Barbara Jean McLean
Age: 19 years
Date of Birth: September 10, 1957
Ethnicity: White
Date Last Seen: February 26, 1977
Time Last Seen: 2:30am
Location Last Seen: Highlander Bar, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Date Body Found: February 26, 1977
Location Body Found: Gravel road near 80th Avenue and 6th Street N.E, just north of the Calgary, Alberta City limits
Details About Barbara’s Case: Barbara was described as a very social and an outgoing free-spirit who liked to hang out late at local bars. Barbara was from Nova Scotia and had moved to Calgary, Alberta. By November of 1976 she had found a stable, well-paying job at the Palliser Square Branch of the Royal Bank and was sharing an apartment with her boyfriend.
February 25, 1977 was the last time Barbara was seen alive after getting into an argument with her boyfriend at the Highlander Hotel Bar after a night out. Witnesses say the that two exchanged heated words and after some time Barbara went back into the bar and continued drinking until the bar closed. In the meantime, her boyfriend waited for her in his dark green 1970, Volvo parked just outside.
When the bar closed at 2:30am, Barbara got into the vehicle where she and her boyfriend continued fighting. Their argument escalated and the couple split. Her boyfriend stormed off in his car, leaving Barbara behind in the parking lot. Witnesses stated that her boyfriend drove off leaving Barbara alone. She was allegedly planning to hitch hike to a different party but she never never arrived.
The next morning, a man walking his dog discovered Barbara’s fully-clothed, strangled body beside a gravel road near 80th Avenue and 6th Street N.E. in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Police tracked her movements the night before to the Highlander Hotel Bar, where she and her boyfriend had been seen arguing after closing time.
The only suspect was Gary McAstocker who was a convicted sex offender. He committed suicide after he found out that the police wanted to talk to him about the murder of another girl named Tina McPhee.
McAstocker had just been released from prison after serving his full 11-year sentence for a 1982 rape and a subsequent 1988 sexual assault committed while on parole.
RCMP investigators also suspected her killer might be the same man who killed Melissa Ann Rehorek, 20, who was found September 16, 1976, in the ditch along a gravel road about 20 km west of Calgary near the Trans-Canada Highway. She also died by strangulation.
McAstocker was also reportedly the prime suspect in the 1976 murder of an Edmonton teenager, Marie Judy Goudreau, 17, who disappeared Aug. 2, 1976 on the way home to her family farm on the edge of Edmonton. Her body was found two days later near Devon, southwest of Edmonton.
McAstocker hanged himself in 1994 in his Edmonton home hours before he was to be questioned by police.
If you have information on Barbara’s case, please contact any of the following:
Calgary Police Service: 1-403-266-1234
Crime Stoppers: 1-800-222-TIPS(8477)
Online at: https://www.canadiancrimestoppers.org/submit-a-tip/submit-a-tip
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