Barbara Ware was a 23-year-old Black woman found dead on January 10, 1987, in the Central-Alameda area of Los Angeles. Her body was discovered in an alley on East 56th Street; she had been shot in the chest with a .25-caliber handgun. An anonymous 911 caller said they saw her body dumped from a van and supplied a full license plate number. The van was later located in a church parking lot, but investigators reported no useful evidence inside.

Detectives questioned aspects of the caller’s account, noting it was unclear how someone could have identified the victim’s gender or read a plate in a dark alley, and that raised suspicion the caller might be linked to the crime. The murder was later connected to a series of killings attributed to the so-called Grim Sleeper, a pattern involving victims shot and discarded in alleys, often partially clothed; many victims were Black women and some had traces of cocaine in their systems. Few details about the immediate investigation have been released.

Did anyone who knew Barbara or who lived in Central-Alameda in 1987 see or hear anything that could help fill gaps in the timeline?