote would be to discount all we had come to believe about truth and justice.  Most of us would confine our relations to him to reading his letter and some small favors from time to time, but would otherwise not take pause in our own busy lives to involve ourselves with Barton’s predicament.

Nonetheless Barton wrote countless letters to us, unrelenting in his obsession over what he claimed was his estranged girlfriend’s successful murder of his child, to include his suspicion of other’s involvement as well, and successful framing of the crime by his estranged girlfriend Misook upon himself.  In his many letters he also came to suspect that his daughter might not have been the first victim to die at the hands of this shady Misook character.  Hardly anything of which Barton wrote us was ever mentioned in his trial not in news reports, so naturally we took his words with a grain of salt.

Down to the smallest detail Barton’s words parsed the event of his child’s murder every which way, revisiting every nuance of the evidence to include technical forensic issues far in excess of routine family correspondence.  In a manner of speaking, Barton’s letters to us were to himself.  Often he would ask us to look something up on the internet relating to DNA testing, serology, hair forensic, and the like.  Though Barton’s words were intense, the thrust of which never deviated, we largely remained uninvolved and uncommitted to his single-minded efforts which seemed to consume him, instead, choosing to remain at a distance, yet still provide some manner of aid to ease his prison existence – quite separate from any possible question of his guilt or innocence to which we invested little thought.  Recognizing the futility of his efforts, Barton, increasingly began to confine his letters to inconsequential mundane small talk, as the issue of survival and basic needs began to be of greater concern, as any chance of being exonerated or having his wrongful conviction overturned faded further.

For a spell one of Barton’s more distant maternal relatives took it upon herself to come to Barton’s aid upon his maternal grandmother’s request.  All alone, second cousin Grace, who lived nearest to Bart in Indiana, came to know of his case in some significant detail, while engaging in regular correspondence with him.  Having looked into the matter herself, she came to recognize the probability that Barton was in fact innocent after all, and that his claims against his crazed ex-girlfriend were not totally without substantial backing.  Yet Grace could involve no further allies, thus the enormous burden fell on her shoulders alone to try to rescue Barton from his unjust fate.

During their countless letters (and numerous phone calls) taking place several years after Barton’s conviction, Barton again spoke at great length about all manner of events relating to his dysfunctional relations with Misook Nowlin, to the detailed circumstances relating to Christina’s murder, to the investigation thereto, to all manner of evidence, and more.  His highly detailed letters would routinely number dozens of single spaced pages in length, a good number of them in the 60-page range, and more than one numbering well over a hundred pages.  To Grace alone, countless letters restricted almost entirely to the subject of his daughter’s murder number several thousand pages.  We thus have little doubt that over the course of his incarceration, Barton has surely authored over ten-thousand pages in letters and other writings in his steadfast attempt to reverse the multiple injustices from his daughter’s murder to our family and others.

Yet despite the dedication and effort exercised on behalf of Barton, Grace eventually became discouraged at the enormity of the task she had attempted to undertake, and at the total intransigence of the institutions bent on maintaining a conviction at all costs, even when it should be obvious that Barton’s conviction was unjust.  Though Grace’ selfless efforts seems to bear no fruit, through no fault of her own, they would pay off in a big and unexpected way some years down the road.

Discouraged to no end, Grace too gradually faded from Barton’s life.  Aside from a lone longtime friend, Barton’s tenuous lifeline to the free world was limited to the few letters that we exchanged with him each year.  Himself discouraged to no end, Barton no longer wrote of his daughter’s death, his estranged girlfriend, or of his claimed wrongful conviction.  Instead he seemed to be more concerned with his more immediate necessities and the likelihood that through the attrition of the passage of time, in addition to a certain future of unjust incarceration until death, he will be totally alone and hopelessly destitute before too long.

CHAPTER XV

Back at the Prison…. “Who Said Life Was Fair?”

By 2006 Barton’s state appeals had run their course to no avail.  His recent biggest supporter had fallen off the map, and the stark reality of his now-certain fate was inescapable.  Of Barton’s increasing concern was who was going to look after his basic needs, beyond the insufficient token provisions supplied by the prison.  His connection to the outside world was tenuous and minimal.  At best, Barton’s telephone use was limited to only a single phone call per year.

An avid writer, Barton found no one much interested in what he had to say, particularly when it came to the subject of his wrongful conviction.  He further found no one willing to regularly correspond more broadly with him to any meaningful extent.  Eventually, Barton wrote to a number of potential persons from an out of date list of names and addresses only to discover that of the ten or so persons he wrote to, none of their addresses were any good.

Due to frequent prison-wide lockdowns, library access was quite limited.  Since arriving in prison, and with nothing but time on his hands, Barton enmeshed himself in reading.  Often he would receive books in the mail from ‘Books for Prisoners’ charities he would regularly write requesting books.  This was a Godsend for sure.  With this resource, Barton could better his condition by self-education through reading in depth about subjects that interested him.

Barton refused to be shaped by convict culture.  He kept mostly to himself, but managed to find a few friendships in prison.  He found good people who had done bad things, and bad people who, in prison anyway, were not as bad as society had judged them to be.  Though he, about as far from being a killer as anyone in a maximum security prison could be, for obvious reasons Barton was not entirely comfortable to be in the company of REAL killers.  Nonetheless, very few of his fellow inmates had a murderous character as sinister as Misook Nowlin, and none had gotten clean away with their murder(s).  Naturally, Barton gravitated to others who also had a serious legitimate claim of innocence.

Even to this day, Barton cannot hold a thought for very long before some aspect of his murder case enters his mind; be it his child’s death, events relating to Misook Nowlin, or about his wrongful conviction.  Still, to survive in prison, maintain his sanity, and keep misery at bay, Barton makes a concerted effort to occupy his mind with other matters, to which books and his small TV have been his ‘great escape’.

As the progression of years turned into a decade, Barton no longer had any illusion that he would ever set foot outside of prison walls.  His fate was as sealed as an incarcerated person in a Maximum Security prison.

The countless investigative documents and court records in his property box only occupied space and collected dust in his cell.  No more did he spend countless hours reviewing the documents and writing endlessly about them.  More than once in recent years Barton considered just tossing them in the garbage.  Though he had long possessed a collection of grainy computer printouts of photos of his now long deceased daughter, Christina, he has mostly avoided visiting them as they only invoked sad memories.  Prison lacks the privacy to mourn the loss of your dearest loved one, and the passage of time does not diminish the intensity of emotions at the sight of his once happy and carefree child.  Yet these rarely viewed photos remain Barton’s dearest possessions.

CHAPTER  XVI

Where is Misook Nowlin?

As for the venomous Misook Nowlin; the name Barton had known her, though she later took on the name of Misook Kim and/or Kim Misook, he had no idea what had become of her.  The last he knew, Misook was serving weekends in the County Jail just as he was being shipped off to prison.  From last Barton heard, Misook was serving time for her latest domestic violence conviction relating to the beating of her daughter, Michelle, in 1998.  This was yet another cruel irony:  Misook was tried and convicted for domestic battery regarding a minor child just one week before Barton was tried and wrongfully convicted for Misook’s murder of his daughter.  If this was not enough irony, both convictions were administered by the same Judge and Stephanie Wang served as Prosecutor for both.

From the Police Reports at the time, Barton knew that Misook was subsequently romantically involved with her recent co-worker, Don Wang.  Barton had previously met Don Wang in social settings on a number of occasions and who Barton had considered to be a genuinely nice guy.  By Barton’s opinion, of those persons involved in Misook’s ‘gang of six’; only Don Wang seemed to be genuinely and completely oblivious to what Misook had done to Barton’s daughter.  Close to Misook  near the time of Christina’s death, Don Wang was also questioned by detectives in the post-arrest investigation of lead suspect, Misook, and Wang was Misook’s dubious would-be ‘alibi’ witness whose supposed value ended several hours prior to the in which Barton had last seen his daughter alive.

Having narrowly escaped for her murder of Christina, along with her many other deserved misfortunes in the local criminal justice system, Barton figured that if Misook had any sense, she would have fled back to her native Korea, or at least fled the state of Illinois.  As Barton came to learn much later, some evidence suggests that Misook did move back to California after Christina’s murder.  Misook had previously lived in California until mid 1994, and soon afterwards Barton came to know of her.

But of this Barton was certain:  so wildly successful was Misook’s cunning scheme to set up her betraying estranged lover through the murder of his own daughter, murder would surely visit Misook’s future domestic betrayers and/or their own dearest loved ones.  Unknown to Barton at the time, in 2006, Christina-murder-investigation interviewer, Don Wang, would marry post-arrest lead suspect Misook Nowlin, who would also be then known as Misook Wang having taken his name.

CHAPTER   XVII

The Cruel Hand of Fate

In the meantime, back in prison, Barton continued his now thirteenth year battle to keep from falling into a bottomless pit of misery, despair, and brokenness resulting from his final acceptance that the only thing he had to look forward to now was his certain lonely death in prison in the hopefully not so distant future.  Were he not so lacking in courage, Barton might have followed through with thoughts of speeding up this process with his own hands.  For the time being, Barton would try to make the best of what remained of his life, and trudge along one uneventful day after another.

CHAPTER XVIII  

The Earth Shatters  –  The Pursuit of Misook Nowlin   Part 2

One day in early September 2011, Barton was sitting on his bunk immersed in the task of writing his four page letters of introduction to would be pen pals of which he would eventually write a dozen of.  Aside from his need for some regular meaningful correspondence, he had future needs that only an outsider could fulfill as his final family contacts eventually fade from his life.  (Every one of those letters was returned to him undeliverable).

As was his usual routine, while writing these pen pal letters, Barton had his small TV tuned to Chicago’s WGN noon broadcast of the news.  Although immersed in the writing task at hand, Barton caught only the tail end of some news item about the murder of some elderly Asian woman from the Chicago area whose body was found at a nearby wildlife park.  Only a fleeting thought of Misook interrupted Barton’s letter writing task.  It was just as well, for had he seen the entire news item, Barton surely would have freaked out on the spot.

Due to the lethargic pace of mail delivery at the prison, several weeks later Barton received a letter from his lone remaining friend, Chuck Nicholson, who regularly exchanged letters with Barton over the years.  Like his second cousin, Grace, and for a while in concert with Grace’s efforts, Chuck also had made significant efforts to help reverse the twin injustices suffered by Barton and his late daughter.

From within the envelope that Barton had just received from Chuck, Barton removed a newspaper clipping and unfolded it to read.  It was the front page headline of the Bloomington newspaper, The Pantagraph, which thirteen years earlier had covered Barton’s hearings and trial in some detail, while portraying him as a beastial child killer.  More than any local news source, The Pantagraph had been intensely hostile to Barton’s claim of innocence and to the truth of the identity of his child’s true killer, Misook Nowlin.  In 1998 and 1999, The Pantagraph had made references to Misook Nowlin in articles about Barton’s murder case on several occasions.

Such was the extent of the hostility that the following letter was sent to Barton by The Pantagraph reporter assigned to the case, Steve Arney.

Reporter Stephen Mark Arney was duped by detectives and prosecutors to do their bidding. He aided and abetted Bloomington Police with his letter to Bart trying to solicit a confession from a father who would never confess in a mission years as he was innocent.

Reporter Stephen Mark Arney even helped local prosecutors in his professional capacity as a local reporter willing to portray to the local audience Barton McNeil as being a loon in further providing a valuable assist to prosecutors and police.

In the hearing reported on by Steve Arney below, Barton had held up his daughter’s photo showing himself as an anguished father wanting his daughter’s murder to be solved by the authorities knowing all the while it was his violent ex-girlfriend who killed his daughter through her open ground floor window. Instead of accurately reporting on this scenario that was obvious to court attendees, Steve Arney writes the following:

Thirteen years later, spread across the front page of the September 5, 2011 Pantagraph newspaper, in the heaviest bold print, screamed the headline “Woman Charged in Slaying”.

Below the headline was a mug shot of the accused killer.  Misook Wang.  Staring right at Barton from the page was the photo of his daughter’s killer, Misook Nowlin, whose face, though etched in his memory, he had not seen in over 13 years. 

Scanning through the article, Barton realized that this was the same news item he had caught the tail end of in the previously mentioned noon news on WGN TV a few weeks earlier.  The newspaper article identified this story as the elderly female Asian victim’s corpse was found buried in a wildlife park near Joliet, Illinois, not far from Chicago.

From this lone article, Barton gathered the following basic facts.  Apparently, Misook and would be (failed) alibi witness from 1998, Don Wang, had married.  Barton soon after was able to learn that they married in 2006, though it is unclear if they were romantically involved continuously from 1998 to 2006; or where she or they resided during this time frame.  They eventually started a family and a son named Donovan was born.  At some point in their more recent relationship, problems appeared which resulted in some bitter domestic strife.  Eventually, this led to Misook murdering her husband’s mother, the 70 year old Wenlan “Linda” Tyda of Crest Hill, Illinois located next door to Joliet.  Conspicuously absent from the article was any mention of Misook’s brief 1998 and 1999 published notoriety as the shady ex-girlfriend of the man (Barton) whose child was murdered upon the immediate heels of their bitter breakup. 

Astonishingly, it was this same Misook who Barton maintained, in addition to his innocence, was the person responsible for the murder of Christina McNeil.  To anyone with a sense of mind, Misook’s murder of her husband’s mother during the course of their domestic turmoil leaves no longer a shadow of doubt who murdered Barton’s child in 1998 during the height of their domestic estrangement.  Clearly, Barton’s wrongful conviction and the escape of his daughter’s killer had just been paid for in blood by her currently estranged husband’s mother Wenlan Linda Tyda.

Instantly energized, Barton dropped all that he was doing; for now he was on a mission that he had once failed miserably.  This time he was armed with the now obvious fact that Misook Nowlin (she remains being known as Misook Nowlin; as well as, Misook Wang), is indeed a psycho killer, and given the inescapable realization that she also killed the daughter of her estranged boyfriend in 1998, Misook Nowlin is also an outright serial killer. 

Moreover, now that Misook was in the slammer facing three counts of first degree murder, the many Bloomington authorities who had been so friendly to her in 1998 and 1999, today could hardly vouch for her innocence with a straight face, for Christina’s murder, in light of Misook’s recent most murder.  No matter the origins of Barton’s wrongful conviction, those persons responsible for it, and for Misook’s clean getaway for Christina’s murder, now have a heavy burden of their own to bear, as they must universally recognize that their multiple dramatic missteps has led also to the 13 year wrongful imprisonment of the innocent father of the child Misook also murdered a decade earlier.  Having the moral courage to admit to those obvious truths is another matter entirely as we look forward to the day when this will happen.

In addition, presently there are surely quite a number of authorities (police and prosecutors) involved in the current prosecution of Misook for the Tyda murder who lack the self-serving motives of others with the audacity to still try and vouch for the innocence of Christina’s true killer, who are similarly fully aware of Barton’s actual innocence and Misook’s guilt.  Yet, these folks too may lack the moral courage (to say nothing of their public responsibility) to do what’s right by Misook’s multiple victims, Christina McNeil, Wenlan Tyda, and Barton himself.  From the standpoint of intransigent authorities, Barton’s renewed pursuit of his child’s killer was not likely to be so vigorously (nor openly) opposed this time around, unlike his lone pursuit in 1998 and 1999 of Christina’s killer against the entire weight and resources of the law enforcement and judicial establishments.  If nothing else, Barton could rest a little easier knowing that Misook’s serial murdering ways had finally come to an end, and that if Misook is still sided in her escape for her responsibility for what she did to Barton and his daughter, at least Misook will finally pay for ONE of her murders.

In the meantime, Barton had several immediate tasks at hand.  The first was to alert the local media to the connection between the now infamous charged killer of her estranged husband’s mother, Misook Wang, to the 1998 murder of Christina McNeil, of which Misook Nowlin was a reported shadowy figure as the child’s father’s estranged girlfriend.  Bypassing the unsympathetic Pantagraph, Barton directed his efforts at the Bloomington area TV and radio stations, which also had covered Barton’s (wrongful) prosecution at some length back in the late 1990’s.  Surely, the local media would be intrigued to learn of murderess Misook’s prior notoriety in connection to a prior Bloomington child murder.

With the aid of his friend, Chuck, Barton began to alert the few family members who remained in contact with him, to Misook’s most recent murder and arrest.  After all, Misook was THE central figure in the thousands of pages of letters he had written over the years that in any way discussed the circumstances of Christina’s murder.  In a manner of speaking, at a distance and through his words, Barton’s few family contacts had come to know this Misook character that he seemed to obsess over in his single-minded claims that this estranged girlfriend had murdered his daughter.  Surely they too would be severely moved when faced with the stark reality that, just as Barton had maintained all of these years, as fate would have it, this Misook was a stone cold killer after all.  Obviously, Barton was telling no lies all of these years, and Misook’s most recent murder vis-a-vis Barton’s pronouncements could not possibly be the result of coincidence.  Surely, in an instant, his family contacts would recognize once and for all that, not only was Barton innocent of killing his child, but also quite obviously his intense suspicions of Misook’s responsibility for Christina’s murder had been all along, spot on.

Purely by trial and error, and by chance, in mid October of 2011, using the prison’s telephone, Barton was able to reach a live on-air listener call-in program on the local Bloomington AM radio station WJBC.  Fighting to fend off the emotions of the moment, Barton poured out the pent up contents of his heart as in the span of the live 15 minute interview, he spoke to the listening audience—recanting every significant detail connecting the now infamous Misook Wang to his child’s 1998 murder.  In an instant, the cat was out of the bag.  Tellingly, the authorities chose not to alert the media to the extraordinary newsworthy event that, accused murderer, Misook Wang, was once at the center of a child murder investigation.

To hear Barton’s incredible prison yard phone call on Friday upon his learning Misook had confessed to strangling her mother-in-law Linda Tyda. Had this crime taken place anywhere other than Bloomington, Illinois, Bart would to this day be unaware with no chance for hope.

Barton further reasoned that, in all certainty, the moment Misook’s name came up in the police investigation into the disappearance of her mother-in-law, police and prosecutors recognized precisely who she was, in relation to the (post arrest) 1998 investigation of Christina’s murder—and while today they will surely never admit it—they obviously then realized that Misook had indeed murdered Christina after all, and that they were now faced with the taste of both defending in public a now known by our family serial killer (notwithstanding their prosecution of the Tyda murder case), and defending a now known obvious grossly wrongful conviction.  Barton also thought it likely that, during the course of Misook’s recent lengthy interrogation, the subject of Christina’s murder—or rather, the subject of her obvious murder of Christina came forth.  And just as imagined, we very recently received confirmation that to some as-yet unknown extent, Christina’s 1998 murder did indeed become a part of Misook’s 2011 Tyda murder interrogation.

In addition to Barton’s radio interview, a reporter and camera man came to interview him in prison in December 2011, in apparent recognition of Barton’s innocence resulting from Misook’s latest murder.  This TV interview aired early in February 2012.  During the course of the year Barton has further written countless detailed letters to these and other local media outlets, to encourage greater exposure to his just cause.

Click to listen to Barton McNeil interview on 2021 Oxygen Network television show Snapped Behind Bars Season 1, Episode 2 where he describes his relationship with Misook

CHAPTER XIX  

Misook Nowlin / Misook Wang – Sources

While many of the circumstances of the 2011 murder of Wenlan Tyda differ from the circumstance of the 1998 murder of Christina McNeil, in many other circumstances there are similarities, both symbolic and literally are stark.  In varying degrees of detail, there were quite a number of news reports on the heels of Misook’s arrest.

From these news reports Barton and his supporters have compiled some of the facts of the Tyda murder that are otherwise not widely known,  in order to create a larger narrative of the event.  We have also drawn on the growing court files as the Pre-Trial hearings for Misook’s murder case progresses.  For obvious reasons, we are intently monitored every detail of Misook’s prosecution, in light of its intimate relation to her prior murder of Christina McNeil.  Family members attended Misook’s 10-day trial held in December 2012 with Misook sentenced in March.

Court files open to the public, that we have copies of and will share with anyone for the asking, include the State’s DISCOVERY witness lists; evidence lists; detailed search warrant results and search warrant probably cause statements; motions, memorandums, and court orders mostly relating to Misook’s 13 hour interrogation and confession; and more, that we have obtained from the court’s COMMON LAW RECORDS (McLean County Case Number 20110CF0800).

See below confession interview between Misook Nowlin and Bloomington Police Detective Richard Barkes Steven Fanelli, and Clayton Wheeler. Misook shown to be an undisputed pathological liar in the process.

Also present in this 2011/2012 murder case file are some of the raw investigative reports relating to Misook’s 1998 domestic violence arrest/conviction resulting from her attack(s) against  her daughter, Michelle (Case Number 98CF962).  In these pages were a number of references to Christina’s murder, since these two 1998 child attacks were so obviously related having occurred just months from one another with Christina’s murder pre-dating the violent attack by Misook inflicted upon her daughter Michelle for which she was later convicted of.

Between the news reports and the court records, it is fair to conclude that Misook’s murder of Linda Wenlan Tyda was as highly premeditated and elaborately plotted in great cunning detail as was the murder of Christina 13 years prior.  Some evidence suggests that, in addition to ‘settling a score’ against her husband’s mother, as with Christina’s murder, Misook’s intent was to frame husband Don Wang for his own mother’s murder by arranging for him to the be the last person to see his mother alive and in her presence with the victim’s car being returned to the Chicago area and the body buried there so that it be in the vicinity of where her husband was last located.  Below is a timeline of events relating to Misook’s murder of her husband’s mother, though this story is continuing to unfold as more facts and circumstances are revealed.

CHAPTER XX  

Misook Nowlin / Misook Wang as Serial Killer—The Murder of Husband Don Wang’s                          Mother

As with Christina’s murder, the origins of the murder of Linda Wenlan Tyda stem from the hostilities between Misook and her husband and not between Misook and her mother-in-law as one may assume.  However, it relates both to Don Wang checking on Misook and his intent to divorce her.  Misook’s primary nemesis was husband, Don, not his mother; whose murder would only serve to enact revenge upon Don himself, either by virtue of killing his dearest loved one, or like Barton, by Misook’s possible greater motive to successfully frame Don for his mother’s murder.  To be sure, Misook’s scheme is elaborate and highly premeditated and reflects on how much easier it would have been with similar premeditated plotting to have murdered her estranged boyfriend’s daughter, Christina McNeil, in 1998 for the purpose of setting up her then domestic nemesis , Barton McNeil.  Drawing from news reports and court records, here is what we have been able to discern so far:

All of the dates refer to the year of 2011.

In July, Misook was arrested and charged with two felony thefts of some expensive merchandise from a local department store.

Although she sat in jail for approximately four days, her husband, Don Wang did not post her bail, and it is likely that this episode also relates to the hostilities between Misook and Don. 

On or about September 1^st, Misook storms into Don’s place of employment, The Imperial Buffet  restaurant in Bloomington Illinois, and creates a scene with the intent of getting her husband, Don Wang, fired.  Don is indeed fired pending the resolution of his “personal affairs”.  His mother then intervenes on his behalf and Don’s firing is rescinded.

On or about September 2^nd Misook drives 60 miles to the home of Don’s mother, Wenlan Tyda, to confront her, apparently according to news reports about meddling in Misook’s domestic life on behalf of her son.  Only when Larry Tyda, the spouse of Wenlan Tyda, threatens to call the Police, did Misook leave.

Apparently, also on this same day, Misook’s murderous plotting is already in high gear, If not has long been in the plotting stages for some days or weeks before.  To this end, Misook is able to make ‘travel plans’ for Don Wang to take a flight from Chicago to California.  Set to depart the very next day, Misook correctly calculates (or arranges) that his mother, Linda Wenlan Tyda will drive Don from Bloomington to the Chicago airport.

In the meantime, also on September 3^rd, Misook schemes to lure Tyda back down to Bloomington after Tyda had dropped off her son at the Chicago airport.  As per Misook’s murderous designs, Tyda, who works as an independent contractor providing professional Chinese translation services, will soon be rolling into Bloomington on the very early morning hours (Approximately 4 or 5 AM), on Labor Day.

News reports state that Misook drove to a local Chinese restaurant earlier in the evening and paid a Chinese speaking restaurant hostess $20 to phone Tyda requesting Tyda’s translation services and to provide the (fictitiously created) student with a ride from Bloomington to Chicago, in exchange for $500.  Apparently, Tyda provided such services in the past.  So Tyda makes arrangements to pick up this Chinese-speaking phantom ride ‘needer’ at a Cubs Store Bloomington grocery store parking lot at about 4:30AM, which is located just blocks from a sewing supply business owned by Misook called Kim’s Sewing.  Tyda is unaware that this late night ride ‘needer’ is Misook’s devious creation, and that Tyda is being set up by Misook’s elaborate ruse that will soon after culminate in her death.

Arriving at the Bloomington grocery store parking lot, Tyda waited for the appearance of the Chinese-speaking ride needer, unaware of the mortal danger about to visit her instead.  Parking lot security camera videos record Misook’s car pulling into the parking lot near to Tyda’s own car.  TWO people are in Misook’s car as it arrives according to a police narrative of what the camera showed which was Misook’s rear vehicle tail lights illuminating once while the two quarreled as though someone had tapped the brake pedal.  Later revised to it just being Misook alone (was she we must ask?). Both women leave the parking lot winding up at Misook’s place of business, Kim’s Sewing that is where Misook attacks Linda.

Since Tyda herself came to know Misook while under investigation for Christina’s murder in 1998, it is likely that during the course of being murdered by Misook, Tyda’s last thought was the realization that Misook had also murdered her ex-boyfriend’s daughter after all.

Immediately following bludgeoning in the head with a mallet or hammer-like object and strangling to death with her bare hands Tyda at Misook’s place of business, Misook takes Tyda’s car and drives it all the way up to the very same Chicago airport that Tyda had just dropped off her son Don at for the trip to California which Misook had set up. 

Here Misook is staging false evidence of which investigators were meant to infer that Don Wang himself alone was the last person to be with his mother prior to her disappearance/murder, and after which he took Tyda’s car to the airport to leave the state with a hastily purchased airline ticket (circumstances of which Misook, herself, had carefully crafted for this obvious purpose).  Thus, Misook’s very first priority after kidnapping (and killing ?) Tyda is her need to quickly stage the false evidence of Tyda’s car return to the Chicago airport to coincide with Misook’s previously staged airline departure (by Don) which she also set up in accordance with Tyda’s not-too-distant murder at the hands of Misook.

It is highly likely that Don’s airplane trip to California and the later ‘discovery’ of Tyda’s car at the same airport Don had departed from, is a circumstance Misook created to coincide with each other and could only be motivated by Misook’s INTENT to frame someone else for Linda Tyda’s murder.

Having stashed Tyda’s car at the Chicago airport just hours following the murder, Misook then returns to Bloomington by bus with her 5-year old son Donovan.  Not until the evening of the following day, September 6^th, does Misook dispose of Tyda’s now dead body, a full 40 or so hours after Tyda’s initial kidnapping.

Rather than promptly disposing of or hiding Tyda’s body in a simple manner of a minimally risky nearby gravesite, Misook instead transports the body 60 miles away near to Tyda’s own Crest Hill Joliet area home in a wildlife park in Will County.  This shallow gravesite was not terribly far from the above Chicago airport where the car was also left.  And for her final burial Tyda’s body is made nude. 

Here again Misook is staging evidence away from where the actual kidnapping and murder took place in order to  corroborate a set of circumstances that Misook herself created and staged earlier as a part of her crafty progression of plot/staging  sequences.  Whether or not Misook intended that Tyda’s body be ‘discovered’, perhaps as a result of Misook making in the future an anonymous CRIME STOPPERS ‘tip’ herself, or whether this Joliet area gravesite was chosen ‘just in case’ the body was inadvertently discovered, it will appear as per Misook’s obvious intent, that Tyda’s murder was committed in the Joliet area (not in Bloomington) by a Joliet area killer if not by one of Tyda’s own family member intended scapegoat.  The broader point here is, this is at least the fourth instance in which Misook is carefully staging the (false) circumstances of her murder of her husband’s mother.

In another macabre parallel to Christina’s murder, Barton has long suspected that the parents of Michelle Nowlin forced her involvement in the murder of her step-sister (this is how 8-year-old Michelle and 3-year old Christina viewed themselves), so too did Misook more recently involve her six year old son in the murder of his grandmother.  At a minimum, Misook forced her 5-year old son to accompany her to her grizzly burial of Tyda’s body. He was also present at the time Misook (his mother) murdered his grandmother (Linda).

In the State’s Motion of Limine when asking the Misook’s (then) 5 year old son about Grandma, he said that on the way to Chicago he asked Misook why grandma was in the 50 gallon Rubbermaid bin and was told “she was hiding”. 

Today we would like to know what additional involvement Misook forced upon her son, since he obviously was not in the custody of his father nor grandparents during the course of this several day murderous event.  We would also like the reader to note that, just as 9 year old Michelle Nowlin was questioned in 1998 about the murder of her mother’s estranged boyfriend’s daughter, so too was Michelle more recently questioned about the murder of Michelle’s stepfather’s mother.  Indeed, both Misook’s young son and her now adult daughter who has long lived near Indianapolis are listed as potential prosecution witnesses against Misook for her murder of Wendlan Tyda.

Eventually, Misook was interrogated at length about her mother-in-law’s disappearance/murder resulting in Misook’s confession, after which she took investigators to Tyda’s gravesite.  We have just learned from court records that the subject of Christina’s 1998 murder was also a part of Misook’s 2011 interrogation relating to the Tyda murder.  Obviously, Misook and her interrogators recognized that Misook’s murder of her mother-in-law is directly related to the murder of Misook’s estranged boyfriend’s daughter thirteen years earlier.

Finally, the many explicit connections and symbolic parallels between Christina’s 1998 murder and Misook’s more recent murder of her mother-in-law cannot be dismissed as a result of unrelated overlapping coincidences.  In all certainty, the person responsible for the 1998 murder of the daughter of Misook’s estranged boyfriend on the immediate heals of their bitter breakup, is the same person responsible for the 2011 murder of the mother of Misook’s two-timing divorce-seeking soon-to-be third ex-husband.  Anyone who believes that Misook did in fact murder Linda Wenlan Tyda, must also concur that Misook Nowlin also murdered Christina McNeil, largely for quite similar motives, years earlier.

The reader should also consider that the elaborateness of the Tyda murder plot and its many staged circumstances and planted evidence demonstrate that Misook has long been highly capable of committing murders, framing intended domestic scapegoats, and getting clean away with it when far less sophistication is necessary.  Misook’s high degree of expertise could only have resulted from a life-long compulsion to murder and from the experience of some prior murder(s) that she previously never got caught for.  No doubt Christina’s murder contributed to Misook’s apparent extraordinary level of experience she later applied to the intricate Tyda murder plot, and were Christina’s murder the only ‘school of death’ Misook had previously graduated from, thus still qualifies Misook as being an outright serial killer.

By comparison to the staged circumstances needed to succeed in her plot to murder Linda Wenlan Tyda, those needed to succeed in her plot to murder Christina McNeil would have been far simpler which Misook could have accomplished alone, but would be that much easily done if she happened to have the aid of an accomplice or two (as may prove to be the case in the ongoing Tyda murder investigation and trial).  Had the highly capable and cunning Misook devoted a fraction of the expertise and effort she applied to the Tyda murder, to the 1998 murder of Barton’s daughter, she could have easily accomplished the comparatively much simpler twin goals of both killing the daughter of Misook’s arch-enemy ex-boyfriend Barton, and in doing so, was able to stage the manner of Christina’s death in order to guarantee that his child’s murder wrongfully fell upon her father’s shoulders.  Misook’s vengeful needs relative to Christina’s murder was not just the mere murder of an arch rival to Barton’s attention that was Christina herself, but also the infliction of a lifelong sadness upon Christina’s mother, that was Misook’s other long time nemesis.   And was further with Misook’s intent, in addition to the lifelong sadness inflicted upon Christina’s father, Misook could revel in the knowledge that she also facilitated Barton’s own slow death via prison—a death of a thousand knives to be sure, compounded by Misook’s  discovery that Barton himself eventually became aware that he had been intentionally framed by Misook’s vengeful plot.

Thank you for taking the time to read this summary of the true story of these multiple ongoing injustices.  For whatever slight effort you may be willing to make, if not on behalf of Christina’s innocent father, then on behalf of the innocent Christina herself, long denied any semblance of justice long due her; and, on behalf of the innocent Linda Wendlan Tyda, pictured below, who has paid the ultimate and unnecessary high price in blood for the injustices of 1998 and 2011, our family and Barton thanks you in advance.

For a progression of ongoing related events, see the current news and older news archives links along top menu on FreeBart.org.

Written and edited by Barton McNeil, Grace Schlafer, Chris Ross, Jeanne Ross.  © 2011-2024

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