When I was in ninth grade, my mom had a man she’d been flirting with move into our house while he “got back on his feet.” He travelled all the way from Oregon to our house, carrying a couple gifts. A Oregon mascot that was green and vaguely cute. Stiff furred. A jersey again with the Oregon University emblem. And photo albums full of newspaper clippers all about the murder of one college student in 1980.

It was creepy.

He was creepy.

And for years I thought that maybe his obsession meant that maybe he was the murderer of Barbara Mae Tucker.

I was wrong.

This is the tragic story of Barbara Mae Tucker, a college student in Oregon.

SOURCES

https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2021/06/she-will-always-be-19-arrest-in-1980-cold-case-murder-brings-some-relief-more-grief-to-family-of-barbara-tucker.html

https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2021/06/suspect-arrested-for-1980-gresham-cold-case-murder-police-say.html

Robert Plympton, 58,

https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/robert-plympton-arrested-for-1980-murder-of-barbara-mae-tucker

https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/robert-plympton-arrested-for-1980-murder-of-barbara-mae-tucker

https://pamplinmedia.com/go/42-news/511694-409102-solving-barbara-tuckers-murder

https://greshamoregon.gov/News/2021/Police-Department/Gresham-Police-make-arrest-in-1980-cold-case-homicide/

https://www.koin.com/news/crime/barbara-tuckers-family-had-hope-1980-murder-would-be-solved/

https://abcnews.go.com/US/arrest-made-citys-oldest-cold-case-murder-genetic/story?id=78170321