Barbara Lloyd, the Buffalo, New York, mother who was found dead in her kitchen in 1974, will make the cut for an episode of Murder Book on Investigation Discovery (ID).
Barbara Ann Lloyd was a 27-year-old mother of two who was killed by her brother-in-law Leon “Rusty” Chatt. The case took three decades to solve. Her husband, Galan Shorty Lloyd, lived under a cloud of suspicion for 30 years but was finally cleared. For the murder of Barbara Lloyd, Leon “Rusty” Chatt was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years to life in a New York State Correctional facility.
In the upcoming Murder Book episode entitled “Spitting In The Wind,” Investigation Discovery viewers can expect to hear from law enforcement officials who worked on the case for decades, as well as friends and family members of Barbara Lloyd.
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Investigation Discovery’s Murder Book will detail how Barbara Lloyd’s dead body was discovered by her husband, Galan Shorty Lloyd, after a night of binge drinking with friends. According to police, he came home at around 4 a.m. and found his wife’s lifeless body on the floor underneath a comforter. Lloyd was horrified when he pulled back the cover to find Barbara Lloyd with blood on her face and a broken knife embedded into her chest. The couple’s two small children were asleep in an adjacent bedroom. An autopsy report found that the victim had been stabbed approximately 16 times. She was also strangled and raped.
An investigation into the couple’s marriage indicated a marriage filled with troubles. According to defense attorney Joseph J. Terranova, Barbara Lloyd was a heavy drinker who enjoyed partying at the local bars. She also engaged in sexual affairs with other men. This is a factor that angered Galan Shorty Lloyd, who also engaged in an affair with another woman.
Murder Book will dramatize how the marriage started out as a loving one. In fact, they say even when Barbara Lloyd was killed, the couple was still in love. They loved hard, but they fought even harder. Despite the arguments, Galan Lloyd was devastated by his wife’s death. Still, police considered him a prime suspect, especially after he admitted to police that he was choked by Barbara Lloyd during a fight. Law enforcement investigators were also told about another possible suspect, Barbara Lloyd’s brother-in-law, Leon “Rusty” Chatt. According to a friend, Rusty Chatt had a love-hate relationship with his sister-in-law and often tried to force himself on her sexually. However, even after all of their investigating, police had no choice but to save all of the evidence collected at the crime scene and close the book on the case.
Decades later, Babara Lloyd’s children learned the truth about their mother’s death after believing for years that she had died of cancer. It wasn’t until a neighbor revealed the gory details that they found out that she had been murdered and that they were in the home at the time.
Over the years after the murder, Leon “Rusty” Chatt ended up moving away with his wife. Meanwhile, Galan Shorty Lloyd descended in a world of booze. The children, Joseph Lloyd and Kimberley Lloyd, bounced around in foster care for years. Almost 29 years later, the brother and sister came together to demand justice for their mother. The Buffalo Police Department took another look at the case and were astonished that pubic hairs had been collected and saved. A DNA test proved that their father was not the person who had harmed their beloved mother — it was Leon Rusty Chatt. Interestingly, investigators unwittingly collected 67-year-old Leon “Rusty” Chatt’s spit just as he was pulling out of his driveway, according to the New York Daily News ‘ article “ Spit happens ! Magic loogie sends killer to slammer.”
Although Galan Shorty Lloyd was finally cleared in the case, it ruined much of his life, and he continued to be saddened by her death. He died in 2012. A beautiful photo tribute of Barbara Lloyd and her husband is available at Slidesshare .
Please check back to see when this episode of Murder Book will air on Investigation Discovery. The Inquisitr has covered other true-crime cases that have been featured on ID’s Murder Book , including the case of Travis Aaron Marburger .
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