Assumed Deceased: Samantha Burns - WV - 11/12/2002
Started by
Jenn
, Nov 20 2008 09:30 AM
36 replies to this topic
#1
Jenn
-
- Moderators
-
- 5,706 posts
Advanced Member
- LocationOntario, Canada
Posted 20 November 2008 - 09:30 AM
http://www.nampn.org...s_samantha.html
Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance
# Missing Since: November 11, 2002 from Huntington, West Virginia
# Classification: Endangered Missing
# Date Of Birth: April 23, 1983
# Age at time of disappearance: 19
# Height: 5'4"
# Weight: 110 lbs.
# Hair Color: Brown
# Eye Color: Hazel
# Race: White
# Gender: Female
# Distinguishing Characteristics: Chicken pox scars on the right side of forehead. Tattoo of a butterfly on lower back, pierced ears and pierced tongue.
# Clothing: Orange fuzzy sweater with a tank top underneath, low-cut rider jeans that flared at the bottom, light tan suede mule shoes and leopard print purse.
# Jewelry: Diamond stud earrings, a heart-shaped ring with a diamond in the center of the heart.
# AKA: "Sam", "Sammy"
# NCIC Number: M-772839413
# Case Number: 5200-24308
Details of Disappearance
Samantha Burns was last seen by her aunt at the Huntington Mall in Barboursville, WV, at 6:30 on the evening of November 11, 2002. At 9:45 p.m. that evening, Burns used her cellular phone to call her mother and said had been visiting friends at Marshall University Court Yard Apartments but was coming home. Burns lived in East Hamlin, West Virginia. She never arrived there and has never been heard from again. The call to her mother was the last one Burns made on her phone. After her disappearance the phone was discovered to be turned off, which is uncharacteristic of Burns.
At 3:30 a.m. on November 12, Burns' 1999 burgundy Chevrolet Cavalier with a tiger sticker in the back window on the driver's side and a license plate numbered 5X9326 was found abandoned in Wayne County, West Virginia. The vehicle was discovered in a secluded area at German Ridge and Haneys Branch Roads, near the Cabell-Wayne county line. It had been set on fire; when the police found it, it was still burning. There was no sign of Burns near the vehicle.
In July 2005, Chadrick Fulks and Branden Basham pleaded guilty to a federal charge of carjacking resulting in death to avoid a possible death sentence. Basham and Fulks had escaped from the Hopkins County (Ky.) Jail in November 2002. They have said that they carjacked Burns shortly thereafter and killed her, though her body has not been found. They are currently on death row for another killing, that of Alice Donovan from South Carolina. Donovan's remains have not been found.
Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
West Virginia State Police
(304) 528-5555
Print a poster: http://www.wvstatepo...ldren/burns.pdf
Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance
# Missing Since: November 11, 2002 from Huntington, West Virginia
# Classification: Endangered Missing
# Date Of Birth: April 23, 1983
# Age at time of disappearance: 19
# Height: 5'4"
# Weight: 110 lbs.
# Hair Color: Brown
# Eye Color: Hazel
# Race: White
# Gender: Female
# Distinguishing Characteristics: Chicken pox scars on the right side of forehead. Tattoo of a butterfly on lower back, pierced ears and pierced tongue.
# Clothing: Orange fuzzy sweater with a tank top underneath, low-cut rider jeans that flared at the bottom, light tan suede mule shoes and leopard print purse.
# Jewelry: Diamond stud earrings, a heart-shaped ring with a diamond in the center of the heart.
# AKA: "Sam", "Sammy"
# NCIC Number: M-772839413
# Case Number: 5200-24308
Details of Disappearance
Samantha Burns was last seen by her aunt at the Huntington Mall in Barboursville, WV, at 6:30 on the evening of November 11, 2002. At 9:45 p.m. that evening, Burns used her cellular phone to call her mother and said had been visiting friends at Marshall University Court Yard Apartments but was coming home. Burns lived in East Hamlin, West Virginia. She never arrived there and has never been heard from again. The call to her mother was the last one Burns made on her phone. After her disappearance the phone was discovered to be turned off, which is uncharacteristic of Burns.
At 3:30 a.m. on November 12, Burns' 1999 burgundy Chevrolet Cavalier with a tiger sticker in the back window on the driver's side and a license plate numbered 5X9326 was found abandoned in Wayne County, West Virginia. The vehicle was discovered in a secluded area at German Ridge and Haneys Branch Roads, near the Cabell-Wayne county line. It had been set on fire; when the police found it, it was still burning. There was no sign of Burns near the vehicle.
In July 2005, Chadrick Fulks and Branden Basham pleaded guilty to a federal charge of carjacking resulting in death to avoid a possible death sentence. Basham and Fulks had escaped from the Hopkins County (Ky.) Jail in November 2002. They have said that they carjacked Burns shortly thereafter and killed her, though her body has not been found. They are currently on death row for another killing, that of Alice Donovan from South Carolina. Donovan's remains have not been found.
Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
West Virginia State Police
(304) 528-5555
Print a poster: http://www.wvstatepo...ldren/burns.pdf
Jennifer, Project Jason Forum Moderator
www.projectjason.org
Help us for free when you shop online or do a websearch:
http://www.goodsearc...harityid=857029
Help us find the missing: Become an AAN Member
http://www.projectja...awareness.shtml
If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.
www.projectjason.org
Help us for free when you shop online or do a websearch:
http://www.goodsearc...harityid=857029
Help us find the missing: Become an AAN Member
http://www.projectja...awareness.shtml
If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.
#2
Jenn
-
- Moderators
-
- 5,706 posts
Advanced Member
- LocationOntario, Canada
Posted 20 November 2008 - 09:34 AM
http://www.lincolnjo...rnalinc&he=.com
Burns tragedy recalled
HUNTINGTON — The anniversary of the tragic disappearance of Lincoln County’s Samantha Burns has been remembered in various in the six years since her disappearance.
Burns, 19, was known in Lincoln County for her pleasant smile and athletic skills. She led her Guyan Valley High School softball team to the top of the Class A rankings and captained the squad in the state tournament.
Burns, who lived at West Hamlin with her parents, John and Kandi Burns, and brother, Wesley, was a student at Marshall University when she disappeared on November 11, 2002. Burns had called her mother after shopping at the Huntington Mall to tell her she was on her way home. She never arrived and a massive search for her began the next day.
Although Burns was never found, Chadrick Fulks, a West Hamlin native, and Brandon Basham were eventually convicted of abducting and murdering her.
They were also convicted of killing Alice Donovan, 44, of Galivants Ferry, South Carolina, three days later.
Efforts to locate Burns’ body have proved unsuccessful through the intervening years and Donovan’s body has not been found, either.
Eventually, the softball field Burns played on at West Hamlin was named the Samantha Burns Mem-orial Field in her honor.
A softball tournament in honor of her memory has been played annually at the field, as well.
Family members and friends have often expressed regret that closure cannot be accomplished since her body has not been found.
Last week, on the anniversary of Burns’ disappearance, The (Huntington) Herald-Dispatch published a story in which Fulks maintained he did not actually murder the women.
In a letter dated October 28, Fulks said use of crystal meth and crack cocaine contributed to the crime spree.
“I know that played a bigger part than anything on how things turned out,†he wrote in the letter to The (Myrtle Beach) Sun News.
Fulks said he and Basham did not plan the attacks. He said he cannot make excuses for his actions but he believes drug abuse during the crime spree contributed to the violence.
Fulks and Basham are awaiting execution for their involvement in the deaths.
Fulks and Basham met at a Kentucky county jail and escaped on November 4, 2002. They are now being held at the Terre Haute, Indiana Federal Pententiary.
Fulks claims he passed three polygraph tests regarding whether he killed the women. He insists he did wrong but said he did not murder either of them.
The defendant waived his right to appeal in September and asked twice for the court to expedite his execution.
“To be honest, I welcome death,†he wrote. “I live with this 24/7 and for the longest time I couldn’t even look myself in the mirror.â€
Earlier offers by Fulks and Basham to help authorities find the bodies never located them. But Fulks now says he wants to help police find them. He said he knows “100 percent†where the bodies are located. He says he has offered to help find the bodies after eventually deciding that he should do so. But, now, he says, authorities do not believe his offers are sincere.
Samantha’s mother, Kandi, said she had read the stories about Fulks’ latest comments.
She said neither she nor other members of the Burns family would comment on what Fulks had said.
Burns tragedy recalled
HUNTINGTON — The anniversary of the tragic disappearance of Lincoln County’s Samantha Burns has been remembered in various in the six years since her disappearance.
Burns, 19, was known in Lincoln County for her pleasant smile and athletic skills. She led her Guyan Valley High School softball team to the top of the Class A rankings and captained the squad in the state tournament.
Burns, who lived at West Hamlin with her parents, John and Kandi Burns, and brother, Wesley, was a student at Marshall University when she disappeared on November 11, 2002. Burns had called her mother after shopping at the Huntington Mall to tell her she was on her way home. She never arrived and a massive search for her began the next day.
Although Burns was never found, Chadrick Fulks, a West Hamlin native, and Brandon Basham were eventually convicted of abducting and murdering her.
They were also convicted of killing Alice Donovan, 44, of Galivants Ferry, South Carolina, three days later.
Efforts to locate Burns’ body have proved unsuccessful through the intervening years and Donovan’s body has not been found, either.
Eventually, the softball field Burns played on at West Hamlin was named the Samantha Burns Mem-orial Field in her honor.
A softball tournament in honor of her memory has been played annually at the field, as well.
Family members and friends have often expressed regret that closure cannot be accomplished since her body has not been found.
Last week, on the anniversary of Burns’ disappearance, The (Huntington) Herald-Dispatch published a story in which Fulks maintained he did not actually murder the women.
In a letter dated October 28, Fulks said use of crystal meth and crack cocaine contributed to the crime spree.
“I know that played a bigger part than anything on how things turned out,†he wrote in the letter to The (Myrtle Beach) Sun News.
Fulks said he and Basham did not plan the attacks. He said he cannot make excuses for his actions but he believes drug abuse during the crime spree contributed to the violence.
Fulks and Basham are awaiting execution for their involvement in the deaths.
Fulks and Basham met at a Kentucky county jail and escaped on November 4, 2002. They are now being held at the Terre Haute, Indiana Federal Pententiary.
Fulks claims he passed three polygraph tests regarding whether he killed the women. He insists he did wrong but said he did not murder either of them.
The defendant waived his right to appeal in September and asked twice for the court to expedite his execution.
“To be honest, I welcome death,†he wrote. “I live with this 24/7 and for the longest time I couldn’t even look myself in the mirror.â€
Earlier offers by Fulks and Basham to help authorities find the bodies never located them. But Fulks now says he wants to help police find them. He said he knows “100 percent†where the bodies are located. He says he has offered to help find the bodies after eventually deciding that he should do so. But, now, he says, authorities do not believe his offers are sincere.
Samantha’s mother, Kandi, said she had read the stories about Fulks’ latest comments.
She said neither she nor other members of the Burns family would comment on what Fulks had said.
Jennifer, Project Jason Forum Moderator
www.projectjason.org
Help us for free when you shop online or do a websearch:
http://www.goodsearc...harityid=857029
Help us find the missing: Become an AAN Member
http://www.projectja...awareness.shtml
If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.
www.projectjason.org
Help us for free when you shop online or do a websearch:
http://www.goodsearc...harityid=857029
Help us find the missing: Become an AAN Member
http://www.projectja...awareness.shtml
If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.
#3
LINDA
LINDA
-
- Guests
Posted 01 February 2009 - 06:18 AM
http://www.google.co..._YdbQAD961ICI00
Death row inmate aids in search for his SC victim
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Monica Caison figured it was worth a shot, so she fired off a letter, a single paragraph, to the man on death row for kidnapping and killing Alice Donovan during a two-week, 2,300-mile crime spree.
"You say you want to do the right thing," wrote Caison, the founder of a group that searches for missing people. "I'm here and I'm listening."
She received Chadrick Fulks' reply two months later: a map, color photos of the area where he says he left Donovan's body six years ago, and instructions to look where searchers had not ventured before.
Donovan's daughter Angie Gilchrist was skeptical. This wasn't the first time Fulks and co-defendant Brandon Basham had sent people on fruitless searches for their victims' bodies.
Just ask investigators who spent Thanksgiving 2002 looking through another patch of woods for Donovan and found nothing. Or the family of Samantha Burns, the 19-year-old Marshall University student who disappeared a week before Donovan from a Huntington, W.Va., mall not far from her home.
Caison, founder of Community United Effort - Center for Missing Persons, felt this time would be different. She had written to Fulks on federal death row in Terre Haute, Ind., after one of Donovan's daughters approached her at a fundraiser marking the sixth anniversary of her mother's disappearance. She was carrying a letter the convicted killer had written to a local newspaper saying he'd help find the body.
Donovan, a 44-year-old mother of two, was last seen pulling into a Wal-Mart parking lot in Conway, just north of Myrtle Beach, in November 2002.
Her kidnapping — captured on a security camera — and killing were Fulks and Basham's last major crimes during a two-week spree that started when they broke out of a jail in Madisonville, Ky.
Authorities said the pair also carjacked a Kentucky man and left him tied to a tree in frigid temperatures in Indiana, shot a South Carolina man who refused to give them his vehicle, and attacked police officers in Kentucky and Ohio.
When Fulks' response to her letter arrived two weeks ago, Caison didn't even stop at home before driving 75 miles from Wilmington, N.C., and organizing a search.
"I knew he was steering us the right direction," Caison said this week as the search wrapped up. "His instructions were very specific. He told me, 'You have to push forward. You have to go deeper. Go into the thicket, no one wants to search there.'"
On Jan. 18, after about seven hours of searching, dozens of volunteers and four dogs found bones in thick brush and thorns about 150 feet from a dirt road on the North Carolina line.
Volunteer searchers and the FBI have since found remains in five different locations, about 15 miles from where Donovan disappeared. The bones may have been spread out because heavy equipment has been used to cut down many of the trees that once stood there.
DNA tests aren't expected for weeks, but Caison and Donovan's family are convinced the remains belong to Donovan.
There's no such comfort for Burns' relatives in West Virginia, who quietly marked the sixth anniversary of her disappearance still wondering if she will ever be found. A woman identifying herself as Burns' grandmother said family members don't have faith that Fulks will help them. She wouldn't give her name and asked a reporter to call Burns' mother, who did not return a phone message.
Fulks' lawyer, Beattie Ashmore, said his client will continue to help West Virginia authorities look for Burns and hopes the discovery in South Carolina might appease Donovan's family and prompt prosecutors to rescind the death penalty.
Ashmore said Fulks has always insisted Donovan's body was left near the small community of Longs.
"He has mentioned this area before. It looks like the earlier searchers missed Mrs. Donovan," Ashmore said.
Even if the remains are in fact her mother's, Gilchrist said she plans to watch Fulks and Basham die.
"An eye for an eye," said Gilchrist, 32. "You don't go around killing people and expect your consequences are going to change because you told us where the body is."
Donovan's daughters have been out on the dirt road for some of the search, and a police technician swabbed their cheeks for DNA to compare with the remains.
They started planning their mother's funeral as soon as the first bone fragments were found. Gilchrist, who dealt with years of addiction and struggles stemming from her mother's disappearance, said her emotions have run the gamut over the past few days, from angry to sad to relieved.
"I'm exhausted," she said. "I'm emotionally exhausted. It's been six years. I'm looking forward to getting the DNA test back and having the answers about whether this is my
Death row inmate aids in search for his SC victim
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Monica Caison figured it was worth a shot, so she fired off a letter, a single paragraph, to the man on death row for kidnapping and killing Alice Donovan during a two-week, 2,300-mile crime spree.
"You say you want to do the right thing," wrote Caison, the founder of a group that searches for missing people. "I'm here and I'm listening."
She received Chadrick Fulks' reply two months later: a map, color photos of the area where he says he left Donovan's body six years ago, and instructions to look where searchers had not ventured before.
Donovan's daughter Angie Gilchrist was skeptical. This wasn't the first time Fulks and co-defendant Brandon Basham had sent people on fruitless searches for their victims' bodies.
Just ask investigators who spent Thanksgiving 2002 looking through another patch of woods for Donovan and found nothing. Or the family of Samantha Burns, the 19-year-old Marshall University student who disappeared a week before Donovan from a Huntington, W.Va., mall not far from her home.
Caison, founder of Community United Effort - Center for Missing Persons, felt this time would be different. She had written to Fulks on federal death row in Terre Haute, Ind., after one of Donovan's daughters approached her at a fundraiser marking the sixth anniversary of her mother's disappearance. She was carrying a letter the convicted killer had written to a local newspaper saying he'd help find the body.
Donovan, a 44-year-old mother of two, was last seen pulling into a Wal-Mart parking lot in Conway, just north of Myrtle Beach, in November 2002.
Her kidnapping — captured on a security camera — and killing were Fulks and Basham's last major crimes during a two-week spree that started when they broke out of a jail in Madisonville, Ky.
Authorities said the pair also carjacked a Kentucky man and left him tied to a tree in frigid temperatures in Indiana, shot a South Carolina man who refused to give them his vehicle, and attacked police officers in Kentucky and Ohio.
When Fulks' response to her letter arrived two weeks ago, Caison didn't even stop at home before driving 75 miles from Wilmington, N.C., and organizing a search.
"I knew he was steering us the right direction," Caison said this week as the search wrapped up. "His instructions were very specific. He told me, 'You have to push forward. You have to go deeper. Go into the thicket, no one wants to search there.'"
On Jan. 18, after about seven hours of searching, dozens of volunteers and four dogs found bones in thick brush and thorns about 150 feet from a dirt road on the North Carolina line.
Volunteer searchers and the FBI have since found remains in five different locations, about 15 miles from where Donovan disappeared. The bones may have been spread out because heavy equipment has been used to cut down many of the trees that once stood there.
DNA tests aren't expected for weeks, but Caison and Donovan's family are convinced the remains belong to Donovan.
There's no such comfort for Burns' relatives in West Virginia, who quietly marked the sixth anniversary of her disappearance still wondering if she will ever be found. A woman identifying herself as Burns' grandmother said family members don't have faith that Fulks will help them. She wouldn't give her name and asked a reporter to call Burns' mother, who did not return a phone message.
Fulks' lawyer, Beattie Ashmore, said his client will continue to help West Virginia authorities look for Burns and hopes the discovery in South Carolina might appease Donovan's family and prompt prosecutors to rescind the death penalty.
Ashmore said Fulks has always insisted Donovan's body was left near the small community of Longs.
"He has mentioned this area before. It looks like the earlier searchers missed Mrs. Donovan," Ashmore said.
Even if the remains are in fact her mother's, Gilchrist said she plans to watch Fulks and Basham die.
"An eye for an eye," said Gilchrist, 32. "You don't go around killing people and expect your consequences are going to change because you told us where the body is."
Donovan's daughters have been out on the dirt road for some of the search, and a police technician swabbed their cheeks for DNA to compare with the remains.
They started planning their mother's funeral as soon as the first bone fragments were found. Gilchrist, who dealt with years of addiction and struggles stemming from her mother's disappearance, said her emotions have run the gamut over the past few days, from angry to sad to relieved.
"I'm exhausted," she said. "I'm emotionally exhausted. It's been six years. I'm looking forward to getting the DNA test back and having the answers about whether this is my
#5
LINDA
LINDA
-
- Guests
Posted 01 February 2009 - 06:28 AM
http://www.huntingto...urnskiller.html
Killer of Samantha Burns Asks to Die Quickly
Sept. 10, 2008
Huntington, WV (HNN) – Endless debates have arisen over the use of the death penalty in the United States. Many European countries have abolished it. The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that a lethal injection did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Dates and executions have already started.
However, one convicted killer --- Chadrick Fulks --- has for the second time requested that his attorneys drop appeals and that he be put to death. Fulks and Brandon Basham were sentenced to die for the December 2002 murder of Alice Donovan in South Carolina. Both pleaded guilty to the death of Marshall University student Samantha Burns who disappeared after leaving her employment at a Huntington Mall department store.
Fulks' second request to receive an execution date amplifies the case for those who believe that life in prison represents a more severe penalty. Why would a killer or killers be allowed to essentially commit suicide with state approval rather than face the bleak hopeless life staying within a small prison cell?
Does execution represent a means for him to be quickly put out of his misery… and to forever close doors on providing families information on what happened to their loved ones as neither body has been located?
Court filings indicate this is the second time a depressed Fulks asked that his appeals be halted.
Killer of Samantha Burns Asks to Die Quickly
Sept. 10, 2008
Huntington, WV (HNN) – Endless debates have arisen over the use of the death penalty in the United States. Many European countries have abolished it. The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that a lethal injection did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Dates and executions have already started.
However, one convicted killer --- Chadrick Fulks --- has for the second time requested that his attorneys drop appeals and that he be put to death. Fulks and Brandon Basham were sentenced to die for the December 2002 murder of Alice Donovan in South Carolina. Both pleaded guilty to the death of Marshall University student Samantha Burns who disappeared after leaving her employment at a Huntington Mall department store.
Fulks' second request to receive an execution date amplifies the case for those who believe that life in prison represents a more severe penalty. Why would a killer or killers be allowed to essentially commit suicide with state approval rather than face the bleak hopeless life staying within a small prison cell?
Does execution represent a means for him to be quickly put out of his misery… and to forever close doors on providing families information on what happened to their loved ones as neither body has been located?
Court filings indicate this is the second time a depressed Fulks asked that his appeals be halted.
#6
LINDA
LINDA
-
- Guests
Posted 01 February 2009 - 06:31 AM
http://www.herald-di...s-killer-speaks
Samantha Burns' killer speaks
November 10, 2008
HUNTINGTON -- In a letter dated last month, convicted killer Chadrick Fulks said use of crystal meth and crack cocaine contributed heavily to a crime spree in which 19-year-old Samantha Burns of West Hamlin and a South Carolina women were murdered in 2002.
"I know that played a bigger part than anything on how things turned out," he wrote in a letter to The Sun News of Myrtle Beach, S.C. "It all happened so fast, and with all of the meth in my system I didn't foresee it coming."
Fulks wrote that the attacks on Burns, a Marshall University student, and Alice Donovan, 44, of Galivants Ferry, S.C., were not planned. He said he cannot make excuses for his actions, but he believes drug abuse during the 17-day crime spree contributed to the violence. He estimates he and the other defendant in the case, Brandon Basham, "smashed over $8,000 worth of crystal meth and crack cocaine."
Burns and Donovan disappeared about six years ago, and their bodies were never found.
Fulks and Basham are awaiting execution for involvement in the deaths of the two women. Basham did not return the newspaper's request for comment.
The duo met at a county jail in western Kentucky and escaped Nov. 4, 2002. Burns was last seen Nov. 11, 2002, at the Huntington Mall. Her burned-out car was found on a rural road in neighboring Wayne County. Donovan was last seen Nov. 14 at a Wal-Mart parking lot in Conway, S.C.
Fulks and Basham are detained at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind. It houses the country's Special Confinement Unit for inmates serving federal death sentences.
Fulks wrote about the 17-day crime spree in his eight-page letter to the newspaper dated Oct. 28, 2008. He said his involvement was horrible, but contends he did not kill either woman. He claims to have passed three polygraph exams regarding the matter.
Fulks, a West Hamlin, W.Va., native, waived his rights to appeal in September and asked the court to expedite his execution. He withdrew a similar request in March 2006. He wrote about the more recent request.
"To be honest I welcome my death," he wrote. "I live with this 24/7, and for the longest time I couldn't even look at myself in a mirror."
Fulks' remaining wish would be to help authorities find the victims' bodies. He claims to know the locations with 100 percent certainty. He claims to have offered assistance many times, but compared himself to the boy who cried wolf. No one believed the boy when he finally told the truth.
"I've done everything I could to make this happen, but no one wants to give me the time of day," Fulks wrote. "There isn't a second of my life that this doesn't cross my mind."
Burns' family could not be reached for comment Monday.
Samantha Burns' killer speaks
November 10, 2008
HUNTINGTON -- In a letter dated last month, convicted killer Chadrick Fulks said use of crystal meth and crack cocaine contributed heavily to a crime spree in which 19-year-old Samantha Burns of West Hamlin and a South Carolina women were murdered in 2002.
"I know that played a bigger part than anything on how things turned out," he wrote in a letter to The Sun News of Myrtle Beach, S.C. "It all happened so fast, and with all of the meth in my system I didn't foresee it coming."
Fulks wrote that the attacks on Burns, a Marshall University student, and Alice Donovan, 44, of Galivants Ferry, S.C., were not planned. He said he cannot make excuses for his actions, but he believes drug abuse during the 17-day crime spree contributed to the violence. He estimates he and the other defendant in the case, Brandon Basham, "smashed over $8,000 worth of crystal meth and crack cocaine."
Burns and Donovan disappeared about six years ago, and their bodies were never found.
Fulks and Basham are awaiting execution for involvement in the deaths of the two women. Basham did not return the newspaper's request for comment.
The duo met at a county jail in western Kentucky and escaped Nov. 4, 2002. Burns was last seen Nov. 11, 2002, at the Huntington Mall. Her burned-out car was found on a rural road in neighboring Wayne County. Donovan was last seen Nov. 14 at a Wal-Mart parking lot in Conway, S.C.
Fulks and Basham are detained at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind. It houses the country's Special Confinement Unit for inmates serving federal death sentences.
Fulks wrote about the 17-day crime spree in his eight-page letter to the newspaper dated Oct. 28, 2008. He said his involvement was horrible, but contends he did not kill either woman. He claims to have passed three polygraph exams regarding the matter.
Fulks, a West Hamlin, W.Va., native, waived his rights to appeal in September and asked the court to expedite his execution. He withdrew a similar request in March 2006. He wrote about the more recent request.
"To be honest I welcome my death," he wrote. "I live with this 24/7, and for the longest time I couldn't even look at myself in a mirror."
Fulks' remaining wish would be to help authorities find the victims' bodies. He claims to know the locations with 100 percent certainty. He claims to have offered assistance many times, but compared himself to the boy who cried wolf. No one believed the boy when he finally told the truth.
"I've done everything I could to make this happen, but no one wants to give me the time of day," Fulks wrote. "There isn't a second of my life that this doesn't cross my mind."
Burns' family could not be reached for comment Monday.
#7
LINDA
LINDA
-
- Guests
Posted 01 February 2009 - 06:34 AM
http://www.herald-di...es-with-Ky-jail
Samantha Burns' family settles with Ky. jail
August 07, 2008
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The families of two women killed by a pair of escaped convicts on a multistate crime spree settled a lawsuit against a western Kentucky jail Thursday.
The parents of Samantha Burns, of West Hamlin, W.Va., and the husband of Alice Donovan, of Galivants Ferry, S.C., reached an agreement with Hopkins County, the county jail and its employees over the escape of inmates Brandon Basham and Chadrick Fulks on Nov. 4, 2002. The families claimed the jail was negligent by leaving the inmates unsupervised and not having properly working security cameras.
Fulks and Basham were sentenced to death for killing Donovan, 44, in December 2002. They were given life sentences in the death of Burns, a 19-year-old Marshall University student. Neither woman’s body has been found.
The terms of the settlement were not immediately available Thursday. Hopkins County Judge-Executive Donald Carroll said he is pleased with the settlement, but hadn’t been briefed on the terms as of Thursday.
An attorney who represents the families did not immediately return a telephone message.
Burns’ parents, John and Kandi Burns of West Hamlin, W.Va., and Barry Donovan, the husband of Alice Donovan, sued the jail and county in federal court in 2005. The lawsuit said Fulks and Basham were left in the jail’s recreation yard unsupervised for about 90 minutes and that security cameras weren’t in their normal positions on the day they escaped.
The suit also claimed the jail was understaffed in the months and days leading up to the escape.
Fulks and Basham escaped through a fence around the recreation yard. The suit claimed two women in Indiana helped the escaped convicts by housing them as well as getting them guns, stolen credit cards and checks. Fulks, Basham and the two women, who were not charged criminally, were later dropped from the suit.
Fulks, a West Hamlin, W.Va., native, offered to help find Donovan’s body before his trial, but the search in the southeastern North Carolina woods turned up nothing.
Basham and Fulks are in prison in Terre Haute, Ind., awaiting execution.
Samantha Burns' family settles with Ky. jail
August 07, 2008
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The families of two women killed by a pair of escaped convicts on a multistate crime spree settled a lawsuit against a western Kentucky jail Thursday.
The parents of Samantha Burns, of West Hamlin, W.Va., and the husband of Alice Donovan, of Galivants Ferry, S.C., reached an agreement with Hopkins County, the county jail and its employees over the escape of inmates Brandon Basham and Chadrick Fulks on Nov. 4, 2002. The families claimed the jail was negligent by leaving the inmates unsupervised and not having properly working security cameras.
Fulks and Basham were sentenced to death for killing Donovan, 44, in December 2002. They were given life sentences in the death of Burns, a 19-year-old Marshall University student. Neither woman’s body has been found.
The terms of the settlement were not immediately available Thursday. Hopkins County Judge-Executive Donald Carroll said he is pleased with the settlement, but hadn’t been briefed on the terms as of Thursday.
An attorney who represents the families did not immediately return a telephone message.
Burns’ parents, John and Kandi Burns of West Hamlin, W.Va., and Barry Donovan, the husband of Alice Donovan, sued the jail and county in federal court in 2005. The lawsuit said Fulks and Basham were left in the jail’s recreation yard unsupervised for about 90 minutes and that security cameras weren’t in their normal positions on the day they escaped.
The suit also claimed the jail was understaffed in the months and days leading up to the escape.
Fulks and Basham escaped through a fence around the recreation yard. The suit claimed two women in Indiana helped the escaped convicts by housing them as well as getting them guns, stolen credit cards and checks. Fulks, Basham and the two women, who were not charged criminally, were later dropped from the suit.
Fulks, a West Hamlin, W.Va., native, offered to help find Donovan’s body before his trial, but the search in the southeastern North Carolina woods turned up nothing.
Basham and Fulks are in prison in Terre Haute, Ind., awaiting execution.
#8
LINDA
LINDA
-
- Guests
Posted 02 March 2009 - 05:40 AM
http://www.scnow.com...first_vi/36171/
Group to comb W. Va. woods for Fulks’, Basham’s first victim
March 2, 2009
Late last month, the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons search group used cadaver dogs to find human remains along Watertower Road in the Wampee Community after convicted Alice Donovan killer, Chadrick Fulks, sent a map to the group’s founder, Monica Caison.
Caison and her group found human skeletal remains on three searches in January; the first the day after Caison received the map and letter from Fulks from his cell on federal death row in Terre Haute, Indiana.
The map and letter to Caison would lead her to where Fulks and Brandon Basham dumped Donovan’s body after the pair kidnapped her from the Conway Wal-Mart in November 2002.
The pair were convicted and sentenced to die in 2004.
Caison received a similar map and letters from Fulks on Feb. 12, 2009 Caison told News13.
This map, Fulks told Caison in the letter, would lead her to the pair’s first victim, Samantha Burns, a college student in West Virginia.
The pair pleaded guilty to killing Burns in 2005.
Caison and the CUE search group will start the search for Burns’ remains Monday near the intersections of German Ridge and Haney’s Branch Road near Huntington, West Virginia.
For years, investigators thought Fulks and Basham dumped Burns’ body in the Ohio River, but in the letter, Fulks indicated that the pair left her body on land, Caison said.
Burns, who would have turned 26 year old April 23, went missing on Nov. 11, 2002 from the Huntington Mall in Barboursville, WV at around 6:30 p.m., according to reports.
Burns’ disappearance came three days before Donovan went missing in Horry County.
On Nov. 12, 2002 authorities found Burns’ burned car still smoldering in nearby Wayne County, WV, near where Caison’s CUE search is planned Monday.
State and federal authorities told News13 they searched the Watertower Road and Huntington, WV locations on several occasions following the killings; including trips out to the scenes with Fulks, but never turned up any remains.
Conway Police received a Fulks map in 2006 from a reporter in California.
In that search, Conway Police Sergeant Sean Addison and former Horry County Police Sergeant, Tom DelPercio spent a few hours and searched an area near Watertower Road, by foot before ending the search.
The CUE searchers took similar maps that authorities used in previous searches of the Watertower Road area and within hours, cadaver dogs located a human skull and human arm bones, according to Caison.
On Jan. 28, Horry County Police crime scene technicians sent the remains and DNA samples from Donovan’s daughters off to Columbia in hopes to identify the remains.
The test results are due back within a couple weeks.
Group to comb W. Va. woods for Fulks’, Basham’s first victim
March 2, 2009
Late last month, the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons search group used cadaver dogs to find human remains along Watertower Road in the Wampee Community after convicted Alice Donovan killer, Chadrick Fulks, sent a map to the group’s founder, Monica Caison.
Caison and her group found human skeletal remains on three searches in January; the first the day after Caison received the map and letter from Fulks from his cell on federal death row in Terre Haute, Indiana.
The map and letter to Caison would lead her to where Fulks and Brandon Basham dumped Donovan’s body after the pair kidnapped her from the Conway Wal-Mart in November 2002.
The pair were convicted and sentenced to die in 2004.
Caison received a similar map and letters from Fulks on Feb. 12, 2009 Caison told News13.
This map, Fulks told Caison in the letter, would lead her to the pair’s first victim, Samantha Burns, a college student in West Virginia.
The pair pleaded guilty to killing Burns in 2005.
Caison and the CUE search group will start the search for Burns’ remains Monday near the intersections of German Ridge and Haney’s Branch Road near Huntington, West Virginia.
For years, investigators thought Fulks and Basham dumped Burns’ body in the Ohio River, but in the letter, Fulks indicated that the pair left her body on land, Caison said.
Burns, who would have turned 26 year old April 23, went missing on Nov. 11, 2002 from the Huntington Mall in Barboursville, WV at around 6:30 p.m., according to reports.
Burns’ disappearance came three days before Donovan went missing in Horry County.
On Nov. 12, 2002 authorities found Burns’ burned car still smoldering in nearby Wayne County, WV, near where Caison’s CUE search is planned Monday.
State and federal authorities told News13 they searched the Watertower Road and Huntington, WV locations on several occasions following the killings; including trips out to the scenes with Fulks, but never turned up any remains.
Conway Police received a Fulks map in 2006 from a reporter in California.
In that search, Conway Police Sergeant Sean Addison and former Horry County Police Sergeant, Tom DelPercio spent a few hours and searched an area near Watertower Road, by foot before ending the search.
The CUE searchers took similar maps that authorities used in previous searches of the Watertower Road area and within hours, cadaver dogs located a human skull and human arm bones, according to Caison.
On Jan. 28, Horry County Police crime scene technicians sent the remains and DNA samples from Donovan’s daughters off to Columbia in hopes to identify the remains.
The test results are due back within a couple weeks.
#9
LINDA
LINDA
-
- Guests
Posted 02 March 2009 - 06:52 AM
http://www.herald-di...-Samantha-Burns
Group to search for Samantha Burns
March 02, 2009
HUNTINGTON — A nationally renowned missing persons’ group is headed to Cabell County with information that may lead to Samantha Burns’ remains.
Burns was one of two women killed when two jail escapees’ went on a 17-day crime spree in November 2002.
The renowned group, the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons, believes it found Burns’ fellow victim, Alice Donovan, in late January in a wooded area of South Carolina.
Chadrick Fulks and Brandon Basham were convicted and sentenced to death. They had escaped from a Kentucky jail. Both await execution in South Carolina.
CUE’s founder, Monica Caison, credits Fulks with providing her group information that led to Donovan’s possible discovery. DNA tests are still pending. She told The Herald-Dispatch she has since received similar information from Fulks about Burns’ whereabouts.
Caison said she plans to meet today with FBI in Huntington. She hopes to be in the woods searching for Burns’ remains by Tuesday.
Caison hopes to locate Burns’ remains, but she vowed to do her best for the victim’s family.
Group to search for Samantha Burns
March 02, 2009
HUNTINGTON — A nationally renowned missing persons’ group is headed to Cabell County with information that may lead to Samantha Burns’ remains.
Burns was one of two women killed when two jail escapees’ went on a 17-day crime spree in November 2002.
The renowned group, the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons, believes it found Burns’ fellow victim, Alice Donovan, in late January in a wooded area of South Carolina.
Chadrick Fulks and Brandon Basham were convicted and sentenced to death. They had escaped from a Kentucky jail. Both await execution in South Carolina.
CUE’s founder, Monica Caison, credits Fulks with providing her group information that led to Donovan’s possible discovery. DNA tests are still pending. She told The Herald-Dispatch she has since received similar information from Fulks about Burns’ whereabouts.
Caison said she plans to meet today with FBI in Huntington. She hopes to be in the woods searching for Burns’ remains by Tuesday.
Caison hopes to locate Burns’ remains, but she vowed to do her best for the victim’s family.
#11
LINDA
LINDA
-
- Guests
Posted 02 March 2009 - 04:11 PM
http://www.scnow.com...o_news13/36317/
Convicted killer explains maps, letters
March 2, 2009
As Alice Donovan’s family continues to await DNA test results on skeletal remains thought to belong to the missing Galivants Ferry woman, a new search is underway in West Virginia for another woman who Chadrick Fulks and Brandon Basham kidnapped and murdered in November 2002.
The men were sentenced to die by a federal jury in 2004 for their roles in the kidnapping murder of Donovan from the Conway Wal-Mart on November 14, 2002.
Days before Donovan went missing; the pair kidnapped and murdered Samantha Burns, a West Virginia college student from a Huntington, WVA mall.
Authorities found Burns’ car a few miles away from the mall smoldering and burned out.
Still today, Burns’ body was never recovered.
Last month, Fulks sent Caison a map of the area where he claims the pair buried Burns’ body and it’s the spot where CUE searchers plan to launch a search with the FBI Tuesday.
On Jan. 19, Fulks sent a map of a patch of woods in the Wampee Community to Monica Caison, the founder of the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons, where Fulks said he and Basham dumped Donovan’s body after the pair kidnapped her.
Caison rounded her search group up and searched the woods along Watertower Road and found a human skull and skeletal remains only years from where Fulks said the pair left Donovan.
On Jan. 28, Horry County Police investigators sent the bones to the state crime lab in Columbia for DNA testing.
News13 wrote Fulks days after the discovery to find out why the convicted killer sent the map and what his intentions are.
Fulks wrote back to say he’s tried since the killings to lead authorities to the missing women, “My efforts to assist in locating Mrs. Donovan’s and Mrs. Burns’ bodies have been ongoing for six years. Mrs. Donovan’s remains were discovered in the exact location where I’ve told law enforcement, news media, attorneys, and anyone else who would listen, to look,†Fulks wrote in the letter to News13.
“I’m providing this assistance because it is the only thing I can do to give these family members some opportunity to provide a final resting place for Alice and Samantha. It has nothing to do with me having a death sentence,†Fulks continued.
In media reports, some called Fulks’ efforts an attempt to have his death sentence overturned, but Fulks in his letter and through his attorney said that’s not the reason for the convicted killer is coming forward.
In the letter to News13, Fulks said he did not kill either woman, although he admitted to knowing what happened and admitted he played a role in the murders, “I will go to my death knowing that I have never killed anybody, not Alice Donovan, not Samantha Burns. I understand that my actions contributed to their deaths and I have always accepted responsibility for that. I will continue to do so even if it requires me to be executed by lethal injection.â€
Fulks said he learned of the discovery shortly after the Caison’s group discovered the remains in Horry County last month, “I was overwhelmed with so many emotions, but, immediately realized that with this discovery, the Donovan family would be reliving the loss of their family member and that it would bring back a flood of memories and emotions which has been a full time nightmare for them since she disappeared in November, 2002,†Fulks said in his letter.
“I’ve never given up hope that we could locate Alice and Samantha. I’ve prayed for this every single day. Sometimes I did so on the telephone with my own mother. We would pray together and ask God to help us locate and recover Alice and Samantha.â€
Investigators said the DNA results from the Watertower Road search could come within the next couple of weeks.
Convicted killer explains maps, letters
March 2, 2009
As Alice Donovan’s family continues to await DNA test results on skeletal remains thought to belong to the missing Galivants Ferry woman, a new search is underway in West Virginia for another woman who Chadrick Fulks and Brandon Basham kidnapped and murdered in November 2002.
The men were sentenced to die by a federal jury in 2004 for their roles in the kidnapping murder of Donovan from the Conway Wal-Mart on November 14, 2002.
Days before Donovan went missing; the pair kidnapped and murdered Samantha Burns, a West Virginia college student from a Huntington, WVA mall.
Authorities found Burns’ car a few miles away from the mall smoldering and burned out.
Still today, Burns’ body was never recovered.
Last month, Fulks sent Caison a map of the area where he claims the pair buried Burns’ body and it’s the spot where CUE searchers plan to launch a search with the FBI Tuesday.
On Jan. 19, Fulks sent a map of a patch of woods in the Wampee Community to Monica Caison, the founder of the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons, where Fulks said he and Basham dumped Donovan’s body after the pair kidnapped her.
Caison rounded her search group up and searched the woods along Watertower Road and found a human skull and skeletal remains only years from where Fulks said the pair left Donovan.
On Jan. 28, Horry County Police investigators sent the bones to the state crime lab in Columbia for DNA testing.
News13 wrote Fulks days after the discovery to find out why the convicted killer sent the map and what his intentions are.
Fulks wrote back to say he’s tried since the killings to lead authorities to the missing women, “My efforts to assist in locating Mrs. Donovan’s and Mrs. Burns’ bodies have been ongoing for six years. Mrs. Donovan’s remains were discovered in the exact location where I’ve told law enforcement, news media, attorneys, and anyone else who would listen, to look,†Fulks wrote in the letter to News13.
“I’m providing this assistance because it is the only thing I can do to give these family members some opportunity to provide a final resting place for Alice and Samantha. It has nothing to do with me having a death sentence,†Fulks continued.
In media reports, some called Fulks’ efforts an attempt to have his death sentence overturned, but Fulks in his letter and through his attorney said that’s not the reason for the convicted killer is coming forward.
In the letter to News13, Fulks said he did not kill either woman, although he admitted to knowing what happened and admitted he played a role in the murders, “I will go to my death knowing that I have never killed anybody, not Alice Donovan, not Samantha Burns. I understand that my actions contributed to their deaths and I have always accepted responsibility for that. I will continue to do so even if it requires me to be executed by lethal injection.â€
Fulks said he learned of the discovery shortly after the Caison’s group discovered the remains in Horry County last month, “I was overwhelmed with so many emotions, but, immediately realized that with this discovery, the Donovan family would be reliving the loss of their family member and that it would bring back a flood of memories and emotions which has been a full time nightmare for them since she disappeared in November, 2002,†Fulks said in his letter.
“I’ve never given up hope that we could locate Alice and Samantha. I’ve prayed for this every single day. Sometimes I did so on the telephone with my own mother. We would pray together and ask God to help us locate and recover Alice and Samantha.â€
Investigators said the DNA results from the Watertower Road search could come within the next couple of weeks.
#12
LINDA
LINDA
-
- Guests
Posted 02 March 2009 - 08:29 PM
http://www.herald-di...-Samantha-Burns
Group to search for Samantha Burns
March 02, 2009
HUNTINGTON -- The family of Samantha Burns hopes a renewed search for the remains of the murdered woman will be successful, more than six years after she was killed.
"It would be the end of wondering," said the victim's mother, Kandi Burns. "When someone dies -- they die, you go to a funeral home, view (the body) and you have a burial. With Samantha, it's 'Where is she?' I hope to put her where she belongs and give her the right burial."
The renewed search will be spearheaded by the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons, a nonprofit group based in Wilmington, N.C. The group's founder, Monica Caison, received information from death row inmate Chadrick Fulks as to possible whereabouts of Samantha Burns' remains.
Fulks provided similar information, which may have led to finding his second victim, Alice Donovan, 44, of Galivants Ferry, S.C. DNA tests are pending to identify those remains discovered earlier this year in a wooded area of Horry County, S.C.
Caison told The Herald-Dispatch that Fulks provided less information about Samantha Burns' whereabouts. She described it as less accurate with some details not matching up. She planned to arrive in Huntington on Monday from an unrelated search in Paris, Tenn. She expects to meet with the FBI upon arrival. She hopes to be searching in the woods by Tuesday.
"It's going to be a little difficult," Caison said. "We're going to try to do the best we can to help the family of Samantha Burns. That is all I can do."
Samantha Burns and Donovan disappeared during two jail escapees' 17-day crime spree in November 2002.
Fulks and co-defendant Bandon Basham were convicted of carjackings that led to the death of both victims. They received the death penalty in Donovan's case. Both men await execution.
Samantha Burns, 19, was a former Marshall University student and native of West Hamlin, W.Va. She was last seen at the Huntington Mall. She had made a payment on her J.C. Penney credit card. Her abductors used her ATM card at various locations. Police found Burns' burned-out Chevrolet Cavalier near Haney's Branch Road in rural Wayne County.
Donovan was last seen Nov. 14, 2002, at a Wal-Mart parking lot in Conway, S.C.
FBI Special Agent Joe Ciccarelli has investigated the case for years. He was scheduled to meet with Caison on Monday.
"We are going to follow any logical lead and any credible lead in an effort to locate the remains of Samantha," he said. "We have been doing that, and we'll continue."
Kandi Burns described Caison's search dogs as the best, as her family keeps a quiet confidence in the North Carolinian's effort.
"Over the years you get your hopes up and nothing comes through," she said. "Now it's just, do you really talk about it? Is it going to happen? It's kind of hard to get your hopes way high, but you never give up looking."
Ciccarelli said law enforcement will be alongside Caison's search team. Caison pleaded for patience and privacy when she arrives. She worries her arrival will spur a "media frenzy," which could affect her search.
This isn't the first time Fulks has provided information about Samantha Burns' whereabouts, but these hopes are strengthened by his role in leading Caison to the Donovan's possible remains.
Fulks, a native of West Hamlin, W.Va., claimed to know Burns' and Donovan's locations with 100 percent certainty in an October 2008 letter to The Sun News of Myrtle Beach, S.C. He wrote his remaining wish would be to help authorities find their bodies. He claimed to have offered assistance many times, but compared himself to the boy who cried wolf.
Fulks has written his involvement in their deaths was horrible, but contends he did not kill either woman. He wrote that he believed drug abuse contributed to violence. He estimated he and Basham, "smashed over $8,000 worth of crystal meth and crack cocaine."
Fulks lost a civil case last week in South Carolina in which he accused sheriff's deputies of beating him as he awaited transfer to a county jail. The jury exonerated the four deputies.
Fulks waived his rights to appeal in September and asked the court to expedite his execution. He wrote in October that he welcomes his death. He withdrew a similar request in March 2006.
Fulks and Basham are detained at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind. It houses the country's Special Confinement Unit for inmates serving federal death sentences.
Group to search for Samantha Burns
March 02, 2009
HUNTINGTON -- The family of Samantha Burns hopes a renewed search for the remains of the murdered woman will be successful, more than six years after she was killed.
"It would be the end of wondering," said the victim's mother, Kandi Burns. "When someone dies -- they die, you go to a funeral home, view (the body) and you have a burial. With Samantha, it's 'Where is she?' I hope to put her where she belongs and give her the right burial."
The renewed search will be spearheaded by the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons, a nonprofit group based in Wilmington, N.C. The group's founder, Monica Caison, received information from death row inmate Chadrick Fulks as to possible whereabouts of Samantha Burns' remains.
Fulks provided similar information, which may have led to finding his second victim, Alice Donovan, 44, of Galivants Ferry, S.C. DNA tests are pending to identify those remains discovered earlier this year in a wooded area of Horry County, S.C.
Caison told The Herald-Dispatch that Fulks provided less information about Samantha Burns' whereabouts. She described it as less accurate with some details not matching up. She planned to arrive in Huntington on Monday from an unrelated search in Paris, Tenn. She expects to meet with the FBI upon arrival. She hopes to be searching in the woods by Tuesday.
"It's going to be a little difficult," Caison said. "We're going to try to do the best we can to help the family of Samantha Burns. That is all I can do."
Samantha Burns and Donovan disappeared during two jail escapees' 17-day crime spree in November 2002.
Fulks and co-defendant Bandon Basham were convicted of carjackings that led to the death of both victims. They received the death penalty in Donovan's case. Both men await execution.
Samantha Burns, 19, was a former Marshall University student and native of West Hamlin, W.Va. She was last seen at the Huntington Mall. She had made a payment on her J.C. Penney credit card. Her abductors used her ATM card at various locations. Police found Burns' burned-out Chevrolet Cavalier near Haney's Branch Road in rural Wayne County.
Donovan was last seen Nov. 14, 2002, at a Wal-Mart parking lot in Conway, S.C.
FBI Special Agent Joe Ciccarelli has investigated the case for years. He was scheduled to meet with Caison on Monday.
"We are going to follow any logical lead and any credible lead in an effort to locate the remains of Samantha," he said. "We have been doing that, and we'll continue."
Kandi Burns described Caison's search dogs as the best, as her family keeps a quiet confidence in the North Carolinian's effort.
"Over the years you get your hopes up and nothing comes through," she said. "Now it's just, do you really talk about it? Is it going to happen? It's kind of hard to get your hopes way high, but you never give up looking."
Ciccarelli said law enforcement will be alongside Caison's search team. Caison pleaded for patience and privacy when she arrives. She worries her arrival will spur a "media frenzy," which could affect her search.
This isn't the first time Fulks has provided information about Samantha Burns' whereabouts, but these hopes are strengthened by his role in leading Caison to the Donovan's possible remains.
Fulks, a native of West Hamlin, W.Va., claimed to know Burns' and Donovan's locations with 100 percent certainty in an October 2008 letter to The Sun News of Myrtle Beach, S.C. He wrote his remaining wish would be to help authorities find their bodies. He claimed to have offered assistance many times, but compared himself to the boy who cried wolf.
Fulks has written his involvement in their deaths was horrible, but contends he did not kill either woman. He wrote that he believed drug abuse contributed to violence. He estimated he and Basham, "smashed over $8,000 worth of crystal meth and crack cocaine."
Fulks lost a civil case last week in South Carolina in which he accused sheriff's deputies of beating him as he awaited transfer to a county jail. The jury exonerated the four deputies.
Fulks waived his rights to appeal in September and asked the court to expedite his execution. He wrote in October that he welcomes his death. He withdrew a similar request in March 2006.
Fulks and Basham are detained at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind. It houses the country's Special Confinement Unit for inmates serving federal death sentences.
#13
LINDA
LINDA
-
- Guests
Posted 04 March 2009 - 04:58 PM
http://www.wsaz.com/.../40532337.html#
UPDATE: 3 p.m. Wednesday 3/4
The search team looking for the remains of Samantha Burns moved a new location Wednesday afternoon.
Crews are now combing the area behind Rocky Top's Pizza, at the intersection of Buffalo Creek Rd. And Route 75.
This is about a city block from the location they searched on Tuesday and Wednesday morning.
Family members, State Police, FBI agents and members of a non-profit search group from North Carolina are taking part in the search.
UPDATE: 6 p.m. Tuesday 3/3
WAYNE COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A search team looking for the remains of murder victim Samantha Burns spent Tuesday working on an "area of concern."
A national missing persons search group is leading the renewed hunt, looking for the 19-year-old Marshall University student who was killed more than six years ago. Although we were out with the search team Tuesday, its members were keeping any findings quiet.
That's because there's as much emotion and guarding against a family's false hopes as there is cadaver dog, archaeological-type police work. The search team is acting on maps and directions provided by one of Burns' convicted killers, and he has provided false hope before.
Still, all involved believe there's good reason to search.
Working with FBI agents and West Virginia State Police, the missing persons search team from North Carolina used cadaver dogs to comb a wooded area not far from where Burns' charred car was discovered in 2002.
One dog seemed to pinpoint an out-of-the-way spot in a culvert. Searchers with shovels, hand tools and probing rods followed as Burns' anxious family watched. Search team leader Monica Caison downplayed the find.
"It's not significant," she said. "We're working on an area of concern."
Working off maps and directions from death row convict Chad Fulks, Caison said the Burns' information is different from details Fulks provided that recently led to finding human remains that may belong to another of his victims -- the late Alice Donovan of South Carolina.
We asked Caison if a search is more difficult after so much time has elapsed -- nearly six and a half years in the Burns' case.
"It is if the land navigation changes," she said. "We're in luck here -- better than in Alice's case."
Caison said the focus for her highly trained team of volunteers is to help grieving families find some peace.
"So people like Samantha Burns' family doesn't have to continue their journey with pain and suffering of a missed love one," she said.
The lead FBI agent on the case tells us the search team will stay small for now, adding that no big excavating equipment coming will be used. They'll use hand tools similar to those used in archaeological digs.
FBI officials said the search area, along with previous tips from Fulks, is the same general area they searched with dogs 18 months ago and found nothing. But they said -- considering the South Carolina find -- nothing should be taken for granted.
Search team members said they stopped searching around sunset Tuesday and will resume Wednesday morning. They said they are not ruling out other areas.
UPDATE: Noon. Tuesday 3/3
WAYNE COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A new search for Samantha Burns' remains is underway in Wayne County.
A national missing person’s search group is participating in the new effort, along with the FBI, and the West Virginia State Police.
Members of Burns' family are also on the scene. We're told the search began around 9 a.m Tuesday.
The group is re-searching an area where Burns' burned out car was found shortly after she disappeared in 2002.
The group is using a map and other new information provided by Chad Fulks, who is now on death row after pleading guilty to the Marshall student's murder.
Keep clicking on WSAZ.com for updated information.
UPDATE from 6 p.m. Monday Newscast
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Monica Caison, the team leader of the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons, hopes to continue the group's excellent track record by helping find Samantha Burns' remains.
Burns, a Marshall student, turned up missing in November 2002 -- about the same time as South Carolina's Alice Donovan. Chad Fulks and Brandon Basham pleaded guilty to killing both women. Recent information from Fulks helped find remains that may be Donovan's,
and there's another map from Fulks that may lead to Burns' remains.
Terri Chapman, a teacher who had Burns in her 8th grade English class, said Burns' family and community still seek closure.
"It will help the community heal," she said.
In January, Fulks -- who's now on death row -- responded to a missing person's search group in North Carolina about where to find murder victim Donovan's body in South Carolina.
"He had photos, a letter with directions, and a map he made the best he could," Caison said.
That information led to the group finding human remains -- a skull and arm bones that are being tested to match Donovan's DNA.
Following those finds came another note from Fulks about Burns, pointing to the wooded Wayne County area where her burned-out car was found.
"The map is more defined," Caison said. "We're hoping to work off the map."
After years of fruitless searches for Burns -- some involving Fulks' information -- the highly trained volunteer search group does not want to provide false hope but a renewed sense of urgency and effort.
"We hope we're fortunate enough to be blessed to find Samantha," Caison said. "We know how they feel."
She said her team of volunteers and cadaver dogs are meeting with local law enforcement and Burns' family members Monday evening. They plan to first make sure they're in the right area, then begin a search Tuesday that will start small and -- with possible discovery -- shift to a larger scale effort.
South Carolina officials hope to match their human remains with Donovan's DNA in the next few days or weeks. The Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons began in 1994. They've worked with 8,600 family members around the country.
Original story
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A group that searches for missing people is headed to the Huntington area to resume the search for Samantha Burns’ remains.
Monica Caison with the CUE Center for Missing Persons tells WSAZ.com that she wants to meet with local FBI representatives before beginning any search.
Caison, who is founder of the North Carolina based group, says she expects to arrive in Huntington sometime Monday afternoon.
She did not want to comment any further on the search until later today (Monday).
A South Carolina TV station says the group plans to search for Burns’ remains in the area near German Ridge and Haney’s Branch Road in Wayne County.
Burns burned out car was found in that area a day after she disappeared in November 2002.
Chad Fulks and Brandon Basham are on death row in a federal prison in Indiana for Burns' kidnapping and murder, and the kidnapping and murder of Alice Donovan.
Burns disappearance came three days before Donovan was kidnapped in Horry County South Carolina. Neither body has been found.
In Late January, members of the group believed they found Donovan’s skeletal remains in a wooded area in Horry County. This, after Fulks gave them a letter and map of where he and Basham dumped Donovans body. Tests continue on those remains.
Now, according to the report, the group says that Fulks has provided them with another letter and map that could lead them to Burns remains.
UPDATE: 3 p.m. Wednesday 3/4
The search team looking for the remains of Samantha Burns moved a new location Wednesday afternoon.
Crews are now combing the area behind Rocky Top's Pizza, at the intersection of Buffalo Creek Rd. And Route 75.
This is about a city block from the location they searched on Tuesday and Wednesday morning.
Family members, State Police, FBI agents and members of a non-profit search group from North Carolina are taking part in the search.
UPDATE: 6 p.m. Tuesday 3/3
WAYNE COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A search team looking for the remains of murder victim Samantha Burns spent Tuesday working on an "area of concern."
A national missing persons search group is leading the renewed hunt, looking for the 19-year-old Marshall University student who was killed more than six years ago. Although we were out with the search team Tuesday, its members were keeping any findings quiet.
That's because there's as much emotion and guarding against a family's false hopes as there is cadaver dog, archaeological-type police work. The search team is acting on maps and directions provided by one of Burns' convicted killers, and he has provided false hope before.
Still, all involved believe there's good reason to search.
Working with FBI agents and West Virginia State Police, the missing persons search team from North Carolina used cadaver dogs to comb a wooded area not far from where Burns' charred car was discovered in 2002.
One dog seemed to pinpoint an out-of-the-way spot in a culvert. Searchers with shovels, hand tools and probing rods followed as Burns' anxious family watched. Search team leader Monica Caison downplayed the find.
"It's not significant," she said. "We're working on an area of concern."
Working off maps and directions from death row convict Chad Fulks, Caison said the Burns' information is different from details Fulks provided that recently led to finding human remains that may belong to another of his victims -- the late Alice Donovan of South Carolina.
We asked Caison if a search is more difficult after so much time has elapsed -- nearly six and a half years in the Burns' case.
"It is if the land navigation changes," she said. "We're in luck here -- better than in Alice's case."
Caison said the focus for her highly trained team of volunteers is to help grieving families find some peace.
"So people like Samantha Burns' family doesn't have to continue their journey with pain and suffering of a missed love one," she said.
The lead FBI agent on the case tells us the search team will stay small for now, adding that no big excavating equipment coming will be used. They'll use hand tools similar to those used in archaeological digs.
FBI officials said the search area, along with previous tips from Fulks, is the same general area they searched with dogs 18 months ago and found nothing. But they said -- considering the South Carolina find -- nothing should be taken for granted.
Search team members said they stopped searching around sunset Tuesday and will resume Wednesday morning. They said they are not ruling out other areas.
UPDATE: Noon. Tuesday 3/3
WAYNE COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A new search for Samantha Burns' remains is underway in Wayne County.
A national missing person’s search group is participating in the new effort, along with the FBI, and the West Virginia State Police.
Members of Burns' family are also on the scene. We're told the search began around 9 a.m Tuesday.
The group is re-searching an area where Burns' burned out car was found shortly after she disappeared in 2002.
The group is using a map and other new information provided by Chad Fulks, who is now on death row after pleading guilty to the Marshall student's murder.
Keep clicking on WSAZ.com for updated information.
UPDATE from 6 p.m. Monday Newscast
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Monica Caison, the team leader of the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons, hopes to continue the group's excellent track record by helping find Samantha Burns' remains.
Burns, a Marshall student, turned up missing in November 2002 -- about the same time as South Carolina's Alice Donovan. Chad Fulks and Brandon Basham pleaded guilty to killing both women. Recent information from Fulks helped find remains that may be Donovan's,
and there's another map from Fulks that may lead to Burns' remains.
Terri Chapman, a teacher who had Burns in her 8th grade English class, said Burns' family and community still seek closure.
"It will help the community heal," she said.
In January, Fulks -- who's now on death row -- responded to a missing person's search group in North Carolina about where to find murder victim Donovan's body in South Carolina.
"He had photos, a letter with directions, and a map he made the best he could," Caison said.
That information led to the group finding human remains -- a skull and arm bones that are being tested to match Donovan's DNA.
Following those finds came another note from Fulks about Burns, pointing to the wooded Wayne County area where her burned-out car was found.
"The map is more defined," Caison said. "We're hoping to work off the map."
After years of fruitless searches for Burns -- some involving Fulks' information -- the highly trained volunteer search group does not want to provide false hope but a renewed sense of urgency and effort.
"We hope we're fortunate enough to be blessed to find Samantha," Caison said. "We know how they feel."
She said her team of volunteers and cadaver dogs are meeting with local law enforcement and Burns' family members Monday evening. They plan to first make sure they're in the right area, then begin a search Tuesday that will start small and -- with possible discovery -- shift to a larger scale effort.
South Carolina officials hope to match their human remains with Donovan's DNA in the next few days or weeks. The Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons began in 1994. They've worked with 8,600 family members around the country.
Original story
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A group that searches for missing people is headed to the Huntington area to resume the search for Samantha Burns’ remains.
Monica Caison with the CUE Center for Missing Persons tells WSAZ.com that she wants to meet with local FBI representatives before beginning any search.
Caison, who is founder of the North Carolina based group, says she expects to arrive in Huntington sometime Monday afternoon.
She did not want to comment any further on the search until later today (Monday).
A South Carolina TV station says the group plans to search for Burns’ remains in the area near German Ridge and Haney’s Branch Road in Wayne County.
Burns burned out car was found in that area a day after she disappeared in November 2002.
Chad Fulks and Brandon Basham are on death row in a federal prison in Indiana for Burns' kidnapping and murder, and the kidnapping and murder of Alice Donovan.
Burns disappearance came three days before Donovan was kidnapped in Horry County South Carolina. Neither body has been found.
In Late January, members of the group believed they found Donovan’s skeletal remains in a wooded area in Horry County. This, after Fulks gave them a letter and map of where he and Basham dumped Donovans body. Tests continue on those remains.
Now, according to the report, the group says that Fulks has provided them with another letter and map that could lead them to Burns remains.
#14
LINDA
LINDA
-
- Guests
Posted 05 March 2009 - 09:51 PM
http://www.herald-di...of-Burns-search
No discovery in third day of Burns search
March 06, 2009
HUNTINGTON -- The third day of searching for remains of Samantha Burns yielded no discovery.
Authorities said they will continue the search into a fourth day.
The 19-year-old was kidnapped in November 2002 during a 17-day crime spree that brought two jail escapees through the Tri-State. A letter and a map from one of her killer's, death row inmate Chadrick Fulks, fueled this week's search.
Fulks provided similar details that may have led to finding remains of Alice Donovan of Galivants Ferry, S.C. -- the second of two victims killed during the crime spree.
The Associated Press reported Thursday it may take several more weeks for DNA testing to identify the South Carolina remains.
Fulks and co-defendant Brandon Basham were convicted and sentenced to death. Both await execution.
Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons of North Carolina spearheaded this week's search.
No discovery in third day of Burns search
March 06, 2009
HUNTINGTON -- The third day of searching for remains of Samantha Burns yielded no discovery.
Authorities said they will continue the search into a fourth day.
The 19-year-old was kidnapped in November 2002 during a 17-day crime spree that brought two jail escapees through the Tri-State. A letter and a map from one of her killer's, death row inmate Chadrick Fulks, fueled this week's search.
Fulks provided similar details that may have led to finding remains of Alice Donovan of Galivants Ferry, S.C. -- the second of two victims killed during the crime spree.
The Associated Press reported Thursday it may take several more weeks for DNA testing to identify the South Carolina remains.
Fulks and co-defendant Brandon Basham were convicted and sentenced to death. Both await execution.
Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons of North Carolina spearheaded this week's search.
#15
LINDA
LINDA
-
- Guests
Posted 06 March 2009 - 02:46 AM
http://www.wsaz.com/...s/40532337.html
UPDATE: Search Moved for Samantha Burns After Fulks Calls Police
Mar 5, 2009
WAYNE COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ)-- The head of the search team looking for Samantha Burns' remains tells WSAZ.com that a phone call with Chad Fulks Thursday afternoon is taking search teams to a 4th location in Wayne County.--
Monica Caison says searchers are moving to an area near the intersection of Route 75 and Route 152.
Caison says this is an area Fulks told them to search during that call.
Fulks is being held on death row in a Federal Prison in Indiana.
UPDATE: Search Moved for Samantha Burns After Fulks Calls Police
Mar 5, 2009
WAYNE COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ)-- The head of the search team looking for Samantha Burns' remains tells WSAZ.com that a phone call with Chad Fulks Thursday afternoon is taking search teams to a 4th location in Wayne County.--
Monica Caison says searchers are moving to an area near the intersection of Route 75 and Route 152.
Caison says this is an area Fulks told them to search during that call.
Fulks is being held on death row in a Federal Prison in Indiana.
#16
Lori Davis
-
- Moderators
-
- 11,144 posts
Forum Team Leader
- LocationSoutheastern Ohio
Posted 07 March 2009 - 11:45 AM
http://wowktv.com/st...y&storyid=53884
Search for Murdered Marshall Student Suspended
The search will continue around March 20.
Posted Saturday, March 7, 2009 ; 01:20 PM
WAYNE CO. -- The search for the murdered Marshall student Samantha Burns has been suspended for two weeks.
According to published reports, Monica Caison, founder of the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons, planned to meet with the FBI in Huntington Saturday.
Nothing new has been found at various locations where authorities searched. The FBI, State Police, and volunteers from the CUE Center for Missing Persons have been searching for Burns since Tuesday after getting new information from one of her convicted killers.
The student went missing in November of 2002. They say the search will resume around March 20.
Search for Murdered Marshall Student Suspended
The search will continue around March 20.
Posted Saturday, March 7, 2009 ; 01:20 PM
WAYNE CO. -- The search for the murdered Marshall student Samantha Burns has been suspended for two weeks.
According to published reports, Monica Caison, founder of the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons, planned to meet with the FBI in Huntington Saturday.
Nothing new has been found at various locations where authorities searched. The FBI, State Police, and volunteers from the CUE Center for Missing Persons have been searching for Burns since Tuesday after getting new information from one of her convicted killers.
The student went missing in November of 2002. They say the search will resume around March 20.
Lori Davis, Project Jason Forum Moderator
www.projectjason.org
Help us for free when you shop online or do a websearch:
http://www.goodsearc...harityid=857029
Please help us in our mission as a 501 c 3 nonprofit: http://projectjason....y-campaign.html
If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.
#17
Jenn
-
- Moderators
-
- 5,706 posts
Advanced Member
- LocationOntario, Canada
Posted 10 March 2009 - 07:45 AM
http://www.scnow.com..._on_hold/37715/
West Virginia search for Fulks’, Basham’s first victim on hold
West Virginia college student Samantha Burns went missing from a Huntington, WV mall in November 2002 and was murdered by Chadrick Fulks and Brandon Basham after the pair broke out of a Kentucky jail. Burns’ body was never found.
By Jody Barr
WBTW News 13 Reporter
Published: March 10, 2009
The West Virginia search for convicted Alice Donovan killers Chadrick Fulks and Brandon Basham’s first victim is on hold after a search group spent five days searching an area where Fulks said he and Basham buried Samantha Burns.
The Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons search group used cadaver dogs to find human remains along Watertower Road in the Wampee Community after Fulks, sent a map to the group’s founder, Monica Caison.
Caison said she plans to use video and pictures from the recent search in hopes Fulks can help the group to narrow the search area before restarting the search for Burns later this month.
Caison and her group found human skeletal remains on three searches in January; the first the day after Caison received the map and letter from Fulks from his cell on federal death row in Terre Haute, Indiana.
The map and letter to Caison would lead her to where Fulks and Brandon Basham dumped Donovan’s body after the pair kidnapped her from the Conway Wal-Mart in November 2002.
The pair were convicted and sentenced to die in 2004.
Caison received a similar map and letters from Fulks on Feb. 12, 2009 Caison told News13.
This map, Fulks told Caison in the letter, would lead her to the pair’s first victim, Samantha Burns, a college student in West Virginia.
The pair pleaded guilty to killing Burns in 2005.
Caison and the CUE search group will start the search for Burns’ remains Monday near the intersections of German Ridge and Haney’s Branch Road near Huntington, West Virginia.
For years, investigators thought Fulks and Basham dumped Burns’ body in the Ohio River, but in the letter, Fulks indicated that the pair left her body on land, Caison said.
Burns, who would have turned 26 year old April 23, went missing on Nov. 11, 2002 from the Huntington Mall in Barboursville, WV at around 6:30 p.m., according to reports.
Burns’ disappearance came three days before Donovan went missing in Horry County.
On Nov. 12, 2002 authorities found Burns’ burned car still smoldering in nearby Wayne County, WV, near where Caison’s CUE search is planned Monday.
State and federal authorities told News13 they searched the Watertower Road and Huntington, WV locations on several occasions following the killings; including trips out to the scenes with Fulks, but never turned up any remains.
Conway Police received a Fulks map in 2006 from a reporter in California.
In that search, Conway Police Sergeant Sean Addison and former Horry County Police Sergeant, Tom DelPercio spent a few hours and searched an area near Watertower Road, by foot before ending the search.
The CUE searchers took similar maps that authorities used in previous searches of the Watertower Road area and within hours, cadaver dogs located a human skull and human arm bones, according to Caison.
On Jan. 28, Horry County Police crime scene technicians sent the remains and DNA samples from Donovan’s daughters off to Columbia in hopes to identify the remains.
The test results are due back within a couple weeks.
West Virginia search for Fulks’, Basham’s first victim on hold
West Virginia college student Samantha Burns went missing from a Huntington, WV mall in November 2002 and was murdered by Chadrick Fulks and Brandon Basham after the pair broke out of a Kentucky jail. Burns’ body was never found.
By Jody Barr
WBTW News 13 Reporter
Published: March 10, 2009
The West Virginia search for convicted Alice Donovan killers Chadrick Fulks and Brandon Basham’s first victim is on hold after a search group spent five days searching an area where Fulks said he and Basham buried Samantha Burns.
The Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons search group used cadaver dogs to find human remains along Watertower Road in the Wampee Community after Fulks, sent a map to the group’s founder, Monica Caison.
Caison said she plans to use video and pictures from the recent search in hopes Fulks can help the group to narrow the search area before restarting the search for Burns later this month.
Caison and her group found human skeletal remains on three searches in January; the first the day after Caison received the map and letter from Fulks from his cell on federal death row in Terre Haute, Indiana.
The map and letter to Caison would lead her to where Fulks and Brandon Basham dumped Donovan’s body after the pair kidnapped her from the Conway Wal-Mart in November 2002.
The pair were convicted and sentenced to die in 2004.
Caison received a similar map and letters from Fulks on Feb. 12, 2009 Caison told News13.
This map, Fulks told Caison in the letter, would lead her to the pair’s first victim, Samantha Burns, a college student in West Virginia.
The pair pleaded guilty to killing Burns in 2005.
Caison and the CUE search group will start the search for Burns’ remains Monday near the intersections of German Ridge and Haney’s Branch Road near Huntington, West Virginia.
For years, investigators thought Fulks and Basham dumped Burns’ body in the Ohio River, but in the letter, Fulks indicated that the pair left her body on land, Caison said.
Burns, who would have turned 26 year old April 23, went missing on Nov. 11, 2002 from the Huntington Mall in Barboursville, WV at around 6:30 p.m., according to reports.
Burns’ disappearance came three days before Donovan went missing in Horry County.
On Nov. 12, 2002 authorities found Burns’ burned car still smoldering in nearby Wayne County, WV, near where Caison’s CUE search is planned Monday.
State and federal authorities told News13 they searched the Watertower Road and Huntington, WV locations on several occasions following the killings; including trips out to the scenes with Fulks, but never turned up any remains.
Conway Police received a Fulks map in 2006 from a reporter in California.
In that search, Conway Police Sergeant Sean Addison and former Horry County Police Sergeant, Tom DelPercio spent a few hours and searched an area near Watertower Road, by foot before ending the search.
The CUE searchers took similar maps that authorities used in previous searches of the Watertower Road area and within hours, cadaver dogs located a human skull and human arm bones, according to Caison.
On Jan. 28, Horry County Police crime scene technicians sent the remains and DNA samples from Donovan’s daughters off to Columbia in hopes to identify the remains.
The test results are due back within a couple weeks.
Jennifer, Project Jason Forum Moderator
www.projectjason.org
Help us for free when you shop online or do a websearch:
http://www.goodsearc...harityid=857029
Help us find the missing: Become an AAN Member
http://www.projectja...awareness.shtml
If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.
www.projectjason.org
Help us for free when you shop online or do a websearch:
http://www.goodsearc...harityid=857029
Help us find the missing: Become an AAN Member
http://www.projectja...awareness.shtml
If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.
#18
LINDA
LINDA
-
- Guests
Posted 31 March 2009 - 07:48 AM
http://www.thesunnew...ory/841968.html
Hunt for slain W.Va. student frustrates searchers
Mar. 31, 2009
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Volunteers plan to resume searching Tuesday for a Marshall University student's remains, but they are losing faith because they have scoured a lot of the area and maps provided by the woman's killer don't match the landscape.
Monica Caison, founder of Community United Effort - Center for Missing Persons, said she and about nine others plan to resume their search for Samantha Burns' body, but if it proves futile, they may give up.
"I'm very frustrated," Caison said. "If there's anything human out here we would have found something by now."
Searchers have scoured 12 miles of land from Kenova to Lavalette in southwestern West Virginia, combing some areas more than once, Caison said. They started in early March and resumed their dawn-to-dusk efforts Friday.
"We have dug holes. We have dug up ditch banks, ravines. We've run multiple dogs. We've had people on their hands and knees sifting through dirt, but nine days and nothing," she said.
Two maps convicted killer Chadrick Fulks provided authorities do not match the layout of the land, she said. They've concentrated most of their efforts near railroad tracks along State Route 75 where Fulks said they would find Burns' remains.
"I'm losing faith in him," she said. "He is wasting a lot of our time and resources."
Fulks and Brandon Basham await execution after being convicted of killing the 19-year-old Burns and 44-year-old Alice Donovan of Galivants Ferry, S.C., during a two-week, 2,300-mile crime spree that started after they escaped from a Kentucky jail in November 2002.
Fulks helped lead authorities in January to remains in South Carolina that are being tested to see whether their DNA matches that of Donovan, the mother of two last seen pulling into a Wal-Mart parking lot in Conway, just north of Myrtle Beach.
Burns disappeared from a Huntington mall not far from her home.
Her father, John Burns, said finding his daughter's remains would mean "everything in the world to us, to get her in her rightful place. But it's not looking like we're ever going to be able to do that."
The Burns family has been at the search site every day, Caison said.
While the daily disappointment is difficult, Burns said it pales in comparison to losing his daughter.
"It's hard to be more disappointed than you already are," he said.
Caison said she remains committed to helping the Burns family retrieve their daughter's remains, but without more accurate information, that may not be possible.
"We're going to definitely have to re-evaluate things tomorrow," she said.
Hunt for slain W.Va. student frustrates searchers
Mar. 31, 2009
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Volunteers plan to resume searching Tuesday for a Marshall University student's remains, but they are losing faith because they have scoured a lot of the area and maps provided by the woman's killer don't match the landscape.
Monica Caison, founder of Community United Effort - Center for Missing Persons, said she and about nine others plan to resume their search for Samantha Burns' body, but if it proves futile, they may give up.
"I'm very frustrated," Caison said. "If there's anything human out here we would have found something by now."
Searchers have scoured 12 miles of land from Kenova to Lavalette in southwestern West Virginia, combing some areas more than once, Caison said. They started in early March and resumed their dawn-to-dusk efforts Friday.
"We have dug holes. We have dug up ditch banks, ravines. We've run multiple dogs. We've had people on their hands and knees sifting through dirt, but nine days and nothing," she said.
Two maps convicted killer Chadrick Fulks provided authorities do not match the layout of the land, she said. They've concentrated most of their efforts near railroad tracks along State Route 75 where Fulks said they would find Burns' remains.
"I'm losing faith in him," she said. "He is wasting a lot of our time and resources."
Fulks and Brandon Basham await execution after being convicted of killing the 19-year-old Burns and 44-year-old Alice Donovan of Galivants Ferry, S.C., during a two-week, 2,300-mile crime spree that started after they escaped from a Kentucky jail in November 2002.
Fulks helped lead authorities in January to remains in South Carolina that are being tested to see whether their DNA matches that of Donovan, the mother of two last seen pulling into a Wal-Mart parking lot in Conway, just north of Myrtle Beach.
Burns disappeared from a Huntington mall not far from her home.
Her father, John Burns, said finding his daughter's remains would mean "everything in the world to us, to get her in her rightful place. But it's not looking like we're ever going to be able to do that."
The Burns family has been at the search site every day, Caison said.
While the daily disappointment is difficult, Burns said it pales in comparison to losing his daughter.
"It's hard to be more disappointed than you already are," he said.
Caison said she remains committed to helping the Burns family retrieve their daughter's remains, but without more accurate information, that may not be possible.
"We're going to definitely have to re-evaluate things tomorrow," she said.
#19
Lori Davis
-
- Moderators
-
- 11,144 posts
Forum Team Leader
- LocationSoutheastern Ohio
Posted 20 June 2009 - 04:11 PM
Lori Davis, Project Jason Forum Moderator
www.projectjason.org
Help us for free when you shop online or do a websearch:
http://www.goodsearc...harityid=857029
Please help us in our mission as a 501 c 3 nonprofit: http://projectjason....y-campaign.html
If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.
#20
Kelly
-
- Administrators
-
- 7,704 posts
President and Founder
- LocationRenton WA
Posted 26 July 2009 - 08:05 PM
http://www.wsaz.com/...s/51749277.html
SC Test Results Re-energize Search for Samantha Burns
Posted: 10:29 PM Jul 26, 2009
Last Updated: 11:46 PM Jul 26, 2009
Reporter: Amanda Goodman
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- The woman leading the search for missing Marshall Student Samantha Burns says she is coming back to West Virginia in September to begin a new search.
Monica Caison, founder of the Community United Effort- Center for Missing Persons says the test results announced over the weekend confirming the remains they found in January belonged to Alice Donovan- has given her a new sense of hope.
“We can definitely move on and say OK, maybe we just need to look at these areas with a whole new fresh look and just start all over again,†Caison said.
The cases of Donovan, a South Carolina 44-year-old mother of two and 19-year-old Samantha Burns are linked through Chad Fulks. He admitted to killing Donovan and Burns after he escaped from a Kentucky jail in 2002.
Fulks and Brandon Basham were convicted in Donovan’s death and they are now sitting on death row in a prison in Indiana. They also pleaded guilty to killing Burns.
It was from death row that Fulks reached out to provide information that helped authorities and search crews locate Donovan’s body.
His attempts to do the same for Burns have so far proven fruitless.
“With Samantha he provided a very detailed map, but very confusing directions and then when you get down into the detailed map, nothing is fitting,†Caison said.
Volunteers from the Community United Effort- Center for Missing Persons spent 16 days searching a wooded area in Wayne County, near Route 75. This is near the area where Burns’ car was found burned out more than six years ago.
“That is one place that I can’t walk away and say 100 percent that she is not there, but I feel confident that we should have been able to find her, but again the terrain has changed so much,†Caison said.
After her last attempt to find Burns’ body back in March came up empty, Caison said she spoke with Fulks over the phone to try and get better information. Those conversations have her focusing the new search on an area about a mile and a half away from the initial search site.
It’s a site that has changed quite a bit over the last six years, what used to be an entirely wooded area was at one point excavated in preparation for a new day care center. Those changes make it harder for search crews to match up what Fulks remembers to what is there now.
“You can’t look at what you’re looking at now, you have to go back to 2002 and look at that. So that is what we're trying to do right now, is obtain old photos and old maps of this area,†said Caison.
Despite the setbacks and ensuing frustrations in the search for Burns- Caison says the Burns family deserves the same thing Alice Donovan’s family now has, a chance for closure.
SC Test Results Re-energize Search for Samantha Burns
Posted: 10:29 PM Jul 26, 2009
Last Updated: 11:46 PM Jul 26, 2009
Reporter: Amanda Goodman
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- The woman leading the search for missing Marshall Student Samantha Burns says she is coming back to West Virginia in September to begin a new search.
Monica Caison, founder of the Community United Effort- Center for Missing Persons says the test results announced over the weekend confirming the remains they found in January belonged to Alice Donovan- has given her a new sense of hope.
“We can definitely move on and say OK, maybe we just need to look at these areas with a whole new fresh look and just start all over again,†Caison said.
The cases of Donovan, a South Carolina 44-year-old mother of two and 19-year-old Samantha Burns are linked through Chad Fulks. He admitted to killing Donovan and Burns after he escaped from a Kentucky jail in 2002.
Fulks and Brandon Basham were convicted in Donovan’s death and they are now sitting on death row in a prison in Indiana. They also pleaded guilty to killing Burns.
It was from death row that Fulks reached out to provide information that helped authorities and search crews locate Donovan’s body.
His attempts to do the same for Burns have so far proven fruitless.
“With Samantha he provided a very detailed map, but very confusing directions and then when you get down into the detailed map, nothing is fitting,†Caison said.
Volunteers from the Community United Effort- Center for Missing Persons spent 16 days searching a wooded area in Wayne County, near Route 75. This is near the area where Burns’ car was found burned out more than six years ago.
“That is one place that I can’t walk away and say 100 percent that she is not there, but I feel confident that we should have been able to find her, but again the terrain has changed so much,†Caison said.
After her last attempt to find Burns’ body back in March came up empty, Caison said she spoke with Fulks over the phone to try and get better information. Those conversations have her focusing the new search on an area about a mile and a half away from the initial search site.
It’s a site that has changed quite a bit over the last six years, what used to be an entirely wooded area was at one point excavated in preparation for a new day care center. Those changes make it harder for search crews to match up what Fulks remembers to what is there now.
“You can’t look at what you’re looking at now, you have to go back to 2002 and look at that. So that is what we're trying to do right now, is obtain old photos and old maps of this area,†said Caison.
Despite the setbacks and ensuing frustrations in the search for Burns- Caison says the Burns family deserves the same thing Alice Donovan’s family now has, a chance for closure.
Kelly Murphy, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
www.projectjason.org
Please help us in our mission as a 501 c 3 nonprofit: http://projectjason....y-campaign.html
If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.
#21
Jenn
-
- Moderators
-
- 5,706 posts
Advanced Member
- LocationOntario, Canada
Posted 27 July 2009 - 05:16 AM
XX
http://www.dailymail...es/200907270142
Monday July 27, 2009
Group to resume search for missing WVa student
The Associated Press
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) - The identification of a missing woman's remains in South Carolina has re-energized a group's effort to find a Marshall University student killed during the same crime spree.
Founder Monica Caison told WSAZ-TV that Community United Effort - Center for Missing Persons plans to return to West Virginia in September to search for Samantha Burns' remains.
Caison says the identification of Alice Donovan's remains in South Carolina has given her new hope.
Chadrick Fulks and Brandon Basham were convicted of killing Donovan during a crime spree in 2002 that started when they broke out of a Kentucky jail.
Read more at link above.
http://www.dailymail...es/200907270142
Monday July 27, 2009
Group to resume search for missing WVa student
The Associated Press
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) - The identification of a missing woman's remains in South Carolina has re-energized a group's effort to find a Marshall University student killed during the same crime spree.
Founder Monica Caison told WSAZ-TV that Community United Effort - Center for Missing Persons plans to return to West Virginia in September to search for Samantha Burns' remains.
Caison says the identification of Alice Donovan's remains in South Carolina has given her new hope.
Chadrick Fulks and Brandon Basham were convicted of killing Donovan during a crime spree in 2002 that started when they broke out of a Kentucky jail.
Read more at link above.
Jennifer, Project Jason Forum Moderator
www.projectjason.org
Help us for free when you shop online or do a websearch:
http://www.goodsearc...harityid=857029
Help us find the missing: Become an AAN Member
http://www.projectja...awareness.shtml
If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.
www.projectjason.org
Help us for free when you shop online or do a websearch:
http://www.goodsearc...harityid=857029
Help us find the missing: Become an AAN Member
http://www.projectja...awareness.shtml
If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.
#22
La Vina
La Vina
-
- Guests
Posted 12 August 2009 - 01:00 PM
http://www.google.co...-S-JSgD9A1I39O0
FILE - In a Tuesday, April 12, 2005 file photo, Chadrick Fulks is escorted by U.S. Marshals out of the federal courthouse in Huntington, W.Va., following his arraignment on charges if carjacking resulting in the death of Marshall University student Samantha Burns, felon in possession of a firearm, possession of stolen firearms and interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle. Convicted killer Chadrick Fulks insists he wants to help a slain West Virginia college student's family find solace by leading investigators to her body.(AP Photo/The Herald-Dispatch, Randy Snyder, File )
AP Exclusive: Killer says he wants to make amends
By MEG KINNARD (AP) – 41 minutes ago 08/12/2009
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Death row inmate Chadrick Fulks insists he wants to help a slain West Virginia college student's family find solace by leading investigators to her body.
It wouldn't be the first time he's made that claim. State and federal authorities spent six years on wild goose chases prompted by tips from Fulks before one of his clues actually led searchers to another victim of his 2,300-mile crime spree, which left two women dead and several people injured in 2002.
"I will fight until my last breath to make sure that Samantha is recovered as well," Fulks, 32, wrote in a recent letter to The Associated Press from the federal death row in Terre Haute, Ind.
But now, the same volunteer who successfully unearthed one of Fulks' victims says she's not so sure the condemned man really wants anyone to find the second, 19-year-old Marshall University student Samantha Burns.
The volunteer, Monica Caison, is the founder of Community United Effort - Center for Missing Persons. She led the team that found the remains of Alice Donovan, a 44-year-old South Carolina woman, earlier this year, but is frustrated by the search for Burns.
"I've found people missing for 15 years or more, more easily than this," said Caison, whose recent searches of rural, wooded parts of West Virginia based on tips from Fulks have turned up nothing. "I try not to let my frustration show. ... Everybody expects to get out there and find her and have the same success that we had with Alice."
After Fulks sent her a map and photos earlier this year, claiming they were Donovan's final resting place, Caison drove directly from Wilmington, N.C., to South Carolina, where in January she found bones in thick brush near the North Carolina line. Last month, DNA tests confirmed the remains belonged to Donovan, information that left Fulks feeling somewhat vindicated.
"I'm thankful that her family can now have a proper burial for her," Fulks wrote, "and I can only pray that in some way this will help them to begin to heal."
Donovan's daughters are planning to bury their mother Nov. 14, the seventh anniversary of her death. Fulks, who says his own brother recently committed suicide in jail and was buried the same day Donovan's remains were identified, wrote to the AP that he now understands the anguish felt by both victims' families.
"Seeing his pain made me constantly think about Alice and Samanthas familys pain and it has drove me to not give up until they both were found," he wrote.
Earlier this year, Fulks wrote to Caison again, sending a map and photos of the rural area where he says Burns' body was dumped. He and co-defendant Brandon Basham pleaded guilty to killing her during their spree, which authorities said also included carjacking a Kentucky man and leaving him for dead, shooting a South Carolina man who refused to give them his vehicle, and attacking police officers in Kentucky and Ohio.
Fulks claims he is innocent of the slayings but knows where the bodies are.
In March, Caison led a group through a wooded area in southwestern West Virginia at Fulks' direction, her spirits renewed by the success in identifying Donovan's remains.
For 16 days, Caison's team logged hundreds of hours combing the earth for Burns' remains. Cadaver dogs picked up scents. Searchers crawled on hands and knees, hoping to uncover some clue that would verify Fulks' information.
But in the more than six years since Burns' death, the area's terrain has changed, making it difficult to rely on Fulks' maps and memories. As time stretched on, Caison says, she began to doubt his veracity.
"I feel like there is something, that one thing you could tell me, and you know I'd be right on top of her, and you're holding it back," she told Fulks during a telephone conversation from the search site. "I said, I'm not effective here, right now. ... It just shouldn't be this hard. If she's here, these dogs will find her."
Caison says she's taken the last few months to regroup, going back over the maps and letters she's received from Fulks — and telling Burns' family it's not time to give up. Next month, she will return to the same search area with dogs, excavation machinery and dozens of people from the nation's top search teams.
"If we don't find her after I bring this crew in ... then Chad Fulks is a liar, because I will believe the dogs," Caison said. "If she's there, we're going to find her."
Fulks' attorneys have filed documents asking a judge to grant their client a new trial. But from his spot on federal death row — he was sentenced to death for killing Donovan and life in prison for killing Burns — he insists he's resigned himself to his fate and is focused on finding peace for his victims' families.
"I know no one believes me and I cant blame them," Fulks wrote. "All I want to do is help these familys have there loved ones back and I want to be clear about this. This has nothing to do with wanting to help myself. ... I'm in no way doing this to save my life but rather to help these familys find some kind of closure 'if' that is even possible."
FILE - In a Tuesday, April 12, 2005 file photo, Chadrick Fulks is escorted by U.S. Marshals out of the federal courthouse in Huntington, W.Va., following his arraignment on charges if carjacking resulting in the death of Marshall University student Samantha Burns, felon in possession of a firearm, possession of stolen firearms and interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle. Convicted killer Chadrick Fulks insists he wants to help a slain West Virginia college student's family find solace by leading investigators to her body.(AP Photo/The Herald-Dispatch, Randy Snyder, File )
AP Exclusive: Killer says he wants to make amends
By MEG KINNARD (AP) – 41 minutes ago 08/12/2009
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Death row inmate Chadrick Fulks insists he wants to help a slain West Virginia college student's family find solace by leading investigators to her body.
It wouldn't be the first time he's made that claim. State and federal authorities spent six years on wild goose chases prompted by tips from Fulks before one of his clues actually led searchers to another victim of his 2,300-mile crime spree, which left two women dead and several people injured in 2002.
"I will fight until my last breath to make sure that Samantha is recovered as well," Fulks, 32, wrote in a recent letter to The Associated Press from the federal death row in Terre Haute, Ind.
But now, the same volunteer who successfully unearthed one of Fulks' victims says she's not so sure the condemned man really wants anyone to find the second, 19-year-old Marshall University student Samantha Burns.
The volunteer, Monica Caison, is the founder of Community United Effort - Center for Missing Persons. She led the team that found the remains of Alice Donovan, a 44-year-old South Carolina woman, earlier this year, but is frustrated by the search for Burns.
"I've found people missing for 15 years or more, more easily than this," said Caison, whose recent searches of rural, wooded parts of West Virginia based on tips from Fulks have turned up nothing. "I try not to let my frustration show. ... Everybody expects to get out there and find her and have the same success that we had with Alice."
After Fulks sent her a map and photos earlier this year, claiming they were Donovan's final resting place, Caison drove directly from Wilmington, N.C., to South Carolina, where in January she found bones in thick brush near the North Carolina line. Last month, DNA tests confirmed the remains belonged to Donovan, information that left Fulks feeling somewhat vindicated.
"I'm thankful that her family can now have a proper burial for her," Fulks wrote, "and I can only pray that in some way this will help them to begin to heal."
Donovan's daughters are planning to bury their mother Nov. 14, the seventh anniversary of her death. Fulks, who says his own brother recently committed suicide in jail and was buried the same day Donovan's remains were identified, wrote to the AP that he now understands the anguish felt by both victims' families.
"Seeing his pain made me constantly think about Alice and Samanthas familys pain and it has drove me to not give up until they both were found," he wrote.
Earlier this year, Fulks wrote to Caison again, sending a map and photos of the rural area where he says Burns' body was dumped. He and co-defendant Brandon Basham pleaded guilty to killing her during their spree, which authorities said also included carjacking a Kentucky man and leaving him for dead, shooting a South Carolina man who refused to give them his vehicle, and attacking police officers in Kentucky and Ohio.
Fulks claims he is innocent of the slayings but knows where the bodies are.
In March, Caison led a group through a wooded area in southwestern West Virginia at Fulks' direction, her spirits renewed by the success in identifying Donovan's remains.
For 16 days, Caison's team logged hundreds of hours combing the earth for Burns' remains. Cadaver dogs picked up scents. Searchers crawled on hands and knees, hoping to uncover some clue that would verify Fulks' information.
But in the more than six years since Burns' death, the area's terrain has changed, making it difficult to rely on Fulks' maps and memories. As time stretched on, Caison says, she began to doubt his veracity.
"I feel like there is something, that one thing you could tell me, and you know I'd be right on top of her, and you're holding it back," she told Fulks during a telephone conversation from the search site. "I said, I'm not effective here, right now. ... It just shouldn't be this hard. If she's here, these dogs will find her."
Caison says she's taken the last few months to regroup, going back over the maps and letters she's received from Fulks — and telling Burns' family it's not time to give up. Next month, she will return to the same search area with dogs, excavation machinery and dozens of people from the nation's top search teams.
"If we don't find her after I bring this crew in ... then Chad Fulks is a liar, because I will believe the dogs," Caison said. "If she's there, we're going to find her."
Fulks' attorneys have filed documents asking a judge to grant their client a new trial. But from his spot on federal death row — he was sentenced to death for killing Donovan and life in prison for killing Burns — he insists he's resigned himself to his fate and is focused on finding peace for his victims' families.
"I know no one believes me and I cant blame them," Fulks wrote. "All I want to do is help these familys have there loved ones back and I want to be clear about this. This has nothing to do with wanting to help myself. ... I'm in no way doing this to save my life but rather to help these familys find some kind of closure 'if' that is even possible."
#23
La Vina
La Vina
-
- Guests
Posted 20 September 2009 - 02:40 PM
http://www.wsaz.com/...s/59941737.html
Search Resumes for Missing Marshall Student Samantha Burns
Sep 20, 2009
WSAZ News Staff
WAYNE COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- New leads have volunteers searching a remote area of Wayne County for the remains of missing Marshall student Samantha Burns.
The volunteers are with CUE, a national group that helps families find missing children.
Monica Caison, the founder of the group, told WSAZ.com that they are digging with an excavator behind the railroad tracks on Maple Lane. She says her group will keep searching until dark.
Burns disappeared more than six years ago. Chad Fulks admitted to killing her and Alice Donovan in South Carolina.
Caison says Fulks led them to a body that was identified as Donovan during a search in South Carolina. New information from Fulks has brought the group together again in Wayne County.
Caison says,"we'll stay out here as long as it takes to find Samantha."
Search Resumes for Missing Marshall Student Samantha Burns
Sep 20, 2009
WSAZ News Staff
WAYNE COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- New leads have volunteers searching a remote area of Wayne County for the remains of missing Marshall student Samantha Burns.
The volunteers are with CUE, a national group that helps families find missing children.
Monica Caison, the founder of the group, told WSAZ.com that they are digging with an excavator behind the railroad tracks on Maple Lane. She says her group will keep searching until dark.
Burns disappeared more than six years ago. Chad Fulks admitted to killing her and Alice Donovan in South Carolina.
Caison says Fulks led them to a body that was identified as Donovan during a search in South Carolina. New information from Fulks has brought the group together again in Wayne County.
Caison says,"we'll stay out here as long as it takes to find Samantha."
#24
La Vina
La Vina
-
- Guests
Posted 21 September 2009 - 02:09 PM
http://www.wvpubcast...e.aspx?id=11360
Excavation begins for Samantha Burns remains
The directions come from Chad Fulks, the man convicted of Smantha Burns' murder.
September 21, 2009
New leads have family members and a non-profit group looking for the remains of Samantha Burns, the Marshall student killed in 2002 by two escapees from a Kentucky prison.
In a rural area called Lavalette several miles outside Huntington, an excavator digs up earth behind some railroad tracks and not far from the Timberwolf trailer park.
For the second time this year, volunteers are trying to find Samantha Burns. The directions come from Chad Fulks, the man convicted of her murder.
In 2002, Fulks and Brandon Basham escaped from a Kentucky prison and headed for Huntington. There, police say they kidnapped Burns, killed her and dumped her body -- which has never been found.
On Monday, Samantha’s mother, Candy Burns, watched the excavation from a distance. She says she’s happy to have help in the search.
“We just want to bring Samantha home, I mean I’ll search and we’ve had people come from several different states to come and help us, we’ll never give up.
The search is being led by a woman named Monica Caison and her group, Community United Effort, which searches for missing bodies.
It was Caison’s group that found another alleged victim of Basham and Fulks – 440year-old Alice Donovan – after Fulks gave them detailed directions to the site.
In March, Fulks gave searchers a hand-drawn map to what he said was Burns’ resting place – but they found nothing.
But Caison says things have changed since that search.
“It’s not a hand drawn map; it’s a computerized map that he sent to the mother of Samantha Burns on her birthday and then additional information in writing as well, so it’s a lot clearer then when we were here the last time and in the right place. We just didn’t go far enough,†Caison said.
She says that with debris from nearby mudslides dumped on the site, it’s hard to place where a lot of the spots on the map are. But she says they feel they are getting closer.
“We’re confident we’re in the right area and it’s just going to be very time consuming and it’s going to be very hard,†Caison said.
Caison says the workers are volunteers from all over the country who use their time and resources to help look. She says everyone is trying keep their emotions from getting in the way for their work.
“Every scoop of dirt we take out and every hour we are here is obviously torment from the family, but at this point I think they are trying to stay focused that we’re trying to find Samantha and that’s the end line goal and they’re trying and they’re trying not to let their emotions carry over and none of us are,†Caison said.
Candy Burns says the feeling of having so many trying to help makes the looking easier.
“Oh, it’s very comforting I guess to know that there’s people out there that kind of understands what you’re going through and know the things that needs to be done to help find her,†Burns said.
Caison says they’ll continue to look at the site until they find Samantha Burns – or they make sure her remains are not there.
Excavation begins for Samantha Burns remains
The directions come from Chad Fulks, the man convicted of Smantha Burns' murder.
September 21, 2009
New leads have family members and a non-profit group looking for the remains of Samantha Burns, the Marshall student killed in 2002 by two escapees from a Kentucky prison.
In a rural area called Lavalette several miles outside Huntington, an excavator digs up earth behind some railroad tracks and not far from the Timberwolf trailer park.
For the second time this year, volunteers are trying to find Samantha Burns. The directions come from Chad Fulks, the man convicted of her murder.
In 2002, Fulks and Brandon Basham escaped from a Kentucky prison and headed for Huntington. There, police say they kidnapped Burns, killed her and dumped her body -- which has never been found.
On Monday, Samantha’s mother, Candy Burns, watched the excavation from a distance. She says she’s happy to have help in the search.
“We just want to bring Samantha home, I mean I’ll search and we’ve had people come from several different states to come and help us, we’ll never give up.
The search is being led by a woman named Monica Caison and her group, Community United Effort, which searches for missing bodies.
It was Caison’s group that found another alleged victim of Basham and Fulks – 440year-old Alice Donovan – after Fulks gave them detailed directions to the site.
In March, Fulks gave searchers a hand-drawn map to what he said was Burns’ resting place – but they found nothing.
But Caison says things have changed since that search.
“It’s not a hand drawn map; it’s a computerized map that he sent to the mother of Samantha Burns on her birthday and then additional information in writing as well, so it’s a lot clearer then when we were here the last time and in the right place. We just didn’t go far enough,†Caison said.
She says that with debris from nearby mudslides dumped on the site, it’s hard to place where a lot of the spots on the map are. But she says they feel they are getting closer.
“We’re confident we’re in the right area and it’s just going to be very time consuming and it’s going to be very hard,†Caison said.
Caison says the workers are volunteers from all over the country who use their time and resources to help look. She says everyone is trying keep their emotions from getting in the way for their work.
“Every scoop of dirt we take out and every hour we are here is obviously torment from the family, but at this point I think they are trying to stay focused that we’re trying to find Samantha and that’s the end line goal and they’re trying and they’re trying not to let their emotions carry over and none of us are,†Caison said.
Candy Burns says the feeling of having so many trying to help makes the looking easier.
“Oh, it’s very comforting I guess to know that there’s people out there that kind of understands what you’re going through and know the things that needs to be done to help find her,†Burns said.
Caison says they’ll continue to look at the site until they find Samantha Burns – or they make sure her remains are not there.
#25
La Vina
La Vina
-
- Guests
Posted 22 September 2009 - 08:34 PM
http://www.herald-di...-for-Burns-body
Volunteers narrow search for Burns' body
Samantha Burns
September 23, 2009
From staff and wire reports
LAVALETTE, W.Va. -- Crews searching for a Marshall University student's remains have removed tons of dirt from a ravine to reveal the way it was seven years ago when her body was supposedly buried there.
By Tuesday morning, head searcher Monica Caison had identified a potential hot spot based on a tree stump that convicted killer Chadrick Fulks remembered seeing while he and another man buried the remains of Marshall student Samantha Burns. Crews were searching near railroad tracks outside Lavalette in Wayne County.
Caison says she's still optimistic and expects to focus on that area. The search is expected to continue until Burns' remains are found or the site near Lavalette in Wayne County can be eliminated.
After searching all day Tuesday, Caison said they located a ravine that was a major landmark on Fulks map of the area. Finding the ravine, Caison said, erases any notion that Fulks was lying about the area.
The search will continue on Wednesday, she said.
Caison, founder of Community United Effort-Center for Missing Persons, said crews of volunteers spent much of Tuesday removing tons of dirt from an area the size of a football field. The search effort started Friday.
The difficulties in searching the area, Caison said, stem from the large amount of fill dirt that was not there when Burns was killed in 2002. Dirt from landscaping projects and from a local mountain slide in Wayne County had been dumped in the area they were searching sometime after Burns' death, Caison said.
"We want to get to the original ground so we can actually search it," Caison said. "It's just a slow process."
Caison brought earth-moving equipment along with a crew of up to 65 people and more than a dozen cadaver dogs. Law enforcement officials also are on the scene. Caison said they used maps from the late-1990s to locate the ravine.
With another day of searching added to the agenda, Caison said she's getting fresh cadaver dogs from Georgia. Maine and North Carolina.
This is at least the third time this year that Caison's crew has searched for Burns' remains. The latest search is based on a map Fulks provided Caison on April 23, which would have been Burns' 26th birthday.
Fulks and Brandon Basham were convicted of killing the 19-year-old Burns and 44-year-old Alice Donovan of Galivants Ferry, S.C., after they escaped from a Kentucky jail in November 2002. Donovan's remains were found earlier this year based on information provided by Fulks.
Fulks and Basham were convicted of carjackings that led to the death of both victims. They received the death penalty in Donovan's case. Both men await execution on federal death row in Terre Haute, Ind.
When last seen at the Huntington Mall, Burns had made a payment on her J.C. Penney credit card. Her abductors used her ATM card at various locations. Police found Burns' burned-out Chevrolet Cavalier near Haney's Branch Road in rural Wayne County.
Volunteers narrow search for Burns' body
Samantha Burns
September 23, 2009
From staff and wire reports
LAVALETTE, W.Va. -- Crews searching for a Marshall University student's remains have removed tons of dirt from a ravine to reveal the way it was seven years ago when her body was supposedly buried there.
By Tuesday morning, head searcher Monica Caison had identified a potential hot spot based on a tree stump that convicted killer Chadrick Fulks remembered seeing while he and another man buried the remains of Marshall student Samantha Burns. Crews were searching near railroad tracks outside Lavalette in Wayne County.
Caison says she's still optimistic and expects to focus on that area. The search is expected to continue until Burns' remains are found or the site near Lavalette in Wayne County can be eliminated.
After searching all day Tuesday, Caison said they located a ravine that was a major landmark on Fulks map of the area. Finding the ravine, Caison said, erases any notion that Fulks was lying about the area.
The search will continue on Wednesday, she said.
Caison, founder of Community United Effort-Center for Missing Persons, said crews of volunteers spent much of Tuesday removing tons of dirt from an area the size of a football field. The search effort started Friday.
The difficulties in searching the area, Caison said, stem from the large amount of fill dirt that was not there when Burns was killed in 2002. Dirt from landscaping projects and from a local mountain slide in Wayne County had been dumped in the area they were searching sometime after Burns' death, Caison said.
"We want to get to the original ground so we can actually search it," Caison said. "It's just a slow process."
Caison brought earth-moving equipment along with a crew of up to 65 people and more than a dozen cadaver dogs. Law enforcement officials also are on the scene. Caison said they used maps from the late-1990s to locate the ravine.
With another day of searching added to the agenda, Caison said she's getting fresh cadaver dogs from Georgia. Maine and North Carolina.
This is at least the third time this year that Caison's crew has searched for Burns' remains. The latest search is based on a map Fulks provided Caison on April 23, which would have been Burns' 26th birthday.
Fulks and Brandon Basham were convicted of killing the 19-year-old Burns and 44-year-old Alice Donovan of Galivants Ferry, S.C., after they escaped from a Kentucky jail in November 2002. Donovan's remains were found earlier this year based on information provided by Fulks.
Fulks and Basham were convicted of carjackings that led to the death of both victims. They received the death penalty in Donovan's case. Both men await execution on federal death row in Terre Haute, Ind.
When last seen at the Huntington Mall, Burns had made a payment on her J.C. Penney credit card. Her abductors used her ATM card at various locations. Police found Burns' burned-out Chevrolet Cavalier near Haney's Branch Road in rural Wayne County.
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users
Thank you for visiting the website of Project Jason, a 501c 3 nonprofit organization. Your presence means that you care about the missing, and that means so much to us and the families of the missing.