Family of murdered teen looks for help in cold case
MUNCIE Ind. (WISH) – A mysterious murder of a 16-year-old boy in the late 1990s still has his family looking for answers.
His mother, Vickie Cook, talked 24-Hour News 8 about the case in the hopes someone comes forward with any information.
Vickie said she usually avoids the area where police found her son’s body.
“He was lying on his left side, he had a long green trench coat on and he had his jeans on. He had his white tennis shoes with Richard Simmons on the side of them,” said Cook.
On Jan. 25, 1997, three days before his 17th birthday, Vickie’s son William Burton was found dead under a set of train tracks in Muncie. He was shot in the head.
Police say Burton’s murder case has since gone cold. Burton was a young, gay teenager and where he was found was known in the late ’90s as a gay hangout spot. Since then the area has been cleared but in 1997, Sgt. Mike Engle from the Muncie Police department says any evidence was scattered among a lot of other debris.
“From what I remember about the case there was a lot of discarded items,” says Engle. “Things laying around that you don’t know whether it’s involved in the case or not involved in that case. We need to try and make that determination.”
Engle also says the river could have washed evidence away as the investigation progressed. The department doesn’t have much to go on now in the files they gave WISH-TV, just a few Star Press articles and an initial case report sheet.
“Back then everything was hand-written documents. Things get misplaced, things get lost.” said Engle.
William’s brother Robert Burton says police only had a few witnesses and the one real lead was a composite drawing.
“They give the composite drawing of the last guy that he was seen with and talked to. The guy doesn’t look familiar to any of us ,” Burton also remembers there was a baseball game that night. “There were people in the ball diamond in the park that night maybe somebody’s got something.”
That’s what William’s family has to hope for now, that someone comes forward after all these years with any information.
“No one on this side plans on giving up,” said Robert.
William’s mother is looking to people who may have been nervous to come forward before.
“Letting the gay community know that they can speak and come forward now because you’re free and open,” said Cook.
If you have any information call Crime Stoppers of Muncie at 765-286-4050.
