Fugitive New Hampshire Sex Offender Captured After Chase On Interstate 93: U.S. Marshals

CONCORD, NH — Surveillance of a possible location where a convicted child sexual assaulter who was wanted for failure to register as a sex offender might be located led to his arrest after a chase through Manchester and Londonderry on Monday.

Members of the New Hampshire Joint Fugitive Task Force were casing a building in the Queen City where John Patrick Barber, 30, had previously been known to frequent. Barber was featured as the U.S. Marshals “Fugitive of the Week” on June 15 from a warrant out of Manchester. Investigators were also tracking him down due to the case of a shooting of a pregnant woman in the city after a bullet penetrated her building.

While conducting surveillance, a vehicle Barber had been seen inside in the past left the area, Jeffrey White, a deputy marshal, said. The vehicle then attempted to lose surveillance teams, he noted.

“The vehicle fled at a high speed down I-93 south to the Derry/Londonderry exit where they continued to attempt to elude the surveillance teams,” White said. “The vehicle containing Barber was eventually cornered at the end of a dead-end street in Londonderry, NH, where Barber was arrested without further incident.”

The driver of the vehicle, Keelee Estes, 27, with a last known address of Manchester, was arrested by New Hampshire State Police on a reckless operation charge. The vehicle was then towed from the area, White said.

Barber was taken to the Manchester Police Department headquarters for processing.

Along with task force members, the Strafford County Sheriff’s Office, Londonderry and Manchester police, and state troopers all assisted with the case, White said.

Past Criminal History

According to superior court records, Barber is a felon due to a robbery-liability charge in March 2009 out of Manchester after he pleaded guilty to the charge a year and a half later.

Barber was accused of reckless conduct, second-degree assault, and falsifying physical evidence charges in Manchester in April 2009. He pleaded guilty to the assault and evidence charges. Barber was accused of violating probation in November 2010 and found guilty of the charge in December 2010.

Barber was arrested in April 2012 for rape and sexual assault connected to an incident in Derry in November 2010. He pleaded guilty to a felonious sexual assault charge and was given a two-and-a-half-year minimum sentence with other time suspended. In August 2019, he was accused of violating his probation or parole and was sentenced to a suspended sentence in January 2021, with 48 days served.

While in prison, he was accused of assault by an inmate in June 2014 and pleaded guilty to the charge in September 2015 — with a one-and-a-half-year sentence served consecutive to his current prison sentence.

Between September 2020 and April, he racked up duty to inform charges in Lyndeborough and Manchester, theft and criminal mischief charges in Manchester, online identifiers charges in Manchester, and a subsequent drug possession and controlled drug: acts prohibited charges in Concord and Nashua.

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