Let’s travel back in time a little in this blog…
A young girl named Sara Owns aged 16 years old would be reported missing on November 12, 2002. She had allegedly borrowed a cell phone from a woman in the Richmond Theater’s restroom to call home. She was hiding from two men who had taken her from the Huntington Mall. This stuck out me during research because of the date; it was so close to when Samantha went missing.
Does she tie into this story? It doesn’t seem likely due Tina/Andrea never mentioned a young girl riding with them after all of them left West Virginia to head to South Carolina, plus I never found where Sara would identify Chad/Brandon taking her. A little more into the disappearance goes as followed.
Sarah was reported missing after she did not return from a job interview Tuesday evening at Huntington Mall Cinema 6. She had taken a TTA bus to the mall and completed the interview. She accepted a ride from two men who were at the mall. She called home on November 15, 2002 and said she was hiding and might have some small injuries.
Another interesting little story I found was on Tuesday, a Barboursville mother reported that a man stole her car with her 8 year old daughter in the backseat. The girl was later discovered in a Huntington parking lot. I don’t think this ties into the case either, but still interesting nonetheless.
The first man Chad/Brandon came in contact with after they escaped from jail in Kentucky was James Hawkins. He stated Brandon held a knife and told him to keep driving. He said Brandon seemed nervous and fidgety and did most of the talking. He said he felt Chad was in control.
“Fulks seemed cruel,” he said. “He didn’t talk much. He was cold-hearted type, but they didn’t hit me or stick me.”
Now let’s talk about a few things concerning Samantha’s case.
Sanya Johnson was a local to German Ridge Road and she would state on Monday night, she was at the intersection around 8pm when she noticed a maroon midsize car and a black pickup truck parked near the entrance to Stowasser’s Road. When she returned to her home around 9pm, the two vehicles were still there. The car was parked in front of the truck and she saw nobody in/around the vehicles.
Mark Kilgore called it in after hearing the explosions. The explosions would be of Samantha’s car.
I’m not sure who was in the two vehicles, but we assume it’s not Tina’s vehicle because her van was green. We’re not sure when those two vehicles left, but we know Samantha’s car wasn’t brought there until after 9 for sure especially since she called at 9:45pm to her house.
A report would come to me back in 2017 after Jimmy’s video. The lady would tell me she was raised around Chad because he only lived a block from her. She claimed he was an evil person. She would tell me something that I’m not sure where to place it in this case. She said they came in her yard on Oakland Ave wanting to trade a red car with a broken window. Brandon was driving the car; she was out raking her leaves and would tell them to go to an auto station. She said they left and the next day it was in the paper about Samantha. She claims it was Samantha’s car, but she claimed happened in the morning, day time, just after her late husband had left for work…All the reports I have read is Samantha met her aunt at the mall around 6:30pm. It’s usually getting dark or is close to dark around that time in November so that’s why it confuses me because in the morning, it would mean Samantha was kidnapped earlier in the way, way earlier in the day and that would point to that when she met her aunt at 6:30pm she was already with them. I don’t see that until I get proof to change my mind. She would also mention about searching by the state hospital in the area because there is woods right there around it.
Chad would make a statement that really threw me for a loop and he said a local drug dealer saw him, Brandon and Beth on the night of November 11th. When he told me this, I told him to provide me every location and person they came in contact with while here, but I would never receive that information so it leads me to wondering if this statement is even true. Beth did mention in a message about seeing a guy in a black coat around her shed a few days before Chad/Brandon showed up. If true, could it have been one of them?
Another report I would hear is I assume once they got back to West Virginia after traveling to South Carolina is Chad wanted to do drugs, find women and party. Also was stated he had went to a car dealership to try and trade in Alice’s BMW and it was mentioned he wanted to trade in a gun as well, but the gentleman wouldn’t take either. He said Brandon didn’t say anything while they were together.
Another report I would receive in 2017, a lady would tell me about seeing two men and two women at a Comfort Inn in South Point, Ohio and they were trying to get orange paint off of a black car and would ask her if they had some rags they could use. She said when she described them to the detectives what the gentlemen looked like that it fit Chad/Brandon. She said one of girls fit the description of Samantha while the other looked like Tina. She was told by the desk clerk that he let them all stay in a room that was rented weekly so they weren’t registered in. The clothes she described seeing this Samantha look alike in was not the clothes she was last reported seen in plus the dates she gave me would imply the 9th leading into the 10th. One the vehicle she described as a Honda Civic, they were in Tina’s van. If it happened to be them, then it would have been Andrea as the second woman and not Samantha. I don’t see it being them because if I remember correctly the Inn she mentioned wasn’t even there at the time.
Once Jimmy’s video and posts went viral, a comment would catch a lot of attention from a local man near the Guyandotte area. His story would follow:
“I worked at a Barge company directly across from the Guyandotte boat ramp and I remember when they brought Chad to the boat ramp and supposedly they put her body in the water there at the same time Superior Marine Barge Co. was dredging at the boat ramp so I feel like the crane may have picked her body up, they hauled all the mud to a field there at Superior Marine. I’ve had this on my mind for years; please message me to talk more.”
He would report it to the FBI, but I don’t think he did until 2017. He would talk of seeing some bones as well. Is this true? We do know from local newspapers that Guyandotte River was searched, but mentions times where high water had prevented other attempts with divers. This would be around roughly early December 2002, but nothing would be found.
I read an article back from September 24, 2003 that it was reported the family had been notified that a body had been found in a well less than two miles from where Samantha disappeared. Nobody with the official search team had heard the story. It turned out not to be real, but never could locate where the story came from.
I would stumble upon an interesting message on a forum. The gentleman would state he was locked up in the regional jail for one year after failing a drug test while on home arrest. He had got into a fight that landed him in the hole where he would meet Chad because their cells were right next to each other. He would state Chad would go on and on about how he was the killer of Samantha Burns and that girl from South Carolina and how he was such a bad person. He said Chad would give him details on how he killed her and how he thought that the police would never find her body and that he was going to walk because they didn’t have enough evidence to convict him. I would look up the guy’s name and there was a few in the West Virginia area so I messaged all of them to see if they would reply, a few would and the one I was looking for would as well. He didn’t give me any more information so sadly it was just a dead end.
I talked to one of the investigators in 2017 and he told me Chad didn’t lead them to Alice’s body, but in the general area. He said it was for an example they should have taken a right instead of a left. I would contact a reporter from South Carolina and he would state this:
“What Chad said in the letters led searches to Donavan’s remains, so he was definitely truthful about that. He seemed truthful about the rest as well, but there is no way to know for certain.”
Another inmate would be involved in all of this and that would be David Paul Hammer (co-founder of deathrowspeaks.info) Brandon had a profile on his site and David would claim Chad told him 4 people knew where Samantha was buried. It was reported Chad got upset over David’s claims and basically would say David was not telling the truth and just trying to lead everyone away from Samantha’s remains. I wrote David back in 2017 and he never responded. I’m not sure what to make of his claims and what he was trying to gain from it, maybe a reduced sentence?
Sadly it seems no matter what rumor that is shared, it always leads to a dead end at some point. We all know it’s been going on 17 years so memory gets blurry and fades away, but one thing we all know is Chad/Brandon knows for sure what they did to Samantha’s remains and they’re either both telling the truth while the other one is not, but the question is which one is telling the truth?
killerscrawlspace 