Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - She's The Worst Baby Mama Ever // The Barbara Britton Murder Story

Episode Date: September 5, 2026

In 1988, 24-year-old David Jackson vanished from Pembroke Pines, Florida, amidst a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife, Barbara Britton. The case remained a cold case for nearly two decades until Jackson's remains were discovered buried under a hotel parking lot, leading investigators to uncover a deadly plot orchestrated by Britton and her second husband, Michael Wolfe.

So a man walks into a motel room, hoping that his ex-wife will get back with him. And suddenly, boom, he gets hit with a stun gun. Now, this story starts with Barbara. And Barbara is about 16 during this time, living in Hollywood, Florida. And Barbara is a normal high school student working at a local Burger King. And Burger King is where she meets this guy, David. And David is 19, and he's the assistant manager there. And they like each other, so they start Dave.

And then one day in 1983, something happens that's going to change her life forever. She finds out that she's pregnant at 16. And she tells David and David's happy. He wants a kid with her. So the two of them decide to get married. But here's the problem with that. Barbara's dad, this guy, Harry, for whatever reason, Harry really, really hates David. And he doesn't want them to get married.

Regardless, Barbara and David get married anyway, and they try to make their marriage work. And David, he goes and he rents a house for them, hoping that they'll move in together. But apparently, they've been having lots of relationship problems lately because Barbara doesn't end up moving in with him. She stays living with her parents. And eventually, their marriage falls apart, and the two of them get divorced. And about four and a half years go by. So it's now 1988.

And they're still divorced, and their son is four now. And David, he's a good dad. I mean, he sees his son on the regular, he pays his child support on time. And by this point, Barbara has completely moved on. And she's married to a new guy. This guy, Wolf. And Wolf is an ex-military police officer, and he's 20 years older than Barbara. Well, at some point, Barbara decides that she doesn't want her son to be a part of her.

David's life and she and Wolf pack up and move to Arizona. Pretty abruptly actually, Barbara only gives David three hours notice that she's taking their son and moving all the way across the country. And this leads to a big custody battle in court between David and Barbara and eventually the court comes to a decision. Barbara has to bring their son back to Florida during the summer for a whole month so his dad can get visitation. Now remember, Barbara's dad Harry hates David. And he's always hated him. And he doesn't want David to have any contact with his

grandson. And he hears about the court's decision and he gets super pissed off. So he decides the only way to keep David from getting visitation rights is to murder him. So he and Barbara come up with a plan to take out David. Barbara's going to lure him somewhere and they're going to have someone shoot him. So then, Harry and Barbara get together and they decide to manipulate Wolf into doing this. So Barbara goes to Wolf, and she starts lying to him about David. She tells him bullshit stories about how David is abusive to their son, and Harry does the same thing. So Wolf is hearing these terrible stories from two different people, and of course, he believes they must be true. And he gets really upset.

So when they propose the idea of getting rid of David, Wolf is totally on board. And so together, the three of them come up with a plan. Barbara will lure David to a motel, and once he gets there, Wolf will shoot him. So they get to work on this plan. That same year, 1988, Barbara and Wolf fly from Arizona over to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, near where David lives. And there they check into a local motel and Harry is there because he still lives in Florida. Then Barbara calls David and she tells him that she's leaving Wolf and their relationship is done and that she really loves him, David, and wants to maybe get back together with him.

And David, who clearly still has feelings for Barbara, he's very into this idea and he agrees to come and meet her at the motel she's at. Sometime later he gets there and he and Barbara start talking and Wolf is hiding in the bathroom while Harry is hiding outside in his car then suddenly Barbara pulls out a stun gun and she shocks him but for whatever reason it doesn't incapacitate him

and that is when Wolf comes out of the bathroom and he's got an actual gun and blam blam he shoots David and unfortunately David doesn't survive Then, the three of them wrap him in a blanket and they load him into the trunk of their car, and they drive him to a remote empty lot where Harry had previously dug a shallow grave. Then Barbara Wolf and Harry bury him.

Then at some point, they drive his car to the Fort Lauderdale Airport, and they leave it there to make it seem like he left town. So eventually, David is reported missing, and police start investigating. But they don't find much. I mean, David's car is abandoned at the airport, but that's about all they got. So eventually, the case goes cold. And it's starting to look like Harry, Barbara, and Wolf have gotten away with murder. Until 15 years go by.

And it's now 2003. And at this point, Barbara and Wolf, they've ended their relationship long before. And David's son is a teenager now. He's 19. And he's part of the Police Explorers program, which is a local program for young adults interested in becoming police officers. And one day, he's at the police station as part of his program. And he walks past a detective's desk, and he notices on the desk there's a missing person's poster of his dad, David. I guess the detective there was reviewing the cold case files or something.

And so the kid sees it, and he's like, hey, that's my dad. And that is when he learns that a detective there has reopened the case into David's disappearance. That detective is this woman, Velazquez. So of course, David's son goes home and he tells his mom Barbara that the case has been reopened. And Barbara is not happy about that. And she tells him that the police need to leave it alone. So later, David's son goes back to the police station and he tells Velazquez what his mom said. So now Velazquez suspects that Barbara was involved in David's disappearance, and she really wants to find David's body.

So she gets on Google, and she searches for unidentified human remains that have been discovered over the years. And she finds a set of unidentified remains from a nearby town that matches David's description. So she locates the remains and has them DNA tested. And when the results come back, they show a match. for David. Then she goes and questions Barbara about David's disappearance. And of course, Barbara is acting all weird during questioning and she doesn't appear to be happy that David's remains have finally been found. So now Velazquez is really suspicious of her. Then she focuses on Barbara's husband at the time of the murder, Wolf. And she brings him in for questioning and he doesn't

confess to the murder or anything. So she decides to question two of Wolf's ex-wives. And each of these ex-wives tell her that Wolf used to get drunk and talk about how he, Harry and Barbara, had lured this guy David to a motel and killed him. And so with all this evidence, bam, police arrest Wolf. Here's his mugshot. And he goes to trial and he's found guilty and he gets sentenced to life in prison. But right then, right when it's too late, he decides to flip on Barbara and Harry. And he tells the prosecution that Barbara and Harry also played a huge part in organizing and setting up David's murder. And so, bam, Barbara is arrested too. Here's her mugshot. And by this point, Harry, he's old. He's died of cancer years earlier. So he actually does get away without

facing any consequences. But Barbara, she ends up taking a plea deal and after spending about three years in jail waiting for her trial, she manages to get off with probation.