Missing In Kentucky: Widow, Orla Alyne Barrick's nightly routine was interrupted and she vanished from her home in 1996.
From most descriptions of Orla Alyne Barrick, from neighbors, family and friends Orla was an organized put together woman. She followed a daily somewhat strict routine. A creature of habit, and she was possibly predictable because of it, certainly reliable. NBC's article and interviews with her daughter Kay seem to call her Alyne, so perhaps she preferred it and I will use it for the remainder of this write up.
Alyne had become a widow in 1982. She lived alone for many years by herself in a cabin located near the Nolin River Lake in Edmonson County Kentucky. By 1996 Alyne was 61 years old and very independent. Her beloved Pomeranian FiFi lived with her.
On the day she vanished it started out like any other. Alyne woke up the morning of April 12th 1996 and attended a Chiropractor appointment. From there she went to a tanning salon, and stopped by a handyman's house who she had hired. She then went home.
According to her daughter Kay, Mrs. Alyne was supposed to spend that weekend with her brother Pete Jackson in Frankfort, Kentucky. This was something she was said to have done often. However on this particular weekend she had called her sister-in-law, Pete's wife, and told her that she wasn't coming. It seems no real reason why Alyne canceled was given.
Alyne's neighborhood was located around Mammoth Cave National Park. Her cabin was located in a gated type community with a few cabins but most of the neighbors were seasonal vacationers.
Around 2:30 p.m. on April 12th Alyne was seen walking FiFi around her neighborhood. She had stopped and chatted with some teens that were staying at a nearby cabin. It was casual conversation and she made it back home from that walk.
It was initially one of the neighbors who raised the concern flag. Because Alyne was such a creature of habit as aforementioned, they noticed that they had not seen her in a few days walking her dog around the neighborhood. After 3 days of not seeing her a neighbor contacted the Edmondson County Sheriff's Office to report his concern. After searching her home and contacting her friends and family who had not seen her, a missing persons report was filed.
There were no signs of forced entry. According to reports it appears that Alyne had begun her night time routine. She had closed the blinds, put a fresh trash bag in her take out trash, and had lit a cigarette. Somewhere there authorities speculate her routine was abruptly interrupted. Her cigarette was later found burned down into the bathroom counter. Her top dentures were missing but her bottom dentures were in the cup that she used to clean them. FiFi was found in her crate.
According to her daughter if she had cleaned her top teeth she must have put them back on, possibly to answer the door because nobody ever saw her without her teeth. She was very self-conscious about this.
Alyne's family and authorities believe someone knocked on her door that night and it may or may not have been someone she knew.
Her car was still in the yard and her keys were inside the house. There were signs of a possible struggle inside specifically in the bedroom. The Authorities say it could have began in the living room and carried over it into the bedroom. Her daughter believes Alyne was trying to get to a gun that she kept in her bedside table. Small amounts of blood were found in the bedroom. The only thing missing from the home was her purse, her top bed sheet, and Alyne, who has never been seen again.
Several searches have been conducted by the State Police. As well as group searches in areas near her home, partially drained lakes, scuba divers, cadaver dogs. I believe the cadaver dogs were used in 2016.
This investigation is still ongoing but there aren't any real substantiated leads. There are some persons of interest but not enough evidence for any real suspects to be named. According to her family Alyne was dating a younger man but none of them knew his name or who he was. The family seems to suspect the handyman that she went to see a few hours before disappearing. The handyman had reportedly left the area soon after Alyne's disappearance and has been arrested since, but it is unclear the nature of those arrests, he served time in Illinois.
Kay and her family still seek answers to all these questions and where her mother is for closure and answers to what became of her that night on April 12th 1996.
Alyne enjoyed fishing, growing roses and she was also a seamstress. She was a mother to four adult children when she disappeared.
Foul play is suspected and this is being treated as a homicide. Authorities believe her body is in a shallow grave in the woods near her home. $400 that she kept hidden in a freezer was still there but reportedly a key that she kept hidden in a fake rock was not.
The Kentucky State Police Green Bowling Station is investigating at 270-782-2010
https://charleyproject.org/case/orla-alyne-j-barrick
What happened to Mrs Orla Alyne Barrick in 1996? Did someone she know enter her home and abduct her? Was it a random person with opportunity? Was the handyman and the younger boyfriend the same person?
I hope her family gets answers and justice someday.