[2] Barbara was attending Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, when she fell ill with the Hong Kong flu when a pandemic struck the campus.
Jane travelled to Atlanta to take care of her daughter and drive her back to the family home in Coral Gables, Florida, for the Christmas break.
[1][2] On December 17, 1968, prison escapee Gary Steven Krist (wearing a mask and holding a shotgun) and his accomplice, Ruth Eisemann-Schier (wearing a ski mask), knocked on the door of the room Barbara and Jane were sharing at the Rodeway Inn at approximately 4 a.m.[3] From outside, Krist told Barbara that there had been a traffic accident.
[2] Once inside, Krist and Eisemann-Schier chloroformed and bound Jane and forced Barbara at gunpoint into the back of their waiting car, informing her that she was being kidnapped.
They drove Barbara to a remote pine stand off South Berkeley Lake Road in Gwinnett County near Duluth and buried her in a shallow trench inside a fiberglass-reinforced box.
[5] She had applied for a job at a hospital and as part of the background check a fingerprint match was found by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
In March 2006, Krist was arrested on a sailboat off the coast of Alabama with 14 kilograms (31 lb) of cocaine, reportedly worth about $1 million, and four undocumented people.
[7][8] On August 27, 2012, in Mobile, Alabama, U.S. District Judge Callie V. Granade revoked Krist's supervised release for violation of his probation.
[9] Mackle wrote a book (with The Miami Herald reporter Gene Miller) about her experience: 83 Hours Till Dawn, published in 1971.
Krist also wrote a book, Life: The Man Who Kidnapped Barbara Jane Mackle, published in 1972 (ISBN 0-7004-0100-8).