Clues in case of missing Va. Beach man don't pan out

NORFOLK

A construction worker named Marcus Barrell disappeared 10 years ago in Virginia Beach. A few months later, Barrell reappeared in North Carolina.

Or did he?

Police believe that Troy Baudoin, who had hired Barrell to work on his Norfolk home, killed Barrell and assumed his identity - passport, license, credit cards. Baudoin quickly sold his home in the 1400 block of Lafayette Blvd. in Norfolk and moved to North Carolina under his assumed name.

Baudoin confessed to an embezzlement scheme to a federal agent, court records state. But after he discovered authorities suspected him in Barrell's disappearance, he killed himself in a motel room. He left no note.

Barrell's body has never been found.

This month, police were granted a search warrant to re-examine the basement of the Lafayette Boulevard home. Investigators dug under the basement floor, court records state, only to come up empty-handed.

The case has stumped police for years. It's also frustrated the missing man's father, Gregory Barrell, an Army veteran retired in Alabama. He wants to find his son's body, he said, so he can give him "a decent burial."

Marcus Barrell joined the Navy after high school but got kicked out. His father said his youngest son was sensitive and trusting. He liked to draw and was trying to figure out what to do with his life after the Navy.

He took a series of construction jobs and lived with a roommate at the Oceanfront, he said. One of the construction jobs was for Baudoin, according to court records.

Gregory Barrell said he last spoke to his son in December 2001. Marcus was 22 at the time.

Virginia Beach police gave an account of their investigation in the following months and years in a sworn affidavit for a search warrant:

In January 2002, new home-owners Jeffrey and Delia Sheppard noticed a pungent odor in the basement, which seemed strongest in a room with a hole in the wall that led to a dirt area. Eventually, the smell spread through the entire two-story home. Flies swarmed to a spot in the basement, the warrant states.

A few months later, the couple cleaned the basement floors and walls, and added a new sealant to the concrete floor, the search warrant states. The owner and a friend started to dig into the dirt floor to try and find the source of the odor but stopped before they got too deep.

Virginia Beach police came to the home, and the couple asked them to search the property, the warrant states.

Before the search could be completed, Norfolk police questioned the authority of the Virginia Beach police to search the home. So Beach police halted the search, the warrant states.

Months later, Norfolk police and a former federal agent were allowed to probe the basement with ground radar. Investigators discovered an "anomaly," as they called it, in the unfinished room, the warrant states.

After that discovery, the homeowners denied authorities permission for additional searches, the warrant states. The case went cold.

No one was charged with murder, and the disappearance remained a lower-priority, missing person case.

Gregory Barrell, the father, has stayed in contact with Virginia Beach police. A few years ago, police thought an unidentified body was that of his son, he said. But DNA tests did not confirm a match.

Barrell had his son legally declared dead in 2009.

A different detective, Angela Murphy, recently became head of the Virginia Beach police's department of missing persons, police spokesman Jimmy Barnes said. Murphy went through the department's cold cases, and a review of the Barrell file prompted the search warrant, Barnes said.

This month, police and rescue workers from Norfolk and Virginia Beach conducted the search, aided by trained dogs and specialized equipment, Barnes said. No evidence was found, Barnes said. The owners were "extremely cooperative," he said.

Sheppard, in a brief interview at his house, said he has always cooperated with police on the case. He declined to comment on the search warrant but said there was never a body in the house.

The story has frustrated Sheppard, too, he said. He would like everyone to "just leave it alone."

Barnes said the key piece to the mystery was Baudoin. "A whole lot of answers died with him," he said.

Gregory Barrell said he has one simple question: "What now?"

Louis Hansen, (757) 446-2341, louis.hansen@pilotonline.com