The bodies of Debra Spivey Barton, left, and her mother, Eloise Spivey, were found in their camper at Lake Weiss, Alabama, in 1993
THE NOTES: Excerpts from the letter found in the Barton family living room Notes left with bodies RELATED VIDEO CNN's Tony Clark looks back on what has been a violent period for the Atlanta area (July 31) Windows Media 28K 80K Police read the notes left behind by Barton (July 30) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K Barton, described by friends and neighbors as normal, left notes on the bodies of his family. CNN's Mike Boettcher reports. (July 30) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K To view the latest video streams, use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the video gallery.        Windows Media Real        28 K 80 K RELATED AUDIO The 911 call made from the Atlanta office complex where nine people were shot AIFF or WAV (285 K/24 sec. audio) Use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the audio gallery AIFF   WAV MESSAGE BOARDS Atlanta shootings INTERACTIVE Images of the Atlanta shootings  ALSO: Mourners remember gunman's wife as soccer mom, Scout leader Atlanta chief: Office shooter had firepower for more carnage

August 1, 1999
Web posted at: 8:39 p.m. EDT (0039 GMT)

From Correspondent Art Harris

In this story: Blood evidence Love letters Psychological pressure 'We knew he did it' RELATED STORIES, SITES

ATLANTA (CNN) -- Alabama authorities said they worked hard to gather enough evidence to arrest Mark Barton for the 1993 murders of his first wife and mother-in-law, but told CNN the evidence was not strong enough to make a murder conviction stick in court.

"I was in the room when Mr. Mark Barton was questioned," said Richard Igou, then the district attorney for Cherokee County, Alabama. "They worked for quite a while investigating and never could prove it was him, but they always felt like it was."

But on the Georgia side of the line, Douglas County investigator Capt. Jerry Wynn said he felt there was plenty of circumstantial evidence to make a case.

"Things should have been done (that) they [Alabama investigators] didn't do," he told CNN. "If they'd done their jobs, maybe 12 people wouldn't be dead today."

The Cherokee County sheriff's department had jurisdiction in the 1993 case because the bodies of Debra Spivey Barton and her mother, Eloise Spivey, were found in their camper at Lake Weiss, Alabama, about 100 miles from Atlanta.

Police were never able to place Barton at the scene. But Wynn, a 23-year police veteran whose detective work has put four killers behind bars, said one lake visitor told police he saw a man who looked like Barton asking for directions to the lake several hours before the murders.

That witness, Wynn said, was never brought to look at Barton in a police lineup.

Blood evidence

The murders appeared to be a staged robbery, investigators told CNN. Several hundred dollars and jewelry were left behind and there was no indication of forced entry, suggesting the victims knew the killer.

Barton quickly became the prime suspect when it was learned that he had taken out a $600,000 life-insurance policy on his wife several weeks before she was killed. Since Barton was then living in Lithia Springs, Georgia, Alabama officials enlisted the aid of Georgia investigators. And Wynn quickly picked up the trail.

Alabama investigators immediately seized the floor mats in Barton's late-model Ford Taurus, because there appeared to be bloodstains on them. However, they did not examine the rest of the car for several days. During that time, they allowed Barton to keep it, asking him not to clean it, Alabama police acknowledge.

"I thought that was outrageous," said Wynn, who later returned with a Georgia State police crime scene expert who tested Barton's car and house for blood.

Retired Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Sam House told CNN that the gas and brake pedals had been "thoroughly cleaned and recently conditioned with Armor-All."

Still, he took samples from other parts of the car and tested them with Luminol, the same chemical used by Los Angeles police to find blood in the Ford Bronco owned by O.J. Simpson.

House said several spots tested positive for blood: the steering wheel, the console, the gear shift lever knob and the top corner of the driver's door. Further tests found blood on the floor of Barton's garage, where the car was parked, on the kitchen wall and in a sink near the kitchen.

"All that suggested he had blood on his hands," House said.

But, House said, there was not enough blood for DNA testing, and no further tests were done.

When Barton was asked about the blood, Wynn said, he explained that his wife had cut herself with a kitchen knife and that he, while driving, sometimes picked acne on his leg until it bled.

Wynn also said the company that makes Luminol, the solvent used to test for the presence of blood, phoned him to say that Barton had called to ask questions about the product.

Love letters

Wynn then began chasing his own leads for Alabama investigators. Insurance sources told him about the life-insurance policy. Barton coworkers told him that, as early as three months before the killings, Barton had told them he and Leigh Ann Vandiver, his girlfriend, would be together by October.

From left to right: Mychelle, Leigh Ann, Mark and Michael Barton

Wynn also discovered that Vandiver had a box of love letters from Barton, but said Alabama investigators told him they didn't have time to pursue that lead.

"I'm not going to get into a debate with Jerry," says Cherokee County investigator Larry Wilson. "We did everything we could. We had circumstantial evidence, but we didn't have any physical evidence to prove he was even there, or that he did the murder."

While Barton said he was home with his children that night, police said he could not prove that he had not left the house while the children slept. He had enough time, Wilson agreed, to drive from Atlanta to the Alabama lake, commit the murders, and return before they awoke.

And, the Alabama investigator said, Barton could easily have entered and left the campground unnoticed. It was Labor Day weekend, and the park was crowded with about 500 campers and a live band.

Investigators scoffed at claims from Barton's former attorney, Michael Hauptman, that police had found a roofer who confessed to the slayings. Police told CNN that that so-called suspect had several witnesses who placed him away from the scene of the crimes.

Psychological pressure

Back in Atlanta, Wynn said he tried to put psychological pressure on Barton. The detective attended the funeral and tried to stare him down, but Barton averted his eyes. Later, at Barton's house, Wynn told his suspect, "We know you did it, Mark. Why don't you just give it up?"

Wynn said Barton was evasive, answering one question with "20 questions of his own," and never showing any signs of grief -- only fear.

When Wynn tried to tail Barton, figuring he might be on his way to hide evidence, Barton raced through a stoplight, hit speeds of 90 mph, and got away.

Wynn tried to interview Vandiver at the time, but Barton would not permit it -- nor would he agree to take a polygraph test.

Wynn said he warned Vandiver's mother "to get your daughter away from him. He'll hurt her."

Three months after the killings, a day-care worker reported that Barton's 2-year-old daughter, Mychelle, told her that her father had sexually abused her. An investigation by Georgia's Department of Family and Children Services was inconclusive because the child was too young to elaborate or to testify, officials told CNN.

A psychologist who examined the child and her father, told the Douglas County district attorney, David McDade, that Barton was dangerous.

McDade told CNN the psychologist contacted him because of the ongoing murder investigation. "In my file, it says he felt 'Barton is certainly capable of having committed the murders, capable of homicidal acts and thoughts.'"

'We knew he did it'

At the time, Wynn said, Barton feared he would soon be arrested, and told relatives that he expected to die soon. Wynn interpreted that to mean Barton was contemplating suicide. Frustrated at his inability to bring charges, Wynn "half-joked" with colleagues about staging a mock raid on Barton's house to make him think he was about to be arrested.

"We hoped he'd use his gun to shoot himself," said Wynn.

While McDade declined to criticize Alabama authorities, he said, "We knew he did it, and we didn't want him to think we were ever giving up. We did everything psychologically to make him know we knew he did it.

"My gut feeling is he killed his wife and mother-in-law," McDade said. "There was the life insurance, his affair, his going to the funeral with his girlfriend. He claimed to be home with his kids the night of the murders, but that turned out not to be a credible alibi. He had time to do it, financial incentive to do it, and the professed desire to be with his girlfriend. But all those elements don't constitute proof."

McDade had only praise for investigator Wynn.

"Jerry takes his cases very personally. He never quits," he said.

At his daughter's softball tournament in Texas over the weekend, Wynn said he hoped to return to Atlanta on Monday in time to attend the funerals of the grandchildren of Barton's former father-in-law, Bill Spivey.

For the past six years, Spivey has blamed Barton for the deaths of his wife and daughter. Now he blames him for killing his two grandchildren. Barton had not allowed him to see either of them since the 1993 funerals, according to a relative.