Missing: Barbara Jean
In June of 1969, in the small town of Hibbing, Minnesota, twenty year old Barbara Paciotti disappeared without a trace. Located about three hours straight north of Minneapolis, Hibbing not only has the largest iron ore mine in the world, but was the community where Bob Dylan grew up.
Back in the late 60s, there were approximately 16,000 people living in Hibbing and Barbara, known as Barbie, was the middle of three children to Fabian and Betty (née Popovich) Paciotti. She grew up as a petite spitfire, with a personality that overwhelmed her less than five foot stature; classmates described her as always smiling, friendly, and sassy.
After graduating from Hibbing High School, she moved to Minneapolis to work as a secretary for an investment firm. Father’s Day weekend, she came home to visit her family with her roommate (I’ve been unable to find her name in any stories or reports) and after dinner on June 13th, she and her roommate decided to cruise around town.
During the drive, Barbara supposedly confided in her roommate that she was thinking about breaking up with the guy she was currently dating, Jeff Dolinich, in order to get back together with a former flame. Some time around 1:30 am, while they were still driving around Hibbing, they saw Jeff and he approached the roommate’s car, asking to speak with Barbara. They pulled over, Barbara got out of the roommate’s car, left with Jeff in a 1964 green Oldsmobile that belonged to his father, and was never seen again.
Reports of what happened between 1:30 am and that next afternoon when the police got involved seem spotty, but what appears is that the Oldsmobile was spotted south of Hibbing on Highway 73, parked with the lights on sometime in the early morning hours (I can’t find a specific time listed anywhere). Later that day, Jeff’s parents called the Minneapolis police asking them to perform a welfare check on their son; for some reason they were distressed about his mental state (did he call them to confess? How did they know anything had happened?). Apparently, he fled from the police when they arrived (guilty much?), but was caught and returned to his apartment where they interviewed him. He relayed to the police that he and Barbara had a fight and he remembered hitting her *one time* and that he knew she was dead, however he was unable to tell them where this occurred or where he had left her. Clothing belonging to him was seen in his apartment by officers caked with grass and mud and Barbara’s purse was found in the Oldsmobile with a broken strap. Various reports from newspapers and people who worked the case said that he claimed he drank too much and blacked out – not knowing what happened from the time he and Barbara got out of the car after a fight until he “woke up” in Mora, MN, which is a couple of hours south of Hibbing. However, despite being so drunk he supposedly blacked out, he successfully drove several hours in a very dark, isolated part of the United States without any damage to his vehicle. He also hadn’t blacked out when he remembered hitting her and being so sure that she died, so there should be no reason for him not to have remembered where that took place – a road, a landmark, anything.
Newspaper articles printed a week later mentioned that both ground and helicopter searches were unable to find any traces of her, though the red dress and rust colored jacket she was last seen in should have stood out in the middle of summer if she was above ground. The paper also mentioned the police looked in Dupont (Carey) Lake, located east of Hibbing, which could be based on Jeff’s family owning property near there, even though it had been (supposedly) abandoned by Barbara’s disappearance. Within a week of Barbara going missing, Jeff had checked into a mental hospital and later wrote a letter to Barbara’s parents saying he thought she was deceased.
Side note: How shocking are things like that in current times? Writing a letter to her parents? He knows she’s gone, he was the last one with her before she was gone, he writes an actual letter to her family telling her these things, but isn’t charged with literally anything or compelled to help the investigation whatsoever?
A huge obstacle with her search came in that this part of Minnesota, even over fifty years later, is still generally undeveloped, wooded, and based on this Google Map, a lot of ground to cover. Groups of people would have had a difficult time making headway over 100 miles with endless opportunities to hide someone. Based on weather reports from nearby Duluth on that day, it didn’t appear to have rained, so if Jeff was indeed covered in mud, he probably would have been near somewhere with water.
Between the two towns of Hibbing and Mora, there are several state parks, multiple lakes, ponds, and even a bog that show up on the map. The police didn’t take Jeff’s muddy clothing at the time and supposedly Jeff’s mother disposed of the pants. Clearly, in 2021, it’s extremely easy to note how many forensic mistakes were made at the time, let alone basic detective work, but cases weren’t tried without bodies or confessions back then, so there wasn’t a lot the police were able to do legally.
Despite Jeff being the last person to see her alive and admitting physical violence towards her, he was never formally charged with her murder. He was, however, named a suspect in the reopened cold case in 2005, but passed away in 2013 and had reportedly refused to help with the investigation. Tragically, Barbara’s parents and older sister also passed away, never finding out what happened to her.
My theory is that they were parked on 73 and Barbara broke up with him which caused an argument. Maybe he hit her in the car and then had a rage blackout? She grabbed her purse and tried to leave but he either grabbed her or the purse, causing the strap to break. Maybe she was able to get out of the car and he followed and killed her? No blood in the car that was found so she could have been dumped where they were stopped or put in the trunk; if you google a ’64 Oldsmobile, the trunks are enormous. I have a hard time thinking he just put her back in the cab of the vehicle, even that late at night. I cannot fathom why, if he had nothing to do with her death, why he wouldn’t help the police? Even when he was dying? Obvious signs of a controlling narcissist who couldn’t let her rest in peace, even after he was gone.
I dug into a little information about him through genealogy websites and found out that a couple of years after Barbara went missing, he married another woman and that marriage ended in divorce in 1977. I’m curious if something happened – was he violent towards her as well for the marriage to be over within 5 years? Did he ever confess to her what happened? Also, why the hell would you marry a man who dated a woman who “WENT MISSING.”
Different times, the 70s.
For more information about Barbara or to send tips to the police, visit her page on the Charley Project.