Sierra Barter.Photo:Courtesy Max
Courtesy Max
A California woman who spearheaded an investigation into her abusive step-grandfather is speaking out after her experience was highlighted in a new four-part docuseries that premiered on Max on Feb. 15.
The Truth About Jim,delves into how 32-year-old Sierra Barter, her mother Shannon Barter, and her grandmother Judy Mordecai bravely pursue the truth about a mystery that could change their lives forever: Was family member Jim Mordecai a notorious serial killer?
In the San Francisco Bay Area, Mordecai was a respected teacher to most, but to others, including his family, he was a monstrous person with a history of physical violence and sexual assault against women and girls.
“So, I was doing this self-work and I realized that I needed to look back into my family to understand how these situations kept occurring for me, dealing with the trauma of them really,” Barter says.
“So, through that, I realized that we hadn’t really talked about this monster in our closet. And that’s really what led me back to dealing with Jim 15 years or so post his death,” she adds.
But digging deep into that generational trauma left her with conflicting emotions.
“There were moments when I was really super happy to be heard and listened to, and to kind of break open that door of something that I’ve been sort of sealed and kind of danced around in our family. But then, at the same time, obviously, opening that door is super dark and heavy,” she says.
Barter discovered disturbing connections between her step-grandfather and theSanta Rosa Hitchhiker Murders, a series of at least seven unsolved homicides involving young female hitchhikers that took place in the North Bay area in 1972 and 1973.
Eventually, Barter put together all of her research on the case, which included some of Mordecai’s personal items containing possible DNA, and handed it over to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. The investigation into the Santa Rosa murders remains ongoing, but Barter thinks about the victims often and hopes they get justice.
“I think for me, my hope is that there is some justice brought to them and that their voices are heard as well in some capacity,” she says. “So, I’m letting the police do their job, but through that, I do think of those girls often and I think of their families, and I just hope that there is some resolution for them, whatever the outcome is.”
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Overall, Barter says the experience ultimately brought her family closer together and allowed her to find her voice.
“We finally got to sort of release the burden of carrying the shame that [Mordecai] put on to everybody else,” she said.
Barter adds, “I think that that’s the greatest gift that I got from all of this is just being able to sit inside my body again and own my body again and own my voice, and not let the people who have tried to take it or steal it from me be the keepers of that anymore.”
The Truth About Jimpremiered on Max on Feb. 15.
source: people.com
