Judge dismisses lawsuit against City of Joplin by woman who kept dead husband's body in freezer

A federal judge today dismissed a lawsuit filed against the City of Joplin and Jasper County Coroner Rob Chappel by a woman police say kept her husband's body in a freezer in a bedroom for nearly a year.

In her lawsuit, Barbara Watters claimed her freezer was destroyed and her husband's body was never returned to her.

Judge Douglas Harpool dismissed the case without prejudice after Watters and her attorneys failed to comply with his September 21 order to report to the court about the status of the case. Watters will have the option of refiling the case.

The case was originally filed in Jasper County Circuit Court, then transferred to U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. Watters asked for her husband's body back and for the return of other items that were seized when the Joplin Police Department executed a search warrant at her home at 2602 S. Vermont Avenue November 12, payment of attorney fees and costs and an unspecified amount in punitive damages for "gross violation of her civil rights."

The petition indicated that her husband Paul Barton died in September 2019, rather than the December 2018 date mentioned in court records and in news releases.

Watters was initially charged with abandonment of a corpse. That charge was dismissed.

The petition said Watters received a letter from Joplin City Attorney Jordan Paul March 6 saying her husband's body was in the possession of the coroner. In another later dated March 25, Paul told Watters the freezer had been "damaged beyond repair."

When the abandonment of a corpse charge was dismissed against Watters, Judge Joseph Hensley issued the following 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.