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It doesn’t matter how old you get – when life doesn’t turn out as you’d planned, you can always turn to your mum for support. That’s exactly what Heather Barbera did when her marriage began to flounder.

Barbera, 43, left the home she shared with her husband and two children in Mississippi to move in with her mum Michelle Gordon, 67, in Ventnor, New Jersey. Unemployed and at a crossroads in her life, Barbera was welcomed with opened arms.

Michelle shared a sunny seafront flat on Ventnor’s boardwalk with her elderly mum, Elaine Rosen, 87. They lived on the eighth floor in a luxury apartment block that boasted a pool, a fancy lobby and a busy café.

The pair enjoyed meals out, trips to nearby Atlantic City and quiet days by the sea. It was a laid-back life – until Barbera arrived in 2018.

(Image: Heavy.com)

Barbera had suffered with drug addictions in the past and, despite putting on Facebook over a year earlier that her mum was her ‘backbone’ and she felt blessed, the pair had plenty of disagreements. Simmering grievances led them to argue often.

Barbera’s uncle, Michelle’s brother Richard Rosen, warned his sister and mother about allowing troubled Barbera to live with them. Elaine had been wary but Michelle, who had worked in the care profession, insisted they had to help her daughter to find a better path in life. What was the worst that could happen?

A waitress in a local restaurant would later recall serving Barbera, Michelle and Elaine, and said they would get into heated disputes. She also remembered catching Barbera stealing toilet rolls from the loos and stuffing them into her designer Louis Vuitton bag. Barbera had a liking for the finer things in life, but did not always have the cash to pay for them.

Then on July 7, Barbera took a bus to New York City via Atlantic City. Had tensions got too high for the family trio and she wanted out?

The next day, Richard was concerned that he couldn’t get hold of his sister and mum. It was very unlike them to be out of contact, so he travelled from his home in New York to Ventnor to check on them.

(Image: Facebook)

When he arrived at the apartment in the morning, he stumbled into a crime scene. Richard found Elaine and Michelle dead in a pool of their own blood in their home. They had multiple blunt impact injuries – they had been beaten to death.

Richard called 911. ‘My mother and sister are lying dead on the floor,’ he cried. When asked what he thought had happened, Richard quickly pointed the finger at his niece – saying she fought constantly with the women and highlighted her drug issues.

But it was unthinkable that she would kill her mum and grandmother after they’d shown her such compassion. It was a bloodbath – Barbera had never shown that level of violence.

The real worry was that Barbera was in danger herself. Had the attacker killed the older ladies then taken Barbera?

Investigators determined that Elaine and Michelle had been bludgeoned to death with a nightstick – a police baton. Michelle’s late husband, Barbera’s dad, had been a New York police officer and the baton had been his service weapon.

The attacker had grabbed it and used it to kill the two women – suggesting they hadn’t arrived with a weapon.

(Image: Scallywagandvagabond.com)

After a search of the apartment, investigators determined that cash, credit cards and jewellery had been taken, pointing to robbery being the motivation.

A ring had even been yanked off dead Michelle’s finger. It was heartless and unnecessary, when the older ladies could have been simply overpowered. But where was Barbera? Had she been harmed in the attack?

Within three days, Michelle’s credit cards had been used several times in New York. Police swooped in and traced the trail to a bus depot in midtown Manhattan.

There, sat on a step, was Barbera. It was Barbera who had been using the credit cards making her the prime suspect in the double killings. She was arrested and taken into custody.

After consulting with her lawyer, Barbera knew there was no denying what she’d done and made a plea deal. In October 2019, Barbera tearfully pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter for the death of her mum Michelle, and murder for the killing of her grandmother, Elaine.

(Image: Heavy.com)

Other charges, including robbery and possession of a weapon, were dropped. Barbera said she’d got into a verbal fight with her mum that had turned physical.

She’d first hit her mum in the head with a torch and they’d got into a struggle. Then she’d taken the nightstick that had belonged to her late dad and had struck Michelle repeatedly in the head.

‘Do you agree your grandmother attempted to intervene in the struggle between you and your mother, Michelle Gordon?’ she was asked in court. ‘Yes,’ Barbera replied.

According to Barbera, Elaine had tried to stop her hitting her mum. ‘Would you agree that in response to your grandmother attempting to stop you from further assaulting your mother, you in fact struck your grandmother... repeatedly in her head and body? Is that correct?’ she was asked. Again, Barbera replied, ‘Yes.’

Barbera’s lawyer told the judge that Barbera was a victim of a ‘dysfunctional family’ and was scarred by drug abuse and mental illness.

(Image: Inquirer.com)

‘I think this was a very, very toxic and unhealthy family dynamic,’ they said. ‘There were a lot of competing issues that created a very volatile situation that exploded very unfortunately on that day.’

Despite the talk of a struggle, Barbera admitted that she was not in fear of her life at the time she struck her mother, which raised the question of why she had used such an incredibly high level of violence.

The prosecution said that if the case had gone to trial they would have presented a very different account. The two women were in fact found at opposite ends of the flat, which contradicted the account that Elaine had intervened.

Elaine had just walked out of her bedroom, too – that didn’t suggest she had tried to break up an argument. It suggested she’d been ambushed.

‘This defendant bludgeoned the two victims to death in their own home, then cleaned herself off,’ the prosecutor said. ‘She stole their money and jewellery, and as they were gasping their final breaths, she just walked away. There is no more heinous, cruel or depraved crime than killing one’s own mother and grandmother.’

(Image: Jewishexponent.com)

Outside the court, Barbera’s uncle said that his niece’s account was most likely a ‘lie’. ‘My sister was taken completely off-guard, and my mother had just walked out of her bedroom,’ he said. ‘She did not intervene. None of the neighbours heard screaming.’

Richard said his sister was a strong woman and would have had to have been taken off-guard.

In January, Barbera was sentenced to 42 years in prison – 30 years for the killing of her grandmother and 12 years for the death of her mother. She was also ordered to pay around $7,000 in restitution. She will serve 40 years before being considered for parole.

Barbera said, ‘I never wanted any of this to happen,’ and mumbled a ‘sorry’ as the judge said the brutal matricide was ‘exceedingly violent’ and called her depravity palpable.

‘After her violent attack on these two women, the defendant callously and calmly cleaned herself up, collected the valuable belongings she could find, including a ring from the hand of her dead mother, and then pawned the jewellery. She then fled the jurisdiction.’

The judge added that the sentence might not be acceptable to all. ‘This is a place of imperfect justice. Nothing this court does can restore the deceased to their loved ones,’ he said. ‘The only thing this court can do is address the facts and circumstances and follow the law.’

After proceedings, Barbera’s uncle Richard continued to express his anger over the sentence. ‘How can you get 42 years for two murders?’ he said. ‘It should have been life. I don’t understand the judicial system.’

Barbera took advantage of her family’s compassion. She moved in and sought their affection and then she repaid them by taking their money and their lives.