Family mourns slain woman

Melissa Barratt grew up in this area, attending Springfield High School. In this article,  two members of her family reflect back on her life.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110804/NEWS01/708049874

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Barratt's family and friends struggle with her death

Sabrina Kingsbury, holds a cellphone photo Wednesday of her slain sister, Melissa Barratt, while talking to a reporter. Barratt’s mother, Sandra Duby, is seen in the background of their Rutland apartment.
Photo: Vyto Starinskas / Staff Photo

Published August 4, 2011 in the Rutland Herald

Family mourns slain woman

By Gordon Dritschilo

Melissa Barratt had circulated a cellphone picture of Frank Caraballo among her friends, according to her sister, saying that if she were to disappear it would be because he had killed her.

Barratt, 31, was found dead last week in the woods in Dummerston. Caraballo, an alleged Brattleboro-area drug dealer originally from Holyoke, Mass., is charged with killing her. Joshua Makhanda-Lopez, another alleged dealer and Caraballo associate, is charged as an accessory.

“It’s senseless, a fun-loving person like that and you take their life,” said Barratt’s mother, 57-year-old Sandra Duby of Rutland. “I hope they never have another peaceful moment in their life.”

Duby and Barratt’s sister, 29-year-old Sabrina Kingsbury of Winooski, said Wednesday that Barratt’s defining trait was her kindness.

“She was a people person,” Duby said. “She would give her shirt to someone right off her back.”

Duby said Barratt grew up in the Bellows Falls-Springfield-Walpole, N.H., area. She attended Springfield High School, but did not graduate. It was post-high school, Kingsbury said, that Barratt first got into real trouble.

“She was mixed up with city life in Burlington,” she said. “She had gotten involved in the drug ring and was associated with some people who were running a prostitution ring. ... She was so open to making friends, very personable. Sometimes it would draw the wrong people, unfortunately.”

Kingsbury said her older sister wound up in the same social circle as Christal Jones, a teenage runaway from Burlington who was killed in 2001 after being taken to New York City and forced to work as a prostitute.

Not long after Jones was killed, Kingsbury said, Barratt was arrested in Massachusetts with heroin. Barratt spent time in jail and then attended a treatment program in Brattleboro. Kingsbury said her sister stayed out of trouble for a long time.

About six months ago, Kingsbury and Duby said they started hearing about Barratt’s new boyfriend, Frank Caraballo. Kingsbury said she was serving time in jail on drug convictions of her own and Barratt was looking after her son.

“My son disliked (Caraballo) an extreme amount, to the point where he was saying he hated him,” she said. “This is coming from a 5-year-old.”

In May, Barratt was arrested for allegedly selling cocaine to a police informant, and later affidavits described her helping Caraballo with drug deals.

Kingsbury and Duby said they had warned Barratt against returning to the life she had left behind, and Kingsbury said the May arrest led to the state taking Kingsbury’s son away from Barratt.

Kingsbury said she does not think Barratt was using while she was selling drugs with Caraballo.

“It was the whole deal with quick money,” she said.

Barratt had been working two jobs, her family said, and lost both of them when the businesses closed.

“She wasn’t really open with the whole thing, selling drugs or being affiliated with drug dealers,” she said. “We knew it, but she didn’t tell us.”

After her arrest in May, police said, Barratt named Caraballo as a Brattleboro-area dealer. Kingsbury and Duby said they did not know if she cooperated with police any further.

“If she was, she wouldn’t have told us,” Kingsbury said. “If she was working with the police, it would’ve been to get my child back.”

What they did know, they said, was that Caraballo was trouble.

“I had also been on the phone with her quite often while he was in the background, threatening to kill her,” Duby said.

Kingsbury said her sister tried to get away from Caraballo, leaving a New Hampshire hotel they were staying at to live with a friend in Brattleboro. Caraballo found her, police said, accusing her of having stolen drugs from him. Police said she was last seen walking with Caraballo into the woods where her body was found.

Barratt wanted to start a family someday, Kingsbury said. Duby said she had been studying something dealing with psychology.

“She was a fun-loving, kind person who did not deserve to have that done to her,” Duby said. “Her friends, her family — we’re never going to get over it.

Kingsbury said her own experiences made it easier for her to empathize with her sister’s situation.

“I got caught up in the same life,” she said. “I had gang members living with me, here in Rutland, selling drugs. Subsequently, I started using them. I became addicted very quick.”

Arrested for heroin in Springfield, Kingsbury said she is on supervised release. She said she has been clean for about two years, but remains in outpatient treatment.

“I’ve relapsed a couple of times,” she said.

Kingsbury said she could easily have suffered her sister’s fate.

“I definitely would have if I wasn’t caught when I was,” she said.