吹哨人做了两天的口头问话，准备开车回路易斯安那的老家，还打电话告诉他的母亲他周日到家。他的律师建议休息一两周，而波音的律师坚持吹哨人不能走。吹哨人说那就留下继续问话吧，他已经等了七年了。第二天早上律师在办公室等他的时候，他却在旅馆停车场自尽了。

The previous day, Barnett had been on a roll as a video camera recorded the event. “John testified for four hours in questioning by my co-counsel Brian,” says Turkewitz. “This was following seven hours of cross examination by Boeing’s lawyers on Thursday. He was really happy to be telling his side of the story, excited to be fielding our questions, doing a great job. It was explosive stuff. As I’m sitting there, I’m thinking, ‘This is the best witness I’ve ever seen.’” At one point, says Turkewitz, the Boeing lawyer protested that Barnett was reciting the details of incidents from a decade ago, and specific dates, without looking at documents. As Turkevitz recalls the exchange, Barnett fired back, "I know these documents inside out. I’ve had to live it."

That Friday, Barnett’s testimony ended at around 5 PM, and the parties reconvened an hour later. “John was really tired and didn’t want to testify any more that day,” says Turkewitz. “He wanted to drive home to Louisiana starting that evening, as he had planned. He'd told his mom that he'd be home on Sunday, and it took him two days to drive home. I suggested that we break for a week or two. But the Boeing lawyers took the position that no more depositions could be taken until Barnett completed his testimony. Turkewitz didn't think the judge would stand for that restriction. "We had a March 30 deadline for completing the depositions, there was a list of 20 witnesses from both sides. On our list were around eight witnesses who'd worked with John and backed his eyewitness version of events at the plant. We knew Boeing would file a motion for summary judgment, and we wanted to lay out through John's testimony that he was subjected to a hostile work environment.” (Boeing did not respond to a request to comment for this story.)

For Barnett, passion for the cause surmounted the fatigue from two days of intense questioning. According to Turkewitz, he told the lawyers, ‘Let’s just get it done. I’ve already been waiting for seven years.’”

Shortly after 10 AM, Turkewitz called the Holiday Inn. “I asked if he’d checked out, and they said no,” he recounts. “I asked to be put through to the room, and the phone just kept ringing, so I then asked that they check the room. They Holiday Inn folks said ‘His stuff’s packed up, but he’s not there.’” Turkewitz asked that they look for his car, a “Clemson Orange” Dodge Ram truck. "The manager came back and told me, 'His truck is still there, and we called EMS. I can't tell you anything more.'" At that point, the lawyers around the conference table feared that Barnett could have suffered a heart attack.
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