A version of this story has appeared in The Virginian-Pilot or here on the website almost annually since 1985. I missed the anniversary one year when my daughter got married. I wasn’t able to reach the Beach Cold Case Unit yesterday, but expect to talk to them today or Monday. If they have any new information, I’ll add it as an editor’s note.

Forgive the repetition. The trouble with a 46 year-old missing persons case is that the story doesn’t change.

Until it does.

I was alone in the newsroom on that August day in 1985. It was lunchtime and the editor’s phone was ringing incessantly.

“Dougherty. Virginian-Pilot, Ledger-Star,” I said, reciting the five-word greeting I always used because I thought it made me sound like a hard-nosed reporter.

“Hello,” began a polite woman on the other end of the phone. “My name is Pauline Monaco. I was wondering if the newspaper would consider writing another story about my daughter, Barbara Jean. She disappeared in Virginia Beach seven years ago. Your newspaper wrote a lot about her at the time.”

I’d arrived at The Pilot just the summer before that fateful call. I’d never heard of this Monaco girl. I promised her mom I’d dig out the files and get back to her.

Within a few hours of poring over yellowed clips and staring at the face of a cute teenager I had a new goal: I wanted to find out who killed this 18-year-old from Connecticut.

Here’s what we know about the case: Barbara Jean, her older sister and a friend drove to Virginia Beach from Derby, CT and checked into the old Aloha Motel on 15th Street on Sunday, August 20th.

They did what young people alway do in a beach resort: They hit the sand during the day, they hit the clubs at night.

On August 23rd Barbara Jean had a late-night (actually early morning) date with a bartender at Peabody’s on 21st Street. Yep, that place was just as popular in 1978 as it is today. 

She set out on foot alone from the Aloha to walk the six blocks to the club.

Along the way she vanished.

Of course people don’t just disappear. Witnesses saw her get into a station wagon that already held four or five men. Police believe these were local guys she’d met earlier in the week. They drove her to a cottage next to a pond near Oceana NAS where she was gang-raped and murdered. 

Since the start of the investigation the police have had a handful of local guys on their radar. The cops believe they were with her on the night she died. They were deceptive on lie detector tests in 1978. They’ve kept silent for 46 years.

Ten months after Barbara Jean’s disappearance an informant came forward with details about the murder but the prosecutor refused to grant him immunity in exchange for his testimony.

That was a critical mistake. The case went cold after that.

Back in 2001, one of the men who was in the car that picked up Barbara Jean talked to the cold case detectives. Jimbo Moore, admitted he was with her on the night before she died and gave the police details about her clothing that they’d never released to the public. He promised to come back and tell the detectives everything he knew.

Instead, he went home and ran a hose from the exhaust pipe on his truck to the cab. He died on the eve of the 23rd anniversary of Barbara Jean’s death.

Another man considered part of the Monaco case died of cancer recently. 

The others are still out there. 

Virginia Beach detectives haven’t given up. They’ve made a compelling video about the Monaco case. Her case is “active” on the Virginia State Police Cold Case list.

Barbara Jean Monaco would be 64 if she were alive today. Older than her parents when she was killed.

Four years ago, a friend breathlessly phoned to tell me to get to the intersection of Laskin and First Colonial Road. 

“There’s a guy with a sign asking who killed Barbara Jean!”

I was headed in a different direction but I made a U-turn, sped to that corner and parked in the Walgreen’s lot. 

“Hi. I’m Kerry Dougherty, mind if I ask you a few questions,” I said, as I approached, flipping open a notebook.

“I wondered when you’d come,” he replied coolly. 

The man with the homemade sign, wearing a mask, said he’d read my stories in the newspaper for years and was outraged that someone got away with murder in his hometown. He said he’d been at that busy intersection with that same sign every August for years.

No, he never got any new information. Nope, no other person had ever stopped to talk to him. No, he didn’t want his name made public.

“I figure someone driving by might know what happened to her,” he said. “Maybe they’ll finally talk to the police.”

I’ve written about this case scores of times in the 39 years since I took that phone call. I’ve met the family. I interviewed investigators. I’ve tried to talk to the suspects. I once had a local lawyer phone to ask me to stop snooping around. I had a couple of anonymous messages on my office voicemail claiming to have information. I passed along the numbers to the police.

Nothing.

Someone knows who killed Barbara Jean Monaco. Several someones. There is no statute of limitations on murder. 

If you have information about her slaying you know what you should do. 

Now do it.

If you or anyone you know has information about this case please contact the Virginia Beach Cold Case detectives. Their Address: 2509 Princess Anne Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23456 Phone Number: 757 385 4241 Email: CCHU@vbgov.com or CLICK HERE to submit a tip online.

Notice that this police report is dated August 25, 1978. Virginia Beach Police made Barbara Jean’s sister wait 48 hours before allowing her to file a missing persons report.

That was their first mistake.