Why I Don't Think Tommy Burkett Was Murdered (Long)

[1990 UM fan]

Not sure if this has been posted before, but this was posted in the Chantilly Times on June 13, 2002 by Beth George Burkett, a year before she died of cancer:

Chantilly Times, June 13, 2002

By Beth George

My son, Tommy Burkett, would be thirty-two years old this Sunday, June 9. On Sunday, December 1, 1991 at 6:12 pm, we returned from a poetry reading and found Tommy’s beaten, lifeless body upstairs in his room. His body was in a state of rigor. We found blood spattered walls in the hallway, the stairwell and downstairs by the backdoor. We found broken plants, an injured dog, and lawn furniture in disarray. Tommy’s wallet, eyeglasses and jacket were missing.

There is no comfort and there is no closure in the death of a child. The most my husband and I could hope for was a thorough investigation to uncover the facts behind an obvious murder, and ultimately, justice.

So far, we have been denied an investigation and our son has been denied justice.

The Fairfax County Police Department has General Orders that must be followed during an investigation. However, these Orders were not followed in Tommy’s case. No yellow police line was erected round the crime scene. The police did not go door-to-door to determine what neighbors had seen and heard. Some neighbors who came outside to offer information were rebuffed by officers on the scene. The police did not fingerprint Tommy’s room or car (which was damaged and was seen in a chase earlier that day). They did not take blood samples from the walls and upholstery upstairs and down. They disposed of Tommy’s damaged, bloody clothing in less than a week, without forensic testing.

Ignoring Tommy’s fractures, abrasions and bruises and signs of a struggle, the police ruled the death a “suicide” by gunshot within minutes of entering our home. They did not remove the alleged fatal bullet from our wall for testing. They did not test our son’s hands for gunpowder. They did not do any ballistics tests on the alleged fatal weapon. The lead investigator, Tom Lyons, disputed the Fire and Rescue official’s statement that Tommy had been dead for several hours when we found his body. Lyons insisted that the death “just happened” and listed time of injury as 6:00 pm. (Remember, Tommy was in a state of rigor when we found him at 6:12. See Fire and Rescue Report on our Website.) Neighbors saw someone driving Tommy’s car up to our house at exactly 5:10 pm, a time when Tommy was already dead.

By 7:05 pm, less than an hour after we found him, Tommy’s body had been removed from our home, and all police vehicles, except one which was parked way down the street, were gone. Neighbors’ statements document this. (Investigator Lyons suggested that we “clean up” the mess. We didn’t. We preserved several areas of the house and paid for the crime scene investigation the police would not give us. The PD has expressed no interest in the information generated.)

In the days that followed, we learned that the night Tommy died, his driver’s license, slit open, was found in the possession of a Marymount University student. According to several witnesses, that student assaulted and threatened Tommy on November 16, 1991 at the Marymount campus in Arlington. Marymount officials did not contact the Arlington police, although the school’s literature states that police must be contacted when an assault occurs on campus. We also learned that some persons at Marymount were aware of Tommy’s death before we found his body. The Fire and Rescue report listed our son as an “unknown” white male, aged 21. The Medical Examiner report was signed under a forged signature, according to a handwriting analyst. The ME report, which stated cause of death and manner of death, was dated December 1, 1991, with a “2” handwritten over the “1”; however, an autopsy was not done on until December 3.

A Fairfax County police officer and other personnel told me their computers showed that Tommy had called 911 twice on December 1, and another person had also called, giving our address and asking for assistance. The Department has stated (on tape and in writing) that these 911 tapes were erased.

For eighteen months, the FCPD refused to tell us the names of the officers who came to our home on December 1, 1991. We eventually learned their names, and we have posted them, along with documentation of the above statements, on our Website for public reference. We posted the names because the way Tommy’s case was handled is not a reflection on the many fine officers in FCPD. It is a reflection on the officers involved in the case. We want the public to know exactly which officers are responsible.

We filed fifteen formal complaints against those officers for not following the Department’s General Orders. In addition, we submitted supporting evidence, including notarized statements by neighbors attesting to the fact that the police had not gone door-to-door and had not taken statements, even though Tom Lyons told his superiors that he had.

The Department “investigated” our complaints by sending Officer William Whildin, who had only a few weeks left to serve before retiring, into our community. He knocked on doors and stated emphatically that he was not investigating Tommy’s death; he was there only to determine whether the neighbors had actually signed the notarized statements we submitted. We were never contacted by Officer Whildin. Oddly, the FCPD has repeatedly tried to call Whildin’s two-hour neighborhood visit two years after Tommy was killed, a “thorough” death investigation.

The Department’s written policy is that persons submitting formal complaints will receive written responses. We are still waiting.

In 1994, Attorney General Janet Reno, after receiving a petition with over 4,000 signatures, plus letters from concerned legislators, directed the FBI to investigate the way Tommy’s case was handled. Months passed, and we heard nothing. I called and left a message. A week later, the investigating agent returned the call. He was so hostile, I decided to tape him. He stated as many as a dozen times that he would not investigate my son’s death. Portions of the audiotape are posted on our Website. He dragged the investigation out for 20 months, never once talking to the alleged subject of the investigation, Officer Tom Lyons of FCPD. The FBI never examined the alleged fatal bullet or the alleged fatal weapon. The FBI did not dispute the handwriting analysis indicating that someone other than the Medical Examiner signed the ME Report, but a Supervisory agent informed us that the forgery did not matter. Oddly, the FBI has frequently cited their “investigation,” which was not a death investigation, as support of the FCPD’s suicide ruling. Even more odd is the fact that the FBI told my husband and me that way the FCPD investigation handled the case was fine.

When a national police force says it is okay for public officials to ignore evidence, dispose of and destroy evidence, erase 911 tapes in cases where a death occurred, fabricate interviews which never occurred, put false information on official documents, forge signatures on official documents, refuse to gather evidence and refuse to follow their own written General Orders for processing a crime scene, we have a serious problem. My husband and I were not surprised by the recent revelations by FBI whistleblower, Colleen Rowley. We’ve seen the FBI look the other way and ignore evidence before.

We are still waiting for an investigation and we are still waiting for justice for Tommy. There is plenty of evidence. As one Marymount student told Unsolved Mysteries, “Everyone knows who killed him.”

[Cori aka ChrisSCrush]

Makes you wonder how many obviously botched cases are really conspiracies and how many are coverups by departments attempting to hide their own incompetence of a mass of screwups. A lot of what looks suspicious in things such as the John F. Kennedy assassination are attempted coverups of blunders, not guilt.

[Stratego]

Very good post and I agree.

By the way, does anybody know why Tommy was being bullied/harrassed by other students?

[JC1957]

Originally Posted by Stratego

Very good post and I agree.

By the way, does anybody know why Tommy was being bullied/harrassed by other students?

Not 100% sure but I believe the other students thought he was a narc.

[Stratego]

Originally Posted by JC1957

Not 100% sure but I believe the other students thought he was a narc.

Whatever made them think he was? And were these college kids hardcore drug dealers or something? Otherwise I find it hard to imagine a bunch of college kids would even care that much.

[JC1957]

Originally Posted by Stratego

Whatever made them think he was? And were these college kids hardcore drug dealers or something? Otherwise I find it hard to imagine a bunch of college kids would even care that much.

You got any better explanation?

[Stratego]

Originally Posted by JC1957

You got any better explanation?

I read somewhere he might've been harassed because he was possibly gay. But my intention was not to make up possible explanations. I wanted to know if someone actually knows what it was really about.

[Dogface82]

Beth George was a greiving distraught mother. Taking that into account there is still a lot wrong with how the case was handled. When a case appears to be deliberate mishandled in a manner that LE are protectecting someone In my opinion it may an informant. For example the Whitey Bulger case. Or if LE thinks they have a big case in works victims like her son are collateral damage. Just a possibility.

[XCalibur]

I haven't given this case much thought in a few years. And temporarily putting aside all other aspects of it or the pros and cons of suicide or murder, I've concluded that that alleged suicide note all but does it for me that this was murder.

I honestly don't give a flip what anyone says, no matter how down in the dumps or messed up someone is no one bothering to write a suicide note would only say they want to be cremated and nothing else. No good byes, no final wishes, no explanation, nothing. Tommy's only priority here was making sure his body was wiped out? That might be the single biggest insult to anyone's intelligence I ever heard of.

[Stratego]

Why are you so sure about that? Have you read every single suicide note in the world? Just because you imagine you would leave a special message for your loved ones, doesn't mean everybody else does. Let's say Tommy felt he was absolutely worthless, with that kind of mindset it makes perfect sense he didn't think anyone would even care about his final words and his only desire was to be completely removed from this world.

[XCalibur]

Originally Posted by Stratego

Why are you so sure about that? Have you read every single suicide note in the world? Just because you imagine you would leave a special message for your loved ones, doesn't mean everybody else does. Let's say Tommy felt he was absolutely worthless, with that kind of mindset it makes perfect sense he didn't think anyone would even care about his final words and his only desire was to be completely removed from this world.

I don't buy it sorry. I just don't. Some things just stink so badly your brain just can't accept them. And to me that just stinks to high heaven.

Obviously I wasn't there, neither were you. There is no way to know for sure. I can't say for certain he didn't commit suicide. Maybe he did. Maybe its just the way my brain is wired, maybe it was because I was bullied as a kid myself and sympathize with Tommy a little more than others might, maybe it was because i was raised in a somewhat Conservative and anti government household and it taught me to distrust authority, but its difficult for me to accept that.

Although I have seen many people particularly in recent years who seem to have a passionate and dogged determination to believe the authorities and that there is nothing nefarious ever going on. And to portray anyone who doesn't as a tinfoil hat kind of guy. Its a point of view I never really understood. I suppose maybe for some people they want to believe everything is all sunshine and rainbows all the time and everyone always tells the truth. I think i can somewhat understand that we all want to live in a peaceful and just society where nothing bad ever happens and the authorities are always good truth tellers and defenders of justice.

But I must admit I don't quite get the absolute determination to not even consider the possibility of corruption in many cases no matter what. I will admit it is foreign and disturbing to me.

[Stratego]

Originally Posted by XCalibur

But I must admit I don't quite get the absolute determination to not even consider the possibility of corruption in many cases no matter what. I will admit it is foreign and disturbing to me.

I think it's unlikely to find any people around here who feel that way. You're sure you haven't gone off too far into the opposite direction where you believe there must be corruption just because someone says so? That idea seems at least as disturbing to me.

I honestly don't think there's much that stinks about this case. Most of it is hearsay that needs more clarification.

[tvscript124]

Originally Posted by Thiussat

Why does anyone commit suicide? There are countless examples of suicides by people who did not "appear" suicidal. The truth is, it is always difficult for a family to admit their loved one committed suicide. Do you ever see in the obituray column "John Smith died of suicide?" No, there is such a stigma about it, that it is usually not even in the obituary. And the reason it is left out is that the family either doesn't accept it or is ashamed.

I am bumping this thread.

I don't have an opinion one way or the other on Tommy Burkett as I barely remember the case, but I can confirm that people often will not admit their loved one committed suicide.

[tvscript124]

Originally Posted by XCalibur

I don't buy it sorry. I just don't. Some things just stink so badly your brain just can't accept them. And to me that just stinks to high heaven.

Obviously I wasn't there, neither were you. There is no way to know for sure. I can't say for certain he didn't commit suicide. Maybe he did. Maybe its just the way my brain is wired, maybe it was because I was bullied as a kid myself and sympathize with Tommy a little more than others might, maybe it was because i was raised in a somewhat Conservative and anti government household and it taught me to distrust authority, but its difficult for me to accept that.

Although I have seen many people particularly in recent years who seem to have a passionate and dogged determination to believe the authorities and that there is nothing nefarious ever going on. And to portray anyone who doesn't as a tinfoil hat kind of guy. Its a point of view I never really understood. I suppose maybe for some people they want to believe everything is all sunshine and rainbows all the time and everyone always tells the truth. I think i can somewhat understand that we all want to live in a peaceful and just society where nothing bad ever happens and the authorities are always good truth tellers and defenders of justice.

But I must admit I don't quite get the absolute determination to not even consider the possibility of corruption in many cases no matter what. I will admit it is foreign and disturbing to me.

You don't have to be a tinfoil hat to realize that there is corruption in this world and officials lie. You need a healthy skepticism about authority. I am as pro-police as anyone, but there are bad cops. Look at the Duke Lacrosse Players who got railroaded because of corrupt Ray Nagin and a so-called victim who wasn't credible. Those three young men had their lives ruined by a corrupt system in Louisiana.

[TheCars1986]

The older I get the more I realize just how laughable massive conspiracies are. People are stupid. The more people a conspiracy involves, the less believable it becomes. In this case, an unnamed student who was in possession of Tommy's driver's license, officials at Marymount University, a 911 dispatcher, and the DEA all conspired to cover up a murder. It makes absolutely no sense. His mother, without providing any credible evidence, asserts that Tommy was a paid DEA informant. A paid informant for the DEA was murdered and they shrug their collective shoulders and say, "nope, didn't know him"...not happening.

That's not to say that murder should be ruled out completely. But I would love to know who owned the gun that was found resting in Tommy's hands. Bullies chasing you through the streets trying to beat you to death with baseball bats probably wouldn't know the location of said gun if it belonged to the Burkett's.