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Thursday, October 29, 2009
Well-Known Physician Vanishes
By T.J. Wilham
Journal Staff Writer
Did someone abduct Dr. Barry Diskant?
Was he in an accident and unable to call for help? Did he harm himself? Or did he simply run away?
Diskant
No one seems to know what happened to the prominent Albuquerque physician who disappeared with his 2008 silver Porsche about three months ago, leaving behind a wife and a thriving business.
The business, which had been operating in Albuquerque for 20 years, has since been shut down. His wife, Barbara, is at a loss.
"I can't understand this," she said. The two have been married 10 years. "How does this happen? How does a car disappear?"
According to police reports, the doctor was last seen by his wife July 21 at the couple's home on Guadalupe Trail NW.
She told sheriff's deputies that her husband is bipolar, was taking "a lot" of prescription pain medication for an old back injury and had been more depressed than usual. She said her husband had said he had called the Betty Ford Clinic about treatment.
Barbara told the Journal that her husband was upset about his back and his mother, who was ill. So she fixed him a warm meal to help him feel better, and the two decided they would talk about things the next morning.
Barry didn't show up for a scheduled MRI appointment at 6:45 the next morning, and he missed a 9 a.m. meeting with his wife and broker in his office. Barbara said she became worried and had an assistant in his office call local emergency rooms. She also called the Betty Ford Clinic.
Nothing.
When Barbara went home, she noticed that the phone had been unplugged from the wall and the cord was missing.
Barry's wallet, wedding ring, laptop computer and Porsche were gone.
Later that day, Barbara retrieved a voice mail message from her husband, which said "he never discussed any kind of funeral arrangements ... didn't want any kind of funeral service and he didn't want anyone to remember him at all," according to police reports.
The sheriff's department said they are continuing to investigate his disappearance.
Barry, who turned 56 on Wednesday, owned and operated the Medical Evaluation Center on East Central, near Presbyterian Hospital. The practice specialized in giving independent evaluations of patients who were seeking damages in personal injury and workers' compensation cases.
He frequently testified in court for plaintiffs and defendants, and assembled panels of independent medical experts who would give an analysis on a person's injury.
"What he did was pretty innovative," said attorney Jerry Walz, who has known Barry for nearly 20 years. "He was the go-to guy here in New Mexico for these cases and was widely respected throughout the Southwest."
Barbara laid off her husband's seven employees in September. She has been turning away clients and giving back money to attorneys who had already paid the business for examinations that had yet to be completed.
A once-busy office is now virtually vacant. Desks are empty, paper is stacked in the conference room and a sign on the front door instructs visitors to knock loudly so that Barbara can hear them from a back room.
The door to her husband's private office remains closed.
Barbara spends seven days a week in the office, hoping he will call. She has hired three private investigators to look for her husband.
"Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. I have had heard nothing," she said. "I just hope he will walk through that door."
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