{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Midnight Mystery Archive","title":"Someone Waited for Her Kids to Leave. Barbara Chapman Was Murdered in Frankford, Ontario. | Part 1","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1035,"description":"On the morning of January 23rd, 1984, Barbara Chapman made breakfast for her two children in a small house north of Frankford, Ontario. She helped them get ready for school. She watched them board the school bus. Then she went inside and called her mother - they spoke while Barbara did chores around the house.\nThat phone call was the last contact anyone had with Barbara Chapman alive.\nAt four o'clock that afternoon, her twelve-year-old daughter came home from school. Her mother was not in the house. The girl searched for more than an hour. She eventually found her mother's body in the garage.\nBarbara Chapman was thirty-eight years old. Her murder has never been solved.\nFrankford is a small village on the shores of the Trent River in what is now the city of Quinte West in eastern Ontario, roughly 82 kilometers southeast of Peterborough and about 14 kilometers north of Trenton. In 1984 it had fewer than 2,000 people. The Canada Unsolved Database describes the morning this way: while Barbara prepared breakfast for her two children, someone was waiting.\nThe cause of death has never been publicly released - a deliberate investigative decision. In cold cases, withholding specific details preserves the ability of investigators to evaluate tips and confessions. After 42 years, the OPP has maintained that discipline. What has been confirmed: Barbara was murdered, someone came to that house in the approximately seven hours between her phone call and her daughter's return, and no one has ever been charged.\nThe Ontario Provincial Police have been investigating for 42 years. There have been anniversary appeals and a steadily increasing reward. In November 2024, the OPP issued a geographically targeted appeal for witnesses specifically in Northern Ontario - a narrowing of focus that is not accidental. Investigators do not make specific geographic asks without a reason. The current reward is $50,000 from the Government of Ontario, renewed and publicized on the 40th anniversary...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/JhFVuE-xAb0ydWIP0tTwyNSjGGXUQr64w-4hdQP9SN0/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS80MzEz/MzBkYjc5OGViYTdk/ZjhjMTZmZDJhMDc1/OGU3NS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}