Tent Girl: Barbara Ann Hackmann Taylor

Barbara Ann "Bobbie" (Hackmann) Taylor (September 12, 1943 – c. December 6, 1967), also known as the "Tent Girl", was notable as an unidentified homicide victim for nearly 30 years after her body was found on May 17, 1968, near Georgetown, Kentucky. She was referred to as "Tent Girl" because of material wrapped around her. On April 23, 1998, the Scott County Sheriff's Office announced that this victim had been identified. Hackmann Taylor, born in Illinois, was married and had an eight-month-old daughter when she went missing from her home in Lexington, Kentucky.

Her late husband, George Earl Taylor, was a carnival worker and the prime suspect in the murder case. He did not file a missing person report but told her family that she had left him for another man. He died of cancer in October 1987. Because he was a prime suspect, Hackmann's family excluded his name when they commissioned a new tombstone for her gravesite. Giving her full name and dates, it was added beneath one identifying her as "Tent Girl" at her grave at the Georgetown Cemetery. She had been buried in 1971 by local authorities when her case was stalled.

History

Wilbur Riddle, who had been scavenging for glass insulators alongside U.S. Route 25 near Georgetown, Kentucky, on May 17, 1968, discovered a decomposing body wrapped in a heavy green canvas tarpaulin. It was material such as might be used to wrap up a tent. A police investigation failed to identify the deceased woman or to name any suspects in her apparent murder, despite efforts to publicize her description and check reports of missing women.

With no new leads in the case, her remains were buried in 1971 in the Georgetown Cemetery. A local company donated the headstone, which was inscribed with the following:

TENT GIRL

FOUND MAY 17 1968

ON U.S. HIGHWAY 25, N.

DIED ABOUT APRIL 26 – MAY 3, 1968

AGE ABOUT 16 – 19 YEARS

HEIGHT 5 FEET 1 INCH

WEIGHT 110 TO 115 LBS.

REDDISH BROWN HAIR

UNIDENTIFIED

The opposite side had an engraving of her likeness, as it appeared in a police sketch of how she might have looked in life. For decades this stone was the only marker on her grave.

Identification

In April 1998, the Tent Girl was positively identified by the Scott County Sheriff's Office as Barbara Ann Hackmann Taylor. They were aided by the efforts of Todd Matthews, then 27, of Livingston, Tennessee. In the late 1980s, he married a daughter of Wilbur Riddle, who found the young woman. Matthews heard about the missing woman, whose fate had haunted his father-in-law.   He became intensely interested in the case and, as the Internet began to be frequently used for posting of public databases and volunteer websites of missing and unidentified persons, Matthews combed through many reports in an effort to identify her.  In 1997 he created his own website for the Tent Girl, as another way to make people aware of her.

In 1998 Matthews discovered a description of Taylor posted by the Hackmann family on a missing person’s website. They had a young married female relative who had gone missing in Lexington, Kentucky (approximately 15 miles from Georgetown) in late 1967.  She had been living there with her husband and infant daughter. He emailed information on the Tent Girl to Rosemary Westbrook of Arkansas, who was listed as a contact for the family. She believed that the information matched her missing sister and contacted the Scott County Sheriff's Office. They confirmed elements of her description of her sister, including a distinctive gap between her top two center teeth.

The police arranged to exhume the body, in order to extract DNA for analysis and potential match to Hackmann family members. A match was made and on April 26, 1998, the Sheriff's Office confirmed the identity of the victim as Barbara Ann Hackmann. She was survived by three sisters: Rosemary Westbrook of Benton, Arkansas; Jan Daigle of Placerville, California; and Marie Copeland of Arundel, Maine.

In addition, Hackmann Taylor's own daughter had been traced to Ohio, where her father's family had lived.  She had married and had children of her own by the time her mother was identified.

The family chose to have Hackmann's remains re-interred in Georgetown Cemetery, with an additional stone base placed under the original grave marker, bearing her birth name, nickname, date of birth, the presumed date of death, and the inscription "Loving Mother, Grandmother & Sister".

The Hackmann family excluded Barbara's married name from her gravestone. The police have identified her late husband, George Earl Taylor, as the prime suspect in the murder case. He died of cancer in October 1987.

Representation in other media

An episode of the true-crime series Who Killed Jane Doe? Covered the case of the "Tent Girl".

An episode of the true-crime podcast, "Crime Junkies" covered the case on their episode titled, "Tent Girl."

Aftermath

After Taylor's identification, Matthews co-founded The Doe Network. It is a group that maintains an online database for the use of volunteers, who are dedicated to matching missing persons with unidentified decedents.