Rachel Barber
Rachel Barber was a
beautiful 15 year old girl. A talented
dancer, she had the whole world in front of her. Unfortunately for Rachel this made her the
target of a deranged woman who wanted to take all that away from her.
Caroline Reed
Robertson was only 19 herself. Their
families were friends; Caroline had babysat Rachel and her younger sisters. Caroline was chubby, and suffered from teenage
acne, which led to a very negative self-image. As a teenager Caroline was a
prolific writer, documenting her inner torment.
In Rachel, Caroline
saw everything she was not, and an obsession began. In Caroline’s twisted thoughts, the fact that
Rachel was beautiful automatically meant that she would be happy, something she
desired so badly for herself. The
obsession with Rachel festered and grew for several years. As early as 1997, two years before the
murder, Caroline would take photos of Rachel, supposedly for school projects. It seems that for Caroline, coveting what
Rachel had was not enough. She had to
take it from her, and somehow transfer it to herself.
In the months
leading up to the murder, Caroline decided that she needed a new identity. She
spoke to Rachel’s younger sister and asked her for Rachel’s date of birth. The police believe she used this to get a
copy of Rachel’s birth certificate. Still
a prolific writer, hand written notes later found at Caroline’s flat showed
that Caroline planned to kill and disfigure Rachel, and then create a new
identity for herself as “Jem Southall” a wild 16 year old, a “total revhead”. She wrote detailed plans of how she was going
to kill Rachel, and create a new life for herself as “Jem”.
Eventually Caroline’s
plans were put into action. She lured
Rachel to her flat in the trendy Melbourne suburb of Prahran under the guise of
getting her assistance in a psychology assignment. It was a secret study, so Rachel had to not
tell anyone what she was doing. Rachel
was last seen on the afternoon of February 28th 1999 on a tram with
a woman resembling Caroline.
Sometime that night
Caroline strangled Rachel with a telephone cord and, according to her later
statement, she kept her body in her flat for a couple of days before taking it
in a taxi to be disposed of. She buried
her body on a property at Kilmore, just outside Melbourne, which was owned by her
father.
Caroline’s
attendance at work over the next two weeks was sporadic. On one of her sick days she applied for a car
loan. She didn’t drive, so it is
suspected she wanted the money to fund her new life. The loan was declined. She pressured a colleague to return a small
amount of money that she had lent her.
For all of her careful planning for the murder itself, she left a lot of
the details of the next stage of her plan to chance. The police now wanted to talk to her. The net was closing in.
After several
unsuccessful attempts on March 12th to talk to Caroline, police
gained entry to her flat and found her apparently unconscious, next to an empty
bottle of Tegretol (which she took for her epilepsy). Upon searching her flat,
police found clothes that would not have fit Caroline, but would have fit
Rachel. After being treated at hospital,
Caroline was questioned by the police.
She confessed everything. The
police retrieved Rachel’s body from her shallow grave the next day.
The questions which
occur to me are: why not just create a new persona? Why did a beautiful girl have to die for this
to happen? I’m sure Rachel’s friends and
family have asked those questions repeatedly for the past 16 years. She specifically mentioned wanting to
disfigure Rachel after she killed her.
To hate someone so much, for a physical attribute that they have no
control over, blows my mind just a little.
This week Caroline
Reed Robertson was released from prison, much to the horror and anxiety of the
Barber family as well as Rachel’s boyfriend Manni Carella. While the Barber family don’t want Caroline
to contact them, they don’t wish her harm.
However, they are very concerned that Caroline will reoffend, and put
another family through the same torture that they have had to endure over the
past sixteen years. Time will tell if
their fears are justified.
I cannot believe they let that psycho pig out. I can't get my head around it. She had all this time to correct her mistakes the first go...I'm incredibly worried about her going after another beautiful person that she cannot become. I mean, at what point will enough be enough? How many people have to die, wasn't the one enough?? I'm very upset. I know I'm late to the party and she apparently hasn't done anything yet/that we know about. Crikey.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. The one saving grace may be the benefit of age - sometimes people like this "burn out" and their behaviour becomes less extreme. Let's home that this is the case.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the first comment. Cant believe that the murder can just freely go out.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the first comment. Cant believe that the murder can just freely go out.
ReplyDeleteMany other countries do not have as strict a punishment as the U.S. does.
ReplyDeletewhy didnt the Carolines parents, put her in a hospital for the insane, didnt they notice
ReplyDeletehow crazy she was?
why didnt the Carolines parents, put her in a hospital for the insane, didnt they notice
ReplyDeletehow crazy she was?