Missing Person Photos
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
Resources for Missing Persons
According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day.
Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends.
Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.
Missing Person Photos
Samantha Nicole Burns
Burns, date, approximate 2002
Date Missing 11/11/2002
Missing From
Huntington, West Virginia
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 04/21/1983 (39)
Age 19 years old
Height and Weight 5'4, 110 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A fuzzy orange sweater over a tank top, low-cut rider jeans with flared legs, light tan suede mule-type shoes, a heart-shaped gold ring with a diamond set in the center of the heart, and diamond stud earrings. Carrying a leopard-print purse and a lilac-colored cigarette lighter.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, hazel eyes. Burns's nicknames are Sam and Sammy. She has a chicken pox scar on the right side of her forehead, a mole on her neck, and a tattoo of a butterfly on her lower back. Her ears and tongue are pierced.
Details of Disappearance Burns used her cellular phone to call her mother from Huntington, West Virginia at 9:45 p.m. on November 11, 2002. She said she had been visiting friends at Marshall University Court Yard Apartments and was on her way home. Burns lived in East Hamlin, West Virginia at the time. 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 her.
Within a few days of Burns's disappearance, police identified two suspects in her presumed abduction, Chadwick E. Fulks and Branden L. Basham (sometimes called "L. Branden Basham"). The two men escaped from Hopkins County Jail on November 4, a week before Burns's disappearance, and embarked on a multi-state crime spree, including numerous robberies, car thefts, and at least one burglary. They were recaptured after Burns vanished.
Basham confessed to abducting and murdering Alice Donovan, who disappeared on November 14, 2002 in Conway, South Carolina. Her dark blue 1994 BMW 318i was found in Goshen, Indiana. Basham says he only helped kidnap her and it it was Fulks who raped, stabbed and strangled her.
Both men were charged with carjacking resulting in death and kidnapping resulting in death in connection with Donovan's ; they were convicted in separate trials and sentenced to death. In January 2009, bone chips later identified as Donovan's were found in Horry County, South Carolina.
In June 2003, Basham and Fulks were also charged with carjacking resulting in death in Burns's . Her body has not been found, but authorities believed they can prove the with circumstantial evidence. Prosecutors stated that the men abducted Burns and, before killing her, held her at gunpoint while they drove her car around and tried, with some success, to withdraw money at various ATMs
Basham pleaded guilty to murdering Burns in July 2005 and was sentenced to life in prison. He confessed in court to his involvement in the crime, and apologized to Burns's family. The 's outcome for Fulks has not been determined.
Both men are on death row in South Carolina. Burns and Donovan's families filed wrongful death lawsuits against them and against the Hopkins County Jail. The suit against the jail was settled for an undisclosed amount in August 2008.
At the time of her disappearance, Burns lived at home with her parents and younger brother. She was enrolled in Marshall's Community and Technical College, in the physical therapy assistant program. She also worked part time at a J.C. Penney department store in the Huntington Mall.
Burns remains missing. Foul play is suspected in her disappearance due to the circumstances involved.
Investigating Agency
West Virginia State Police
304-528-5555
Other
Rino Kids Online
The Herald-Dispatch
The Charleston Post and Courier
Myrtle Beach Online
America's Most Wanted
NamUs
The Child Seek Network
WPDE NewsChannel 15
Bonnie's Blog of Crime
WSAZ 3
Missing Person Photos
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
Resources for Missing Persons
According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day.
Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends.
Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.
Missing Person Photos
