Key facts
- Name: Barbara Louise Cotton (“Bubbles”)
- Born: November 10, 1966
- Age at disappearance: 15
- Last seen: April 11, 1981, evening
- Location: Leaving a Main Street restaurant, walking toward Reclamation Park, Williston, North Dakota
- Height / build: 5’2″, 100 lbs, dark brown hair, hazel-brown eyes; spine curvature causing a slight limp
- Status: Still missing — classified a runaway in 1981; later declared legally deceased; case unsolved
- Case numbers: NDM10088
- Investigating agency: Williston Police Department
The five-block walk
On the night of April 11, 1981, 15-year-old Barbara Cotton finished her shift at the Country Kitchen in downtown Williston, North Dakota, where she worked as a server and busser. She walked to her mother’s workplace — a Chinese restaurant on Main Street — and, by one account, had dinner with her 21-year-old boyfriend, Stacey Werder, and a third person. Then she declined a ride home.
She was going to walk. It was five blocks.
Werder walked her as far as Reclamation Park. Barbara — “Bubbles” to her family — was last seen heading toward the park, toward home. She never arrived.
She left behind everything a runaway would take: her eyeglasses, her cigarettes, an uncashed paycheck, her clothing, her money. The Williston police classified her a teenage runaway anyway. No comprehensive search was conducted. Critical witness accounts were never formally recorded.
Williston was in the middle of an oil boom. The population had nearly doubled — 14,000 to 25,000 — flooded with drifters and migrant workers. In that roar, a 15-year-old girl vanished, and the system barely looked.
Who Bubbles was
Barbara Louise Cotton was a partier, her family said, but not in the way the word suggests trouble — she liked being out, being around people. She didn’t get along with her mother, Louise; they butted heads hard. Barbara had a good friend named Diane and had talked about moving in with Diane’s family. She was saving money to move out on her own at sixteen.
She was also physically distinctive: a curvature of her spine that gave her a slight limp when she walked, a dark mole on the upper right side of her chest, a left ear that sat noticeably lower than her right, metal fillings in seven molars. She wore eyeglasses — and she left them behind that night.
In the decades since, Barbara was declared legally deceased. No remains have ever been found that match her. No one has ever been arrested.
The two men who hanged themselves
Barbara’s case has two persons of interest, and both are dead by their own hands in jail cells — within months of her disappearance.
Stacey Werder, the 21-year-old drifter boyfriend who last walked with her, left Williston for Montana the day after she vanished. In July 1981 — three months after Barbara disappeared — he hanged himself in a Montana jail while being held for disorderly conduct. He was never questioned about Barbara.
Frank Delapena was a migrant worker in Williston at the time. Within weeks of Barbara’s disappearance, he had what one account describes as a mental breakdown: he lost his job on a seismology crew and drove to Rawlins, Wyoming — where he lured and murdered two young girls, using a puppy as a ruse. In May 1981, about six weeks after Barbara vanished, Delapena hanged himself in jail.
Neither man was ever charged in connection with Barbara. Both took whatever they knew to the grave, if they knew anything at all.
The search that came 40 years late
For four decades, Barbara’s case sat nearly still. Then investigative journalist James Wolner made it Season 5 of his Dakota Spotlight podcast — “A Better Search for Barbara Cotton” — and the case finally got the investigation it never had in 1981. Wolner’s work tracked down people law enforcement had never spoken to.
The attention turned physical: a missing-person billboard for Barbara went up in Williston, funded by a community GoFundMe organized by Lisa Schiele — an $850 one-time printing fee and $400 a month to keep Barbara’s face in front of the town that lost her.
Forty-five years after that five-block walk, the question still hangs over Williston, unchanged since the night it was asked: where is Barb?
Theories: what might have happened
Foul play by someone she knew that night. The last people confirmed with her were Werder and a third person at dinner. Werder fled the state the next day and killed himself three months later without ever being questioned. The circumstances point at the final hours — but without witness statements taken in 1981, the trail is reconstructed from memory, forty years late.
A drifter or migrant worker. Williston in 1981 was full of transient men drawn by the oil boom. Delapena’s Wyoming murders weeks later prove a predator was moving through the same circles. It is plausible Barbara encountered a stranger on those five blocks. It is also unprovable.
Voluntary disappearance. The original police theory: a 15-year-old who fought with her mother walked away from her life. Against it: she left her glasses (she needed them), her paycheck, her money, her clothes — and she never contacted anyone, ever again. The runaway label looks, in hindsight, like an excuse not to investigate.
Have information?
Contact the Williston Police Department Missing Persons Unit at 1-701-577-1212, or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678. In an emergency, dial 911.
Timeline
- November 10, 1966 — Barbara Louise Cotton is born.
- 1980–1981 — Works as a server and busser at the Country Kitchen, Williston; saves money to move out at sixteen.
- April 11, 1981, evening — Last seen leaving a Main Street restaurant, walking toward Reclamation Park. Never arrives home.
- April 12, 1981 — Stacey Werder leaves Williston for Montana.
- May 1981 — Frank Delapena murders two girls in Rawlins, Wyoming; hangs himself in jail.
- July 1981 — Stacey Werder hangs himself in a Montana jail. Neither man was ever questioned about Barbara.
- 1981 — Police classify Barbara a runaway; no comprehensive search.
- Later — Declared legally deceased; no remains found; no arrests.
- 2021 — Dakota Spotlight Season 5, “A Better Search for Barbara Cotton,” reinvestigates the case.
- 2025 — Community-funded billboard for Barbara goes up in Williston.
- June 2026 — 45th anniversary; Medium retrospective: “Barbara has never come home.”
- Today — Still missing.
FAQ
Is Barbara Cotton still missing?
Yes. Barbara “Bubbles” Cotton has been missing since April 11, 1981 — more than 45 years. She was later declared legally deceased, but no remains have ever been found and no one has been arrested.
What happened to Barbara Cotton?
Nobody knows. She vanished on a five-block walk home in Williston, ND. Two persons of interest — her boyfriend Stacey Werder and migrant worker Frank Delapena — both died by suicide in jail cells within months, without ever being questioned about her.
Why was Barbara Cotton’s case classified as a runaway?
Williston police treated her as a teenage runaway despite the fact that she left behind her eyeglasses, cigarettes, uncashed paycheck, clothing, and money — and never contacted anyone again. No comprehensive search was conducted and critical witnesses were never formally interviewed.
Who was Stacey Werder?
A 21-year-old drifter Barbara had been dating. He walked her partway home on the night she vanished, left Williston for Montana the next day, and hanged himself in a Montana jail in July 1981 while held for disorderly conduct. He was never questioned about Barbara’s disappearance.
How old would Barbara Cotton be today?
Barbara was born November 10, 1966 — she turns 60 in November 2026.
How can I help?
Share this case file and the Williston billboard campaign. Anyone with information should contact the Williston Police Department at 1-701-577-1212.
Sources
- Official / law enforcement: Williston Police Department (Missing Persons Unit, 1-701-577-1212); California DOJ Missing Person listing (DOB 11/10/1966); case #NDM10088; NCMEC.
- News: KX News (Lizzie Halliday series); Williston Herald (“Gone and Never Forgotten”); Medium — LaDonna Humphrey, “The Girl Who Walked Into the Night” (June 2026).
- Reference: 411GINA.org missing-person flyer; Light the Way Missing flyer.
- Media: Dakota Spotlight, Season 5 — “A Better Search for Barbara Cotton” (James Wolner); “The Vanishing of ‘Bubbles'” (YouTube, 2026); True Crime in the 50 — “North Dakota: The Disappearance of Barbara Cotton” (iHeart).
Found an error? Tell us via the About page and we will fix it promptly and note the change here. Last verified October 2026.