Avery Barrow

        Avery Barrow was born on April twenty-ninth, back in 1980. Growing up in Finside Park, she was a pretty good kid. She was like a lot of girls her age. She played with Barbies, had frequent sleepover parties, loved dress up, and liked to run around outside. She listened to her parents, stayed out of trouble, and spoke her mind. Her grades were good, but she certainly wasn't a genius. She liked playing with makeup, but she certainly wasn't the best at it. She was average. She blended into the background well, but she knew how to take the stage.

        As a teenager, she was still average, according to the standards of young adult films. She was the preppy girl with the large group of followers who didn't seem to have minds of their own. She held her head up high and voiced all of her opinions, even when nobody asked. A seniour at Crosswick High School, she was the boy-crazy, queen bee who was reportedly feared by everyone. Avery might not have been a bully to everyone, but she wasn't nice to most people. She was nice to her teachers, and that was pretty much it from what we hear. "She seemed to think of all people as "disposable,"" her ex best friend Rika Chisaka had said. "Like they were toys meant to be played with until they weren't entertaining anymore." When you think about what kind of person she was, you can't really be surprised that so many students at Crosswick were almost happy when she disappeared.

        Avery Barrow wasn't all bad, though. She volunteered at Brook and Field's Home for the Elderly, as well as at Pastor Dan's veterinary office. She held numerous donation drives, did work with the homeless, and worked as a tutor for struggling students. She had just as many friends as she did enemies and her parents said that they believe she was on the fast track to becoming a great person in the future. They weren't the only ones said this. Many of her friends have spoken up about the matter and stated that they believe the same thing. A lot of people think that she was in the process of rehabilitating herself before adulthood took over.

        So what happened to Avery Barrow? On graduation night in 1998, Avery went to a party that was being held at Jeffrey Cougar's house, according to multiple sources. Our sources tell us that she was seen by the poker table watching her boyfriend Jace Hiscock play with his friends. She was spotted drinking a variety of alcoholic beverages and there are rumours that she took some drugs as well. At one point in the night, the estimated time being eleven, she stepped away from her boyfriend to go to the bathroom. After an estimate of twenty minutes, Jace left his friends to go find her since she hadn't yet returned.

        "I was worried, you know? If she left, something bad could have happened. I was worried that she had gotten arrested for being drunk and underage or that she gotten in a car accident. So I went to look around," Jace told us. It's reported that the first thing he did was make sure Avery's car was still in the yard before he went back in and checked the house. He says that he was walking to the bathroom that she supposedly went in when he found her. "She was in one of the bedrooms," He told us. "Having sex with one of my friends."

        Upon farther investigation, we discovered that the friend Avery was caught with was Jim Morgan. When Jim was asked about the night, he said that he doesn't know anything. He admitted to being with Avery, sleeping with her, and Jace interrupting. Jim said  that Avery ran after Jace in a frantic attempt to apologise. He told us that when he exited the room, he found out that everybody had heard about what happened. We were informated that a lot of people were angry at Avery for cheating on Jace, the high school sweetheart. After that, Jim says that he called his brother to take him home and he doesn't know what happened past then.

        Another student that we talked to was Cassidy Belle. She came to us when it was originally reported that Avery had gone missing. She told us that she was there the whole night and saw Avery chasing Jace. According to her, Avery was begging Jace not to break up with her and was trying to use sexual favours in exchange for him staying with her. He refused and left the party. Cassidy says that she saw Avery go to the bathroom to cry for a few minutes. While she was in there, Rika came up to Cassidy to find out what was wrong with Jace. Neither of the girls would tell us who spread the news around, but Cassidy admits to telling Rika the story. Moments later, Avery came out of the bathroom and everyone at the party was laughing about her, harassing her, and some were even threatening her. Both Cassidy and Rika, along with a few anonymous witnesses, confirmed this. They said that the bullying went on for the rest of the evening until people started leaving or passing out. When Rika and Cassidy left together at one in the morning, they saw Avery sitting alone on the curb. Cassidy told us that she thought of giving her a ride home, but decided against it because she didn't want to deal with the drama. She expressed regret for that decision and has since apologised to the family.

        By one-thirty, when Parker Rivers left, Avery's car was still in the yard, but she was nowhere to be found. No one has seen or heard from her since, including her family. Missing posters were put up all over town, her face was plastered on all televisions in the area, and her name stayed in the papers for months after her disappearance.

        On November fifth in 2019, the five P.M. news had a special report on a body found. The body was found in Finside Creek by officer Zach Clayton and his partner Eric Norton. They said body appeared to belong to a woman in her early forties and looked emaciated. When the body had been taken in, the autopsy announced that it was the body of thirty-nine-year-old Avery Barrow. The report showed that she had died of head trauma at around nine that morning. From the marks and the state of her body, it was determined that she had been the past twenty-one years held captive, presumably in a basement or cellar.

        The investigation was re-opened and the police spent weeks talking to potential witnesses, murderers, and accomplices. After three months of intense research and interviewing, they discovered that Avery Barrow had been abducted by Jim Morgan and June Kane, Jace Hiscock's cousin. When pressed for answers, the two admitted to getting Avery into June's car with the promise of giving her a safe ride to her house. While June was driving, Jim chloroformed the girl. They drove out to Hiscock Farm, the farm belonging to June and Jace's grandfather Bernard. They reportedly threw Avery into the unused cellar on the property and spent years abusing her. June said that she decided to do it to get payback, then kept her down there out of fear that she would report the two. Jim said that after a few years, they became intrigued by her strength and willpower to live. He said that after that, it was more about getting out aggression and seeing how long she could survive on the bare minimum rather than revenge or fear. June confirmed his statement. They said that Avery died accidently when Jim pushed her while she was trying to escape and she fell back too hard.

        When Bernard Hiscock was approached about the matter, he stated that he knew nothing about Avery Barrow being in his cellar. The seventy-four-year-old said that he didn't know anything about what Jim and June were doing down there. Jace said the same thing when he was asked about it. Both the men claim that they had nothing to do with any plans to abduct or harm the girl and more so, they find it disgusting and a shame on the family name. After more investigating, the police decided that they were telling the truth. The Barrow family is refusing to talk about the matter as of now, however they will be holding a ceremony in Avery's honour and memory this Sunday.

        Report by Alice Klar, member of the Crosswick High School Newspaper Club.