Boeing whistleblower John Barnett’s death may have shocked many who were following his story. But he may have seen it coming.
He reportedly predicted that he could potentially end up dead after raising safety concerns about Boeing. Even allegedly telling a family friend: “If anything happens, it’s not suicide.”
They found Barnett, 62, dead in his pickup truck in a Charleston, South Carolina, hotel parking lot on March 9. This was the same day he was due to conclude his closed-door testimony in a lawsuit against his former employer.
Authorities initially said Barnett died from a “self-inflicted” gunshot wound to the head. However, his lawyers, family, and friends have since raised doubts over the possibility of the ex-Boeing quality control engineer taking his own life.
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“I know that he did not commit suicide. There’s no way,” a family friend, only identified as Jennifer, told ABC 4. She claimed Barnett had speculated to her that he might end up dead after he started speaking out publicly about his Boeing-related safety concerns following his retirement in 2017.
“He wasn’t concerned about [his own] safety because I asked him,” Jennifer told the outlet. “I said, ‘Aren’t you scared?’ And he said, ‘No, I ain’t scared, but if anything happens to me, it’s not suicide.'”
Details of when the conversation took place are currently unclear. However, according to Jennifer, they had spoken about his upcoming deposition in the Boeing legal saga during that same chat.
She last saw Barnett at her father’s funeral in late February when he was a pallbearer. She is confident that somebody “didn’t like what he had to say” and wanted to “shut him up.”
“That’s why they made it look like a suicide,” Jennifer alleged in an interview. She is not the only one who thinks so. Barnett’s attorneys, too, are skeptical over the notion he died by suicide. They said earlier this week: “John was in the midst of a deposition in his whistleblower retaliation case, which finally was nearing the end.”
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“He was in very good spirits and really looking forward to putting this phase of his life behind him and moving on. We didn’t see any indication he would take his own life. No one can believe it,” the attorneys, Robert Turkewitz and Brian Knowles added.
An employee at the Holiday Inn discovered Barnett’s body after his lawyers requested a welfare check when they couldn’t reach him by phone. Barnett was slumped over in the truck with a gunshot wound to his head and was still clutching a pistol.
Barnett worked as a quality control engineer with Boeing for over 30 years before retiring. Two years after his retirement, he started giving media interviews. In them, he alleged that Boeing cut corners by rushing to get its 787 Dreamliner jets off the production line.
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Boeing workers have alleged that Barnett “made powerful enemies” before his alleged suicide. An investigation into his death is ongoing.
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