Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886

'Tale of survival'

Shelton woman's story on 'Dateline'

A profile on an anti-government and anti-law enforcement extremist set to air on NBC's "Dateline" at 9 p.m. Friday will feature the recollections of his former wife, a longtime Shelton resident, and his son, a 2002 Shelton High School graduate.

Lloyd Barrus, 67, is serving three concurrent life sentences without parole in a Billings, Montana prison. He was in the driver's seat when he and his now deceased son Marshall Barrus lured Broadwater County Deputy Mason Moore into chasing them, and Marshall then shot him in the face. Moore left behind three children.

It wasn't Lloyd Barrus' first high-profile confrontation with law officers. In March 2020, he fired shots at a California Highway Patrol helicopter in Death Valley, forcing the pilot to land.

Debra del Bosque, a Shelton resident who works in the kitchen at the Mason County Senior Activities Center, shared the details of her tumultuous marriage to Lloyd in an interview last June with "Dateline's" Keith Morrison at the Little Creek Casino Resort in Shelton. Son Al Barrus joined them in the interview.

While living in Anchorage, the two fled the abusive Lloyd when Al was 6.

"I knew if we didn't get away, we'd be harassed or killed," Debra said in an interview with the Shelton-Mason County Journal.

Del Bosque is the widow of Ricardo del Bosque, a Shelton School District liaison to the Hispanic community who died from COVID in 2021. In sharing her experiences, "I hope it helps people," she said. "I could have been a statistic, a woman killed and my children put into the foster system."

"She has a story of survival and hope," Al told the Journal in a telephone interview from his home in New Mexico.

"Dateline" producers contacted Debra shortly after the death of Ricardo.

"At that time, I didn't have one ounce of ability to give them my time. So I ignored them," she said.

Then Lloyd received a life sentence with no chance for parole. The "Dateline" team had attended all the court hearings, Debra said.

"I said, 'I'm not opposed to doing an interview now,' " she said.

Lloyd Barrus - who has 10 children in three families - changed during their marriage, Debra said.

"He used to be a hard worker, always had his own flooring business ... Then he left the church, and that's when the trouble began."

Al said he has few early memories of his father. One involved his dad forcing him to pick out a switch from a tree for a beating following an infraction.

"He is a horrible man," he said.

When Al and his mother fled, "We left in the middle of the night." The move was coordinated with the police, he said.

They spent a few days at a shelter for victims of domestic violence and then moved briefly to Mesa, Arizona. They changed their last name. And they moved to Shelton, where Debra's parents lived. Al entered kindergarten at Pioneer Elementary School.

When he was in middle school, his father would call him and refer to him by his nickname "Tiger." Al was aware of his father's anti-government and law enforcement rants.

"I knew he didn't like the police," he said.

Because of Lloyd's influence, Al said two of his brothers are dead and one is in prison.

"My dad is very cunning, very intelligent, very charming," he said.

His father wrote him long letters. They contained many references to Bible scriptures and weapons, Al said. He last saw his father in 2017 when he was given a sentence of death, before that sentence was dropped.

"I don't think the government has the right to take anyone's life, including my dad's," Al said.

"I don't want to hate him ... I forgive him, but I won't forget what he did."

Instead of being raised by his father, Al had a very different role model in Ricardo.

"They are completely different," Debra said. "Ricardo had a heart of gold, and he helped people all day long ... He wouldn't turn anyone away."

Al agrees. "They're almost opposites ... Lloyd has hurt kids, Ricardo helped kids," he said.

Yet they began life under different circumstances. Lloyd was raised with a supportive family with wealth while Ricardo came from poverty, Al said.

"He was born on a dirt floor in Mexico ... He had gunfights with cartels. He got shot."

After graduating from Shelton High School, Al joined the National Guard and became a part-time public affairs soldier. In 2004, he was deployed to Iraq, where he wrote about and photographed the Army's 1st Calvary Division in Bahgdad. He now lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with his wife, Verenice and their two children, 5-year-old Danielle and 4-year-old Alden. He is a communications specialist for a public-sector wildlife conservation organization.

Author Bio

Gordon Weeks, Reporter

Shelton-Mason County Journal & Belfair Herald

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 
Rendered 03/20/2024 21:30