CREVE COEUR, Missouri — A 79-year-old Missouri man is accused of murdering a woman in her suburban Chicago home — a crime committed nearly six decades ago.
James Barbier was arrested Monday at his St. Louis County home and charged with first-degree murder in the November 1966 death of 18-year-old Karen Snider in Cook County, Illinois.
The break came when police reopened the cold case and sent blood evidence to a lab in December 2022, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The blood matched Barbier’s. After his arrest, he was extradited to Cook County.
The state’s attorney’s office said Barbier was released Thursday — prosecutors did not seek to keep him in jail because of his age and “physical infirmity.” He is prohibited from leaving Missouri or Illinois and had to give up his passport and firearms. He will face another court hearing on May 21.
It was unclear whether Barbier had an attorney. Phone calls to his home Saturday went unanswered.
Snider’s body was found by her husband, Paul, on the night of Nov. 12, 1966, after he returned late to their home in Calumet City, Illinois, prosecutors wrote in court papers. The couple’s 2-month-old daughter was unharmed in a crib.
Karen Snider was stabbed approximately 125 times, according to the medical examiner. Barbier, who worked with Paul Snider at a rail yard, was arrested in 1966 but never charged. Authorities have not said why.
ABC News
