S1 Episode 8: Barbara Blount

Ten years ago, 58-year-old Barbara Blount disappeared from her rural Holden, Louisiana home. Authorities found pots and pans stacked on her kitchen floor, part of a spring house cleaning. More ominously, they also found her car abandoned in the woods on a nearby gravel road.

Kristi Bryant interviews John Dupont, a reporter at Livingston Parish News. Dupont has investigated the case and recently published an article about the search for Barbara Blount 10 years after her disappearance. Blount was last heard from at 11:30 a.m. on May 2, 2008, when a neighbor spoke to her via telephone at her residence on State Highway 1036 in rural Livingston Parish. Blount told her neighbor that she was cleaning out her kitchen cabinets. She has never been heard from again.

When her nephew checked her house, the front door was wide open and Blount's phone was lying on the floor with the battery pulled out. Her silver four-door 2006 Toyota Camry was found parked about a quarter of a mile from her home at 4:15 p.m. the day of her disappearance. It was parked on a dirt logging road, 25 or 30 yards off the main road and out of sight, hidden by trees.

Blount was a widow and lived alone at the time of her disappearance, but she kept in regular touch with her relatives and her disappearance was out of character. Her two children lived on the same road as she did, and she still cooked dinner for them every day. She also regularly drove her sister to medical appointments.

She lived quietly and was active in her local Baptist church. Blount is described as a cautious individual who didn't open her door to strangers and carried a gun when she went outside to milk the cows. Her credit cards haven't been used since she went missing. Investigators believe she was taken against her will. Foul play is suspected in Blount's disappearance.

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