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The Associated Press MIAMI — A young man who police say was driven by a vampire-like thirst for blood asked two neighborhood women to use the telephone, then stabbed them with a knife and drank their blood, court records show. “I knew it was wrong,” Donnie Bar nard told North Miami homicide detec tives of the murders last year. Court records obtained Friday by The Miami Herald show Patricia Johnson and Avian Keys were slain by a young man who, police believe, was driven by a vampire-like thirst for blood. “Anytime somebody tells you the mo tive was to drink their blood and they thank you for catching them, it’s bi zarre,” detective William Craig said. The medical examiner discovered bite marks on Johnson’s body. A dental ex pert says the bites came from a human and were not self-inflicted. The expert is trying to match the bite marks to Bar nard, according to new evidence in the case. Barnard stabbed Johnson with such force that he broke the knife and almost sliced off his own pinky, detectives said. Police found a 50-foot trail of blood lead ing from her home. DNA tests are being done to determine if it’s Barnard’s blood. Barnard drank Keys’ blood, set fire to her bed with a cigarette lighter and then watched the flames from his home next door, police said. Barnard, 25, is charged with murder ing both women within six weeks of each other. He has pleaded not guilty. He is held in a security cell at the Dade County Jail. His lawyer, Dade assistant public defender Edith Georgie, was not avail able for comment. According to court files and interviews with the detectives, Barnard turned into a blood-craving killer two weeks and two days after he was acquitted of beating a teenager with a claw hammer. On July 29, 1994, Patricia Johnson’s son Anthony found her dead in the living room of her house. Johnson, a loan pro cessor, had been stabbed in the neck, back and elsewhere. Investigators re moved a section of wall with a bloody palm print and matched it with Bar nard’s. Barnard explained the trail after his arrest Sept. 30. “The defendant stated that he cut him self when the knife broke as he was stabbing Patricia Johnson. He related that he used napkins to stop the bleeding and later discarded them outside the residence.” The second killing happened between Sept. 11 and 12. Firefighters responding to a house fire and found the charred body of Dade corrections officer Avian Keys. She had been gagged with a cloth belt from a child’s dress and possibly stabbed. The medical examiner has not been able to pinpoint the cause of death be cause of the fire. But Barnard later told detectives that he asked to use the phone “to gain entry” and “attacked both victims from ee with a knife and later drank their food.” “He set fire to Avian Keys’ bed with a lighter,” police say Barnard told them. “He watched the police and fire depart ment investigating the murder of Ms. Keys from his window.”
Newspaper Details
Panama City News Herald
Panama City, Florida, US
Sun, Feb 19, 1995
Page 13
Full Page
Clipped by
Lenora S.
USA 05 Jul 2026
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