Cold Case Files: Who killed 77-year-old Cleo Burdette in Sissonville 16 years ago?
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS/WVAH) — Eyewitness News is launching a series that focuses solely on cold case investigations in West Virginia. "Eyewitness News Investigates: Cold Case Files" will air monthly and be reported by Leslie Rubin.
Each month, we will feature a new case, whether it's an unsolved homicide or a missing person who vanished years ago. We will bring you the real stories behind the cases and the emotional toll they have taken, not only on law enforcement who are searching for answers and are at a standstill, but most importantly, the families at the heart of the stories who are desperate for any clues that could bring them peace and justice.
Our first case is the murder of Cleo "Junior" Burdette, 77, of Sissonville. His sister, Gwendola Wines, found Burdette dead in his home on Aug. 13, 2004.
"I hope I get to look them in the eye and ask them why they did it. I want to know why," Wines told Eyewitness News in Nov. 2004, shortly after her brother's murder and during the height of the investigation into his death by the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office.
It was an answer she wanted but never got to hear. Wines died last year after a lengthy illness.
"I'll never get over this. There will never be an answer for it," Wines had said.
For 15 years, she lived never knowing who killed her brother and why.
"Everybody was shocked to death. When this happened, that was the biggest shock that ever happened to the community," she said during the interview.
Her family said she eventually moved out of state, partially due to the pain and fear she felt over her brother's death.
"She got scared because she found him. She was afraid that they would break in on her, so she ended up moving to Georgia," Loretta Shirkey, who is Burdette's niece and Wines' aunt, said.
Wines went to check on him the morning of Aug. 13 after not being able to reach him after he left her home for dinner the previous evening. Her family said Burdette would always call to let her know he was home.
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"It traumatized her," Shirkey said. "Gwen and I used to talk, and it was a constant on her mind. She couldn't understand why they couldn't find out who did it, why they couldn't make an arrest, why they couldn't do something that was conclusive."
Shirkey remembers her uncle as a master of his trade, a well-known farmer who was never married and had no children. He lived at his family's homeplace on Cicerone Road in Sissonville since he was born.
"That was his life," Shirkey recalls of Burdette's love of farming, horses and raising cattle."He did a wonderful job at it, and he usually got top dollar for his cattle at market."
She painfully remembers the day that forever changed her family. Her uncle had been tied up, beaten and forced to drink weed killer. The phone lines to the home were cut and the gas was left running.
"I guess hoping a spark would set the house on fire and then nobody would find anything," she said.
Kanawha County Sheriff's Office Chief of Detectives Lt. Sean Snuffer said it was apparent from the condition of the home that whomever was there was in search of something.
"It appeared to us that somebody had really ransacked the house. Went through everything, it looked to us like they were looking for something," he said.
Investigators also learned that Burdette had recently received a large sum of money from a cattle sale the previous day.
"He had gone to market the day before and sold a bunch of cattle. Somebody must have been at the market, seen him with all the cash, knew he lived alone, knew his house was isolated. He would be an easy target," Shirkey said.
The questions of why and who still mount on Shirkey's mind, so does the frustration for detectives who had little to go on.
"Some individuals in the area that live here and went to church in the area, they came forward and said they had spotted, what appeared to be, they thought was a reddish colored Toyota that had been parked near Mr. Burdette's house," Snuffer said.
But if it was cash the killer or killers were looking for, it wasn't there.
"I don't think that they thought that he had a chance to go to the bank, but I guess he immediately went to the bank the next morning," Shirkey said.
Snuffer said Burdette did have a lot of money.
"It was all kept in the bank. He didn't live wealthy by any means, but he did have a substantial amount of money in the bank," Snuffer said.
Investigators remain hopeful that even after 16 long years of unanswered questions, the case could be solved.
"Mr. Burdette's case, we still get information on it frequently and we follow it up until that lead is exhausted," Snuffer said."Somebody out there has to know something. There was somebody at Mr. Burdette's house. We want them to know that he has a family, they did care for him and they want to know what happened. We want anybody with any information, no matter how small they think it is, or how irrelevant they might think it is to call us because that could be that last piece in this case that we need to solve it."
For Shirkey and her family, it's a matter of dignity and justice.
"If you can beat, torture someone, kill them in that manner, you should be human enough just to come forward and if you're not the person or persons who did it, then if you know something, you should do it. The family, they deserve it, after all these years," she said.
Snuffer said they have had suspects in the case. Some have been cleared, he said, but there are are others they are still looking at. They are asking anyone who may have any information to call 304-357-0169. You can also email them at tips@kanawhasheriff.us or submit a tip on their website.
"Cleo has been there for a while. It's been one that's haunted us, we've tried to close it several times with people we've interviewed, we've polygraphed. We've done a vast amount of forensic work in this case that's been sent to our lab and right now, we haven't been able to yield a good suspect to be able to charge," he said.
