40 Years After Her Rape And Murder, Justice For Roberta Walls

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, that folks did is Thursday, June fourth, and almost forty years ago to the day, a young woman by the name of ROBERTA. Walls was sexually assaulted and murdered. They never found her killer until now, And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ presents in Robes one a lot of chilling stuff about this case and a lot of stuff that gives you jills, but a part of it is Robes They caught the killer almost forty years to the date of her death.

00:00:37
Speaker 2: It's remarkable when you hear the announcement of this arrest. Obviously the family has been waiting for decades, but so many of the detectives and the police who feverishly worked on trying to solve this case have already died. They didn't even live to see this day where they finally found the guy who police say is responsible for yes nineteen eighty six rape and murder of twenty two year old ROBERTA. Walls.

00:01:07
Speaker 1: We know at this point rogues when people hear these cases, cold cases, things being solved, we know it's going to be a DNA case.

00:01:13
Speaker 2: It's the only way, thank God for technology, and that's exactly what happened in this case. And look, when making this announcement, they credited this police department all those years ago for preserving the evidence. It's one of those things where they didn't know what they didn't know. They didn't know that there would be advanced technology four decades later that would literally solve this case. That the evidence was right there in their folders, in their police evidence locker room, but it just didn't know how to be read.

00:01:46
Speaker 1: Basically, I'm always fascinated by that. How could forty years ago anybody have good inside. I will just get rid of this, I'll throw it over here. But we see this in case after case after case. I know there's a lot of criticism sometimes of how evidence is handled and police procedures, but rope some of this stuff. Something is working well because there are tons of cases. Hell, just even if we say it in our true crime watching, there's a lot of times where evidence like this is preserved for decades. So hats off to those folks who have many of like you said, have passed.

00:02:20
Speaker 2: Yes, this one didn't live to see this day. And so it was a combination of yes, advanced DNA technology, but also those genealogy websites. We hear about this all the time, and that is what happened in this case. Police found a man they weren't even looking for. Police found demand they didn't even know should have been on their radar. And frankly, they're confused how and why this man didn't commit as far as they know, any other acts like this one. They're actually concerned that there could be a lot more behind what happened, because how could he have done something like this and then done it.

00:03:00
Speaker 1: Again or had done it before. I guess you could ask Rogan, But as far as I can tell, yes, they have to wonder. But at this point do they have reason to believe beyond just that.

00:03:13
Speaker 2: No, they that's the answer. So we're talking about sixty six year old Charles Barry. That is the man who they arrested exactly forty years to your point, almost to the day, certainly to the month May of twenty twenty six. And so what happened was in two thousand and one a DNA profile was developed. So it was even years and years decades later after this young lady was assaulted and murdered that they actually were able to create a DNA profile and run it through at that time the Virginia Department of Forensic Science and Nationwide Data Bank, and it came up with no matches. So that was twenty something years ago. Maybe we should go back and talk about the crime, just to get people caught up up on what happened to this young lady, Roberta Walls in those pictures.

00:04:04
Speaker 1: If you have a moment, just you know it, just just google it and her picture comes up. Bro, there's something. They're very sweet and kind about the localness lady's face. Just the one picture that's out there is a very it's just a kind picture, babe.

00:04:17
Speaker 2: She was a librarian.

00:04:18
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness.

00:04:19
Speaker 2: So what you just described is exactly what you would think. A twenty two year old woman who worked at the public library and she was about to go out to meet up with friends again. She was twenty two years old. She had just gotten off work, and she was last seen literally leaving this public library. When she didn't show up, they found her not far away in the field, directly across the street from the library. She didn't make it out that night, she didn't even make it far. And yes, she had been stabbed multiple times and she was sexually assaulted, and that's being sexually assaulted. That was where they were able to pull sperm semen. Some DNA profile was able to be created from the evidence they preserved in nineteen eighty six all the way to two thousand and one. But they interviewed everybody. They interviewed her friends, anyone she had dated, anyone who they believed she had contact with. Obviously, when you're murdered and raped like that, almost always it's by someone you know, it's by someone who even purports to love you. It's so rarely a random act of violence. But that is exactly what this appeared to be, and they had no way forward.

00:05:36
Speaker 1: You know, you say that we were covering another case very recently where it was a random act, But this is a guy accused of killing five people, right, and it was random. He didn't know any of them. To your point on this one as well, it's tough to think that if he randomly killed somebody, that this was a one off.

00:05:53
Speaker 2: Yes, that he just did it once and never did it again, that doesn't make a lot of sense. But it wasn't until two thousand and seven, seventeen, So what was that a oh my god, nine years ago that we mentioned, so they finally find this DNA. There's no matches in the database system that in twenty seventeen, allow was able to reanalyze that DNA in a more sophisticated way because of course the technology has gotten better, and the results came back with more than a ninety percent confidence that Roberta's killer. They knew this was a man of European descent, so he's a white guy. He was fair skinned, he had blue eyes and light brown hair. So they actually were able to get a physical description of her rapist and assuming her murderer based on the DNA left behind some thirty years before.

00:06:46
Speaker 1: Now that's kind of remarkable that they got DNA that old and we know what you look like from the spec that we got off of this. That technology is crazy and the composite sketches were.

00:06:58
Speaker 2: Creepy, yeah, and similar. So they did, yes, create a composite photo based on that, and they gave it some age because they knew it had been I guess at that point, yes, thirty years. But it didn't lead to any arrests. I mean, it's just he is a white guy who kind of looked like a lot of other white guys kind of hard to say who he was. So it wasn't until three years ago, in twenty twenty three, that the Virginia Beach Police Department got a grant to pursue because it costs money, forensic genealogy leads with this case, so they were able to take that same DNA and put it through work with genology. G can' am I saying this right? Genealogy websites to try and find a match and guess what boom? Ultimately, all these years later, I don't know why it took three years, but it led eventually to the ID of Charles Barry, and like, I don't know what the number was, but it was like some astronomical figure that yes, this is the dude, this is the guy.

00:07:58
Speaker 1: How many cases are going to be solved? This is incredible that this technology is available. Did he expect that knock on the door? Are you really let's just go with that as a possibility? Robes that he has gone forty years? Surely he thought he was going to get away with this. Surely he thought DNA was going to catch up with him. Who knows, but ropes forty years? Is that always? And you know, I wonder how we should get some kind of forensic psychologist, somebody to help us with this. Is it possible something like that? In your life? You forget what I'm saying. There are things you did last week, your things you did in high school, things you did in college, having a night or a moment, some big event at some point you just kind of forget happens. Did he go about his life and forget he murdered somebody?

00:08:46
Speaker 2: Well? I think that if you go and you seek someone out that you don't know, and you have no motive, and you have no reason to attack somebody, and you rape them and you murder them, and you get away with it, and years and decades go by and you're living your life and no one even suspects you. I think you might bury it, You might compartmentalize it, You might even hold it as your secret, little deviant something inside of you. I don't know what's inside a person's mind who's capable of doing that and then going on and living your life as if nothing happened. I can't imagine what that profile is like.

00:09:22
Speaker 1: How do you how do you How often do you think about it? Over forty years? Do you think about it? Every day, do you. It's just I'm fascinated by someone who just goes about life for forty years.

00:09:33
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm eerily fascinated by it because it isn't I hate the word normal, but it is far from normal. This is not something I think most human beings beings are capable of doing in the first place, and then being able to live with it and not even have it make a blip in your life. Just like yep, just keep on going. And look, I wanted to read for you this statement from the police captain when they made this announcement about this ere He said, I can tell you that while it was an egregious event, there was some joy in the office that we were able to finally find somebody and be able to bring them to justice. I know that some of the detectives from the past would have been very joyful to hear this news, but of course they've passed on. However, this is incredibly significant for our police department and of course our cold case, and I love that. After saying that, he went on to talk about the victim, because look, it's been forty years and she's been long gone and for a lot of folks, she may have been forgotten, but he said this. Roberta was a daughter, a big sister, and the kind of friend who showed up when she said she would. Her family has lived through every May the way families of murder victims lived through every year, knowing the anniversary was coming, knowing the call from a detective with good news had not arrived yet until this May.

00:11:00
Speaker 1: That's I mean. These cops, I mean they are from some of these stories and the work that we know goes into this and look, I know it can be hotly debated sometime officers in the work they do, but they do. They are great guys out there doing great work. Yes, and this is one of those in roll. This is an incredibly important story for somebody who's had somebody missing for three months, for three years, for whatever period of time, even thirty or forty years. Now you can still have hold on the whole pick up the phone and call the police department still and say, hey, is that still sitting on your desk. It's just this is a great, great story to get out there.

00:11:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, hope is very important, but understanding is too. When we come back, we're going to tell you what we know about this alleged killer again. His name is Charles Berry. He was sixty six years old. But guess what, he was a young man in the u U Navy at the time of the murder. We'll tell you what we know about Barry's double life. Welcome back to this episode of Amy and TJ Presents. We are talking about a cold case that took four decades to solve, but now police say they have their man. Sixty six year old Charles Barry arrested forty years to the month for the murder, the rape and murder of twenty two year old ROBERTA. Walls. It took place in nineteen eighty six and that was a year where Barry was stationed in Virginia Beach. That's where the murder took place. He was in the US Navy at the time of the murder and according to police, they have confirmed Barry did not know Walls before the murder. There was no known connection and he had never been on the police's radar, not once.

00:12:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were as surprised as he was that we're all together right now. They had no idea. They get a name. That had to be a moment where the name comes back and they go.

00:13:11
Speaker 2: Who who he wasn't even anyone we question, and they questioned dozens of people in this case, never even question. Now we know that he lived. They were able to now as they were piecing us all together. He lived near that field where her body was found. That is where he lived. And guess what he's been married all these years? His wife? News reports say his wife of forty years. So was he engaged that year? Was he newly married that year? How eerie for that woman who he is still married to. Her name is Jean Barry, and she's been married to a rapist and a murderer, according to police, for four decades.

00:13:57
Speaker 1: I mean, she's still around. That's one woman I would love to talk to.

00:14:01
Speaker 2: Well, So the local reporters tried to and we got something a little cryptic from her. All she said was the truth will come out, but she didn't want to comment any further. That's what she said, The truth will come out, but I don't want to comment any further. You could read that a lot of ways. Maybe she thinks he's innocent.

00:14:20
Speaker 1: Or maybe she knows he's guilty.

00:14:22
Speaker 2: And maybe she knows there are more victims out there. Because look, this is the truth a single incident. With this type of violence and premeditation and the randomness of it, it's very unusual for this to only happen once.

00:14:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's not us guessing that. That is what any body out there, any detective will tell you. I mean, it almost becomes common knowledge. But we see this plenty of times. This is not I'm trying to think of one. I'm trying to think of.

00:14:55
Speaker 2: Okay, one off, if you're caught immediately, that's usually the only reason why you're stopped. But if you're allowed to continue, and once you get away with it once, what would stop someone who already had that. I guess that within him what would make him stop if he knew he got away with it once? And so the police actually in this press conference had this statement, and I just this one really hit me. He said, everyone here wants to know someone that brutally murders and rapes someone. How is that a one time occurrence? But as of this time, we have no indication that he was involved in other crimes. Go figure.

00:15:38
Speaker 1: I wonder if they'll go through and try to do any more DNA matches. I wonder if they'll go through and because this is huge I mean, is this happening at police departments all over the country. This is just incredible that they can do this now.

00:15:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we're hearing about this. Look, it's been a while since we've gotten any actual real news or headlines from the Nancy Guthrie investigation. But they do have that DNA. We don't know how good it is of a sample, I guess I should say, but it absolutely was. It cleared the Guthrie family and it's of someone else. Police are believing that that DNA is from the person who kidnapped Nancy, but we're still waiting to see if they're able. They're talking about going through genealogy websites, they're talking about the national database, but if it doesn't hit a match, And look this, anyone who's thinking about doing something terrible to someone else probably doesn't want to go see what their ancestry is because if you go on those genealogy websites. But honestly, even if one of your relatives does, that can make a match, and then they can it can lead to you. So, you know, thank God for I guess twenty three and meter Despite all the negative headlines, but there are several of them out their ancestry dot com. They are actually solving crimes and this is one of them. And with that everyone, we always appreciate listening to us. Here on Amy and TJ Presents, we will have more stories for you and certainly you could always check out our other feed, Amy and TJ Podcast. We have crime news, we have breaking news, we have relationship news, so please check it out if you haven't before. I'm Amy Robot alongside TJ Holmes. We'll talk to you soon