{"id":2370,"date":"2021-10-13T17:23:38","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T23:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/?p=2370"},"modified":"2021-10-14T11:17:49","modified_gmt":"2021-10-14T17:17:49","slug":"2021-september-24-news-article-watch-now-oxygen-network-to-air-program-on-bloomington-murder-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/?p=2370","title":{"rendered":"2021 September 24 News Article \u2013 Watch Now: Oxygen Network to air program on Bloomington murder case (Pantagraph Newspaper)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Click HERE <\/a>to link to the published article as featured in The Pantagraph newspaper. Additional photographs accompanying the article are shown at the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

September 24, 2021 by Kade Heather<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Barton McNeil, shown at the Menard Correctional Center in 2017, will be featured in The Oxygen Network\u2019s \u201cSnapped: Behind Bars.\u201d DAVID PROEBER, PANTAGRAPH FILE PHOTO<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

BLOOMINGTON \u2013 The winding story of a Bloomington man seeking exoneration<\/strong><\/a> while serving a 100-year sentence for being convicted of murdering his 3-year-old daughter in 1998 is set to appear before a national televised audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barton McNeil, 62, has served 23 years in prison after a judge found him guilty in 1999 of murder in the killing of his daughter, Christina McNeil, on June 15, 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From that day, he has maintained his innocence and has suspected his ex-girlfriend, Misook Nowlin, who he broke up with earlier that night, of smothering his daughter in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t until after Nowlin, who now goes by the last name Wang, was convicted in 2012 of murdering her 70-year-old mother-in-law, Linda Tyda, in September 2011 that more attention was directed toward McNeil\u2019s claim of innocence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Oxygen Network\u2019s \u201cSnapped: Behind Bars\u201d will air a two-hour episode about McNeil’s and Wang’s convictions. The Pantagraph provided photos for the production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt means everything to me,\u201d McNeil said of the national attention in a recent phone interview with The Pantagraph from the Pickneyville Correctional Center. \u201cIf I remain in prison for the rest of my life, which is still a possibility \u2013 I\u2019m not guaranteed to go home ever \u2013 but I\u2019ll tell you, I am going to sleep so much soundly even if I remain in prison for the rest of my life knowing at least that the truth is out there, and that\u2019s what I\u2019ve wanted more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first airing is Saturday at 7 p.m. The episode also will be shown at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Sunday, as well as at 5 p.m. Oct. 2 and 9 a.m. Oct. 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Normal Theatre will also show the episode at 7 p.m. Oct. 5 followed by a five-person Q&A panel comprised of people featured in the episode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McNeil\u2019s lawyers from the Illinois Innocence Project and the Exoneration Project filed in February<\/strong><\/a> his petition for post-conviction relief based on new DNA evidence that points to Wang as the one responsible for Christina\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A McLean County judge recently allowed McNeil\u2019s petition to move forward in court for further review. A status hearing for review is scheduled for Nov. 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Included in the new evidence is a confirmation finding Wang\u2019s DNA and hair at the scene of Christina\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Normal Theatre will also show the episode at 7 p.m. Oct. 5 followed by a five-person Q&A panel comprised of people featured in the episode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McNeil\u2019s lawyers from the Illinois Innocence Project and the Exoneration Project filed in February<\/strong><\/a> his petition for post-conviction relief based on new DNA evidence that points to Wang as the one responsible for Christina\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A McLean County judge recently allowed McNeil\u2019s petition to move forward in court for further review. A status hearing for review is scheduled for Nov. 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Included in the new evidence is a confirmation finding Wang\u2019s DNA and hair at the scene of Christina\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Bart McNeil is hoping to prove his innocence in the 1998 murder of his daughter, Christina, by proving that his former girlfriend, Misook Nowlin, committed the crime. DAVID PROEBER, THE PANTAGRAPH<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

McNeil is seeking a formal exoneration for himself and also a new trial in his daughter\u2019s death, which he said was led by Wang and possibly others. He said \u201cthe timing alone\u201d of Christina\u2019s death has \u201cthe confession tattooed on her (Wang) face.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Misook Nowlin, right, turns to look at public defender staff as she sought new legal counsel at a hearing on Feb 5, 2013, at the McLean County Law and Justice Center. Her former boyfriend, Bart McNeil, is accusing her of murdering his daughter, Christina, in 1998. DAVID PROEBER, THE PANTAGRAPH<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

McNeil and Wang got into a \u201cheated\u201d argument at a Bloomington-Normal restaurant earlier on the night of June 15, 1998, which was witnessed by other patrons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said he broke up with Wang that night out of concern for Christina\u2019s safety \u201cbecause she (Wang) was unraveling and becoming dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wang had been scheduled to be sentenced on June 17, 1998, two days after Christina\u2019s murder, for an unlawful restraint conviction resulting from Wang physically restraining McNeil as he attempted to remove Christina from Wang\u2019s presence during a violent exchange the year prior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
\u201cOn the day I was arrested, I was supposed to be in court giving victim impact testimony against Misook,\u201d McNeil said. \u201cShe had been scheduled to be sentenced on June 17, 2:30 in the afternoon. I find Christina dead June 16.\u201d

McNeil said selling the truth proved to be difficult in his first decade or so in prison.
\u201cNobody gave me the time of day, they just assumed the worst, \u2018Hey, he must\u2019ve done something otherwise he wouldn\u2019t be in prison, right?\u2019\u201d McNeil said.

He added that it was not until a month after Wang killed Tyda in 2011 when he called into a WJBC radio show that people began connecting the cases.

\u201cI broke down in tears,\u201d McNeil said of his on-air phone call to WJBC. \u201cThey let me speak for 15 minutes on the air, it was a live call-in program, I didn\u2019t realize it at the time and I just said, \u2018Look, here\u2019s the story, that woman that just killed her mother-in-law is the same one that killed my daughter that I\u2019ve been saying for the last decade.\u201d

Wang is serving a 55-year prison sentence for murder in Tyda\u2019s death, whose body was found in a shallow grave in a Des Plaines forest preserve near her home.

A website, freebart.org<\/strong><\/a>, has since been created for McNeil containing his story, information about how to write to him and make donations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Contact Kade Heather at 309-820-3256. Follow him on Twitter: @kadeheather<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click HERE to link to the published article as featured in The Pantagraph newspaper. Additional…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-news-articles"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","covernews-featured":"","covernews-medium":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"chris.ross","author_link":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/?author=3"},"category_info":"Current News Articles<\/a>","tag_info":"Current News Articles","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2370"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2395,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370\/revisions\/2395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}