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A Heavy Weight is intended for mature audiences. It discusses topics that may be triggering for some listeners including drug use and suicide.

The Girl in the Barrel: The Murder of Mary Ann Higginbotham

Stacy Bridavsky | August 4, 2025

In the summer of 1979, a rusted barrel bobbing in a shallow Indiana creek revealed a secret the town had almost forgotten: the skeletal remains of 21-year-old Mary Ann Higginbotham. She had vanished without a trace a year earlier. No missing persons report. No search parties. No headlines.

As police began unraveling the threads of her disappearance, they uncovered a web of stolen cars, criminal informants, and a second victim—her boyfriend, Timothy Willoughby—who also vanished without a trace.

This is a story of betrayal, silence, and justice that slipped away. And it still hasn’t been solved.

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