Barbara was present at the library the night in 1991 that Hanna Frey disappeared. She was one of the last people to see Hanna alive. Hanna's friend Samantha Groves saw Hanna get into the car with Trent Russell and told Barbara. But as Barbara was in love with Trent she refused to believe Samantha and scolded her for telling lies. She eventually married Trent, but he was murdered in 1993. The murder was never solved, but he had been set up by Samantha, now the hacker Root, in revenge for Hanna's disappearance. Over the years, on the anniversary of Hanna's disappearance, Barbara would receive a copy of Flowers for Algernon, the book Hanna checked out of the library before her disappearance.