0:00

December 30th 1995 Minneapolis, Minnesota

0:06

31-year-old Ann Barber Dunlap

0:08

disappears after her husband Brad

0:10

Dunlap claims that she went on a

0:12

shopping trip. Two days later Ann's

0:15

car is discovered in a Kmart parking lot with

0:18

her body inside the trunk and she

0:20

has been repeatedly stabbed in the head and neck.

0:23

Since Brad took out a life insurance policy on Ann

0:25

in the months prior to her death he

0:28

becomes the police's prime suspect but

0:30

there is not enough evidence to implicate him and

0:33

Ann's murder remains unsolved. After

0:35

that the trail went cold. How

1:00

concerned does this make you to

1:02

see the car here? Well I'm

1:05

happy that we found it because I'm

1:23

hoping that it'll give us some clues on where she

1:25

might be. I

1:27

don't know what to think. I mean it's

1:30

just uh at first it

1:32

it scares me because you

1:34

know it's here you

1:38

know and I didn't know if we'd find it because

1:40

I thought the police would find it yesterday. Um then

1:43

I talked to a guy at the FBI and he

1:45

said that generally they find a car after an all

1:47

points bulletin is put out in a few hours and

1:49

so he thought that maybe the car was out of

1:52

town and she was out of the princess area. So

1:54

when we found it today I was really surprised. Our

1:56

main afterword seems I've heard a little to realize the

1:58

car is here. Thinkin

2:00

about it, thinkin about it, you're not, you

2:03

know, you're not. No,

2:07

you're not. Sorry.

2:11

No, you're just,

2:14

you're not just one of us. You're

2:17

just one of us. You're

2:19

not bringing him home. Hello

2:21

everyone and welcome to our latest episode of

2:23

The Trail Went Cold. I'm your

2:25

host Robin Worder and today

2:27

we're going to be exploring

2:29

a controversial cold case, the

2:31

1995 murder of Ann Barber Dunlap. This

2:35

was a case request originally sent to me

2:37

several months ago by a listener named Darla

2:39

and since I had actually not heard of

2:41

this story before, I decided to delve into

2:43

it and thought it would make for an

2:45

interesting podcast episode. That

2:48

audio clip you just heard was a snippet

2:50

of an interview with the victim's husband Brad

2:52

Dunlap which was originally recorded

2:54

by the Minneapolis based TV

2:57

station KARE-11 on

2:59

New Year's Day in 1996. By

3:02

that point, Ann had been missing for two

3:04

days but her car was discovered in

3:06

a Kmart parking lot during a search effort

3:08

organized by her husband and you

3:10

could see the car in the background while Brad was

3:12

being interviewed. However it

3:14

would not be until after the vehicle was

3:17

towed to a police forensic garage when Ann's

3:19

body was discovered inside the trunk with

3:21

numerous stab wounds to her head and neck.

3:25

And well, there are some people, including

3:27

the police, who suspect that Brad

3:29

already knew his wife's body was in the

3:31

trunk when he did that interview and was

3:33

putting on a show for the cameras. It

3:36

turned out that Brad had taken out a $1

3:38

million life insurance policy on Ann in the

3:40

months prior to her death and

3:42

had a shaky alibi on the day she went

3:44

missing. There was also some

3:47

forensic evidence in the garage of the residence where

3:49

the couple were living to suggest that Ann may

3:51

have been killed there. On

3:53

the surface, it's easy to believe that Brad

3:55

was the obvious suspect, but what really

3:57

makes this case unique is that Ann's Ann's

4:00

parents have spent the past three decades

4:02

vigorously defending Brad and do not believe

4:04

he was capable of murdering their daughter.

4:07

And while it might seem like Brad had

4:10

a financial motive to commit this crime, almost

4:12

everyone who knew the Dunlaps said that there

4:14

were no issues with their marriage and no

4:16

obvious red flags to suggest that Brad wanted

4:18

to kill Ann. So

4:21

this has always remained a very divisive

4:23

case as law enforcement and Ann's loved

4:25

ones have differing views about what happened.

4:29

So in this episode, we're going to look

4:31

at both sides and try and determine if

4:33

Ann was actually murdered by her husband or

4:35

if an unknown third party might have been

4:37

responsible. However before we

4:40

get started just a quick reminder that

4:42

The Trail Went Cold is a weekly

4:44

podcast which is currently available for download

4:46

on several platforms including Apple Podcasts and

4:49

Spotify. So if you like

4:51

this podcast be sure to subscribe to it and

4:53

please leave us a rating or review on any

4:55

of those sites to help spread the word. The

4:58

Trail Went Cold is on Patreon so if you would like

5:00

to learn how to support the show, please

5:03

visit our page at patreon.com/The

5:05

Trail Went Cold. For

5:07

as little as one dollar a

5:09

month, you can garner access to

5:12

exclusive rewards including stickers and thank

5:14

you cards, early access episodes, and

5:16

bonus content as our Patreon

5:18

page currently has around 70 exclusive

5:20

bonus episodes in our archives which

5:22

are not available on our regular

5:24

feed. So with all that

5:26

out of the way, let us now delve

5:29

into the murder of Ann Barber Dunlap.

6:12

Our story begins in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1995.

6:16

Our central figure is 31-year-old Ann Barber

6:18

Dunlap, who is employed as a marketing

6:20

manager with the Pillsbury Company. For

6:23

the past eight years, Ann has

6:25

been married to her 32-year-old husband Brad

6:27

Dunlap, who works as the sales manager

6:30

for Environmental Graphics in Hopkins. For

6:33

the past few months, the Dunlaps have been

6:35

living with Ann's parents, Don and Louise Barber,

6:37

at the residence near Lake Calhoun, as the

6:39

couple is currently in the midst of building

6:41

a new $300,000 dream

6:43

house for themselves in the suburb

6:45

of Medina. At

6:47

around 8pm on the evening of Saturday,

6:50

December 30th, Don and Louise were

6:52

out of town staying at their cabin near

6:54

the town of Annandale when they received a

6:56

phone call from Brad, who informed them that

6:58

Ann was missing. The Dunlaps

7:00

were both avid long-distance runners, as

7:03

Brad had once competed in the

7:05

Boston Marathon, and earlier that

7:07

morning, Ann went to the Northwest

7:09

Racquet Swim and Health Club in St. Louis

7:11

Park in order to jog 10 miles

7:13

with her running team. Afterward,

7:16

Ann went to a friend's house in

7:18

order to attend a brunch with about

7:20

a dozen other people before returning to

7:22

her parents' residence. According

7:24

to Brad, Ann told them that she

7:26

needed to go purchase a new pair of

7:29

shoes, and while Brad said she didn't specifically

7:31

state her destination, he assumed she was going

7:33

to the Nordstrom Department Store at the Mall

7:35

of America in Bloomington, which is the

7:37

largest shopping mall in the United States. Brad

7:40

claimed that Ann left at around 2.30pm in her maroon, 1987 Toyota

7:43

Celica, and that she

7:46

had planned to return by 4.30 so

7:49

that they could both run some errands and go out to

7:51

dinner together. That Ann

7:53

never returned, and Brad claimed that after calling

7:55

a number of local hospitals to search for

7:57

her without success, he phoned the bar at

8:00

their cabin to inform them about what was going

8:02

on. Don and

8:04

Louise told Brad that they were going to drive back home

8:07

to help him search for Anne, but

8:09

before they arrived, Brad called the

8:11

Minneapolis Police Department to attempt to report

8:13

his wife missing. However,

8:15

he was apparently told that Anne would have to be

8:17

missing for at least 48 hours before

8:20

they could launch an investigation. When

8:24

the barbers returned from their cabin, they

8:26

helped Brad perform an extensive search of the

8:28

Mall of America and its parking lots, but

8:30

failed to turn up any trace of Anne or her

8:33

missing vehicle. Out of

8:35

desperation, Brad also traveled to the site

8:37

in Medina where their new house was being built

8:39

to see if Anne might have gone there, but

8:41

he found nothing. Anne

8:43

would remain a missing person for the next two days,

8:46

but on the morning of Monday, January 1, 1996, Brad organized

8:48

a search effort in

8:52

which a number of Anne's friends and

8:54

family members would blanket various locations throughout

8:56

the city with missing persons flyers. The

8:59

search team originally met up at the Barber

9:01

residence before splitting up, but at

9:03

around 8 am, after less than an hour

9:05

of searching, two of Anne's

9:07

friends came across for Toyota Celica in the

9:10

parking lot of a Kmart store located

9:12

on Lake Street and Nicolette Avenue two

9:14

and a half miles away. The

9:17

police were immediately summoned to the scene, and it

9:19

would turn out that the Celica was unlocked, and

9:21

its keys were still in the ignition. There

9:24

was immediate suspicion that someone else had

9:26

driven the vehicle there since Anne was only

9:29

5'4", and the driver's seat was pushed back

9:32

farther than where she normally positioned it. Of

9:35

course, Brad also showed up at the scene while it

9:37

was being processed, and that's where

9:39

the interview with them that I mentioned

9:41

in the intro was filmed by KARE11.

9:44

The police decided that they would not search

9:46

inside the car until it was towed to

9:49

one of their forensic garages at an impound

9:51

lot, and once this was done, Anne's body

9:53

was discovered inside the trunk. She

9:56

had been stabbed repeatedly in the head, as well as

9:58

the left side, side and back of

10:00

her neck, and the trunk was covered

10:03

in blood. Even

10:05

though the actual murder weapon was never found, the

10:07

tip of a broken sheep's foot blade from

10:10

a pocket knife was discovered in Anne's skull

10:12

during the autopsy. There

10:14

were no signs of a struggle or sexual

10:16

assault, but Anne had received a

10:18

blunt force blow to her head with

10:20

a broad, flat object, and it was

10:22

suspected that this blow incapacitated Anne before

10:25

she was stabbed. Anne's

10:27

purse, credit cards, and her $10,000

10:29

wedding ring were missing, but

10:31

none of these items were recovered, and her

10:33

cards were not used following her death. Since

10:37

the keys were left behind, investigators theorized

10:39

that the killer had intentionally abandoned the

10:41

vehicle in the parking lot with the

10:43

hope that it would be stolen by

10:45

an outside party which would complicate the

10:48

investigation. Shortly

10:50

after the discovery of Anne's body, Brad

10:53

Dunlap was brought in to be interviewed

10:55

by the Minnesota Police Department's homicide unit.

10:59

Detectives then informed Brad that his wife was

11:01

dead before leaving him alone in the interrogation

11:03

room. After watching

11:05

Brad's reaction through the two-way mirror, detectives went

11:07

back into the room and told him, quote,

11:09

we think we know who did it. You

11:12

killed her, end quote. Brad

11:15

denied any involvement in the crime and would be

11:17

interviewed for a total of five hours before

11:19

he left the station. Brad

11:22

and Louise Barber were not informed about

11:24

their daughter's murder until Brad returned home

11:26

that night as he broke down into

11:28

uncontrollable sobbing and said, quote, she's dead

11:31

and they say I did it. From

11:34

this point on, Brad stopped speaking with

11:36

the media and the police and would only

11:38

communicate with them through an attorney. However,

11:41

the Barbers would do numerous interviews with

11:43

the press in which they publicly supported

11:45

their son-in-law as they expressed

11:47

their belief that Brad was innocent and

11:50

incapable of harming him. Dada

11:52

Louise insisted that the couple were very happy

11:55

together as they were in the midst of

11:57

building their dream home and planning to start

11:59

a family. In fact,

12:01

the Barbers believed that Brad was more broken

12:03

up and emotionally distraught over losing Anne than

12:05

they were. Right from the

12:07

outset, the Barbers had a sour

12:10

relationship with the Minneapolis PD as

12:12

they felt that the lead detective showed

12:15

very little compassion towards them during their

12:17

initial conversations about Anne's murder and

12:19

became very defensive when they asked

12:21

questions about the investigation, bluntly stating

12:23

quote, don't you talk to me

12:25

about police procedure. Anne

12:28

felt that the police were not willing to

12:30

pursue any alternate leads which did not involve

12:32

Brad and said quote, they weren't trying

12:34

to find who did it, they were trying to frame

12:36

him, end quote. The

12:39

Barbers suspected that Anne was abducted and murdered

12:41

by an unknown third party when she went

12:43

to the Mall of America, but

12:45

the problem is that investigators said they

12:48

could not find any evidence that Anne was even

12:50

there on December the 30th. Even

12:53

though the Mall had several security cameras,

12:55

the tapes were recycled every two hours

12:57

so by the time police started the

12:59

investigation, they were unable to turn up

13:01

any surveillance footage of Anne. Police

13:04

also said that no witnesses reported having seen

13:07

Anne at the Mall, but this

13:09

claim would be disputed by Bill O'Keefe,

13:11

a private investigator hired by Brad. O'Keefe

13:15

told the Star Tribune newspaper that he

13:17

spoke to several witnesses at the Mall

13:19

who recalled seeing Anne, including

13:21

one who could accurately identify the shoes

13:24

she was wearing that day, and another

13:26

who said that Anne had specifically spoken

13:28

about building a house. Whatever

13:30

the case, even if Anne had gone to the

13:33

Mall, investigators never found any

13:35

evidence such as a check or credit

13:37

card receipt to indicate that

13:39

she purchased anything. Investigators

13:43

did not believe that Anne ever made it

13:45

to the Mall and suspected that she was

13:47

murdered at her parents residence. After

13:50

performing three separate searches of the house,

13:52

they eventually reported that they had turned

13:54

up three blood stains on the garage

13:56

floor as well as what appeared to be

13:58

a blood spot on the garage door. The War. While.

14:01

The Assistant Medical Examiner additionally believe that

14:03

and have bled to death inside the

14:05

trunk of polio to celica. Please.

14:08

Felt that the blood spatter powder did

14:10

not indicate that she had been stabbed.

14:12

They are explored the possibility that she

14:14

was murdered inside the garage before her

14:16

body was placed in the trunk. However.and

14:19

Louise Barber each provided their own

14:21

separate explanations for the presence of

14:24

the blood. Dawn.

14:26

Plane but shortly before a went missing. He

14:28

had taught his hand will installing a latch

14:30

on a door while always claim that it.

14:33

around Christmas time she caught her head and

14:35

a broken piece of glass while taking

14:37

out the recycling bin. It's.

14:39

Also been reported that one of his brothers

14:42

me a his hand in the garage during

14:44

this time period. And. Extensive forensic

14:46

analysis would be performed of this

14:48

evidence. But. A lot of information

14:50

about it was not be public for over

14:53

two decades. I'll talk more about that in

14:55

a little while. Another.

14:57

Reasons that investigators. Became suspicious

14:59

of Brad. Is. Because they fell

15:01

be at a very shaky alibi on the

15:03

afternoon and went missing. Bradley.

15:06

But after. His wife left on a shopping

15:09

trip. She spent the next few hours

15:11

running errands before he returned home. At.

15:13

One point. Brad. Said that he

15:16

went to a tropical fish store in the

15:18

suburb of Plymouth where he and and regularly

15:20

box supplies for their salt water fish tank.

15:22

but brad discover that the store was closed.

15:25

Were. Police questioned the store's owner. He knew

15:28

who the done laps were as the

15:30

usually came in every three or four

15:32

weeks in order to purchase supplies. However,

15:35

He also said that it was n word

15:37

nearly shop there and even though he had

15:39

seen Brad accompany her to the store a

15:42

few times, he never recalled seeing Brad shop

15:44

there alone. In. Addition, the

15:46

owner confirmed that is store close

15:48

at five Pm on December thirtieth.

15:51

Even. Though breath had said he was planning

15:53

to meet n at four thirty. Investigators.

15:56

also learned that brought had stopped at a

15:58

big top liquor store Plymouth to purchase

16:01

champagne for an upcoming New Year's

16:03

Eve party. The

16:05

liquor store was located in the same plaza

16:07

as the Tropical Fish Store and

16:09

transaction records confirmed that Brad wrote out

16:11

a check to make the purchase at

16:13

5.32pm. But

16:16

once again, why would Brad be running errands at

16:18

this time if he had been planning to meet

16:20

Anne at 4.30pm? One

16:24

of the most controversial pieces of evidence in

16:26

this case was a 1 liter bottle of

16:29

Chippewa spring water which was found in Anne's

16:31

car at the time her body was discovered

16:33

in the trunk. The

16:36

bottle had a distinctive yellow price tag on

16:38

the lid which was missing the decimal point,

16:41

meaning that the price appeared to read $169 rather than

16:43

$1.69. Investigators

16:48

shared this information with the public in

16:50

hopes that someone might help them identify

16:52

the store where the water had been

16:54

purchased from and tips eventually

16:57

led them to a Tom Thumb convenience

16:59

store located in Plymouth not far

17:01

from the tropical fish and big top liquor

17:03

stores. When police

17:05

questioned the clerk from this store, he

17:08

recalled having sold a bottle of water

17:10

to a man in his early 30's

17:12

sometime after 6pm on December 30th and

17:15

after looking at a photo lineup, he

17:17

identified this man as Brad Dunlap.

17:20

The store had security cameras and

17:22

still had existing surveillance footage from

17:24

that particular date, but even

17:27

though it did show a man grabbing a bottle

17:29

of water from the cooler and purchasing it at

17:31

the counter, the footage was too

17:33

grainy to conclusively determine if the man

17:35

was bred. This

17:38

prompted police to get a warrant ordering Brad

17:40

to accompany them to the convenience store

17:43

and they instructed him to walk past the security

17:45

camera in order to grab a bottle of water

17:47

from the cooler and take it to the counter.

17:51

A comparison was then made between this footage

17:53

of Brad and the original footage of the

17:55

man buying the water on December 30th, but

17:58

while a video analyst believed that they could

18:00

have been the same person, the

18:02

footage still wasn't clear enough for him to

18:04

say with 100% certainty. Even

18:08

though law enforcement still directed their suspicions

18:10

towards Brad, a number of

18:12

Anne's friends and family members continued to

18:15

do interviews in which they defended Brad

18:17

and maintained that the Dunlaps had an

18:19

idyllic marriage. The

18:21

only person who was willing to go

18:23

on the record and acknowledge potential issues

18:25

in the marriage was Judy Bradford, a

18:28

former business partner of Brad's who had

18:30

once run an employee benefits consulting company

18:32

with him. Due to their

18:34

close relationship, Judy said that

18:36

Brad regularly confided in her about his

18:39

personal life and that she quote unquote,

18:41

knew everything about him. Judy

18:44

claimed that Brad and Anne went through several

18:46

years of marriage counseling and there were times

18:48

when Brad was apparently frustrated because his wife

18:50

wanted him to spend 100% of

18:53

his time with her. But

18:55

in spite of this, Judy did not think

18:57

Brad could have killed his wife and described

18:59

to him as a quote unquote, gentle soul.

19:03

However investigators believe that Brad had a

19:05

financial motive to commit this crime. It

19:08

turned out that on August the 18th 1995, just

19:11

over 4 months prior to Anne's murder, Brad

19:14

had taken out a new life insurance policy on

19:16

his wife with the Chubb Life Insurance Company. Anne's

19:19

original policy had been $100,000 but Brad had it raised to $1 million.

19:25

In addition, Anne was also covered for $745,000 on

19:27

a group policy with her employer, the Pillsbury Company

19:33

of which Brad was the beneficiary. Since

19:36

Chubb believed that Brad had already been planning

19:38

to murder Anne at the time he took

19:40

out the policy, they argued that his claim

19:43

was fraudulent and invalid and refused to pay

19:45

out the $1 million, so this

19:47

prompted Brad to file a lawsuit against them in

19:49

October of 1996. Once

19:52

again, Dodd and Louise Barra continued to

19:54

defend Brad and did not believe this provided

19:56

him with a motive to kill Anne. Brad

20:00

took out the new policy on Anne,

20:02

he had a $500,000 policy on himself

20:05

which he also decided to raise to

20:07

$1 million. The barbers

20:09

claimed that Brad and Anne had mutually decided

20:11

to take out their respective insurance policies

20:14

on each other based on the advice

20:16

of a financial planner the couple had

20:18

met at Anne's suggestion. Since

20:21

the Dunlaps were building a new home and planning

20:23

to start a family, the purpose

20:25

of these new policies was simply to

20:27

provide more financial security for themselves. While

20:30

there would be a number of delays in Brad's

20:33

lawsuit, as Chubb revealed that

20:35

the decision not to pay out

20:37

the policy was based on private

20:39

information they had received from the

20:41

Minneapolis PD's investigation into Anne's murder.

20:44

While Brad's attorneys attempted to subpoena

20:46

all the police's documentation and evidence

20:48

from the case, the police refused

20:50

to turn it over for fear

20:52

that it could jeopardize an open

20:54

homicide investigation. This

20:57

matter would go to U.S. District Court for

20:59

the District of Minnesota and on September 30,

21:01

1997, Chief Magistrate Judge Raymond

21:05

Erickson ruled that Brad's attorneys

21:07

had the right to examine all the

21:09

documentation from the investigation and

21:11

ordered the Minneapolis PD to turn it over to

21:13

them. Erickson felt

21:15

this decision was essential in order to

21:18

quote-unquote maintain a level playing field in

21:20

the life insurance case. The

21:23

case was scheduled to go to trial but on September 30,

21:25

1998, after numerous postponements,

21:29

Brad's attorneys announced that they had finally

21:31

reached an out-of-court settlement with Chubb and

21:34

while the amount was undisclosed, they said

21:36

that their client found the terms to

21:38

be satisfactory. By this

21:40

point, Brad was living in Scottsdale, Arizona

21:42

as all the publicity surrounding the case

21:44

had prompted him to quit his job

21:46

and leave the state of Minnesota in

21:48

July of 1997.

21:52

The case would eventually fade from the

21:54

spotlight though the Minneapolis PD still considered

21:56

Brad to be their only suspect. In

21:59

May of 2000, 2013, the new

22:01

head of their homicide unit, Lieutenant

22:03

Richard Zimmerman, announced that they

22:05

were reopening the investigation and looking at the

22:08

case with a fresh open mind and

22:10

no preconceived ideas about who committed the murder.

22:14

Zimmerman said that they had recently received a

22:16

tip about a conversation Brad supposedly had in

22:18

the years before the murder, and

22:20

while he wouldn't provide any more specific details,

22:24

Zimmerman stated, quote, We wish the caller had

22:26

called us back in 1995 or 1996, but for some

22:30

reason they didn't, end quote. It

22:33

doesn't look like this lead ever went anywhere, but

22:35

in February of 2020, the case returned

22:38

at the spotlight after KARE-11 managed

22:41

to obtain some previously unreleased documents

22:43

from Brad's lawsuit against the Child

22:45

Life Insurance Company and they produced

22:48

a news segment about their findings.

22:51

They also published these documents

22:53

on their website, which included

22:55

a sworn affidavit from former

22:57

lead investigator, Sergeant David Voss,

22:59

who stated, quote, There is

23:01

no plausible alternative explanation to

23:03

Ann Dunlap's death other

23:05

than the conclusion that Bradley Dunlap is

23:08

the murderer, end quote. During

23:10

the original investigation, two FBI

23:13

agents from their profiling units performed

23:15

an analysis of Brad's initial police

23:17

interview and they concurred that

23:19

he was a viable suspect. They've

23:23

also hired a retired FBI agent

23:25

named Greg McCrary to perform a

23:27

crime scene analysis and while

23:29

he never specifically named Brad as a

23:31

suspect in his published report, he

23:33

concluded that Ann was likely the victim

23:35

of a planned premeditated murder committed by

23:38

someone she knew rather than

23:40

being killed by a random opportunistic

23:42

predator. This

23:44

analysis also confirmed that even though there

23:46

was ample blood inside the trunk of

23:49

Ann's Toyota Celica, there was no

23:51

other blood on the interior of the vehicle, which

23:54

suggested that after repeatedly stabbing her,

23:56

the killer had time to clean themselves off

23:58

before they drove the car. to the

24:00

Kmart parking lot. The

24:03

Hennepin County Assistant Medical Examiner published

24:05

a letter about the findings from

24:07

Mann's autopsy and he concluded

24:09

that since she had undigested food in

24:11

her stomach which was consistent with what

24:13

she ate during her brunch with her

24:15

friends on December 30th, she

24:17

was likely killed only a few hours later, placing

24:20

her approximate time of death sometime between 2.30

24:23

and 3.30 pm that afternoon. However,

24:27

during his lawsuit with the Chubb Life

24:29

Insurance Company, Brad had hired

24:31

his own forensic experts who published

24:33

reports disputing some of these conclusions.

24:36

A forensic pathologist named Dr. Sparks

24:38

Veazey expressed his belief that determining

24:40

time of death based on a

24:42

victim's stomach contents is not an

24:44

exact science, and he also

24:47

believed that the trace amounts of blood

24:49

found in the barber's garage were inconsistent

24:51

with arterial bleeding which likely would

24:53

have occurred when Ann's neck was stabbed. Another

24:56

forensic expert named Bob Henderson also

24:59

performed his own blood stain pattern

25:01

analysis on the evidence and

25:03

he found it unlikely that Ann was

25:05

murdered inside the garage, writing, quote, no

25:08

evidence exists of projected blood stain

25:10

patterns consistent with arterial bleeding, impacts

25:12

batter, or casts off blood stains

25:14

in the barber residence or on

25:17

the garage floor, walls or ceiling.

25:19

No evidence exists that the floor

25:22

of the garage was cleaned, end

25:24

quote. However, KARE11 reported

25:26

on some other pieces of incriminating

25:28

information in these various documents which

25:30

had never been made public before,

25:33

including the fact that positive, presumptive

25:35

indicators of blood have been found

25:37

in the washtub and lid trap

25:39

located in the laundry room of

25:41

the barber residence. As

25:43

you might recall, both of Ann's parents

25:46

had described incidents in which they cut

25:48

themselves in the garage shortly before she

25:50

went missing, but it turned

25:52

out that DNA testing had been performed on

25:54

this blood, and not only did it

25:56

exclude Dawn, Louise, or anyone else from the barber

25:58

family as a victim of the the sources,

26:00

but it matched Anne. If

26:03

that wasn't enough, these documents also

26:05

revealed that a blood-stained fireplace log

26:07

had been found in the garage,

26:09

and Anne's DNA was on it

26:11

as well. However,

26:14

one previously unknown piece of

26:16

information which did favour Brad,

26:18

is that forensic testing was performed on

26:20

the water bottle found in Anne's car,

26:23

and while her DNA was on it,

26:25

Brad's was not. In spite

26:27

of these new revelations, Dodd and

26:29

Louise still never wavered from their support

26:31

of Brad. By this

26:33

point, Brad was still living in Arizona,

26:35

had it gotten remarried and had two

26:37

children, but the barbers said they would

26:39

travel down south to visit their former

26:41

son-in-law at least once per year. They

26:44

claimed that Brad continually stayed in touch,

26:46

and phoned them just as often as

26:49

their other children, stating, quote, He is

26:51

like another son, he is definitely another

26:53

son, we love him dearly, end quote.

26:57

Brad declined to provide comment for the new

26:59

KERE 11 story, and as far as

27:01

I can tell, he has not given

27:03

any new interviews to the media in

27:05

over two decades. Following

27:08

the loss of their daughter, Dodd and Louise

27:10

started a scholarship at Anne's name, and

27:12

every year, they would award it to

27:15

a pair of female students from the

27:17

University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management.

27:20

Sadly, Dodd passed away in August of 2023 at

27:22

the age of 89, without receiving

27:26

any conclusive answers about what happened

27:28

to Anne. After three

27:30

decades, there are still divided opinions

27:32

about who was actually responsible for

27:35

this crime, and it continues to

27:37

remain unsolved. So I

27:39

guess you could say, the trail went

27:41

cold. Thank

27:56

you. So

28:01

I've covered a number of cases on this

28:04

podcast involving missing and murdered women, in which

28:06

the husband became the prime suspect, but

28:08

I can't think of any others in which

28:10

there was a bigger disconnect between law enforcement

28:13

and the victim's loved ones than the murder

28:15

of Ann-Barbara Dunlap. From

28:17

day one, investigators on this case have

28:19

always felt that Brad Dunlap is the

28:21

prime suspect, and if you search online

28:23

discussions about this case, you'll find that

28:25

the majority opinion from amateur sleuths is

28:27

that Brad likely did it. However,

28:30

this does not appear to be the

28:33

view held by Ann's friends and family

28:35

members, particularly her parents, Don and Louise

28:37

Barber. I've seen so many

28:39

cases involving missing and murdered victims, in

28:41

which their families had zero doubt that

28:43

the spouse was responsible, but

28:46

there are others, such as Jeffrey McDonald's murders

28:48

of his wife and two daughters, where

28:50

the prime suspect's in-laws initially supported

28:52

them, but gradually changed their minds

28:54

once red flags started to emerge.

28:58

But that has not been the case with

29:00

the Barbers, who have continually defended their

29:02

former son-in-law over these past three decades,

29:05

and as far as I can tell, until

29:07

Don Barber passed away last year, he

29:09

never wavered from his belief that

29:11

Brad did not kill his daughter.

29:14

It's also worth noting that shortly after

29:16

Ann's murder, her brother, Paul Barber, started

29:18

a website about her case, which

29:21

marked one of the first known instances

29:23

of a victim's family using the internet

29:25

to spread awareness about a cold case

29:27

and ask for information. Believe

29:29

it or not, the original website

29:31

is still up at paulbarber.net under

29:33

the heading, Help Find Ann's Killer,

29:35

and it's pretty much a time

29:37

capsule into the early days of

29:39

the World Wide Web, since

29:41

the site has a very old-school design and

29:44

does not look like it's been updated since

29:46

1996. It

29:49

appears that Paul also does not believe that

29:51

Brad was responsible for his sister's murder, as

29:54

during an interview with the St. Paul

29:56

Pioneer Press, he pushed forward the idea

29:58

that Ann had an unexpected death. expected public encounter

30:00

with someone else who decided to kill

30:03

her, stating, quote, Anne

30:05

had a personality that seemed to attract oddball

30:08

types who try to be her friend all

30:10

the time. I don't know

30:12

and I don't have any examples, but there are

30:14

a few out there. There were

30:16

people from high school who would maybe call

30:18

five years out, end quote. I've

30:21

also watched vintage news footage from 1996

30:24

featuring interviews with some of Anne's friends

30:26

and they also seemed to hold the same opinion

30:29

about Brad as the Barber family as

30:31

they described him as the nicest guy who

30:33

truly loved his wealth. Even

30:36

though Brad's former business partner, Judy Bradford,

30:38

had said that he and Anne had

30:40

gone to marriage counseling, it does

30:42

not appear there were any obvious

30:44

red flags in the relationship such

30:46

as domestic violence, infidelity, or financial

30:48

issues to suggest that things

30:50

might have escalated into murder. Now

30:54

you can accuse Don and Louise Barber

30:56

of being naive and having blinders on

30:58

about the whole situation, but

31:00

I still put quite a bit of weight into their

31:02

opinions since Anne and Brad had been living at their

31:04

residence with them in the months prior to the murder.

31:08

So if the Dunlaps had any serious issues

31:10

with their marriage, they must have done a

31:12

very effective job at keeping it concealed from

31:14

the barbers. If that

31:16

wasn't enough, Brad continued living with Don

31:18

and Louise for a lengthy period of time

31:21

after Anne's murder and I certainly do not

31:23

believe they would have let him keep staying

31:25

there unless they truly believed he was innocent.

31:28

As you recall, the Dunlaps had been building a $300,000

31:31

dream house in Medina

31:33

at that time, but even

31:35

though the house was eventually completed,

31:37

Brad never did move in there. Instead,

31:41

the house was purchased by Hall of

31:43

Fame Major League Baseball pitcher Burt Blyleben

31:46

who spent a good chunk of his career playing

31:48

for the Minnesota Twins and that

31:50

was certainly not a connection I expected to

31:52

see when I started researching this case. Of

31:55

course, the obvious motive for Brad to commit murder

31:58

was the fact that he had taken out a $1 million. million

32:00

life insurance policy on end just four

32:02

months earlier, but the couple

32:04

both had well-paying jobs and no

32:06

apparent financial problems. During

32:09

the summer of 1997, Brad relocated

32:12

to Arizona and eventually got remarried

32:14

and started a new family, and

32:16

I could see why some people might

32:18

find it suspicious that Brad did stick

32:20

around to find the quote unquote real

32:22

killer. But once again,

32:25

the first people to defend Brad's decision

32:27

are the barbers, who said that

32:29

being a suspect is such a high-profile

32:31

murder pretty much made it impossible for

32:33

Brad to keep living in Minneapolis. Whenever

32:37

Brad went out to dinner with his in-laws, they

32:39

said that people would gawk and stare at him,

32:41

and there were even times when random strangers would

32:43

threaten or spit on Brad or call him a

32:46

murderer while he was out in public. So

32:49

Dodd and Louise were completely fine with Brad's

32:51

decision to move to Arizona and would try

32:53

to go down there to visit him at

32:55

least once per year. And

32:57

nothing else, it seems obvious that the

33:00

barber's belief in Brad's innocence is genuinely

33:02

sincere, so what could

33:04

we be missing here? Well,

33:07

even if the Minneapolis PD's instincts

33:09

about Brad were correct, I

33:12

think one of the underlying issues is that

33:14

they did not appear to show a lot

33:16

of compassion and sensitivity towards the barbers, and

33:19

this may have permanently tainted the relationship.

33:22

Even if Brad was guilty, I

33:24

do find it troubling that after discovering

33:26

Anne's body, the police did not

33:28

immediately inform her parents. Instead,

33:31

they spent the next five hours or

33:33

so interrogating Brad, and the barbers only

33:35

found out that Anne was dead, when

33:37

Brad returned home late that night, and

33:39

broke down crying and told them. I

33:43

think this immediately gave Dodd and Louise

33:45

the impression that instead of exploring all

33:47

possible leads and seeking justice for their

33:50

murdered daughter, they were just going

33:52

to try and pin the crime on Brad, regardless

33:54

of whether or not he actually did it. But

33:57

on the other hand, once you watch the interview, you'll see that Brad's

34:00

you Brad gave for KARE-11

34:02

following the discovery of Ann's

34:04

Toyota Celica, you can

34:06

understand why he became the primary focus

34:08

of the investigation. So

34:11

I played an audio snippet of this interview at

34:13

the beginning of this episode, but you can

34:15

find a clip of the raw uncut version on

34:18

YouTube, and it runs just over

34:20

8 minutes. And needless to

34:22

say, the comment section of this

34:24

clip contains a lot of amateur

34:26

body language experts who believe Brad

34:28

is guilty because of what he

34:31

says or does on camera. On

34:34

the audio I previously shared, you

34:36

could hear Brad getting emotional and crying,

34:38

but some people believed they were

34:40

nothing more than crocodile tears and he was

34:42

putting on an act. Now,

34:45

I'm a person who prefers to assess

34:47

people's guilt or innocence based on evidence

34:50

rather than pseudoscience like body

34:52

language analysis as different

34:54

people will respond to tragedy in different

34:56

ways, so I'm not going

34:58

to form a concrete opinion based solely

35:00

on Brad's behavior during this interview. But

35:04

I will say that if Brad did kill Ann

35:06

and already knew her body was inside

35:08

the trunk while he was speaking to

35:10

the reporter, then this was undoubtedly one

35:12

of the most brazen interviews ever given

35:15

by a murder suspect. Another

35:18

unsettling aspect of the full clip is

35:20

that you can frequently hear the sound of a

35:22

dog barking in the background and

35:24

I can only assume it was a police

35:26

bloodhound who was reacting to Ann's scent from

35:28

the trunk. Okay,

35:31

so one thing which might seem suspicious

35:33

is that Brad had organized a search

35:35

effort earlier that morning and within an

35:37

hour or so, two of Ann's

35:40

friends came across her car in the Kmart

35:42

parking lot. If Brad was

35:44

guilty, you could interpret this

35:46

search effort as him orchestrating things so

35:48

that someone else would discover his wife's

35:50

body. During Brad's

35:53

interview, he shared one piece of information

35:55

which I have never seen corroborated by

35:57

any other official sources as he claimed

35:59

that a friend told him that security

36:01

had checked the parking lot several hours earlier

36:03

at around 12.30am but

36:05

did not see Anne's car. I

36:08

have no idea if this is actually true, but

36:10

if it is, and Brad did

36:12

commit this crime, then it makes

36:14

me wonder where he could have hidden the car

36:16

during the two day window when Anne was missing,

36:19

and how he managed to move the car

36:21

there undetected. But regardless of whether

36:23

Brad or an unknown third party was

36:26

the killer, I think one

36:28

thing we can all agree on is

36:30

that Anne's car was planted in that

36:32

particular Kmart parking lot for a specific

36:34

reason. From what I

36:36

read online, that Kmart was located

36:38

in a pretty sketchy area and it

36:40

seemed very unlikely that an upper class

36:43

woman like Anne would have driven there

36:45

on her own to go shopping. So

36:48

the perpetrator likely hoped that if they

36:50

abandoned the car at this location with

36:52

the keys still in the ignition, someone

36:54

would eventually steal it without knowing there was

36:56

a dead body in the trunk. This

37:00

would cause a lot of potential complications

37:02

with the investigation and whoever

37:04

stole the car could have wound up

37:06

falsely implicating themselves in a murder. Even

37:09

though Anne did not have any known connection to

37:12

the Kmart, it's worth noting that it

37:14

was located only about 2.5 miles

37:16

from the Barber residence. So

37:18

theoretically, if Brad planted the car there,

37:20

it would have been feasible

37:23

for him to walk back home

37:25

without seeking any additional transportation. Investigators

37:28

have always been inclined to believe that

37:30

Anne was killed at another location before

37:33

her body was placed inside the trunk

37:35

and given that small traces of blood were

37:38

found inside the Barber's garage, they

37:40

suspect that she was murdered there. And

37:43

if Brad did it, you can understand why

37:45

he would have done so on December the

37:47

30th since his in-laws were away at their

37:49

cabin. So

37:52

let's look at the timeline that day. The

37:54

story provided by Brad is that Anne left the

37:56

residence to go shopping at around 2.30pm and and

38:00

we know that he first phoned Dawn and Louise

38:02

to inform them she was missing at 8 o'clock

38:04

that night. While there are

38:06

definitely questions about Brad's whereabouts during that full

38:09

5 and a half hour window, it

38:11

has been verified that he purchased champagne at

38:13

a liquor store in Plymouth at 5.32pm, which

38:17

would have been about 12 miles northwest from

38:19

the Barber residence. Based

38:22

on Anne's undigested stomach contents from her

38:24

last meal at brunch, the

38:26

Hennepin County Assistant Medical Examiner

38:28

believed that Anne was killed

38:31

sometime between 2.30pm and 3.30pm,

38:33

but if you heard my recent

38:35

series of episodes about Steven Truscott's

38:38

controversial conviction for the murder of

38:40

Lynn Harper, you'll know that I

38:42

have major issues with this idea

38:44

of using a victim's stomach contents

38:46

to determine a specific time of

38:48

birth. It's definitely

38:50

not an exact science, and there

38:52

are other factors which can slow

38:54

someone's digestive process such as fear

38:56

and stress which Anne would have

38:58

been experiencing while she was murdered. While

39:01

the 2.30 to 3.30 timeframe could point

39:03

to Anne being killed while she was

39:05

at home with Brad, it

39:07

doesn't preclude the idea of her

39:10

being killed elsewhere by another party

39:12

sometime after she left. What

39:14

has always seemed odd to me is that

39:17

Brad claimed that Anne was supposed to meet

39:19

him at 4.30 so they could run some

39:21

errands and go out to dinner together, but

39:23

we know that Brad was running errands on

39:25

his own and buying champagne just after 5.30.

39:27

So if Anne failed to return

39:31

home at her scheduled time, why

39:33

did Brad leave and head to Plymouth

39:35

rather than waiting around for? Well,

39:38

during the aforementioned interview in the Kmart

39:40

parking lot, Brad did confirm that

39:42

Anne was supposed to be home by 4.30 but

39:45

he figured that she was running late

39:47

because it was snowing and it might

39:49

have been busy at the Mall of America that afternoon.

39:52

So Brad decided to go to the tropical

39:54

fish store in order to pick up some salt water

39:56

for their tank, but by the time he

39:58

arrived, the store was closed. closed. Even

40:01

though Brad did not usually shop at this store on

40:03

his own, I guess it would make

40:05

sense that he might try to go there without Anne

40:08

if he knew they were closing at 5 o'clock. Brad

40:11

said that he called the barber residence from the

40:13

store and no one answered, though it's never

40:15

been specified if he owned a cell phone or

40:18

perhaps made the call from a pay phone. Whatever

40:21

the case, since the Big Top Liquor

40:23

store was located in the same plaza

40:25

as the tropical fish store, Brad presumably

40:27

went to pick up the champagne before

40:29

he returned home, but Anne was still

40:31

not there. Now,

40:34

if Brad did kill Anne, his decision

40:36

to run errands on his own could

40:38

be construed as him making a deliberate

40:40

attempt to be seen in public places

40:42

in order to fabricate an alibi for

40:44

himself. However, the part

40:47

which has always been the biggest source

40:49

of confusion is the presence of the

40:51

bottle of water inside Anne's bar, as

40:54

police suspected that Brad purchased it at

40:56

a Tom Thumb convenience store at around

40:58

6pm that day. If

41:01

Brad did purchase this water at that

41:03

time and left it in the Celica,

41:05

then that's pretty indisputable evidence of his

41:08

guilt, as there's no possible innocent explanation

41:10

for it being there. Since

41:13

this convenience store was located in Plymouth and

41:15

wasn't too far from the liquor store, the

41:18

timeline does fit, but the

41:20

big question is, why would Brad

41:22

do this? Even

41:24

though criminals can often be stupid, I

41:26

see no logical explanation for stopping to

41:28

buy a bottle of water after you've

41:30

murdered your wife, and then leaving

41:33

it inside the same vehicle containing her

41:35

body in the trunk. During

41:37

his interview in the Kmart parking lot, Brad

41:40

even mentioned seeing a bottle of water through

41:42

the windows of the Celica, and said that

41:44

it was fairly common for Anne to buy them,

41:46

since she was a long distance runner. So

41:49

couldn't it be possible that Anne actually

41:51

purchased the water herself before she was

41:54

murdered? I know the

41:56

convenience store clerk was certain he sold Brad

41:58

the water at that particular time. time on

42:00

December the 30th, and even picked

42:02

him out of a photo lineup, but

42:04

keep in mind that this case was major

42:06

news in Minneapolis at that time, and

42:09

Brad's face had already been in the newspapers

42:11

and on TV, so the identification

42:13

could have been cognitive bias on the

42:15

clerk's part, otherwise, I see

42:18

no reason for him to have a

42:20

vivid memory of such a mundane transaction.

42:23

I know the security cameras captured footage of

42:26

a man buying water from there during this

42:28

time period, but the footage was

42:30

not clear enough to conclusively determine if it

42:32

was Brad. As far

42:34

as I know, this footage has never been

42:36

released publicly, and I haven't personally seen it,

42:39

so I can't form an opinion. However,

42:41

since forensic testing found Anne's DNA

42:44

on the bottle, but not Brad's,

42:47

I am inclined to believe that Anne bought the water

42:49

on a previous occasion prior to the murder, and

42:52

it has no evidentiary significance.

42:55

What has provided additional confusion is the

42:58

contradictory information about whether or not Anne

43:00

went to the Mall of America on

43:02

the afternoon she went missing. While

43:05

police have always insisted that there is no

43:07

evidence to indicate that Anne was ever there,

43:10

a private investigator hired by Brad claimed

43:12

that numerous witnesses were called seeing him

43:15

there. But of course,

43:17

I would take that with a huge grain

43:19

of salt, since eyewitnesses can often be mistaken.

43:22

The same cognitive bias that the convenience

43:24

store clerk may have experienced with Brad

43:26

can also apply to these witnesses, as

43:28

Anne Dunlap's photo was all over the

43:30

media in Minneapolis during that time period,

43:33

so I could see people falsely convincing

43:35

themselves that they had seen or interacted

43:37

with her that day. We

43:40

do know that Anne never made any transactions

43:42

via check or credit card, and while I

43:44

suppose she could have purchased something with cash,

43:47

it's not like they found any newly purchased

43:49

items inside her car. We

43:51

also have to remember that Brad claimed that

43:54

Anne never specifically told him she was going

43:56

to the Mall of America, only

43:58

that she was going to buy a pair of shoes. of new

44:00

shoes and Brad just assumed she would

44:02

go to the Nordstrom department store. If

44:06

Anne did go to the mall that

44:08

afternoon, the theory pushed forward by Brad

44:10

and his supporters is that she crossed

44:12

paths with someone there who abducted her

44:14

in her own vehicle. They

44:16

then proceeded to murder her in another

44:18

location, stuff her body inside the trunk,

44:21

and abandon the car in the Kmart parking

44:23

lot, which was about 10 miles away from

44:25

the mall of America. And

44:28

if this occurred in the parking lot right after Anne

44:30

arrived at the mall, this could explain

44:32

the lack of witnesses or concrete evidence

44:34

placing her there. However,

44:37

this would have been a busy Saturday

44:39

afternoon right before New Year's Eve at

44:41

the largest mall in the United States,

44:44

so could someone have really managed to do

44:46

this without being seen? And

44:49

then there's the question of motive. Since

44:51

Anne's purse, credit cards and wedding ring

44:53

were missing and never recovered, I suppose

44:56

you can't rule out robbery, but

44:58

she was not sexually assaulted, and

45:00

why would a random robber go to the trouble

45:02

of stabbing her in the head and neck so

45:04

many times? It really

45:06

does appear to be a more personal

45:08

crime committed by someone with an intense

45:11

hatred towards Anne. I

45:13

know that Brad apparently never gave off

45:15

any visible warning signs of hating Anne

45:17

that much, but police have

45:19

always suspected that he killed her at

45:21

her parents residence shortly after she arrived

45:23

home from brunch, and after putting

45:25

her body in the trunk and cleaning himself up,

45:28

he proceeded to drive the Celica to the

45:30

Kmart parking lot and staged the crime scene

45:33

in an attempt to make it look like Anne was

45:35

killed by an outside party. Well

45:38

if it wasn't for the sheer number of

45:41

people defending Brad, I would have no trouble

45:43

believing this is what happened, particularly

45:45

since small traces of blood were

45:47

found inside the barber's garage. Granted,

45:51

the samples weren't big enough to state with

45:53

any certainty that homicide took place, but

45:55

it is odd that Dodd and Louise

45:58

each provided their own several stories

46:00

about cutting themselves in the garage

46:02

on previous occasions in order to

46:04

explain the blood. Even

46:07

though this information was not made public until

46:09

four years ago, DNA testing did

46:11

confirm that the blood belonged to Anne

46:13

and did not match her parents. Now

46:17

I have no reason to believe that Don

46:19

and Louise would have made up these stories

46:21

about cutting themselves in order to protect Brad

46:23

because even though they believed he was innocent,

46:26

I do think they would draw the line

46:28

at line to police in order to cover

46:30

someone who was suspected of murdering their daughter.

46:33

If this garage was such a safety

46:35

hazard that both her parents cut themselves,

46:38

then I suppose it's not impossible that Anne

46:40

could have accidentally cut herself as well on

46:42

a separate occasion prior to her death which

46:45

would explain the presence of her blood. But

46:48

it's pretty troubling that they also found

46:50

traces of her blood and DNA on

46:53

a fireplace log in the garage. It's

46:56

believed that Anne was struck in the head

46:58

with a blood object prior to being stabbed

47:00

and she also had no signs of defensive

47:02

wounds on her body. When

47:04

you look at the evidence, a scenario

47:07

in which Anne was taken by complete

47:09

surprise when her own husband struck her

47:11

in the head with a fireplace log

47:13

inside her parents garage does make

47:15

a lot of sense. It's

47:17

been reported that no blood was found on

47:19

the interior of the Celica, so

47:21

if Brad killed Anne in the garage, he would

47:24

have had ample opportunity to clean up any blood

47:26

he may have gotten of himself before

47:28

he drove the car to the Kmart parking lot.

47:31

Of course, you might be wondering why

47:33

Brad wouldn't have destroyed the most incriminating

47:35

piece of evidence by burning the log

47:38

in the fireplace or something, but

47:40

first-time murderers who do not have any

47:42

experience with killing will often make mistakes

47:44

like that. And since

47:47

this was 1995 and DNA testing

47:49

was still a relatively new thing

47:51

in criminal investigations, Brad may

47:53

not have been thinking of forensic countermeasures.

48:00

presence of Ann's blood and DNA on

48:02

the fireplace log seems like a pretty

48:04

damning piece of evidence, it still wasn't

48:06

enough to compel the police to arrest

48:08

Brad, so I still think there must

48:10

be some missing pieces to the puzzle

48:12

here. I would be

48:14

curious to know if Ann's car was sitting in

48:16

the Kmart parking lot the entire time she was

48:19

missing, or if the vehicle was planted

48:21

there shortly before it was found. If

48:24

Brad committed this crime, I'm not sure he would

48:26

have risked driving the car to the Kmart during

48:28

business hours when he could have been seen, but

48:31

we know that the barbers returned home from

48:33

the cabin sometime between 9 and

48:35

10 pm on the date Ann disappeared,

48:38

so the car would have needed to be gone from

48:40

the residence by then. And

48:42

once again, there's the question of Brad's

48:44

motive. Yes, 1 million

48:46

dollars in life insurance money is a

48:48

pretty logical motive, but neither he

48:51

nor Ann had any financial problems,

48:53

and you'd think that if there were any serious issues

48:55

in the marriage, or if Brad

48:58

had any major skeletons in his closet, such

49:00

as a secret mistress or something, they

49:02

would have emerged into the spotlight sometime

49:04

these past three decades. And

49:07

if Brad was guilty, it was incredibly

49:09

brazen of him to file a lawsuit

49:11

against the Chubb Life Insurance Company in

49:13

order to collect on Ann's policy. By

49:17

the time he did this, Brad insists talking

49:19

to the police or the media, but

49:21

if you file a civil suit when you're a

49:23

suspect in a murder, then you may

49:25

be compelled to testify under oath,

49:27

and when you're cross-examined, you could

49:30

wind up revealing incriminating information which

49:32

might not otherwise come out if

49:34

you exercise your right to remain

49:36

silent. Now, since

49:38

this lawsuit was ultimately settled out of court,

49:41

we really don't know what went on behind

49:43

the scenes, or if things ever reached the

49:45

point where Brad was required to testify, but

49:48

if you look at the documentation from

49:50

this lawsuit, he was clearly placing himself

49:52

at the mercy of a number of

49:54

people who believed he was getting away

49:56

with murder. In

49:58

the end, Brad did get some sort of

50:00

payoff out of this deal, so if

50:03

the crime was financially motivated, then

50:05

he technically succeeded at getting what he wanted.

50:09

However, one of the main things Brad

50:11

really wanted was a fresh start. It's

50:14

been stated numerous times that there were no

50:17

apparent issues in the Dunlap's marriage, but

50:19

even though everyone who knew Brad said he

50:21

was a nice guy whom they never saw

50:23

get angry, the barbers did

50:25

acknowledge that his love towards Dan was so

50:27

strong that they thought he may have spoiled

50:29

her. During one interview, Don

50:32

stated, quote, he is kind,

50:34

polite, sincere in giving. She

50:36

took advantage of it, and he didn't mind doing

50:38

it. End quote. In addition,

50:40

Judy Bradford claimed that Brad had once

50:43

expressed frustration over the fact that

50:45

Anne seemingly expected him to spend 100% of

50:48

his time with her. I don't

50:50

know if that can be taken as a sign that Anne

50:52

called all the shots in their marriage, but it

50:55

does make me wonder if Brad may

50:57

have been a very compartmentalized person with

50:59

a lot of repressed rage and unhappiness

51:02

which eventually erupted into violence. Perhaps

51:05

Brad just wanted out of the marriage and felt

51:07

that he could use Anne's life insurance payout to

51:09

get a fresh start. Of

51:11

course, you might be asking why he just

51:13

didn't simply get divorced, but you can ask

51:16

that same question in virtually every case where

51:18

someone murders their spouse. Now,

51:20

while this talk is nothing more than

51:22

pure speculation because if Brad was truly

51:24

unhappy being married to Anne, it is

51:26

odd that he would continue to maintain

51:28

such a close relationship with his parents,

51:31

especially after he moved away to another

51:33

state. But then again, this could

51:36

be the result of some sort of

51:38

underlying guilt over having taken Don and

51:40

Louise's daughter away from them. I

51:42

don't know, and of all the cases I've

51:44

covered in which a husband was a suspect

51:46

in his wife's murder, this is definitely one

51:49

of the most perplexing. I

51:51

don't want to say anything negative about

51:53

Don and Louise Barber as they do

51:55

seem like genuinely nice people, but

51:57

I have to wonder if they might have just been in matrix.

52:00

denial about Brad. One

52:03

of the main problems with thinking he's innocent

52:05

is that after three decades, no

52:07

one else has ever popped up on

52:09

the radar as a plausible alternate suspect

52:11

or person of interest, though I do

52:13

hope that the Minneapolis PD has done

52:15

their due diligence and not ignored other

52:17

potential leads because they were so focused

52:19

on Brad. When this

52:21

crime originally took place, I don't think anyone

52:24

expected that it would still be unsolved after

52:26

all these years, but there has just never

52:28

been enough concrete evidence to make an arrest

52:30

and it appears that things have been in

52:32

a holding pattern for a while. It

52:36

would be nice to see an update at

52:38

some point, so if you happen to have

52:40

any information about the murder of A.M. Barber

52:42

Dunlap, please contact the Minneapolis

52:44

Police Department tip line at 612-692-TIPS

52:50

at 612-692-8477. But

52:54

if you just have your own thoughts about

52:57

what happened, feel free to leave me a

52:59

comment or send me an email to robin.worder

53:01

at icloud.com. Now

53:06

the reminder that the Trail When Cold

53:08

is on Patreon, so please visit patreon.com

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slash the trail when cold to learn how

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released nearly 70 exclusive bonus episodes which are

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all currently available in our archives for our

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patrons in tiers 2 and 3. This

53:29

past month, I actually released a

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bonus episode which is our podcast's

53:33

second special edition of the Trail

53:35

Revisited and this time, I'm

53:37

taking a fresh look at the infamous

53:39

Circleville letters case. I

53:42

originally covered that story on the podcast six

53:44

years ago, but I've since learned a ton of

53:46

new information which has caused me to look

53:48

at the case in a different light, so I

53:50

decided to put together an entirely new episode.

53:53

I've also dropped an exclusive bonus episode

53:55

from my spinoff podcast, The Path with

53:57

Chili, in which myself and my two co-host,

54:00

Jules and Ashley, cover another

54:02

memorable case from Unsolved Mysteries,

54:05

the 1989 disappearance of Patricia

54:07

Meehan. And for our

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54:15

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Oh, and as an extra special

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54:27

behind the Legacy documentary, and this

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54:34

to give a shout out to our most

54:36

recent listeners who have signed up with us

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on Patreon this week, and they are Sarah

54:40

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excited to announce that the trail went

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54:52

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54:54

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55:03

please visit truecrimepodcastfestival.com and enter

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the promo code TRAIL. Once

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55:10

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55:12

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55:15

just wanted to give another shout out to

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Went Cold.