Hunt for slain W.Va. student frustrates searchers

By P.J. DICKERSCHEID Associated Press Writer

Volunteers plan to resume searching Tuesday for a Marshall University student's remains, but they are losing faith because they have scoured a lot of the area and maps provided by the woman's killer don't match the landscape.

Monica Caison, founder of Community United Effort - Center for Missing Persons, said she and about nine others plan to resume their search for Samantha Burns' body, but if it proves futile, they may give up.

"I'm very frustrated," Caison said. "If there's anything human out here we would have found something by now."

Searchers have scoured 12 miles of land from Kenova to Lavalette in southwestern West Virginia, combing some areas more than once, Caison said. They started in early March and resumed their dawn-to-dusk efforts Friday.

"We have dug holes. We have dug up ditch banks, ravines. We've run multiple dogs. We've had people on their hands and knees sifting through dirt, but nine days and nothing," she said.

Two maps convicted killer Chadrick Fulks provided authorities do not match the layout of the land, she said. They've concentrated most of their efforts near railroad tracks along State Route 75 where Fulks said they would find Burns' remains.

"I'm losing faith in him," she said. "He is wasting a lot of our time and resources."

Fulks and Brandon Basham await execution after being convicted of killing the 19-year-old Burns and 44-year-old Alice Donovan of Galivants Ferry, S.C., during a two-week, 2,300-mile crime spree that started after they escaped from a Kentucky jail in November 2002.

Fulks helped lead authorities in January to remains in South Carolina that are being tested to see whether their DNA matches that of Donovan, the mother of two last seen pulling into a Wal-Mart parking lot in Conway, just north of Myrtle Beach.

Burns disappeared from a Huntington mall not far from her home.

Her father, John Burns, said finding his daughter's remains would mean "everything in the world to us, to get her in her rightful place. But it's not looking like we're ever going to be able to do that."

The Burns family has been at the search site every day, Caison said.

While the daily disappointment is difficult, Burns said it pales in comparison to losing his daughter.

"It's hard to be more disappointed than you already are," he said.

Caison said she remains committed to helping the Burns family retrieve their daughter's remains, but without more accurate information, that may not be possible.

"We're going to definitely have to re-evaluate things tomorrow," she said.

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On the Net:

Community United Effort: http://www.ncmissingpersons.org/">http://www.ncmissingpersons.org/