Sharon Joann Barnes was 48 and serving as Chief Deputy Sheriff for the Dent County Sheriff’s Department when she was fatally wounded in the line of duty. On the afternoon of December 9, 2002, Barnes and Sheriff Bob Wofford went to a mobile home on County Road 231, west of Salem, to question a man wanted in a double homicide earlier that morning linked to a dispute over a lawn mower and methamphetamine. The suspect’s girlfriend answered the door, and when Barnes asked about the man, Earl Mitchell Forrest stepped out and opened fire with a .22-caliber handgun.

Barnes was struck in the head and torso and Sheriff Wofford was also wounded during the exchange; the suspect was shot in the face but survived. Barnes was airlifted to St. John’s Mercy Medical Center in St. Louis and died the next morning, December 10, 2002. The two other victims in the case were Harriet Smith and Michael Wells. Did anyone in the area see activity around County Road 231 on December 9, 2002, that could help complete the timeline?