Oorzaak: Murdered by an \\ assailant
Elle est mariée avec Mark Orrin Barton.
Ils se sont mariés environ 1979.Source 4
Enfant(s):
Family remembers deaths
By Johanna Wilson
THE SUN NEWS
Saturday, July 31, 1999 Issue:
Marty Powell didn't recognize the man on television at first, but then heremembered.
Mark Orrin Barton, the 44-year-old man who police say is responsible fornine deaths in Atlanta Thursday, was the same man he believed wasresponsible for the deaths of Powell's aunt, Eloise Spivey, and firstcousin, Debra Barton, almost six years ago.
"I've never got a good feeling around him," the 47-year-old Lorisresident said Friday. "He was just a cold person, a calculating person."
A day trader and former chemist, Barton killed employees at twoday-trading firms in the Buckhead section of Atlanta, police said. Later,police discovered the bodies of his wife Leigh and his two children,Mychelle and Michael, in their apartment in Stockbridge, Ga., southeastof Atlanta.
Grace Herring, Eloise Spivey's only sister who lives in Columbia, is anHorry County native.
"I went into shock," Herring, 70, said of the Georgia shootings. ``Ithought it was absolutely terrible. I couldn't have imagined how he woulddo such a thing.''
The bodies of 59-year-old Spivey and 36-year-old Debra Barton were foundon Labor Day weekend in 1993 inside a bloody camper along a lake's edgein Alabama.
Powell and Herring said Barton seemed oblivious to the tragedy andshocked family members with his demeanor before and during theirclosed-casket funerals.
``When we went to the visitation, the night before the funeral, he waswalking around in Bermuda shorts, wearing shoes, but no socks, laughingand talking to girls who worked in his office,'' said Herring, whoreceived a fruit cake from her sister Spivey every Christmas.
And on the day of the funeral, Powell and Herring said Barton didn't sheda tear and looked relaxed.
``He was cool as a cucumber,'' Powell said. ``He had a straight face. Hedidn't cry. He never showed any emotions. It gives me the heebie-jeebiesjust thinking about it.''
Family members were also suspicious because they said Mark Barton tookout a $600,000 insurance policy on Debra Barton six weeks before she waskilled. Later, Herring said he refused to take a lie detector test aboutthe death of his first wife.
Eloise Spivey was a kind woman, but she didn't allow people to push heraround, and she told them exactly what was on her mind.
``Aunt Eloise was feisty,'' Powell said. ``She carried a pistol in herpurse, and she was very opinionated. She was a tough cookie.''
And Debra Barton, Herring said, treasured her marriage and children.
``My niece was a devoted wife and mother,'' Herring said. ``She loved herchildren, and she couldn't stand to be away from them. My niece washappy, and her children were happy.''
Although Powell said he never disliked Mark Barton, he said he neverwarmed up to him, either.
``I never saw what Debra saw in him,'' Powell said. ``She loved him.''
And Herring and Powell said they don't understand Barton's alleged crimes.
``Mark was just being ugly,'' Herring said. ``He was just trying to hurtsomebody. I'm really beginning to think he was really an evil person.''
Debra Spivey | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
± 1979 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mark Orrin Barton |