Jessica Barnes loved children and was studying to become a teacher at a technical school near her home in Pendleton, South Carolina.
But when the 20-year-old started dating Brandon Barnes, 21, her life turned upside-down.
After she married him and moved in with him and two roommates, she lost her job at a diner, left college and became distant from her large, close-knit Romanian family. Then ― shortly after her family says she discovered her husband having sex with one roommate ― she disappeared.
On Oct. 2, Brendan Barnes was charged with Jessica’s murder, while roommates Kendall Mims and Victoria Tippett, both 20, are accused of aiding him. According to police, after Brendan strangled his wife on Aug. 2, Mims and Tippett helped him conceal her death and move her body to a wooded area miles away, where it was found on Sept. 20.
In an interview with HuffPost, Troy Styles of Blunt Force Media, who is acting as a spokesperson for Jessica’s family, revealed new details about her relationship with Brandon and the warning signs her mother saw as a fellow domestic violence survivor.