In the early morning of September 6, 2021, Krotz Springs police responded to a domestic disturbance and found 61-year-old John Barker dead on the front porch of a home on Seventh Avenue. He had been shot five times and died within minutes after being struck by 9mm rounds in his right flank while turned away from the shooter.

The case centered on a recent reconciliation between Barker and his ex-wife, 49-year-old Margaret Yvette Barker. Their daughter, Cierra Barker, called 911 during the altercation, saying she feared her father would try to kill her mother and noting that her mother, a security guard, had a gun. Investigators used phone records, bullet trajectory analysis, and witness testimony in the subsequent prosecution.

In March 2024 a St. Landry Parish jury found Margaret Yvette Barker guilty of second-degree murder, and she was sentenced in April 2024 to life in prison without the possibility of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. Does anyone have information about John Barker’s life in Krotz Springs or about the days leading up to September 6, 2021?