Courtesy of America’s Most Wanted
BELLEPLAN– A 2005 aggravated assault case was featured on America’s Most Wanted Saturday night. According to America’s Most Wanted on Dec. 2, 2005. John Schlump’s estranged wife, Patricia Barnes, parked her car in her detached garage in Belleplain. When she got out of the car, U.S. Marshals say Schlump punched her in the face and said, “It’s payback time.” At that point, he allegedly continued attacking her and tried to tie her down using duct tape and a nylon cargo strap.
But police say it didn’t stop there: He allegedly threatened Patricia with a .22-caliber handgun and told her if she tried to call the state police, he would shoot her and then burn the house down. Knowing this was her chance, she fought him off – and he sped away. His car has never been found.
But what cops did find was that Schlump had put everything in place to set Patricia Barnes’ home on fire. A battery had been removed from her smoke detector, and gas cans were found outside the house. One gas can was next to the crawl space door. Inside the crawl space, cops found cloth sheets laid out in on the ground, leading from the crawl space door to three tires stacked on top of an inverted trash can lid. Police say a hole was cut out of the tread on the bottom tire, with the sheet sticking through the hole. But that’s not all: Lumber was around the tires, and firewood and branches were arranged in a teepee fashion with the wood touching the bottom of the first floor.
Cops say the combination of wood, tires, trash can lids and sheets were arranged in such a way to start a fire from outside the crawl space. The inverted trash can lid could hold enough gasoline to ignite the wood. The sheets appeared to be arranged in such a way to act as a fuse to light the gasoline in the trash can lid. Also found outside the home were two bamboo sticks, each approximately 15-feet long with plastic flares attached with electrical tape.
Bizarrely, it wasn’t the first time Patricia thwarted one of his plots: Police say when she was a volunteer fire dispatcher, she’d actually responded to the 1989 fire Schlump set.
Schlump’s ex-wife tells AMW he’s a survivalist who can stay alive in the woods for a long time, but police hope you can help find him as soon as possible.
If you’ve seen 60-year-old John Schlump, call our Hotline right away at 1-800-CRIME-TV. Remember: You can remain anonymous.
