Barbara Joe Kelley - Missing Since June 1950

Paraphrased details from government source**: On June 18, 1950, Barbara Joe Kelley’s boyfriend Henry Baird was located deceased on the beach at Table Bluff. Kelley’s belongings were located nearby Baird’s remains. Law enforcement and family have been unable to contact Kelley and she remains missing today.

Missing Person: Barbara Joe Kelley ("Barbara Kelly" in journalism)
Last-contact date: June 18th, 1950 (Sunday)
The area where the MP was last seen: Fortuna, California; she was thought to have been at Table Bluff Beach, which was 20 miles south of Eureka, California.
Link to government source: NamUs MP83728


VITAL DETAILS

Ethnicity: White/Caucasian
Sex: Female
Age at time of disappearance: 17 years old
Birthdate: Barbara Joe Kelley was born between June 19th, 1932, and June 18th, 1933 based on her reported age at the last date of reported contact.
Hair: Light-brown hair, according to journalism
Eyes: Hazel, according to journalism
Scar: She had a scar on her left eyebrow.

19 Jun 1950, Mon Los Angeles Evening Citizen News (Hollywood, California) Newspapers.com

Height/weight: 5-foot-4 to 5-foot-7 and 150 to 165 pounds

BMI*: The missing person was overweight by BMI at the time of the last contact based on the upper ranges. Does not appear overweight in her picture.
Tattoos: Barbara Joe Kelley did not have any tattoos associated with her profiles.

By: Shane Lambert

This one sounded like a lover's lane double murder. That could start to evoke bad memories of people like The Zodiac Killer and the Phantom Killer of Texarkana.

Barbara Joe Kelley, a missing person, was last heard from on June 18th, 1950 when she was 17 years old. This individual has now been missing for about 71 years as of the original publication date of this blog post. All research with this individual pointed to death at about the time of her disappearance.

One thing that stood out with this case, is that several newspaper sources spelled her last name as "Kelly." It's not a case of it being a different person as all the case details aligned. Her name was spelled Barbara Kelly or Barbara Kelley so if you are researching this case, then be sure to toggle between spellings for your keyword searches.

The early journalism for this missing person covered the murder of her boyfriend. Kelley's clothes were found near his on a beach 20 miles south of Eureka. It appears that Kelly and Henry Baird, her boyfriend, were at or near a lover's lane beach. The boyfriend was murdered and Kelly has not been seen since June 18th, 1950. That she was apparently naked as she was held captive would strongly suggest that a sex fiend disappeared her.

19 Jun 1950, Mon Long Beach Press-Telegram (Long Beach, California) Newspapers.com
Early guesses (ie. bad guesses) with this missing person had to do with a murder-suicide pact. Baird's gun was missing and it was thought that Kelly may have shot her boyfriend with it and then committed suicide in the ocean. However, the missing gun was considered too light to cause the damage that was caused. A search of the ocean and beaches in the area revealed nothing as to where Barbara may have gone.

In the 1960s, one Gail Patrick Irish emerged as the suspected murderer of both Baird and Kelley/Kelly. He wasn't mentally stable and he confessed. His odd personality will certainly bring into question whether he was telling the truth but from what I gathered in reading about this case, he seemed to be believed.

As for the chances of locating the missing person, I think the following news article, which was published about 13 years after Kelley's disappearance, contains information that needs to be considered. That Kelly was not found where Irish said she would be could be due to reasons covered in the article.

25 Mar 1963, Mon The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, California) Newspapers.com

Please share this article to social media using hashtags that are related to where the missing person went missing from, which is Fortuna, California, and the Eureka area.

Author: S.K. Lambert (Blogger Hobbyist and Freelance Writer)

All articles are subject to editing after the original posting.

S.K. Lambert (Blogger Hobbyist and Freelance Writer) is not a Private Investigator, however, he is currently studying to be one as of April 2021.

If you like this blog, then you can join the affiliated Facebook group: MPC Facebook Group

Website hashtag: #MPCSL

*For BMI values, I use the UPPER or HIGHER ranges that are given for height and weight.
**Might not be the exact meaning that NamUs or Canada's Missing conveys. I improve upon their descriptions with my research.
Disclaimer: Whenever possible, government sources are preferred for getting the details of a missing persons case. However, any source that the article writer deems reputable may be used.

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