October 07, 2024
Jessica Barnes, 20, went missing from Pendelton, South Carolina in Anderson County, on August 1, 2024.
She lived on Laurel Drive with her husband, Brandon Barnes, 21, as well as, two women who have been described in the media as roommates Kendall Mims, 20, and Victoria Tippett, 20.
According to FITS News, Tippett, Mims, and Jessica had been living in a pool house owned by Mim's grandfather.
Barnes was reported missing to police by her mother, Cecilia Varvara, several days later on September 10. Varvara said she had tried, and failed, to contact her daughter, and messages she sent to Brandon Barnes were not being returned.
On August 26, her birthday, Varvara received a text message sent from her daughters cell phone. The message said Jessica was moving to Michigan, changing her phone number, and no longer wanted to be in contact. Varvara said she did not believe Jessica sent the message.
Brandon Barnes joined search parties to look for his wife, and stayed silent as he was suspected by both those in the community, as well as those following the case online. On September 26, 2024, he did his first interview with Blunt Force Media, where an image was published alongside the article of him looking sad and tired, standing next to one of the Jessica Barnes missing posters.
He told the media outlet, that if he could say anything to his missing wife, he would tell her:
“…how much I love her, and I wish I never went to work every day and ignored her. I ignored her voice; told her she was fine when I knew she wasn’t.
I was young and stupid. I was always focused on getting more money and more work.
We never felt like we had hope in life. Always felt down, depressed, miserable, alone, seeking for help, hiding from help. Never accepting it when it came. Childhood trauma, being abused as a kid blaming people for things we regret or done.”
Brandon Barnes also shared a letter he found tucked away in Jessica’s bible. The letter had supposedly been penned on their one-year anniversary and was intended to be read on their ten-year anniversary and referencing Brandon working multiple jobs to keep the couple afloat, as well as the things they had been through together, like the shared grief over their stillborn child.
In regard to the accusations from those following the case that he had murdered his wife, Brandon Barnes said: "It's just nasty-all the comments and the 'M' word and all the other stuff. I could physically never do something like that."
After the news of Jessica Barnes disappearance got out, Brandon Barnes ex-girlfriend, Katherine Gomm, with whom she shares two children, spoke to the media to reveal the alleged abused she had suffered at the hands of Brandon Barnes. She revealed that they split up in 2022, following an assault while she was pregnant.
She also accused her ex-partner of locking her inside their shared home, isolating her from her friends and family, and breaking her phone so she could not contact anyone.
Jessica's body was discovered in a wooded area of Twin Lakes in Pickens County, South Carolina on September 20.
Brandon Barnes was said to have been in the Twin Lakes area during the investigation into Jessica’s disappearance.
Initially, the case was in the hands of the Pickens County Coroner's Office, however, it was later discovered that Barnes' was killed in Pendelton, SC, before her body was transported to Pickens County.; and Anderson County Office of the Coroner were then assigned to the case.
An Autopsy performed by the Pickens County Coroner's Office determined that the cause of death was asphyxiation by strangulation, and the manner of death was ruled as a homicide.
After being interrogated on October 2, 2024, they confessed to their crimes.
Pendleton City Police Department Chief, Robert H. Crosby, announced last week that Brandon Barnes, Kendall Mims, and Victoria Tippett, have all been arrested in connection with the death of Jessica Barnes. Brandon Barnes has been charged with murder, while Mims and Tippett have been charged with accessory after the fact, as well as misprision of a felony, and obstruction of justice.
Brandon Barnes' arrest affidavit stated that on August 02, 2024, in the Town of Pendleton at 102 Laural Drive, that Brandon Barnes "did, without malice aforethought, cause the death of victim Jessica Barnes by (using his arms to strangle her to death.)” The affidavit states that he also confessed to the crime after being advised of his Miranda rights.
An arrest affidavit for Mims states that she rendered assistance to Brandon Barnes who committed the felony of murder, and also assisted him in disposing of the body.
An arrest affidavit for Tippet states that "she did witness a murder by the defendant of the murder of victim Jessica Barnes," and "did help dispose of the victim's body,” “having multiple opportunities to report the murder to law enforcement and did fail to do so."
All three suspects are being held at the Anderson County Detention Center without bond.
Following the arrests, the dynamic between the victim, her husband, and their roommates, and the relationships between the four, has come into question.
Some newspapers have reported that Mims and Brandon Barnes have a child together, and that they were also married in the summer of 2023.
Cecilia Varvara said her daughter met Brandon Barnes online, and that Barnes had lied, saying Mims, who was allegedly pregnant with his child, was his sibling. Other women who have dated Barnes have recently come out with similar claims, being told, and believing, that the women Brandon Barnes was living with, or around, were either blood relatives, or friends of relatives. He and the women would often go out together as a group, the women often unaware of the real connections the others had to Brandon.
What is believed to be Victoria Tippetts social media handle contains Brandon’s name, @Brandonsgirl116, and her Facebook profile features multiple images of him.
On October 2, at a press conference at Pendleton Town Hall, Jessica's mother said: "She's not with her abuser anymore, she's in heaven with Jesus.”
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