Suspicious Deaths

Boeing workers warn that whistleblower John Barnett “made powerful enemies” before his alleged suicide, as a puzzling discrepancy on his police report has emerged.

The whistleblower was found dead in his pickup truck in a Charleston, South Carolina, hotel parking lot on March 9, the same morning he was due to conclude private testimony in a lawsuit against the jet company where he had worked for most of his career.

• He seemed fine and not unset just before his death based on witness testimony
  
• His lawyers don't believe he committed suicide
  
• The gun was still in Barnett's hand. That's unusual, according to an author
  

A coroner’s report said Barnett, 62, died from a "self-inflicted" wound, though a close family friend of Barnett’s told WCIV-TV,"I know he did not commit suicide."

"He wasn't concerned about safety because I asked him," the friend said. "I said, 'Aren't you scared?' And he said, 'No, I ain't scared, but if anything happens to me, it's not suicide.' "

The person added: "I know that he did not commit suicide. There's no way. He loved life too much. He loved his family too much. He loved his brothers too much to put them through what they're going through right now."

"John was suffering from PTSD and anxiety as a result of the hostile work environment that he experienced at Charleston at Boeing," Turkewitz said. "We did not have any indication that he was under tremendous stress to the point where he would take his own life."