Circumstances of Disappearance
Gallagher was last seen in her Azalea, OR home in September 1988. Gallagher lived with her boyfriend, Robert Douglas Barr, at the time. She was reported missing by her sister on February 7, 1989. On March 26, 2001, the 61-year-old Barr killed his wife, Rebecca, in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and committed suicide a month later. Barr lived in a heavily wooded area in Azalea.
Azalea, Oregon, is located on Interstate -5, 88 miles north of the California border. Gallagher, at that time, was coaching the Roseburg Swim Team, was employed with the Red Cross, and worked as a life guard at Umpqua Community College swimming pool. Gallagher was a student at Umpqua Community College majoring in Corporate Physical Fitness. Gallagher has worked in retail, food and beverage service, community service, ranching.
Gallagher had friends in the Red Bluff / Redding region of California at the time she disappeared. The birthday and Christmas calls that she always made to her son in the Midwest stopped at the time.
Robert Douglas Barr, the man Barbara was living with at the time of her disappearance, is the main suspect in Gallagher's disappearance. He later married another woman who was murdered in 2001. After finding out that he was the focus of a police investigation into his wifes murder, he commited suicide with the same gun he allegedly used to shoot his wife.
Law enforcement closed the case in 2004, but Gallagher remains missing.