Rachel Elizabeth Barber was born on September 12, 1983 to parents Elizabeth & Michael Barber & she had two younger sisters, Heather & Ashleigh-Rose. Rachel was typically shy but because she loved to dance, that’s where her true personality came through. She was a beautiful girl with dark hair & green eyes & those that knew her were amazed at her talent in dance. Rachel had big dreams & aspirations of starring in musicals & would have likely been on her way to stardom. On March 1, 1999 when Rachel was fifteen years old, she didn’t return from her dance school & her family never saw her alive again.
In late 1992 to early 1993, when Rachel was nine, her family moved to Mont Albert, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. As they settled in, the family was happy with their move & felt it was a friendly area to raise their children. Rachel’s sister, Ashleigh-Rose became friends with Kathy Robertson & Rachel became friends with Kathy’s sister, Chrissie, of a family that lived across the street from them. These girls had an older sister named Caroline Reed Robertson who Rachel’s parents, Elizabeth & Michael grew to trust. Caroline was five years older than Rachel & in 1996, when she was about 16-years-old, she began to babysit for the Barber girls.
Caroline tended to stay in her own company & deeply lacked self-confidence. As she spent more & more time with the Barber girls, she became captivated by Rachel & quickly began making comparisons between Rachel & herself. Rachel was tall & slender with a lithe dancer’s physique & sadly, Caroline was disgusted by her own body. She was terribly unhappy with her weight & envied both Rachel’s body as well as her style. Caroline felt that she had absolutely nothing going for her & was deeply depressed.
As Caroline spent time with Rachel, she quickly noted that she was her idea of perfection & who & what she wished she could be. As she noted Rachel’s beauty, she felt that she had the looks to be on the cover of a magazine & on top of it, she was a talented dancer & a popular student.
Caroline was born on November 3, 1978 into a financially secure but troubled household where she was subject to frequent criticism from both parents. Her mother preferred her older sister & suffered from significant mood disorder, especially at the time of Caroline’s birth. Her father was a more constant fixture in her life that Caroline viewed as angry & controlling. She was frequently bullied at school, most often about her weight & over time, Caroline’s self-image crumbled. She often journaled about loathing herself & her situation which supported her description of feeling unhappy & miserable throughout her life. While in school, Caroline had few friends & needed to change schools as a result of some difficulties. Family issues & the development of epilepsy seemed to worsen Caroline’s anger which led to acts of theft & other vengeful or aggressive outbursts.
As Caroline got older & went on to work professionally, her work relationships were described as satisfactory & normal but outside of work, she felt lonely & isolated with little to no one that she could confide in or bond with.
As Caroline continued to make comparisons between herself & Rachel, she began to develop a borderline obsession for Rachel & began to resent her as a person. As this was happening, Caroline took to journaling & writing down loathing words to describe herself, even drawing self-portraits with descriptions such as “pizza face.” On September 28, 1993, when Caroline was only fourteen & hadn’t yet begun babysitting for the Barber family, she titled a self-portrait “Misfit” & made a long list of words to describe herself: Obese, dead, useless, stupid, deformed, unwanted, jealous, loser, to name a few. She also wrote, “Life is torture in its purest form.” Also, “God made the snow, God made the lakes, God made me, well, we all make mistakes.” She once painted & hung a self-portrait that was completely black.
She also made a list of things she generally hated that included: School, teachers, snobby people, school work & herself. She wrote that she wanted to curl up & die & that she did not want to go back to school because she didn’t fit in & people called her names like fat, ugly & weird.
The negative feelings & resentments that Caroline harbored toward Rachel went unnoticed by all involved because Caroline was able to maintain a pleasant facade, keeping her worsening thoughts within her head & continued to act as a friend. Out of touch from reality, it was Caroline’s mindset that Rachel had never faced adversity in her life & lived in a picture perfect world. Of course, like any living, breathing human, Rachel faced her own struggles in school & was unhappy when she wasn’t dancing, uninterested in school work. She also feared failure when it came to her chosen field of dance.
In late 1998 when Rachel was fifteen, the highly regarded Dance Factory studio in Richmond accepted Rachel as a full-time student. The studio was only seven miles from her home. There, she met another student named Emmanuel “Manny” Carella & the two quickly began a relationship. Soon, classmates started referring to the couple as Romeo & Juliet.
As Rachel’s dancing skills & modeling opportunities were escalating, Caroline was working a less glamorous desk job for a mobile phone service provider in Melbourne.
In 1997, Caroline asked Elizabeth & Michael if she could take some pictures of Rachel for a project she was working on. That summer, she also called Rachel’s sister Ashleigh-Rose & asked for Rachel’s birthdate, indicating this was also for the project she was working on. In reality, she was using this information to apply for a copy of Rachel’s birth certificate. In December 1997, the Barber family moved to Bayswater North, about eleven miles away.
Over time, Caroline’s journal entries began to focus on Rachel & very sinister plans she had. She wrote that she would kill her & assume her identity. She wrote about ordering a pizza & sprinkling it with “drowsy powder” as well as references to a “toxic cloth over mouth, dump far away.”
Caroline began to put a plan together & came up with the idea to lure Rachel away to her own apartment with the pretense of earning $100 to participate in a highly-confidential psychological survey. She instructed Rachel not to tell anyone about it or the results could be compromised. Because Rachel knew Caroline & believed she could trust her, she agreed. The night of Sunday, February 28, 1999 was the last evening the Barber family spent together. That night, Caroline called Rachel at 5:24 pm & the call lasted 15 minutes & 27 seconds. She called a second time at 5:45 pm & the call lasted 29 minutes & 42 seconds. During these conversations, Caroline began her plans & told Rachel about the survey & asked her to meet her after dance class the following day.
The next morning, Monday, March 1, Michael Barber saw his daughter for the last time when he dropped her off at the tram stop on the corner of Riverdale & Elgar Road for her trip to Richmond at 9:30 am. Rachel was wearing her black dance pants, a light colored top & black dance shoes. She carried a black dance bag & a long sleeved gray/blue top. Rachel made plans to have breakfast at her friend Kylee’s house before class & arranged to meet her dad at the same spot at 6:15 pm. She didn’t mention that she’d made plans after school & would be late arriving. When Rachel didn’t arrive & Elizabeth & Michael weren’t able to find her, they reported her missing that evening at the Box Hill Police Station.
Earlier that Monday morning, when Rachel arrived in Richmond, she headed to Kylee’s house & met her boyfriend Manny & his brother Domenic. At about 10:15 am, the group left to go to dance school. Since Rachel was told by Caroline that the psychological survey she would be taking part in was confidential, Rachel remained guarded with dance classmates that day. She told them she was sworn to secrecy but she would tell them all about it afterward & her friends made the assumption that it was a modeling job. She had told a classmate that she was going to make a lot of money & that evening & she would be with someone that they didn’t know.
Meanwhile, Manny was concerned with Rachel’s secrecy & worried that she’d somehow gotten herself in trouble though Rachel assured him she was fine & that she was going to do a job & “earn a heap of money” & mentioned meeting up with a female friend. As Rachel spent time with Manny that day, she’d pointed out a pair of shoes she liked that cost $100 & told him she planned to buy them the next day. Not only had she not told them where she was going, but she also hadn’t mentioned to her family that she’d spoken with Caroline the night before she went missing, but her mom had noticed her talking on the phone.
The police began to put the pieces together of Rachel’s last known movements. At about 4 pm, Rachel asked Domenic to drive her to Bridge Road after class. When they spoke with her friends, they informed police that when school ended at 5:35 pm, they left & walked together down Church Street to Bridge Road & said goodbye to them at 5:45 pm & continued on. Domenic asked if she still needed a ride & she said didn’t. Her classmate Tamara asked her where she was going & she said that she was going to walk up Bridge Road & her dad would pick her up at the end of the tram line. Tamara offered to walk with her to the stop, but Rachel declined.
A witness named Allison Guberek who was a former Dance Factory student, saw Rachel get on the tram at High & Chapel Streets at about 6:40 pm & she was in the company of an older girl, who was Caroline & they both got off the tram at the corner of Williams Road & High Street which is 120 meters from where Caroline lived at the time. That morning at 8:36 am, Caroline had called her work supervisor, telling them that she was sick & wouldn’t be able to make it to work that day.
At about 4 am on March 2, Caroline’s neighbor was woken to the loud sounds of someone sobbing; it sounded to them as if someone was having a “tantrum” that seemed to be coming from the bathroom of Flat 9, where Caroline lived.
On March 3 or 4, Rachel’s wallet was found in her locker at the Dance Factory; she left her house that morning with $13 but at that time, it contained $1.20 as well as a used tram ticket from the morning of March 1.
On March 11, Allison Guberek, the witness who saw Rachel & Caroline on the tram, helped police to compile a computer face image of the girl she saw with Rachel & throughout the time, police continued to investigate the case & began to link Caroline to Rachel’s disappearance via phone records. Police searched Caroline’s apartment & found an application for a birth certificate in the name of “Rachel Elizabeth Barber.” They also found bags of clothing that didn’t belong to Caroline & matched the size of clothing that Rachel wore. She was soon taken into custody & confessed to murdering Rachel.
Some of the details of what happened that night were from conversations that Caroline had with the psychologist she’d been provided with, Michael Crewdson. She eventually told him that she & Rachel had pizza, but Rachel wasn’t interested in drinking the alcohol she’d picked up. When police gained access to her apartment, they did find partially eaten pizzas & mostly full bottles of alcohol. It’s possible she had drugged Rachel with the “drowsy powder” on her pizza.
Caroline asked Rachel to do a meditation exercise & instructed Rachel to think of happy & pleasant things. There was a moment when Caroline said she felt like she was in a daze & a veil lifted & during that moment, she felt she didn’t want to kill Rachel. She said that she was in so much trouble now that she had to do it & that’s when the veil dropped. She placed the cord of a telephone around Rachel’s neck & strangled her to death.
Caroline kept Rachel’s body in her flat for two days, hidden in her wardrobe, the telephone cord still around her neck. The next morning, March 2, Caroline did go to work around 9 am & was noted to be quiet & pale in appearance. At 10 am, she informed her supervisor that she wasn’t feeling well & her supervisor drove her home. Once home, Caroline called her dad, David Reid, twice while he was at work, once at 10:26 am & once at 10:32 am & at some point that day, he’d come by to check on her. When he arrived, he indicated that she came to the door quickly & was home alone. He did note that her bedroom door was closed; Rachel’s body concealed inside.
That day, she also called her co-worker, Donna, three times to ask for the $320 that she’d previously loaned her, saying that she needed the money because she was moving some of her furniture to one of her father’s holiday homes. She said she needed it that night because the person moving the furniture was coming the following morning, Wednesday, March 3, but Donna was not able to give her the money. The next morning, Caroline called Donna two more times before 9 am & Donna came by & gave Caroline $100. She also drove her to an ATM machine & withdrew an additional $100 for Caroline & drove her back to her flat.
That same day, Caroline called her work supervisor & left her a message at 8:21 am saying that she was still unwell & needed to go back to sleep. Instead, she used this day to dispose of Rachel’s body & called a taxi to her flat at 1:27 pm. Her account of removing Rachel’s body from her flat was very sketchy, but she indicated that she’d wrapped her body in rugs & placed her in a large army bag that she’d purchased. The bag has never been found but she said she left it at her father’s farm in Kilmore. When she took the taxi to dispose of Rachel’s body, she told the driver that she was delivering a sculpture. When she arrived, she dug a shallow grave & buried Rachel’s body.
The next day, Thursday, March 4, Caroline went back to work, arriving at 9 am. Either this day or the next, she mentioned to her co-worker that a friend of hers had gone missing & claimed she wasn’t concerned because she’d done something like this before. On Sunday, March 7, Caroline called the Barber’s home phone & spoke to a family friend named Andrew; the call lasted fourteen minutes & he’d recorded Caroline’s name & phone number on a log with a list of other callers. On Tuesday the 9th or Wednesday, the 10th, she told her supervisor that the police had spoken to her about her friend who had gone missing. On the 10th, Donna called Caroline at home to let her know that the police were looking for her in relation to a missing girl. Caroline explained to Donna that Rachel was a girl that she’d babysat when she was younger & that it’s possible she just ran away since she used to run away all the time. Later that day, Caroline went to the bank & applied for a personal loan for $10,000, indicating it was for a car & that she needed the money urgently.
The next day, Thursday, March 11, Caroline called her supervisor & left a message at 7:37 am, letting her know that she was sick & wouldn’t be coming in. When her supervisor called back, she didn’t answer. She called the bank three times that day, asking about the status of her loan. A message was left for Caroline at work on March 16 to notify her that the loan was declined. Since Caroline didn’t have her driver’s license, it’s very doubtful she was going to use this money to purchase a car. Police continued to try to track Caroline down but she didn’t answer when they came to her flat. The next day, she called Donna at work & told her she needed the rest of the money that she was owed because she was going to a musical session.
On Friday, March 12, police came back to Caroline’s flat, this time they were given keys to the unit from the property agents but the police couldn’t gain entry. They called the fire brigade to assist & gained entry through an open bedroom window. They found Caroline laying at the foot of her bed, appearing unconscious. They found numerous empty packets of Tegretol, an anti-seizure medication, in her flat. Caroline did suffer from epilepsy & it theorized that the arrival of the police induced a seizure. She was taken to the hospital at 6:55 pm & at 9:52 pm, police began to question her & she confessed to murdering Rachel.
Victoria Police Superintendent Neil Paterson recalled the moment that he received the completely unemotional confession. He asked where Rachel was & she told him she was dead. He asked if she was sure & she was dead & there wasn’t any way they could help her. She said, no, that she buried her on her family’s country property where other pets had been buried.
She refused to answer any further questions & police described her as very cold, matter of fact & completely lacking emotion.
The following day, Saturday, March 13, police went to the farm where they found Rachel’s body in a shallow grave on the property among a small grove of trees, next to a previously buried pet named Lucy. An autopsy was completed the next day & determined Rachel’s cause of death was ligature strangulation from a black cable that was found around her neck. She had been wrapped in two blankets similar to those found in Caroline’s apartment.
Further search of her apartment found a written plan in Caroline’s handwriting, detailing a plan to murder Rachel & how her body would be disposed of. With these writings, they discovered that Caroline intended to adopt the name ‘Jem Southall,’ a 16-year-old fictitious character. Southall was Elizabeth Barber’s maiden name. She’d even created a short personal history of this fictional person, including the details of her parents.
She also wrote about Rachel, describing her as highly gifted & intelligent & wrote:
Rachel was always wild. Let run barefoot in the country Began dating very young. Very talented at classical ballet (rebelled & gave up a few times). Tried modeling. Dropped out of school early Year 9. Began new dance school. Strikingly attractive – dancer’s body. Very clear pale skin, hypnotic green eyes, dyed hair lots of different colors.
Immediately following this, she wrote:
‘On the way to dance school, say that she can’t tell anyone that she’s meeting me as I’m not allowed to give the study results to anyone – ethics – highly confidential. Not even your boyfriend/parent. Drug Rachel (toxic over mouth), put body into army bags & disfigure & dump somewhere way out. No car – meet in toilet block – no cameras, people come into the city (maybe to meet friends?) get birth cert – as we will both go licenses
together then drug her.’
On the next page she wrote:
‘Missing people applying for things ike birth certificates – is there a list that it is checked against? Where do rights of the missing person come into place (6 years?) private detectives. Rent a box so Rachel can’t be traced.. Rachel – final section of psychology study needs to pack a small backpack as you’re running away (wallet, $, ID, photo, clothes, teddy, ballet shoes), highly confidential – for the study to work properly – you can’t tell anyone about this. $100 plus costs (transport) catch train to city $2.30 max (full) meet her outside Flinders (cameras) order pizza & lace with drowsy powder. After that, go through significe (sic) of bag of things then relaxation techniques, then toxic cloth over mouth – use Army bag + dump off far far away. Dump bag separately then I’ll drive you home.’ Other notes included: ‘Check farm (incl bag)… Tuesday, arrange bank loan… Moving van.. Night to disguise .. Thoroughly clean house & steam clean carpet.’
It was clear by analyzing Caroline’s writings that she was very much obsessed with Rachel & it was likely her plan to assume the false identity of Jem Southall & flee the area.
Rachel’s murder was motivated by envy of her beauty & personality & the belief that would likely not have the happy & successful life that Rachel was living. She preyed on the fact that Rachel was vulnerable since she knew Caroline as a family friend & babysitter & would have never suspected her sinister motives.
This story was turned into a 2009 movie, In Her Skin, starring Guy Pearce, Miranda Otto & Sam Neill.
Because Caroline didn’t provide detailed information to police, psychologists & psychiatrists, much of her motives have been speculation. After she was arrested, Caroline began self-mutilating but as time passed, she began to become dependent on prison life & viewed her unit as her home & fellow prisoners as her family.
Caroline pleaded guilty & during court hearings, it was said that she was “profoundly disturbed” when she murdered Rachel but was not legally insane. It’s likely that she thought she could somehow re-invent herself in the image of Rachel. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison with a non-parole period of 14.5 years & in 2015, she was paroled. Rachel’s parents opposed this but expressed their wishes that Caroline be left alone & allowed to re-enter society in hopes she will give something back.
Elizabeth said Caroline would remain on her mind everyday, “She won’t be any less on my mind & she won’t be any more.” She doesn’t feel that she is a danger to her family & hopes she won’t be dangerous to anyone else now that she’s free. The Barber family is unaware if Caroline received treatment for her borderline personality disorder while incarcerated, but were told that she’d studied while in prison. She has never apologized to the Barber family & has shown no remorse. She now lives on the opposite side of Victoria, away from the Barber family.
The family realizes that justice will never be served since Rachel’s life was taken away from her. Fourteen years after Rachel was murdered, Elizabeth said that she no longer cries for her daughter since the pain is so deep inside that she can’t find the tears. Both Elizabeth & Mike have forgiven Caroline since if they continue to carry hate, they would remain angry & bitter which would only hurt their other children.
References:
- Court documents: The Queen v. Caroline Reed Robertson
- Morbidology: The Deadly Obsession – The murder of Rachel Barber
- Medium: Rachel Barber: The teen girl murdered by her obsessed babysitter
- Ati: Rachel Barber, the popular 15-year-old who was murdered by her jealous babysitter
- Herald Sun: Caroline Reed Robertson, who strangled dancer Rachel Barber in 1999, freed on parole
- Herald Sun: Caroline Reed Robertson’s deadly obsession with beautiful dancer Rachel Barber led to murder
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Story of obsession & Rachel’s murder airs at last
- Daily Mail: ‘Caroline’s very cold, very matter of fact..’
