For the uninitiated, Barry Whitton is or was the husband of Kimberly Whitton and stepfather of Kimberly’s daughter Haleigh Culwell. The pair have been missing since 2007 and Barry’s considered a possible suspect in their cases, though it’s worth noting that Kim never complained about any mistreatment.
Well, Barry’s been charged with murder: not of Haleigh and Kimberly, but of his first wife, Michelle Whitton. He married Kimberly only about a year after Michelle’s death. Barry is already in prison doing ten years on weapons charges. I know Alabama has the death penalty, but I don’t know whether a murder conviction in Michelle’s case would be a DP-eligible offense.
I wonder if the authorities could use these murder charges as a bargaining chip to make Barry tell where Kimberly and Haleigh are. Probably not.
In my opinion this case never got the kind of attention it should have gotten. Perhaps if Haleigh and Kimberly lived in a more populated, more affluent area, rather than rural Alabama, more news outlets would have covered it. All I could find were regional publications, nothing national. And this for a mother and her child who dropped off the face of the earth.
The Charley Project Blog 