The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

Joplin Metro

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March 9, 2009

Dehydrated woman’s death subject of probe

By Jeff Lehr

jlehr@joplinglobe.com

A 29-year-old woman’s dying claim that she was held hostage without food and water remains under investigation by Oklahoma and Missouri authorities.

Amber G. Barr, of Fairland, Okla., died at 3:03 p.m. Sunday in an intensive-care unit at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, according to the Jasper County coroner. Barr was taken to the hospital late Thursday afternoon in critical condition from dehydration.

Coroner Rob Chappel said she died after slipping into a coma. Chappel said an autopsy is scheduled to be performed today at Cox Medical Center South in Springfield. He said it is his understanding that doctors at the hospital in Joplin believe the woman died of dehydration and that she also showed signs of malnutrition.

Joplin police have said that Barr told a nurse while still conscious at the hospital that she was held hostage without food or water. A 67-year-old man who took Barr to the emergency room denied the claim to a police officer and told him that he had given her two glasses of water on the way to the hospital.

“The only thing I have now is accusations,” Chappel said Monday with respect to the woman’s manner of death.

Fairland police and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation are investigating the death.

Chappel said preliminary findings of police over the weekend were “inconclusive.” He said the autopsy may help determine the cause and manner of death.

Officer Benny McCord of the Fairland Police Department said the matter remains under investigation in Oklahoma. McCord said acting police Chief Tony Wiseley was involved and referred all questions to him. McCord said he did not know if any investigators interviewed the woman before her death.

Wiseley could not be reached for comment.





Background



Joplin police told the Globe on Friday that a male acquaintance of the victim’s contacted the hospital and informed medical workers that Barr had been living with the man who took her to the hospital at a home in Fairland for about two weeks.

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