A Better Search for Barbara (3): 40 Years of Nothing – Investigating the Barbara Cotton Cold Case

Barbara Cotton’s 1981 disappearance in Williston remains one of North Dakota’s most enduring cold cases. Episode 3, 40 Years of Nothing, revisits the early investigation — what police did, what they didn’t, and why Barbara’s siblings remember so little effort. From the start, the town wondered: was she a runaway, or was she in harm’s way? This documentary style true crime series confronts the investigative gaps that left her case an unsolved mystery for four decades.

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