Leslie Ann Barker, 28, was murdered on April 6, 1978, in Akron, Ohio. A schoolteacher, she had been seen earlier that evening at Red’s Bar on Waterloo Road attending a computerized dating event. In the early morning hours she was found dead inside her car, which had been set on fire in a dead-end alley near railroad tracks; her body was severely burned and the vehicle was charred.

The scene suggested a violent, deliberate attack. The Akron Police Department and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) investigated, and Barker’s case is listed in the BCI cold case archive as an unsolved homicide. Media coverage over the years, including a podcast episode, has revisited the case and raised the question of whether she met her attacker at the dating event.

Anyone with information that could help identify who killed Leslie Barker is asked to come forward.