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Tests back on Barr killing

Gregory Crofton

Ballistics tests confirmed that a gun found in the shallow water of a Tahoe Keys lagoon next to the body of Robert Barr is the same one used to kill 45-year-old Rebecca Barr.

“It was a homicide and he was the perpetrator,” said El Dorado County Sheriff’s Sgt. Bob Johnston. “My personal opinion is that they were having severe financial difficulties and he didn’t have a need for her anymore. He used all her resources and money … the actual reason we’ll never know for sure.”

Investigators believe Robert Barr, a man convicted of robbery in 1996, killed his wife of several years by shooting her twice in the back and once in the back of the head. Her body was discovered in March in the woods about 50 yards from Fallen Leaf Lake Road.



The Barrs did not tell family members when they came to South Lake Tahoe from Portland, Ore., to escape financial trouble and possibly start a new life.

Investigators know that they stayed two nights at Horizon Casino Resort before Robert pawned some construction tools and took off in the couple’s rental car to visit Rebecca’s brother in Missouri.



Robert was alone when he asked the brother for money, saying the couple’s luggage had been stolen.

The brother rejected his plea and Barr drove back to South Shore. Then in late April, Robert was found in the lagoon. Four boys in a canoe who were out looking for beaver nests found his body. The rental car was parked in the driveway of a vacation home nearby.

Investigators said the decomposition of the body indicated it had been in the water for weeks.

Barr is also a suspect in missing person’s case of one of his former girlfriends. Detectives in Douglas County, Oregon are investigating that case.


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