Two of the three suspects in the kidnapping and assault of a 15-year-old Alexandria girl were best friends and had attended high school in Alexandria together, said the mother of one of them.
Lisa Barker, mother of suspect Thomas Jay Barker, 32, lives not far from the trailer house where police say the three men held the teen prisoner even as family and law enforcement officers desperately searched for her in the days and weeks after she disappeared.
Thomas Barker and Joshua Holby, 31, lived together in the trailer house, Lisa Barker said. She said she visited the trailer house regularly, but that often her son wasn’t home when she stopped by. She said she saw no sign of a girl being held there, and that she will believe her son is innocent until the court case is complete.
Her son has cerebral palsy and uses a walker to get around, but was able to clean his house and work on his cars, she said. At one point, he ran Lakes Area Taxi in Alexandria.
“Even though he’s disabled, he can pretty much do anything,” she said. “I would say he’s pretty smart.”
Her son is married and has six children, including a month-old son with his current wife, she said. His wife and son live in Alexandria, not in the trailer house in Carlos, which is just northwest of Alexandria. One of his children lives in the same Alexandria mobile home park as the victim, which was why he was familiar with that area.
See more- Source: Twin Cities