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\u2019s Office, and the McLean State\u2019s 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\u2019s prison account so that he can afford a few luxuries at his Maximum Security commissary, such as a soft drink and a snack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHAPTER I<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A sudden death<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At about 10:30 PM on the night of June 15th<\/sup> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 \u201cstaring \u201cstraight 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having held Christina\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During their presence on the scene, paramedics, coroner\u2019s assistants, nor police authorities gave any hint as to what might have caused Christina\u2019s sudden seemingly mysterious death. Struggling for answers, Barton presumed that Christina had died from \u201cnatural causes\u201d, 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\u2019s death might have been from an unnatural cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s death. Unable to justify key relevant circumstances in some coherent manner that otherwise would have taken minutes, Barton\u2019s 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\u2019s thoughts was fact of his now estranged girlfriend\u2019s presence at the scene of Christina\u2019s death who unexpectantly showed up just moments after paramedics arrived. Indeed, Barton\u2019s 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\u2019s breakup with Misook, and may have even died as little as five hours afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The grief of Christina\u2019s death did not completely replace in Bart\u2019s thoughts his dramatic public breakup with Misook at a local restaurant the evening before, but Barton\u2019s 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\u2019s death some hours later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s mother. Not wanting to spend any time at the scene of his daughter\u2019s 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\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As he passed by his daughter\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019t take much for Barton to deduce who this vengeance fueled intruder must have been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHAPTER II<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Panicked Revelation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s death. Upon the arrival of a detective, Barton explained his now certainty that Christina\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHAPTER III<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Impending Arrest<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s 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\u2019s attention to the presence of this intruder evidence while at the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s near certainty that Misook had killed his child. Indeed, Barton\u2019s final bitter breakup with Misook, related in large part to Misook\u2019s obsessive \u201ccompetition\u201d with Christina over Bart\u2019s attention, and for this very same reason, his fear for Christina\u2019s safety in the presence of the increasingly unstable Misook. Similarly, Misook was enraged by the control that Bart\u2019s ex-wife, Tita, Misook\u2019s longtime arch nemesis, seemed to exert over Barton\u2019s through Tita\u2019s hold on him via Christina. Further details are beyond the scope of this summary, suffice to say that, given Barton\u2019s own personal involvement in the bitter relationship related events in the months, weeks, days, and hours leading up to Christina\u2019s death, along with Barton\u2019s first hand observation of Misook\u2019s increasingly thinly veiled psychopathological demeanor, only Misook alone could have been responsible for his daughter\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the meantime, Barton returned to Tita\u2019s home to spend the night and grieve together. Despite all he had discovered in the past few hours about Christina\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s demand for his own accountability for the presence in their lives, the eventual instrument of Christina\u2019s death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To this day, Tita probably wonders why if Barton came to discover Misook\u2019s responsibility for Christina\u2019s death, he did not tell this to Tita, but instead she heard Barton\u2019s 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\u2019s certain condemnation of him, Barton preferred Tita to hear about Misook\u2019s responsibility for Christina\u2019s death from the police on the heels of Misook\u2019s arrest, which Barton expected hours from then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barton was beginning to sense the worst as it appeared the police were not in pursuit of his child\u2019s killer after all. Instead, they seemed to be after Barton himself. Witnessing the implosion of the would-be investigation of his child\u2019s 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\u2019s responsibility for the murder, most of which were either documented, verified, or could be corroborated with minimal investigative effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s killer had gotten clean away at her innocent father\u2019s own expense. Worse still, Barton slowly came to realize that, as per Misook\u2019s designs, Christine\u2019s murder was intended to result in Barton\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IV<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A Cast of Characters; Barton, Tita, Christina and others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s, the marriage was not ideal, but by the same token was not particularly rocky either. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Barton\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHAPTER V<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dysfunction Junction \u2013 Misook Nowlin\u2026 Countdown to Murder<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the meantime, Bart\u2019s 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\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In contrast, Misook had only sporadic weekend custody of Michelle, who Andy seemed to have full custody of. Nonetheless Michelle, Misook\u2019s daughter, and Christina, six years younger, became close and genuinely seemed to love each other as \u201csisters\u201d. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though separated from Andy in 1995, Misook remained married to him until 1998 the year of Christina\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s continuing peculiar relations with Andy, as well as Misook\u2019s 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\u2019s later murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the course of Barton\u2019s three year live-in relations with Misook,. The police were called to their apartment three times as a result of Misook\u2019s violent rages, twice while Christina was in her father\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In nearly every instance, Barton maintained, this intense domestic strife centered around Misook\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s eagerness to have custody of his daughter on short notice when it was not otherwise a part of his scheduled child care routine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the course of Misook\u2019s violent episode, Barton attempted to flee the apartment with Christina in his arms. Blocked from leaving by Misook\u2019s hysterical self, and not wishing for an escalation in violence. Particularly not in Christina\u2019s now crying presence, though feeling for the safety of he and his daughter in the heat of this drama, Barton phoned the police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s bail and she immediately returned to the apartment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because of prior violent domestic events like this one Barton had twice briefly moved out on Misook. Upon Misook\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s Attorney, Stephanie Wang, who had also sent to Barton, Order of Protection forms, for him to get a restraining order against Misook. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Foolishly he instead remained Misook\u2019s 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 17th<\/sup>. 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\u2019s increasing self inflicted misfortune. In addition to the domestic violence psychiatric counseling above, on the advice of McLean County prosecutors and at Bart\u2019s insistence, Misook began attending further domestic violence counseling at the AVERT program run by the State\u2019s Attorney\u2019s Office. This too was to no avail as later events, including one involving her own daughter Michelle, unfolded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s need to maintain her hold over Barton only increased as she tried to maintain this relationship at all costs. Under Misook\u2019s 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\u2019s step (half) sisters , Yuman and Susi, routinely spent the night at Misook\u2019s home, while cheerleading Misook and fueling her passions in Misook\u2019s struggles with Barton, and with her obsessive need to do battle with her arch nemesis, Tita, who Misook viewed as Misook\u2019s 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\u2019s selfish fear that Tita might end his custody of Christina were Tita to fear for Christina\u2019s safety in Misook\u2019s presence\u2026 a fear that Barton felt was unwarranted since he believed he could \u201chandle\u201d Misook himself. On this count too, Barton today carries a heavy burden . Tita was largely unaware of Misook\u2019s vengeance fueled hatred of her and insane jealousy of Tita and Christina alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For his part, Barton\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s safety, and Barton vowed never to allow Christina to be in their presence again. Slightly less apparent was that Misook\u2019s tight circle of above associates, were 100% in league with Misook\u2019s crazed obsessions, and in fact, encouraged them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally on June 15th<\/sup> Misook made repeated demands that she come over to Bart\u2019s 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\u2019s whereabouts at present and where she would be later on. Barton flatly refused Misook\u2019s demands to come to his apartment, specifically because before too long Barton was to pick up Christina for the night at Tita\u2019s home, and he refused to risk exposing his daughter to any of Misook\u2019s violent theatrics, nor to allow Christina to be in her presence anymore at all. Moreover, even in Christina\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 \u201cgrapevine\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For his part, Bart confronted Misook with her obsessive stalking, to include her parking in front of Tita\u2019s home for long stretches trying to catch Barton\u2019s coming or going; Misook\u2019s collection of garbage from the curb to sift through in search of what Barton had been up to; Misook\u2019s stalking of his personal phone records she obtained through her employer (that did billing for AT&T), and worst of all, Tita\u2019s revelation that Misook had attempted to \u201cconfide\u201d in Tita a \u201cfriendly warning\u201d 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\u2019s devilish warning to Barton against Misook\u2019s wishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Barton, that was the final straw. Barton unequivocally ended the relationship then and there, vowing to testify at Misook\u2019s domestic violence sentencing hearing the next day—his victim impact testimony. On that note of extreme hostility and estrangement, so ended Barton\u2019s three-year relationship with Misook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For his sins against Misook, Christina would not live to see tomorrow. As per Misook\u2019s long planned designs, Misook would get clean away and Barton would be arrested (and soon convicted) for his own daughter\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still oblivious to the mortal dangers he and Christina faced, Barton then proceeded to Tita\u2019s 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\u2019s last meal, father and daughter returned to Barton\u2019s apartment for the night, arriving about 8:30 PM on this Monday night. Christina\u2019s death loomed ever nearer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Under a false pretext, Misook phoned Bart\u2019s cell phone to subtly inquire as to what Christina was doing and where in Barton\u2019s apartment Christina was sleeping about 10:40PM. Curtly answering Misook\u2019s odd questions, Barton informed Misook that she should no longer phone him, ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under another false pretext, Misook phoned Barton\u2019s apartment the next morning less than a minute after the first responders who arrived at the scene on the heels of Barton\u2019s 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\u2019s murder lurked his estranged girlfriend, Misook Nowlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n See below local area Pantagraph news article headlines and many references Bart made to Misook throughout<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-33.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n