NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – No physique, no crime scene, no clear suspects, only a North Charleston mom who vanished—and a case that’s gone chilly for greater than 20 years.
Now, a renewed push for solutions to uncover what occurred to Selina Barfield, who left behind a younger daughter and a long time of unanswered questions.
North Charleston, 2003
In 2003, Katie Barfield was 9, rising up in a North Charleston trailer park the place she mentioned poverty and crime had been a part of every day life.
“Folks on the market that reside on the road block bleeding, simply on daily basis promoting medicine and simply residing in that form of lifetime of poverty or how North Charleston is,” Katie mentioned.
Katie’s mother, Selina Barfield, additionally recognized regionally as Nina, struggled with dependancy, which made it tough for her to boost younger youngsters.
“My mother was working the streets, doing a variety of drug exercise, prostitution, working up and down,” Katie mentioned. “My mother, as soon as she obtained on that sort of stage of medicine, you may positively see the transition of mom that she was.”
Katie remembers leaving the trailer park that yr to reside along with her aunt and uncle, and needed to say goodbye to her mother, for what she thought was momentary.
“I had that feeling; I knew my mother was by no means coming again. She had simply seen me three days earlier than that and gave me some skates, and he or she was like, ‘I’m coming again for you. I’m going to go get clear.’ She did promise me that,” she mentioned.
32-year-old Selina Barfield was alleged to get on a bus a couple of days later to obtain therapy at a rehab facility in Columbia. However she by no means obtained on that bus.
“It’s virtually 20-something years later, and he or she’s by no means been discovered,” Katie Barfield mentioned. “There’s no signal; nothing ever’s come up about her.”
Selina was final seen by household at what as soon as was the Stayover Lodge in the beginning of July. She was formally reported lacking on July 29, 2003.
On the time of her disappearance, Selina was residing along with her boyfriend on the Fairmont Trailer Park in North Charleston.
No clue, no leads, no proof
North Charleston Detective George Robert Van Tine Jr. not too long ago began engaged on the division’s chilly case unit and is making an attempt to assist put the items collectively.
“Investigators again then tried to find her, and when that failed, as time went on, as months glided by and there was no phrase of her, then clearly there’s one thing incorrect,” Van Tine mentioned.
“We don’t know precisely the place the crime scene occurred. You simply have somebody that we all know lived within the North Charleston space that simply all of a sudden simply vanished,” Van Tine mentioned. “We don’t have an actual date when the crime occurred or the place it occurred.”
“There’s no signal, no physique, no clue, no leads, no proof. It’s actually a chilly case,” Katie Barfield mentioned.
Through the years, ideas and rumors surfaced, however none led investigators to Selina.
“They’ve heard that they fed her to the gators as a result of that’s a method to eliminate a physique. I’ve additionally heard the story of her perhaps getting taken with a intercourse trafficking ring,” Katie mentioned. “I’ve heard the opposite state of affairs of foul play along with her boyfriend.”
“A variety of relations, pals, she had a boyfriend on the time, they had been interviewed simply to see principally the place her final location was and if they might work out the place she is or who, at the least, she was final seen with. That got here up empty for proper now; there have been statements made again then,” Van Tine mentioned.
However with no physique and no leads, the case stays caught in time.
Katie was requested if she believes her mom remains to be alive.
“I don’t. I simply know in my coronary heart she would have been reached out. She is aware of I’ve had a toddler, her mom handed away, her sister’s handed away,” Katie mentioned. “It’s similar to there’s simply no solutions, no clues.”
‘No one is like my mother’
Detective Van Tine mentioned the subsequent step is to reinterview the individuals who knew Selina on the time, with hopes that new info might come ahead.
“Perhaps there’s one thing that they didn’t bear in mind again then that they bear in mind now, or they’ve heard one thing and simply by no means reported it to anyone,” he mentioned.
And even with Selina Barfield’s troubles, she was deeply beloved by her household and the Charleston neighborhood, who will proceed to battle for solutions.
“My mother was actually simply outspoken. Her persona was actual robust. Anyone that knew my mother beloved my mother,” Katie remembered. “Similar to her spunkiness, her spontaneity. No one is like my mother. My mother was out of this world.”
“It simply blows my thoughts that no person’s discovered nothing; nothing’s come about, no physique or nothing,” she mentioned. “If anyone has any info, I simply have to know, even when they do it anonymously.”
Detective Van Tine might be contacted with any info within the disappearance of Selina Barfield at 843-740-5875 or vantiner@northcharleston.org.
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