By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
FAIRLAND, Okla. — Investigators say an Oklahoma woman’s dying claim that she was held hostage without food and water has proved unfounded.
Amber G. Barr, 29, of Fairland, was taken March 5 to St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., suffering from severe dehydration. Her condition, in combination with a statement she made to a nurse, prompted the hospital staff to notify Joplin police of a possible case of abuse.
Barr, according to police, told the nurse that she had been held against her will and denied food and water. She died at the hospital three days after being admitted.
The man who took her there, Bobby Joe Stogsdill, 67, acknowledged that she had moved in with him at his home in Fairland about two weeks earlier. But he denied holding her hostage, and he told the Globe that he cared and cooked for her while she was with him.
Fairland police Officer Benny McCord said Monday that an investigation of the woman’s claim turned up no evidence that she was held against her will.
“She was seen out and about in town with (Stogsdill),” McCord said.
He said witnesses saw no signs that she was being held hostage. Police found food and water inside Stogsdill’s home, and nothing suspicious, such as locks on doors, McCord said. He said the woman had no marks on her arms or legs that might indicate a use of restraints.
McCord said neighbors saw Stogsdill and Barr together the day she was taken to the hospital. He said she reportedly was refusing to go, and Stogsdill had “to force her to go,” according to the neighbors.
Investigators do not know why she made the claim to the nurse, McCord said. She may have been confused and speaking irrationally because of her condition, or she may have been hallucinating because of a prescription drug she was taking, McCord said. Barr is believed to have been taking the narcotic carisoprodol, a painkiller, he said.
In a separate investigation, Stogsdill was arrested Thursday of last week, four days after Barr’s death, and charged with selling 10 pills of carisoprodol, a generic brand of Soma, to a confidential informant working with the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department and Fairland and Miami police.
McCord said the investigation into possible abuse of Barr determined that both she and Stogsdill had prescriptions for the drug. But it was “unfounded” that Stogsdill was using the drug to hold the woman against her will, he said.
Cause of death
An autopsy determined that pneumonia was the likely cause of Amber Barr’s death. The Jasper County coroner has said that will be the official ruling unless pending toxicology tests suggest otherwise.
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Police: Woman’s claim of being held hostage appears ‘unfounded’
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