Cold facts lead judge to dismiss case against Joplin woman who kept dead husband in the freezer

A felony abandonment of a corpse charge against a Joplin woman who kept her husband in a freezer in her bedroom for a year after he died were dismissed Friday in Jasper County Circuit Court.

Judge Joseph Hensley followed the old saying that you can't abandon a corpse when you're keeping it right by you in a bedroom freezer.

There were no other charges against Barbara Jean Watters, 67, who was charged shortly after her husband Paul Barton's body was discovered when the Joplin Police Department executed a search warrant at her home at 2602 S. Vermont Avenue November 12. Barton had died in December 2018.







Judge Hensley outlined the facts in the case in his ruling:

Defendant and her husband, Paul Barton, lived together in Joplin, but slept in separate beds in different rooms. Mr. Barton died in his bedroom. 

The Defendant subsequently drug him into her bedroom using a blanket from his bed. Using a wooden ramp, she lifted and placed his wrapped body in a working freezer she previously purchased for that purpose. 

The freezer, and Barton’s body, remained in Defendant’s bedroom until JPD executed a search warrant on November 12th, 2019. 

Neither Defendant nor anyone else notified the Jasper or Newton County Coroner’s office regarding Mr. Barton’s death when he passed away. There is no suggestion Mr. Barton died of anything other than natural causes.