Missing Since 06/18/1959
Missing From Perdido Bay, Alabama
Classification Non-Family Abduction
Sex Male
Race White
Date of Birth12/12/1954 (65)
Age 4 years’ old
Height and Weight 3'0, 50 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description Only gray boxer shorts.
Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, brown eyes. Daniel's nickname is Danny. He has scars on his fingers and a scar on his tongue.
Details of Daniel Barters Disappearance:
Daniel was last seen playing near the banks of Perdido Bay, Alabama between 9:30 and 10:00 a.m. on June 18, 1959. He resided in the 1700 block of Thrush Drive in Mobile, Alabama at the time, and had gone camping at Perdido Bay with his parents, a cousin and three of his six siblings. His other siblings were staying with relatives. The campsite was about an hour's drive from the Barters' home. Daniel apparently wandered away from the rest of his family while his parents were preparing some fishing equipment. He was carrying a bottle of Nehi soda at the time. His mother, Maxine Barter, began searching for him ten or fifteen minutes after she last saw him, but was unable to locate him. He has never been heard from again. The area Daniel disappeared from is swampy and infested with alligators and snakes. Authorities investigated the theory that the child had been attacked by an animal. They even killed and gutted two alligators to look for human remains, but found no evidence of such an attack. An extensive search of the region, on both land and water, turned up no sign of Daniel or his remains. Even his Nehi soft drink bottle was never found. Bloodhounds were used, but didn't uncover anything useful. Maxine stated Daniel did not like the water and she did not believe he would have gone into the bay voluntarily. The bay was very shallow at the time and a person could walk a considerable distance without getting very wet. The undergrowth bordering the campsite was thick and prickly, and as Daniel was barefoot and wearing only a pair of shorts, his loved ones don't believe he would have gone into the bushes. After the search turned up no evidence, investigators decided it was unlikely Daniel had wandered into the woods or water near the campsite. They looked into the possibility of abduction, but they were never able to find any clues supporting this theory. The Barter family was not wealthy and they never received any communication from the supposed kidnapper(s), so a ransom motive is unlikely. A month before Daniel's disappearance, his mother saw a mysterious vehicle parked in front of their home in Mobile. Maxine approached the car and the driver, a man, immediately covered his face with a newspaper, then drove away. One evening not long afterward, a neighbor saw a strange man peering into the Barter boys' bedroom where the boys, including Daniel, were asleep. The neighbor told Maxine and they went to the place where the man had been standing. He was gone, but there were footprints in the dirt under the window. The police made casts of the prints and took photographs, but it is unclear whether this evidence still exists. On the morning before Daniel's disappearance, Maxine drove him and one of his brothers to the store and went inside, leaving the boys in the car. While she gone, an unknown man drove his car up next to the Barters' car and stared at the boys for a while without speaking to them, then drove away. Daniel's brother told Maxine about it when she returned. These incidents have led the Barters to suspect Daniel was kidnapped by someone who had been stalking the family for some time. His case was reopened in the 21st century, nearly fifty years after his disappearance. Many of the original investigative files have been lost or destroyed in the intervening decades. Daniel's father died in 1965 and his mother in 1995. One of Daniel's brothers, who was born after his disappearance, died of cancer in 1997. The rest of his siblings are all alive and still hope his case may be resolved.
Search & Investigation:
The search for Daniel started on the banks of Perdido Bay, just a few miles north of the US 98 bridge that leads to Florida. It comprised of 2000 people, including 300 members of the US Navy and local military bases and 150 law enforcement officers and firemen from Alabama, Florida and surrounding states.
Civilian volunteers in groups of 25 came together and walked shoulder-to-shoulder over a five square mile radius through the surrounding woods and swamps, and skin divers worked to search the bottom of the bay. As well, Jeeps, helicopters and horses were brought in, and three days into the search bloodhounds combed a five mile area, tracking the missing boy’s scent to the same spot on a nearby road.
The bottom of the lake was dragged, and sinkholes and thickets were searched. In the hopes of potentially jarring a body loose, dynamite was tossed into the bay and other surrounding areas where Daniel might have fallen into.
After more than a week, the search was called off. There were no signs Daniel had gone into the bay and no evidence was uncovered. It was one of the most intensive searches in Baldwin County history.
As the area was swampy and infested with alligators and snakes, hunters looked for large alligators and sliced open their stomachs looking for the boy’s remains. However, no evidence was found that pointed to Daniel being attacked.
Authorities at the time looked into the possibility that Daniel had been abducted, but were never able to find anything to support this theory. As the family wasn’t wealthy and never received any communications from the supposed kidnappers, a ransom motive was deemed unlikely.
A month after Daniel’s disappearance, his mother saw a mysterious and unknown vehicle parked in front of the family home in Mobile. As she approached the car, the male driver covered his face with a newspaper and drove away.
One evening not long after this encounter, a neighbor reported seeing a strange man looking into the bedroom where the Barter boys, including Daniel, slept. When the neighbor and Maxine went to the spot where the man had been standing, they saw he was already gone, but had left footprints under the window. The police were called and they made casts of the prints and took photos. It’s unclear if this evidence still exists.
After these incidents occurred, Maxine told police about a strange encounter that had happened the morning before Daniel disappeared. She said that she’d driven him and one of his brothers to the store and had left the pair in the car while she ran in to grab something. While she was gone, an unknown man had driven up next to the car and stared at the boys without speaking, before driving away. Daniel’s brother reported this to their mother upon her returning to the car.
These incidents have led the Barter family to believe Daniel had been kidnapped by someone who had been stalking them for some time prior.
The case remained open for some time, but investigators were unable to discover any credible leads, as no remains were found and no sightings reported. As the years passed, files pertaining to the case were destroyed or lost to time.
In 2008, the FBI and local law enforcement reopened the case after hearing a discussion in public. What had been overheard has never been publicly released. The new prevailing theory is that Daniel was abducted, and a call was put out to those who recalled the disappearance, asking them to contact police.
FBI reopens 1959 case of missing 4-year-old:
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Before Adam Walsh, Etan Patz and Madeleine McCann, before the first Amber Alert, before a young face stared back from the side of a milk carton, there was Danny.
Danny Barter was 4 when he vanished in 1959 while on a family camping trip. Danny Barter vanished in 1959. He was on a family camping trip to Alabama's Perdido Bay. He was playing with his dad one minute, gone the next. "Just like that," recalled his brother Mike Barter.
Danny was 4 years old.
Last weekend, his loved ones returned to the campsite and to the scene of the presumed stranger abduction. They came to remember Danny and to rededicate a half-century mission to find him.
Even with the passage of time, their faith has not wavered.
"We've never doubted that he's ... out there," Mike Barter said. "Until they prove otherwise, we hope one day we will be reunited."
Their hope has been bolstered by investigators with the FBI and the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office, which reopened the case last year after hearing of a recent conversation.
"A lead was sparked when someone was sitting in a public area talking about what happened," FBI spokeswoman Joyce Riggs wrote in an e-mail to the media.
As cold case cops know, a wisp of a lead can turn into a big break, a fact FBI Special Agent Angela Tobon believes can solve the Daniel Barter mystery.
"Even if [people] think it's insignificant, it's probably not," Tobon said. "Each little piece of the puzzle may not mean something, but when you put it all together, you get the big picture."
Danny was the third youngest of Paul and Maxine Barter's seven children. He had brown hair and big brown eyes.
"He's such a very pretty and sweet child," his mom told the Mobile Register in an article published June 21, 1959. "I can understand why someone would want to take him, because he's such a pretty child."
Three days earlier, Danny, his parents and his siblings were enjoying a family outing near the Gulf shore. Danny and his dad had just returned from getting some drinks at a store. Tents were pitched. Fishing poles were prepared. And then someone noticed that Danny was gone.
"I had first believed that despite Danny's fear of water, he had wandered into the water and drowned," Maxine Barter told the Mobile Register. "But not now. I believe he probably walked up the road, and someone picked him up."
The search was extensive and immediate. Hundreds combed the land and the waters, looking for Danny. Bloodhounds were given his scent and dispatched to follow it. Alligators were killed and cut open.
But there was no trace of Danny, then or now.
For his parents and the police, the sickening conclusion was quickly reached: He was stolen by a human predator.
Danny's mom could not fathom that the kidnapper would bring harm to her boy.
"I hope now that someone did take Danny, because I know if anyone wanted him bad enough to kidnap him, they would take good care of him," she said.
Fifty years later, the family longs for closure. Paul and Maxine Barter are both deceased, but their children carry on the decades-long pursuit to know the truth.
On dannybarter.com, a Web site dedicated to finding answers, the family posted this plea to the public:
"We strongly believe that someone out there knows what happened to Danny and possibly knows him as another identity. We hope to find him safe and sound."
The FBI is also seeking information on Danny Barter. It has published two photographs of him on its Web site. One shows the smiling child, taken in the months before Danny was abducted. The other picture is age-progressed, depicting what Danny would look like today at 54.
Theories:
1) The current theory is that Daniel was abducted by unknown persons. This is supported by the lack of physical evidence found at the campsite in Perdido Bay, as well as the numerous encounters the Barter family had in the days before and after he went missing. It’s currently unknown if the encounters were with the same man or numerous.
2) One of the early theories in the case was that Daniel drowned in Perdido Bay. However, his family disputes this, as he didn’t like the water and there were no footprints in the sand that led to the bay. As well, the bay was very shallow at the time Daniel went missing and, as such, a person could walk in a considerable distance without getting very wet.
3) There is a theory that Daniel could have gotten lost in the area around the campsite, given how thick the brush was. However, no evidence was found to support this, and given Daniel was barefoot at the time, it appears unlikely he would have walked into the prickly undergrowth.
4) A final theory that has since been deemed unlikely is that Daniel was attacked and/or eaten by an alligator. As aforementioned, hunters searched the stomach contents of large ones seen near the bay, but found no remains or evidence that Daniel had met this end.
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