Jamie Stupey has lived most of her life without answers to her mother’s disappearance. “There’s so much I don’t know,” she told Dateline.
Jamie was only 2 years old when her mother, 24-year-old Barbara McClure, vanished in Seattle, following a night out with friends. That was 46 years ago.
Jamie’s parents separated shortly after she was born and later divorced. She was raised by her father and stepmother, following her mother’s disappearance. Jamie says she would wonder about her mom from time to time, but was mostly shielded from what happened. “I never really knew what to ask,” Jamie said. “It was kind of like, I always knew it was a thing, but I never really paid attention to it.” That changed as Jamie got older.
According to a
Facebook post
by the King County Sheriff’s Office, “Barbara McClure was last seen walking home from the Fandango Disco inside the Sirloin Inn at the Lake Forest Park Shopping Center on November 2, 1978.”
The sheriff’s office stated that Barbara went to the disco with a co-worker, and they met up with other friends there. “Witnesses reported that Barbara had a verbal argument with her co-worker, and she said that she would walk home,” the post notes. “She ended up walking home, despite her friends trying to give her a ride.”
The post continues, saying Barbara was last seen by a friend walking in the 16500 block of Bothell Way NE. She was headed in the direction of her Seattle residence, which was about five miles away from the disco. “Barbara was reported missing the next day by her roommate.”
At the time, Barbara and her daughter were living with a friend. There are conflicting reports of who Jamie was being taken care of the night her mother disappeared, and Jamie was too young at the time to remember.
“On November 11, 1978,” more than a week after Barbara was last seen, “her driver’s license was found near the intersection of I-5 and I-405,” the King County Sheriff’s office said. According to Jamie, the license was found 10 miles north of her mother’s last location which was not in the direction she would have been walking home.
“There’s a side that, you know, she just went walking,” Jamie said. “And some random guy person picks her up.” Based on what she’s learned about her mother’s personality, Jamie doesn’t believe her mother would have gone willingly with a stranger. “I actually don’t believe she took off walking at all, to be honest with you.” Jamie believes there is a possibility that the license was planted by someone where it was later found.
Dateline reached out to the King County Sheriff’s Office for comment. They declined, saying, “At this point there is nothing further our investigators can add to this story.” In 2023, the detective investigating the case at the time, John Free,
spoke to NBC KING 5
about Barbara’s disappearance. “I think that this is an investigation that can be solved by talking to the right people. I think somebody who knows her has information about her disappearance,” he said. “And even if they don’t, we still want to hear from people that knew her.”
Jamie told Dateline she learned from some of her mother’s friends that Barbara believed someone was following her in the weeks leading up to her disappearance. “It was not known by everybody, but it was known by some. She told a couple of people that she was being followed,” Jamie said. She also spoke to KING 5 about it in 2023. “I’d like to know who that person was,” she told them. “Whoever that person is, that person has answers to things we need, I think. I think it would tell a lot.” Detective Free told KING 5 that he had no information about Barbara being followed by anyone.
After more than four decades, Jamie says she reached a point where she needed to find answers for herself and began looking into her mom’s disappearance on her own. “Two years ago, I just all of a sudden decided it was time,” she said. So Jamie started the Facebook group “
Where is Barbara Annette McClure?
” to spread awareness about her mom’s case in the hope of receiving information about the case.
Through her research and in talking with family and extended family and Barbara’s friends and co-workers, Jamie has learned a lot more about the kind of person her mom was. “She was bright and outgoing and strong-willed,” she said. “She was beautiful. I mean — I mean, really drop-dead gorgeous. Everybody who describes her, that was friends with her, said, you know, ‘You don’t want to go anywhere with her because she got all the attention.’” she said. “She was the star of the show just because of her beauty.”
Barbara was 24 years old in 1978. She was 5’5”, 120 lbs., with blue eyes and dark brown hair. She would be 70 years old today.
According to the King County Sheriff’s Office Facebook post, Barbara was “last seen wearing rust-colored corduroy pants; wide striped rust & green blouse; short black leather jacket; tan mid-calf boots with 2” heel and a brown cloth purse with shoulder strap.”
If you have any information on what happened to Barbara McClure, please contact the King County Sheriff’s Office at 206-263-2090 or email:
. The case number is 78-182215.
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