A phone call about a 1966 Calumet City murder prompted detectives to reexamine the cold case more than 55 years later and then make an arrest, authorities said Monday.
In November 1966, Karen Snider was stabbed more than 120 times inside the home she shared with her husband. Evidence led detectives to initially arrest James Barbier, a family friend of hers. However, the arrest didn’t hold up.
In 2022, family member Kevin Seeley decided to call the police department and inquire about the case after hearing about it multiple times from his now-deceased grandmother.
“I just said there’s a 1966 Karen Snyder case and ‘alright, we’ll look into it,’ he said, referring to the call. “…And they actually did a good job,” he said at a news conference on Monday.
Detectives tested the blood evidence, which later connected Barbier’s DNA to the murder, police said.
The now-79-year-old was arrested in Missouri and brought back to Illinois to face murder charges.
Paula Larson, Snider’s daughter, said after police announced the arrest, she was at her mother’s gravesite, where she uttered the words “Mom and Dad, we got him.”
“I’m still on with my family, a journey to justice,” she said. “It’s not over, but we’re closer than we ever were in 57 years.”
Larson said in 2009, she tried to get more attention drawn to the cold case. But she said that never happened because she was raising a family at the time.
Larson said his father also tried to get Snider’s murder solved, and he worked on it until the time of his death.
“I believe my father died way early because of this, because of the fight that he had internally,” she said. “The knowledge that he 98% felt this was the killer.”
Barbier was released from custody after his first court appearance. Another hearing will take place on May 21.
