Missing: Huntington, West Virginia
Missing Since: November 11, 2002
Age at disappearance: 19
Height: 5’ 4″
Weight: 110
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Hazel
Nickname: “Sam”, “Sammy”
Distinguishing Characteristics: Scars, Marks, Tattoos: Caucasian Female. Chicken pox scars on the right side of forehead. Tattoo of a butterfly on lower back, pierced ears and pierced tongue.
Details of Disappearance: Samantha Burns was last seen by her aunt at the Huntington Mall in Barboursville, WV, at 6:30 pm on the evening of November 11, 2002. At 9:45 p.m. that evening, Burns used her cell phone to call her mother and said she 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 plead 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.
Investigating Agency: West Virginia State Police at (304) 528-5555
If you have any information on this case, please contact CUE Center for Missing Persons at (910) 343-1131 or call the CUE Center 24-hour tip line at (910) 232-1687. All information submitted to CUE Center for Missing Persons is confidential.