In the summer of 2007, 36-year-old Kimberly Compton Whitton, a White female, vanished from her home in Section, Alabama, alongside her 11-year-old daughter, Haleigh Culwell. The last known contact with Kimberly was on June 21, 2007, when she briefly spoke to a friend after leaving her job at Cloverdale Manor Nursing Home in Scottsboro. The call was cut short due to a bad connection, with Kimberly promising to call back in five minutes, a promise she would never fulfill. It wasn't until a week later, on June 28, that her concerned coworkers reported her missing.
Kimberly and her daughter lived in a secluded log cabin on a forty-acre property with her husband of eight years, Barry Van Whitton. When questioned by authorities, Barry claimed that his wife and stepdaughter had left in a white Ford van or truck with Alabama license plates shortly after Kimberly returned from work. He stated that he had given Kimberly $20,000 in cash and that they might have been headed to Montana. However, friends and family found this explanation to be out of character for Kimberly, who was a dedicated nurse and had never missed work without notice except for a school trip with her daughter.
Suspicion quickly fell upon Barry Whitton, who had a prior criminal record for receiving stolen property. A search of his property following the disappearances uncovered several firearms, which he was legally prohibited from owning due to his felony convictions. This led to his arrest on federal weapons charges, for which he was sentenced to ten years in prison, a significantly longer sentence than is typical, with the judge citing him as a danger to the community. During his incarceration, witnesses testified to hearing Barry brag about murdering three people and discuss methods of body disposal.
The investigation into Kimberly and Haleigh's disappearance also brought renewed scrutiny to the death of Barry's first wife, Michelle Townson Whitton, in 1997. Michelle had been found beaten and stabbed to death, her body buried in a shallow grave, six weeks after Barry had reported her missing. In December 2014, while still in prison on the weapons charge, Barry Whitton was indicted for Michelle's murder. He was found guilty in September 2015 and sentenced to life in prison.
Despite the conviction for the murder of his first wife and being the primary suspect in the disappearance of Kimberly and Haleigh, Barry Whitton has never been charged in connection with their cases. Authorities did find what they described as blood in one of his pickup trucks and on a hatchet handle, but further details about this evidence have not been publicly released. Kimberly Compton Whitton and Haleigh Culwell remain missing, and their case is unsolved.
