Barbara Sue Frost

Barbara Sue Frost was a 17-year-old girl working to overcome a difficult past and find her footing in the world. Friends described the high school dropout as a "troubled young lady" who was dealing with alcohol dependency, but in the months before her death, she had been earnestly trying to stay sober. She was living with three recovering alcoholics in Blaine, Minnesota, and regularly attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in Fridley. A friend recalled a recent meeting where Barbara led a discussion, sharing her realization that one couldn't run away from problems and had to "ride it out." He saw a lot of pain in her eyes but also recognized her intelligence and her recent upbeat, happy demeanor, partly because she was about to start a new job. Barbara, a white female, had been deeply affected by the death of her father about five years earlier, a loss her sister said changed her profoundly. Despite her struggles, she was working toward her GED and used hitchhiking as her primary way to get around.

On the night of Friday, August 23, 1985, Barbara was believed to be hitchhiking south on Highway 65. The last known sighting of her alive was around 11:30 p.m. at a gas station at 45th and Lyndale Avenue North in Minneapolis. An attendant who knew her reported seeing her with an unidentified man. At about 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, August 24, Barbara reportedly made a phone call to one of her housemates; party noise could be heard in the background. Later that day, at 2:23 p.m., a farmer mowing tall grass near a sod field in East Bethel made a grim discovery. In a drainage ditch south of Klondike Drive along Highway 65, he found Barbara’s body, fully clothed and lying face down.

An autopsy revealed the horrific violence of her death. Barbara had been stabbed more than 20 times in her chest and upper body. The murder weapon had penetrated her heart multiple times from both the front and the back. The Anoka County coroner determined that she had not been sexually assaulted and that there were no signs of a struggle where her body was found. This led investigators to conclude that she had been killed elsewhere and her body was later moved to the ditch. They estimated the time of death to be late Friday night or early Saturday morning.

The Anoka County Sheriff’s Office immediately launched a homicide investigation. Investigators believed the killer knew the rural area well, as the location where Barbara’s body was left was not heavily trafficked. A significant lead came from the gas station attendant who had seen her on Friday night. He provided a detailed description of the man she was with, leading to a police sketch. The suspect was described as a white male, 35 to 40 years old, standing 6-foot-3 or 6-foot-4 with a trim build. He had short, neat, sandy-colored hair parted on the left, a noticeable cleft chin, a prominent Adam's apple, and a small bump on the bridge of his nose. He was seen wearing a gold watch with diamonds or similar stones on its face and driving a tan, late-model Volvo station wagon with Minnesota license plates possibly beginning with "NOX" or "NOZ."

Despite this promising lead and the development of several persons of interest over the years, the investigation was hampered by a lack of physical evidence. Rain on Saturday morning had washed away potential tire tracks at the scene. While investigators pursued leads, no arrests were ever made, and no criminal charges have ever been filed in connection with Barbara’s murder. Her family was left with only grief and unanswered questions. "My sister never deserved this," her mother, Carol Patterson, said at the time. "Nobody deserves what happened to her."

Decades later, Barbara Sue Frost’s case remains an open and active investigation. It is now under the purview of the Anoka County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Homicide Unit, which was established with the help of a federal grant to review unsolved homicides. The unit’s dedicated detective and forensic expert are re-examining evidence from dozens of cases, including Barbara’s, in the hope that modern technology and a fresh perspective can finally bring a resolution. As of October 2023, her case is featured on the county's cold case website, a digital effort to generate new leads from the public. Anyone with information about the murder of Barbara Sue Frost is asked to contact the Anoka County Sheriff's Office at [email protected].