This story starts with a man named Wilbur Riddle who stumbled upon one of the biggest surprises one can imagine while combing the sides of Route 25 in Kentucky looking for glass insulators. On May 18, 1968 he came across a large mass enveloped in a green tent similar to the ones used at a carnival. Once Mr. Riddle realized this was actually a decomposing body, he rapidly notified the local law enforcement. What they found was a female body, frozen stiff, who had been killed by a single blow to the head. Police were unable to identify the young girl and any possible family failed to come forward, and so she was dubbed “Tent Girl”. A tombstone was donated and for 30 years it read “Tent Girl. Found May 17, 1968 on Highway 25, N. Died about April 26 – May 3, 1968. Unidentified.”
Many decades later a man named Todd Matthews was determined to find justice for this poor, forgotten girl. He visited sites around the area and did immense amounts of research in order to find some answers. While scrolling through pages upon pages of missing person’s websites, he stumbled across a posting about a woman that matched the description of Tent Girl. The posting was made by a lady from Arkansas named Rosemary Westbrook who was seeking any information about her older sister who had gone missing and was last seen in Lexington, Kentucky. Upon reaching out to Westbrook, Matthews was completely shocked to learn that her description of her sister was almost identical to his unidentified Tent Girl.
Forensic investigators were so intrigued that they had Tent Girl’s body exhumed in order to conduct DNA testing. When the results came in, Tent Girl was finally identified as 24-year-old Barbara Ann Hackmann-Taylor who had moved to Kentucky without notifying anyone. So who is Barbara Ann Hackmann you might ask? And what happened to her? Barbara (who went by Bobbie) had a young daughter and was married to a carnival worker named Earl Taylor at the time of her disappearance (recall the carnival like tent the body was wrapped in...ironic, I know). Upon questioning, Taylor claimed Bobbie left him for another man and he hadn’t seen her since. Although Taylor was deceased and never implicated in Bobbie’s death, many believe that he killed her after an explosive argument, wrapped her in a tent he had from work, and disposed of her body. Taylor was known as an explosive man with a temper, and Bobbie’s body was found not far from I-75, a road leading to Ohio where Taylor’s family resided. Although Bobbie may never get the justice she deserved, the headstone above her gravesite was finally engraved with her identification.
If you True Crime Junkies are interested about hearing more about Tent Girl check out the Crime Junkie podcast hosted by Ashley Flowers where they recount the story, and all its chilling details!
Pictured below (Left to Right, Top then Bottom): A sketch of Tent Girl compared to an actual image of Bobbie https://www.huffpost.com/entry/a-body-in-kentucky-the-30_b_11389174. The location where Tent Girl was first discovered https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7559982/. Todd Matthews visits the burial site of Bobbie https://www.documentingreality.com/forum/f249/case-tent-girl-barbara-ann-hackmann-taylor-165138/. The final headstone of Barbara Ann Hackmann https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7468/barbara-ann-hackmann.
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