BALDWIN – Lynn Barron sits in the living room of the Baldwin log home she built with her son Joshua and remembers the day they completed the cathedral ceilings.

“Josh was up on the ladder and said, ‘Hey mom, get a picture,’” recalled Lynn Barron with a laugh. “He said, ‘I want to be able to show my grandkids I really built this house.’ That will never happen now,” she added quietly.

Her 22-year-old son Joshua, who grew up in Standish, graduated from Bonny Eagle High School in 2007 and was a corporal and aircraft mechanic in the U.S. Marine Corps, was found dead March 21 in a Yuma, Ariz., irrigation canal just miles from the Marine base where he was stationed. Prior to the discovery of his body, Barron had been missing for six days, a number that haunts his mother.

“The (March) 21 kills me,” she said, wincing. “It makes me feel like I had six days to find him and help him and I didn’t. My brain knows I couldn’t have done anything but my heart feels like I failed him.”

Barron, who lived off base, was last seen by his roommate on the night of March 15. When Barron failed to show up for work the next day, his commanding officer tried to locate him and discovered he was missing. At that point the Marines notified military investigators, who took over the search for Barron, a search Lynn Barron believes they did not take seriously from the beginning.

“I found out my Josh was missing on Facebook,” she said, discovering her son did not show up for work by viewing a post from his friend. “The Marines didn’t even call me to tell me my son had disappeared.”

She immediately called the Marine base where she left a message that was not returned for three hours. When she finally spoke with someone, she was told the case had been handed over to the Naval Criminal Investigative Services (NCIS) and she would need to contact them. She did and was told they had filed a 48-hour missing person report and they would just have to wait – an idea Lynn Barron was not happy with.

“I needed to know something so I contacted the Yuma Police Department and they had no idea what I was talking about,” she said. “They told me a missing person’s report for Joshua Barron had never been filed. So I filed one.”

She said after she filed the report, an investigator with the NCIS called her and asked her why she filed it. She said she had filed one because they hadn’t, and that’s when she felt they became defensive.

“They told me they were dragging the canal and had divers looking for Josh in it and that they didn’t need my help,” she said. “I later found out that neither one of those things had happened. I felt like I needed to find Josh myself.”

Repeated phone calls to the Naval Criminal Investigative Services were not returned.

Lynn Barron, a nurse and member of the Army Reserves, was at officer training school in Texas when she learned her son was missing. With the help of a captain at training school, she was able to get a ticket to Yuma and arrived two days after Barron was last seen. She was greeted at the airport by a lawyer from the base.

“She told me NCIS had taken over the case but that they were there to help me,” recalled Lynn Barron. “Then she told me if I spoke with the media or released any details to them, that my military career (in the reserves) would be in jeopardy. That’s when I said, ‘OK, something’s not right here.’”

Determined to find her son and any clues that might lead to him, she began searching the area where a stranger found his cell phone the day after he went missing. That area was the grounds of the irrigation canal where Barron’s body would later be discovered.

“I must have walked two miles down and back every day looking for anything,” she said. “I just needed to find something.”

She did find things on the side of that irrigation canal, things she believes belonged to her son or contained evidence of where Josh might be.

“I found a bracelet that said ‘Dream’ on it, and I just knew it was Josh’s,”she said. “It looked like it had been cut from his arm. I found beer cans by where his phone was, rope, and shooting glasses that I felt could all be important. I left those things right where they were so the searchers that NCIS promised me were looking would be able to collect them. That never happened.”

She did not touch the bracelet or any of the other things she found.

“I did what I was supposed to do,” she said. “I didn’t interfere and when I came back the next day all of the stuff was gone and NCIS has told me they didn’t have any of it. My question was, why not?”

On March 21, a farmer found a body floating in the canal and called the Yuma County Sheriff’s Department, who recovered the body. The sheriff’s office released a statement that the body was that of Joshua Barron and that they suspected no foul play in his death. His mother said she was first told he died of natural causes.

“I said, What kind of natural causes did my 22-year old son die of?’”she said. “Then I was told he drowned. Drowning to me isn’t a natural cause. They then told me that during the autopsy the medical examiner discovered a bullet wound in Josh’s head and I wondered how did they miss that and why did they tell me he drowned? It all doesn’t make sense. I still wonder why everyone was blatantly lying to me.”

In February, Marine Sgt. Jonathan Kyle Ferguson, 22, went missing for 10 days from the same base where Barron was stationed. Repeated ground and air searches were conducted before Ferguson turned himself in to the base. Lynn Barron wonders if maybe that played a part in why they didn’t immediately start searching for her son.

“Maybe they were embarrassed about spending all that money on the other Marine the month before,”she said. “I don’t really know, but it still isn’t an excuse for not doing what they could for my son.”

The Yuma Police Department is now handling the investigation and, according to Public Information Officer Sgt. Clint Norred, a cause of death has yet to be found.

“The medical examiner has not determined an official cause of death,” said Norred. “He does have a gunshot wound to the head but at this time that has not been ruled as the cause of death.”

Norred said they also have not determined whether the gunshot wound came from a second party or was self-inflicted.

“Josh would never kill himself. It’s hard when people think your son killed himself,” said Lynn Barron. “He’s never been a quitter. All that boy wanted from the time he was small was to be a Marine, and he would never turn his back on it. I believe something went wrong. Josh was murdered.”

Norred said the department has not ruled out foul play.

“Nothing is off the table at this point,” said Norred. “The exact cause of death and circumstances surrounding the death are still under investigation.”

Lynn Barron believes the Yuma police is her best bet on finding out what really happened to her son.

“They have just been great,”she said. “The Marines and NCIS don’t care about my son or giving me answers but I believe this department will find the answers the others didn’t. It will be a challenge though, there’s no evidence from the scene and to get a case after three agencies and eight days? They have their work cut out for them.”

No matter what, the outcome won’t bring her son back, but it will give him honor.

“I just feel empty,” said Lynn Barron. “Nothing will change Josh being gone. But I will find out what happened to him. It’s not about saving him anymore. It’s now about a mother’s justice.”

Marine Cpl. Joshua Barron, 22, grew up in Standish and graduated from Bonny Eagle High School in 2007. He was found dead March 21 in Arizona, and his mother believes he was murdered. (Courtesy photo)

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