Barbara Cotton Part 1: A Lost Girl

The Vanished Podcast

Wondery

True Crime, Society & Culture, Cold Case, Investigative, Find The Missing, Vanished, Missing Persons, Documentary, News, Disappeared, Exhibit C

4.5 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2022

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On April 11, 1981, a 15-year-old girl named Barbara Cotton disappeared from Williston, North Dakota. Barbara's mother, Louise, called around to her friends to see if they had seen her, but no one said they had. Louise reported her daughter missing to the Williston Police Department and sent any tips she heard their way. The weeks and months passed with no sign of Barbara, and her case went ice cold. It didn't seem like much was being done to find Barb, at least to her loved ones; that is how it appeared. Perhaps she had run away? As with many missing teens in that era, that was often the assumption. Decades later, there is now a renewed effort to find Barbara Cotton and answer the many questions that linger today.

If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Barbara Cotton, please contact the Williston Police Department at 701-577-1212.

You can follow Barb’s story on social media at Find Barb Cotton. You can find more information at FindBarbCotton.com, and check out Dakota Spotlight wherever you get your podcasts.

This episode was sponsored by:

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to the vanished ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today.
0:20.0	So I think even if they don't know that they have the key to what happened,
0:26.0	I do think that there's someone out there that has some piece of information that they don't probably feel as significant,
0:34.0	or maybe they've been holding on to to cover up for somebody else or something.
0:42.0	I do. I think there's something out there that could unlock this.
0:47.0	She was very trusting. I'll be too much, I suppose. She was very sensitive to other people's needs, and it was very thoughtful.
0:59.0	With Barth's case, you know, from 1981, a lot of people have passed away, a lot of people that no doubt had to have known something.
1:09.0	The longer you wait, the more those people pass away, and it's very unfortunate in that aspect.
1:17.0	Well, first of all, it's heartbreaking listening to how many cases out there, like Barth, there are.
1:24.0	Sometimes it gets really hard to keep the hope alive, but we're going to keep trying.
1:30.0	This is maybe our last chance to find out any answers, because it's 40 years old. If we don't get any of these answers now, then we probably never will.
1:40.0	I watch a lot of True Crime, and you see, especially with DNA now, and stuff, 40, 50 years later, they're solving cases.
1:50.0	Part of the reason why I like to watch them, and I like to see them being solved, and I like to see the family get their attention.
1:59.0	The family get their justice.
2:02.0	On April 11, 1981, a 15-year-old girl named Barbara Cotton disappeared from Williston, North Dakota.
2:10.0	Barbara's mother Louise called around to her friends to see if they had seen her, but no one said that they had.
2:17.0	Louise reported her daughter missing to the Williston Police Department, and continued to send them any tips or leads that she heard as the weeks and months passed with no sign of Barbara.
2:27.0	But it didn't seem like much was being done to find Barb. At least to her loved ones, that's how it appeared.
2:34.0	Perhaps she had run away from home, as with many missing teens in that era that was often the assumption.
2:41.0	Barb's case went cold, but now, decades later, there's a renewed effort to find her, and answer the many questions that linger today.
2:49.0	I'm Marissa, and from Wondery, this is Episode 361 of The Vanished, part one of Barbara Cotton's story.
2:58.0	The story is about a woman who was born in the 19th century.
	...

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