The Disappearance of Theresa Rideout

The Disappearance of Theresa Rideout If you caught the first episode about the Four Seasons Motel, you might remember me briefly mentioning Theresa Rideout. She was the girlfriend of Jack Barnett, the man who ended his life at the motel. But while Jack’s tragic end was documented, Theresa’s story is a mystery. When I first came across Theresa’s case in an old local newspaper article listing area cold cases, I was struck by how little information was actually out there. Even on official missing persons pages like the Indiana State Police site, her name is spelled wrong, details are minimal, and there isn't even a photo attached to her profile. Part of the reason her story has been so quiet is that Theresa did not have a huge network of people in her corner. Her mother passed away when she was six, her dad died when she was seventeen, and she had no siblings. She married young, had a son named Matt, but after a divorce in the mid-80s, she mostly kept to herself and moved around. Tragically, both her ex-husband and her son passed away years later, leaving virtually no immediate family left to keep her case in the public eye. When I reached out to a relative of her ex-husband while doing genealogy research, they told me her disappearance was just considered a big family mystery. Some relatives assumed she had simply drowned in the river, but no one really knew. Here is what we actually know about her final days. On September 2, 1994, Theresa and Jack left the American Legion in Newburgh around 10:30 AM so Jack could drive her to her 11:00 AM shift at the Main Street Burger King in Evansville. She worked her full shift, was in a great mood, and at 7:00 PM her manager trusted her to take the night cash deposit up to the bank. She made the deposit, said "see you tomorrow" to her co-workers, and drove off in Jack's red pickup truck. That was the last time anyone ever saw her. She left her final paychecks unclaimed, and her beloved dog, River, vanished right along with her. What really bothers me about the timeline is what happened next. If Theresa was seen leaving work in Jack's truck, Jack was almost certainly in that truck with her. Did they get into a fight on the way home? Stranger still, four days after she disappeared, Jack walked into Don and Donna's sports bar in Newburgh by himself. The bartender said he acted completely normal, had a drink, and never mentioned anything about Theresa being missing. Then, a few days after that, Jack checked into the Four Seasons Motel and took his own life, leaving a note for his daughter that made zero reference to Theresa. Most investigators seem to assume the obvious story: Jack killed Theresa, hid her body along with the dog, and then killed himself a week later. But a full week is a really long gap for a murder-suicide scenario where the perpetrator just goes about his normal life, grabbing drinks at local bars in the middle of it all. Were they involved with the wrong crowd? Did something go wrong with shady associates? Or did Jack snap after a week of her being missing? Theresa Rideout deserves to have her story told just as much as anyone else, even if she did not have a massive family network fighting to keep her name in the headlines. Give the episode a listen and let me know your take. You can hop onto the Discord server at rivercitymystery.com/discord to share your theories on what might have happened to Theresa and her dog River back in the fall of 1994. Show Notes: https://www.rivercitymystery.com/3 Join the River City Mystery Discord channel to meet others from the tri-state area who are into true crime and the paranormal.  https://www.rivercitymystery.com/discord ----more---- ISP: Teresa Rideout 09/11/1994 (in.gov)   Theresa A. Rideout – Death Certificate (PDF) Evansville Courier & Press article – 9/14/1994 (PDF) Evansville Courier & Press article – 9/15/1994 (PDF) Evansville Courier & Press article – 12/29/1994 (PDF) Jack W. Barnett – Death Certificate (PDF)