Garrett Burton ////// 632 | Forensic Files

[Music] thank you [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] garage wherever you are whatever you are
doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always as a man that
wants you to know that what he does with his pumpkin pie is nobody's business but
his own here is the cat it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend
[Music] foreign this week we are very thankful to be sipping on some BBA Jesus loves
fall Bourbon Barrel aged pumpkin style from the brilliant Brewers at Holy Trinity Brewing where else but here in
beautiful downtown Columbus Ohio this is the first Bourbon Barrel Age release from Holy Trinity brewing and it's a
great example of a smooth drinking beer from start to finish featuring obvious notes of Oak and bourbon from fresh
bourbon barrels from Watershed Distillery smooth they help to smooth out this already smooth coffee flavor
that just leaves you enjoying a little hint of pumpkin garage grade 4 and a five bottle caps and here's to our
friends that helped us out with this week's beer run first up a big thank you to Amber Stout and Spokane Washington
and the big we like your jib to Sherry D and Maple Valley Washington and a big shout out and thank thank you to Heather
all the way over in Sutherland Scotland everyone we just mentioned helped us out
this week and if you would like to help out the show go to truecrimegarage.com and click on the Donate button or pick
something up from our store Page yes sing it with me bwe Double R you win beer run
and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
crime [Music] foreign [Music] we were all teenagers once we all remember being young Carefree
having fun with our friends and doing stupid things that were pointless done just for the fun of it
pranks that caused no harm but we're a nuisance an annoyance to others teenagers do these things to Buck
against the rules to rebel against Authority to give the middle finger to the authority
but they don't mean for anyone to get hurt but unfortunately sometimes people do get hurt
sometimes pranks go wrong and property gets damaged or someone ends up injured most of the time
the prankster feels guilty and likely learned a valuable lesson I'm sure we all have had moments when we
remind ourselves man I still got a lot of growing up to do but in our story today
a harmless Prank Went very wrong and it backfired a light-hearted teenager having fun with
his friends was shot by an enraged victim of the prank a bright charismatic young man was
senselessly killed for what his involvement in a stupid prank valuable lesson learned
I think not this is true crime garage and this is a True Crime Story of the still
unsolved homicide of Garrett Burton foreign [Music] Garrett Burton was a 16 year old Junior
at Westland High School in Columbus Ohio his parents Patty and George were divorced at this time
Garrett lived with his mom on the far west side he had two brothers his mom Patty was a
first grade teacher at Highland Elementary Garrett's father George was a career Columbus Police Officer when this
happened he retired in 2013 with 33 years of service at school Garrett participated in golf
swimming basketball and bowling so as we can see this is a very active kid on top
of sports and school Garrett held down a part-time job at Kroger's on West Broad
Street this is a large grocery store where Garrett stayed busy stocking shelves and so on Garrett was
universally described as nice polite and friendly after he was killed other kids
reflected that he was always smiling kind and helpful he always sensed when someone was down and tried to boost
their spirits to help them out there was not one whisper that Garrett was the type of kid that was going down
the wrong path or a troubled youth that was not the case here Garrett had a loving family he had positive role
models he had everything going for him quote he was a good boy growing up to be a good man said Patty Burton to 10 TV
she admitted that Garrett's youthful exuberance and good nature meant that he sometimes was late for class and failed
to complete his schoolwork but no one not friends teachers School administrators no one suggested that
Garrett was anything other than a fun-loving mischievous teen Garrett's High School nickname was Winnie the Pooh
yes he was the kind of kid that bought other kids a lunch or helped a teacher carry her things even though he was just
16 Garrett was a big dude he was six foot one inches tall 240 pounds so he was the big teddy bear type his favorite
cars were Mustangs and Hummers he loved rap music and was a big sports fan cheering on the Buckeyes Bengals calves
and Spurs on Labor Day 2008 there was rumors that a student had been killed techs were flying among the students at
Westland High School they were all saying that Garrett Burton was dead the students were reeling Garrett was a good
kid popular and well liked throughout the school but everyone was hearing that he had been shot which really made no
sense to his classmates Garrett wasn't in a gang he didn't fraternize with those who were he didn't do drugs and he
certainly didn't sell them so everybody was wondering when could this be true and if so how could this be yeah and you
don't get the nickname Winnie the Pooh unless you're a big teddy bear a gentle giant is how I picture Garrett now the
kids were saying that Garrett had been involved in a prank that had gone horribly wrong
now normally Captain when kids hear about others pranking people and things not going as planned they expect to hear
that someone's property got damaged or maybe someone was injured possibly that the kids got caught by the police and
had to pay for repairs or restitution the result usually when a prank goes wrong is that kids get
grounded or they get community service yeah or they get caught by the schools so they get detentions or suspended no
one expects to hear that the kid got killed police knocked on the door of Patty Burton and the wee hours of
Saturday morning August 30th it was still dark outside the police asked for a photo of Patty's
son Garrett then the officers had to tell Patty that the unthinkable had happened later Patty
told 10TV quote they said you need to sit down I said sit down for what they said ma'am your son has been murdered
end quote of course this horrible news is beyond belief Patty called the officers Liars saying
she refused to believe them but sadly it was true then police went to the home of one of
their own to notify fellow officer George Burton that his son had been murdered hundreds of people attended
Garrett's funeral at Trinity United Methodist Church Garrett was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery and a marble bench
was installed as a memorial there was a moment of silence observed in honor of Garrett at the next high
school football game and the band dedicated their performance to him as well students were shocked and horrified many
of them knew Garrett and his sudden death was very traumatizing to all of the kids to say the least yeah it's a
situation that just doesn't make a lot of sense so let's dive into the timeline of the events as we know the timeline is
so important to any of these investigations we're going to start off on the Friday which would be kicking off
the Labor Day weekend on this Friday this is August 29th Patty Burton dropped her son Garrett off at
school now she's unaware at this time that this would be the last time that she would see her son alive
knowing her son was too old for public kisses she patted his arm told him to have a
blessed day after school Garrett was picked up by an older kid the Burton Family said was a
trusted friend the family didn't know what Garrett was up to that evening but they would tell
10TV that his curfew was 11 30 pm and that the friend had promised to get Garrett home by that time
now in full disclosure here Captain there is another article that says actually that Garrett had planned to
stay overnight at the friend's house right but either way if Garrett was coming home or whether he's staying at a
friend's house teenagers curfew in Columbus Ohio would be in the house by midnight so that was supposed to be the
events for that evening but later Garrett's family found out that the friend took Garrett to a house party
with other young adults that's how this group of peoples described other young adults people that were older than
Garrett whom he likely did not know regardless of what went down or what was supposed to go down Garrett did not make
it home that night this is going to lead us to 2 45 A.M on Saturday August 30th when a man named Romero
he's opening up his door because he's woken up to police pounding on his front door
he opens up the door police ask him hey have you heard any gunshots he says no the officers then leave they return
about a half hour later they knock on the door again this time they're telling him don't go outside because there's a
dead body in your backyard the police had been summoned to the scene by a 9-1-1 call from a young man
who was with Garrett that night they said quote I have to report a murder the voices clearly panicked on 9-1-1 he
was calling from the house where Garrett had been hanging out with the older teens so
we got to break this down a little bit and give a little bit of reference here there was the house party
where Garrett Burton is later shot and killed is not at that house party they had left that
party and the party was somewhat nearby but one of the individuals that Garrett left with returned to that house to make
the call to 9-1-1 to get officers in an ambulance to the scene seems funny to me
that if he's out with a few other teenagers committing pranks that one of the individuals would have a cell phone
on them and could have made a call from where they're making the pranks from if that makes any sense the first Clues
police responding to the scene noted were eggshells on the road this is Hilliard Rome Road the cops learned that
the boys had been throwing eggs at passing cars on Hilliard Rome Road it's been reported pretty consistently that
Garrett was with a group of boys by some reports the group was Garrett and three
young men who were in on the prank together Garrett from my understanding from the
reports that we have seen Captain says that he is the only juvenile in the group so basically Garrett's
hanging out with a couple older guys they decide to leave the party okay hey let's get some eggs and let's throw them
at cars passing by on Hilliard Rome Road which is a pretty busy road it is pretty busy but again
Columbus is the kind of city that as large as it is late at night you don't see a lot of
traffic on some of these roads especially the ones that are out in the suburbs and this would have been the
hour of these events to me are very much key and we're going to circle back to those in just a minute Garrett's body
was removed by the coroner's office this at 8 30 a.m that morning by that point it's now broad daylight presumably
police were searching the area for shell casings tire marks broken eggshells shoe
prints and so on they would be trying to reenact what happened based on the statements of Garrett's friends about
where they were standing where they found the eggshells they want to piece this whole scene together to get a
better idea of what went down that night leading up to this murder now 10TV or wbns did quite a bit of reporting on
this case and we are using them as one of our main sources for our information that we're delivering here today on this
week's True Crime case their piece on the day after the shooting says Garrett Burton and some
friends were throwing eggs at passing cars near Hilliard Rome Road when someone approached the group and shot
Burton in the head killing him okay so that makes me think that the person that approached them is approaching these
individuals on foot the scene itself and the way everything goes down is a little
confusing because surprisingly to me Captain the police have been a little Hush Hush on what
happened now I have some questions and concerns about that and we'll get into those as we go but the the location
is also very key here right so Garrett was actually shot to death in the backyard of a home
that is located in a neighborhood on a quiet cul-de-sac the address is 5402 Ripple Mead Road
this is south of I-70 of Interstate 70. so this is technically I believe Galloway Ohio by this point right the
home belongs to that Romero person uh who I'm only going to give out his first name as he likely does not live
there this to this day and doesn't have much to offer in this case as far as information as we said he was sleeping
at the time and said he didn't hear any gunshots so the home belongs to this Romero person
he's the guy that was awakened by the police his backyard backs up to Hilliard Rome Road and it was separated from the
roadway with a white fence and a line of evergreen trees picture this look where
we have a wonderful audience the True Crime garage Army deputies whatever we're supposed to be calling them I I
haven't been told lately what to call them but the wonderful people that that tune into our show the filthy animals
they're great people they're sexy I don't believe that all of them have been Saints their entire life I'm sure
somebody has thrown a a roll of toilet paper at some point or maybe has done something that they regret as as an
adult but picture this this is kind of the perfect setup as the captain said this
is a busy roadway it would be less busy at this time of night but if you were looking to egg some cars
this is almost your perfect setup you have the fence you have the evergreen trees you can hide behind them of course
if you're going to throw eggs at motorists which is dangerous for many many reasons it's a it's a stupid act
but again he's 16. we've done we've all done a lot of stuff it's a stupid act but it's not terribly uncommon and it
doesn't mean that he's a bad person but you can see the setup where this is a an ideal spot for this type of
activity because you can hide you could launch your eggs at the cars that you see coming down the road and then you
can duck and hide as they get close and then you probably you know you have the kids snickering and laughing and and
really kind of just yucking it up as the cars go by if I was driving down the Hillyard Rome Road and I got hit
buy a couple eggs I'd be a little pissed off but not that big of a deal drive your car through the car wash and it's
not the biggest deal but I also want to point out for the younger listeners out there that this is dangerous because you
could potentially the motorist could be shocked scared Disturbed enough to lose control of
their vehicle and now we're talking about a whole different situation that nobody wants to be a part of so just it
is it's a very dangerous a very dangerous thing to to surprisingly dangerous thing to be doing well and
also the the difficult thing here is if you're hit with like a water balloon or something the water is going to wash off
the car so if you get hit let's say on the windshield not so with a egg that egg smear and
basically blind their vision for a minute so that's another reason why this is also dangerous so this spot as I said
to me sounds like an ideal location for this type of activity the house party that Garrett and The Trusted older
friend were at this was a cross Hilliard Rome Road a couple of hundred feet away
so up the road the address was 300 Smith Road so this is in within walking distance but just to be clear here
The Party location and where the eggs were being thrown from two different locations within walking distance a
couple of hundred feet away right it appears that the boys had crossed Hilliard Rome Road and hidden themselves
among this tree line bordering the fence selecting that area because again it's ideal vantage point for egg throwing
there was also a wide open area behind a neighborhood of homes so there was plenty of space for the boys to make use
of so it seems the boys were standing in this open space near this man's home probably hiding behind the trees
watching for headlights to come down the road and then hurling eggs at the vehicles in the dark the drivers would
almost certainly not see the projectiles launched at their cars until they are hit yeah I agree with you that this is a
a convenient spot to throw eggs but it's also possible that they weren't hiding in the tree line and then they're closer
to the road and so that the people driving by might have actually seen these individuals throw the eggs well
and as we said this was all reported by Word of Mouth to his classmates and friends that
Garrett was killed in a prank that went horribly wrong all right we're gonna we're gonna have to lead up to that
because look all across America throwing eggs at houses and cars kids do this and they don't end up dead but I I
do want to point out I read a disturbing article that that unfortunately it's not so terribly uncommon for
someone to end up getting killed in this type of situation and that's why we want
to point out how dangerous this type of activity actually can be well but the thing about
this when you're a kid and and we we both did this you know you'd sneak outside your house with a couple of your
buddies and maybe it was just to roam the streets well if you're roaming a neighborhood
and let's say you you decide to play ding dong ditch you know where you ring the doorbell and take off running
you could startle somebody and they're on their property they're at their house this is happening and the wee hours of
the morning where people are going to be on higher alert you know what I mean so
just doing any of these pranks or you know the common prank where they take a a bag of dog [ __ ] and light it on fire
and put it on you know and ring the doorbell what but what you're doing because of
the wee hours of the morning you're putting yourself in a dangerous situation well and I think anytime we
talk about property damage too you're putting yourself in a dangerous situation you don't know how the
person's going to react the article I read and I'll reference it earlier or I'll reference it later it's in my notes
here and I'll find that so that people can go and find it and read it for themselves but the article basically
states that here's a here's a handful of cases where an egging situation went horribly wrong where either the a
motorist loss control these are aren't all situations of throwing eggs at cars most of them are but the motorists lost
control and had an accident and died in the vehicle or the person who got egged reacted very violently and killed the
person who was egging them or a scuffle broke out between the two and the person
that was throwing the eggs killed the person they were throwing them at there's also a situation where one
person started chasing the person that was throwing eggs in their vehicle and that ended up in a vehicular deaths this
is is dangerous stuff you know you don't when you go and decide to do something that nobody likes to somebody
the reaction you don't know what you're getting it's you're spinning the wheel of what could this reaction be and
you're playing a a bit of a dangerous game yeah and and let's go back to the idea that Garrett's a good kid he has
good parents he's involved in a lot of activities and sometimes or in this case Garrett made a bad decision by by
getting involved with this prank but that doesn't mean that he deserve to die oh clearly not clearly not now
Garrett's parents stated that they were told by police based on statements from the other kids that were with Garrett
that the shooter first scolded Garrett and then shot him in the head 10TV quoted George Burton as saying about the
shooter quote he said get your hands up or I'm going to blow your face in Garrett put his hands up and said okay
and barely got out a third okay and the guy just pulled the trigger end quote this information came from an eyewitness
as we said the witness was one of Garrett's friends who was according to this article about 20 feet away from
Garrett when he was shot but unfortunately this friend did not get a good look at the shooter and then we get
some more details in 2019 again a piece from 10TV that said police say Garrett was with friends and throwing eggs at
passing cars near Hilliard Rome Road when someone reportedly mad about the prank approached the group with a gun
Patty Garrett's mother says what happened next is a first-hand account from one of Garrett's friends who was
hiding behind a tree about 10 feet away and he said to me he saw Garrett put his
hands up and say I did not throw any eggs at your car but he said I can help you wash it off Patty goes on to say the
person persisted and demanded Garrett who was six foot one inches tall 240 pounds get down Garrett because of his
size was having a hard time trying to get down on one knee and the shooter put the gun right on Garrett's neck
the dispatch reported that Garrett's father George did not know the other youths his son was reportedly with that
night and he did not know anything about egg throwing activities in the past it wasn't like this was a regular thing
for Garrett he implied but somehow Garrett had ended up paying for it with his life quote it was basically an
execution as far as I'm concerned end quote this is what George told the dispatch
foreign [Music] are you sick of dealing with psoriasis and an itchy scalp sick of scratching
your head trying to figure out how to fix it check out ocean soothe a natural solution that relieves psoriasis and
problematic skin and scalp conditions sourced in Australia and manufactured in the USA ocean soothe products deliver
relief to the areas where you need it most they offer head to toe Solutions so you don't need to put together a whole
cocktail products to treat your skin the ocean soothe the gel and lotions are recognized by national psoriasis
Foundation to relieve psoriasis and can be used across your whole body they're naturally made so you shouldn't
experience any side effects and they're odorless so you get relief without the stink for optimal psoriasis relief start
with ocean soothe the gel during the day followed by ocean soothe lotion at night
and if you want on-the-go relief for dandruff or dry itchy scalp the ocean Sue's scalp Serum is all you need there
are so many products out there that I've tried that don't work and they leave you
stinky so now you have dry red itchy scratchy skin and you stink but not with ocean soothe finally a solution for my
skin ocean soothe has saved my skin abundant Natural Health ocean soothe products are available at CVS Health Hub
stores head over and shop today thank you all right we are back cheers mates cheers to you Colonel cheers to you as
well Captain so we can see how this plays out right the boys are hiding behind some trees it's very dark outside
at that time it's nearly three in the morning there was no moon that night question
for you because I I don't see it reported anywhere but do we know how many people were out with Garrett the
reports state that it was a total of four three people plus care so it's very possible that Garrett isn't even
responsible for hitting this murderer's car correct and we have that statement from earlier where one of the boys
reported that he heard Garrett tell the person I did not throw eggs at your car but I'll help you wash it off
the the problem here with some of these statements by the people that are with Garrett is I think that once they were
aware that somebody else was there they might have all been quite frightened and
again we have the statement two different statements one where we have uh another individual that's 20 feet
away and then another statement that says there was an individual 10 feet away neither of them are able to describe the
shooter or or as it's believed neither of them got a good look at the shooter yeah it doesn't seem like anybody has a
good eyewitness report of the vehicle either exactly and so that's the problem here with this case if the police have
this information and they're holding it back I don't know what the hell they're doing here because this is the kind of
case that you're going to need the help from the public and now this was 2008 when Garrett Burton was killed it's 2022
today right and if they have additional information this should have been released throughout that period of time
to lead to who this killer was we need to keep in mind regardless of some kids throwing eggs or whatever
that night this person walked up in In Cold Blood shot a 16 year old right in the head
this is a very dangerous individual even though they may have been victimized leading up to this and again we don't
even know if this person's car was was actually hit like I said it is it possible that these
kids were were doing something and uh they throw something and so he sees that the guy sees that they're throwing
something but his car is not hit himself and he just gets out and then decides to
take the law in his own hands or is it possible that he was one of the neighbors and saw these kids doing that
and then you know went around the corner to see what was going on and and then lost control or something I I I I don't
know it's just seem so ridiculous well and you're going to see where the possibilities of
who our suspect is opens up and gets a little more difficult as we go through this information because as you said you
can see a situation where these kids are hiding in the dark hiding behind trees in a fence and they are not spotted by
any drivers but it looks like in this case at least one of the drivers may have seen them stopped and pulled over
or stopped and pulled over and figured out where the eggs were coming from it's not clear though based off of the
information and the reports that we've seen if the kids if the boys had any idea
that there was someone coming after them right because we don't have in within those
statements there's nobody saying oh we saw this guy approach us or we saw some guy Park his car
and here here's what kind of car it was and we started to flee it doesn't sound like anybody was in the in in flea mode
at that point it sounds to me like they were all still kind of standing around or do we have a situation where yes they
spotted this guy in route to them and they decided to hide and be quiet right and I wish the reporting was
better but also I still think it's a possibility that if these individuals are 10 feet away 20 feet maybe even
further away from each other and they're hiding on this tree line that backs up to properties is it possible that
somebody that lived in those properties comes out because they hear some Ruckus and here's some people talking I mean if
I'm in my house and I start hearing some people talking at three o'clock in the morning outside of my house and they
sound like they're coming from my backyard I'm going to go and check that out you know what I mean and so is it
possible that it was one of these neighbors that went to check out to see what was going on
and and then this uh horrible tragedy happens not only that think about this too if you look at the lay of the land
here and you look at a road map with Hilliard Rome Road and where this neighborhood is that backs up to
Hilliard Rome Road keep in mind the time of night yes this is a busy road but at 2 33 in
the morning I would argue that the overwhelming majority of people traveling on that road are traveling on
that road to get to their destination they're not just out driving around right they're not out looking to go pick
up some fast food the probability of the person traveling on Hilliard Rome Road in that direction
at that time of night and them living in that neighborhood that backs up to Hilliard Rome Road I would think that
probability would be fairly high right and so you may have a double whammy situation where it's not just a driver
on Hilliard Rome Road but it's also somebody that was driving to that neighborhood anyway yeah and like you
said their cars hit with an egg they drive back to their house they're in their driveway
then they hear some kids talking behind their house and they go oh I'm going to go inside
and get my gun and teach these kids a lesson well you nailed it and of course we have Garrett's parents who are grief
stricken as any parents would be but they also Express the sense of disbelief that any logical person
would have such an incredible overreaction to the situation and Garrett's father
George said to the media quote it was a dumb juvenile prank you get your car wash don't kill my kid
right we have Garrett's mother Patty she's saying something very similar that you were saying here Captain she told
10TV quote it wasn't something they should have done talking about her son and the boys but they certainly did not
deserve to be shot in the head over some eggs this is a sick person and quote she
goes on to say if I could just reverse this I would much rather go downtown and take my son out of jail yeah and this
person easily could have just walked away and I guarantee you old Winnie the Pooh Garrett
it shows you what kind of kid he is hey I one I didn't throw the egg at your car
I'm I you know I'm sorry uh but but I'll wash your car I'll help make this right
for a kid to say that and you have to look straight at that kid and pull a trigger
and take that kid's life there's something really wrong with you I think Gunner no gun I think the
appropriate response is okay kid which house is yours because we're knocking on your door and telling
Mom and Dad right what you and your buddies have been out doing I think that's the appropriate response but
again or I'm going to call the cops yes when you're and you can do some community service but again when you do
these types of things when you are they are you know let's not sugarcoat it too much they are victimizing random
people and when you do that you do not know nobody can calculate what the reaction will be
and speaking of what we don't know there is a lot that we don't know about this case most things in fact for example the
police have never released the following information where Garrett went and what he was doing
in the approximately 10 hours or 11 hours between the end of school that day and when he was found shot
we don't know the range at which Garrett was shot other than we had the statement
of that the gun one of the boys believes that he saw the shooter put the gun right to
Garrett's neck whether more one shot was fire we don't know if the bullet was recovered it could have been recovered
from Garrett or elsewhere at the scene right whether shell whether shell casings were found
and we also don't know whether Garrett died instantly or was he able to say anything
we know he died at the scene but was he able to say anything to one of his friends or to a first responder or what
were the actions of his of the guys he was with because it's hard to say that these guys
were even friends with them because we have no report of this vehicle and I know that they're probably in a huge
State of shock but that would be my first thing oh my God they just killed my buddy
for us doing this stupid prank and what's his vehicle what's the license plate what does this guy look like well and I
don't want to come down too hard on Columbus Police Department because I do believe that they do as a whole they do
a great job they keep us safe Captain so we can't be too strict with them but this to me I'm a little disappointed
because this to me looks like a solvable case or at least it would have been in 2008 all of these years later I don't
have a lot of confidence that this case is getting solved but in 2008 2009 I would have had a lot of confidence that
this case would have been solved but again we should throw out the reminder and remind ourselves as well that
the egg throwing portion of this story is totally random right they are tossing eggs at random passerbys right and then
the person that shot Garrett is a little random itself so you throw in all of those variables and the
randomness of those variables and you can see how complicated you can see how complicated and convoluted this case
gets from Jump Street yeah but let's let's go back to the road for a second this Hilliard Rome Road okay even if
Garrett's and you can call them buddies or whatever you want to call them I don't think their buddies not not
because they didn't do any it seems to me that they did nothing to figure out who shot their buddy but there's not a
lot of cars on this road so you'd think if they put this out blasted it all over
the news hey this kid was shot for throwing eggs we believe that the person that killed
him the murderer had their car parked on Hilliard Rome Road during this time so during that time
there would have had to be a handful of cars that passed that vehicle parked on the side of the road probably with their
lights on who knows right and so to see this car you know at almost 3 A.M parked
on the side of the road you're going to have cars you know passing them on northbound or southbound you know I mean
so you're going to have some other person that could come forward and say well I saw this type of vehicle parked
on the side of the road because at least if you have that that starts narrowing it down a little bit I get it I actually
I wish there was more information by the three dudes that were with him that night but I I kind of get it I see it
playing out like when we say when the papers say this was a party a house party that was full of young people that
that's that's the words that they chose to use and they're TR they're purposely being vague the media and police on some
of this because we are talking about a child victim essentially with a 16 year old Garrett Burton being the one who's
killed right and the report in the paper is that he was the only juvenile out of
that group of four but what I'm guessing here and inference I'm choosing to make
is that those other three dudes are like likely 18 maybe 19 at most and I can picture the situation as if I were there
myself I think these other dudes they're hiding and they either hear this person
approaching them or at the very least they're going to hear the person scalding Garrett right we know that from witness
statements and then they hear the gun go off again we don't know how many shots were fired but
I'm picturing a situation where these other three dudes are hiding in the trees or hiding nearby and they're
probably [ __ ] bricks they are probably [ __ ] bricks and so but you bring up some really good
questions here and again this is things that I think look Delphi is a case that's on everybody's mind
right now and has been for five and a half years and we all have looked at that case and looked at many other cases
and questioned how much of a strategic Advantage is it to not release information and when is
it a strategic advantage to release certain information and in this case in Garrett Burton's
case we don't know very much you know again we don't know these were all be things that would help the public
help the police we don't know did the car stop do we know for certain that a vehicle stopped
because as you pointed out it seems to me like somebody would have an idea if a vehicle stopped
is it possible that it was a neighbor who saw the boys and what they were up to so if you don't see a car no one see
a car or or says hey we don't know where this guy came from there's a chance he may have come from the neighborhood can
you tell us what the eyewitnesses claim that the shooter said well that's very interesting because we have two
different reports and again we have three guys there so maybe that is the reason for having different eyewitness
reports but what makes it to the paper is one where the individual says I was standing about 20 feet away I heard the
shooter scold him and it sounds like Garrett was trying to reason with this person and then he shoots Garrett right
and then the other statement is that Garrett again trying to reason with the person but the shooter is ordering him
to get down on the ground and based off of the statement it sounds like the witness was one close enough
and could see Garrett attempting to get down on one knee or getting down on 1D but he's not getting down fast enough
for the shooter and then the shooter reacts puts the gun closer to Garrett and pulls the trigger the other thing
too there is a possibility some of these guns have a hair trigger and it may have
just gone off on the person I tend to believe that that's not a high probability in this case but it is
certainly somewhat of of a possibility but it goes beyond seeing a car park or not right they would know what kind of
gun he was shot with right so that's information that could help the public two yeah maybe you didn't get a good
look at the shooter but did you get a good look at anything he was wearing was he wearing dark clothing light clothing
did he appear to be tall or short we know that they heard the person's voice because the Witnesses are describing or
trying to relay almost Verbatim what they believed they heard the shooter say what did the the guy's voice sound like
right because if you you start there and go was it male or female oh it was male
okay was he was he black was he White could you tell right and again did a car park because I
could like I said I could see a situation where you hear these kids laughing and and making noise and all
this stuff it's 3 A.M and and the guy comes out and and again very irresponsible because there is a big
possibility that this guy comes out and just says you guys are throwing eggs at cars do you think that's funny you know
what I mean and because like you said hair Trigger or whatever but there is a possibility because of
Garrett's size that this individual goes out he gets his gun he he's he's nervous
and then he accidentally pulls the trigger you know what I mean because he because he put him himself in the
situation he shouldn't have been in if you are approaching a six foot one 240 pound individual in the dark that you do
not know I think you're going to be nervous gun or no gun so that's certainly a possibility here and the other thing too
with his voice did he have a high voice did he have a low voice did he sound like he was out of breath you know
there's a lot of things that we could we could learn or be told by police and possibly help out back in the day here's
another idea I wonder did they track Garrett's phone according to his parents he had a cell
phone and he had his phone on him did they did they retrace his movements that afternoon that evening leading up to the
shooting and maybe that's of no useful information at all but it's something that I'm wondering if they did here's
the big thing did they look at surveillance footage from nearby homes and businesses yes
it's 2008 so you don't have as many ring doorbell cams or Simply Safe cameras on
people's homes but we have businesses in that general area we also have traffic cameras in that area on Hilliard Rome
Road 100 2008 they would have had traffic cameras right this is a major thoroughfare with
commercial businesses most of which of those businesses would have cameras so Columbus
as what's reported on the national scale Columbus has more cameras than most American cities
I would wager that surely police pulled the footage and wrote down every car that they saw on Hilliard Rome Road that
night between the hours of two and three A.M did they look for tire tracks to try to
identify the shooter's vehicle or where it possibly pulled over well and also you have to deal with the fact that
these people that he was with his quote-unquote buddies are they telling us the truth did they go out to throw
exit cards and then did it escalate where they throw in branches at cars were they throwing rocks at cars did
they do something that escalated this situation even further I mean who knows it's very suspicious to me that your
friend is shot you have kids that probably have cell phones and there's no call that's made at the scene of the
crime you should be calling 9-1-1 right from there but they go back to the original location to make the phone call
to police well and police seem to possibly be working with the theory that maybe the shooter was someone holding a
grudge from a previous incident so this is from the Chillicothe Gazette in an article dated September 25th 2008
so not terribly long after the shooting it says the group of teenagers may have thrown eggs at cars prior to that night
that Burton was killed investigators think it is possible that someone that teens hit with eggs may have come back
and shocked Burton this is because it was reported that other residents who lived nearby said
eggshells were found along the road earlier in the week as well now we're not saying that Garrett was a part of
these other possible situations yeah but it's possible that his buddies that he was with
they did this a week before and then they said hey let's go out let's go out and do this again Garrett just happened
to be with them and you know what when we talk about a house party with young adults or young people there
you might have a situation where Mom and Dad go away for a whole week or longer they leave their 18 year old 19 year old
son or daughter at home who has a party or has friends over regularly during that time period that the parents are
gone and maybe this is an activity that they had done once before leading up to this or twice before leading up to this
and maybe you had somebody who was driving around hoping to be hit one more time because this was
you know a vigilante type of person who was going to take justice and take the law into their own hands almost a
I like in this case to that of a road rage situation [Music] you know where somebody loses their mind
goes off the rails and does something so terribly overboard and out of bounds in reaction to something that happened
to them right I think that's one of the problems with even solve in this case is it could be really a very normal guy
that was just a little pissed off a little nervous shouldn't have brought a gun into that situation
and made a horrible mistake here's where I think the public can still help here Captain because this
this is what I'm gleaning from this situation if the if the gun accidentally goes off
or the the shooter was terrified scared shaken in his boots shaking in his Nikes
and accidentally pulls the trigger I feel like we have a situation where this guy is turning he's he's learning
the next day or two oh my God I killed a 16 year old and maybe he's turning himself in or or getting a lawyer and
going to police and saying hey I was that guy that night because again I think Garrett's parents
are absolutely spot on with their evaluation of the shooter this is not a normal person a normal person even with
this overreaction would have come forward they they the guilt would kill them the guilt would kill them they would not
be able to sleep at night they would slowly go crazy and have to relieve themselves of that
pain and that Misery by turning themselves in what I think we might have here is
somebody that is the opposite of that and if they were seeking out some type of vigilante type Justice or if this was
a one-off road rage type situation I would believe that you have a guy that would be
almost bragging on on rare occasion but bragging to somebody that says oh he this would be the type of guy that that
when you're discussing different situations or you see something on TV or hear something in the news this is the
type of guy that says not me if that happened to me oh I teach those boys a lesson oh I'd straighten that kid
out or I'd straighten that guy out you know what I do with him I stick my gun right in his face you know I think that
that's the type of individual that we might be dealing with here and if people know somebody like that or this there's
a chance that somebody could have told a story that is vaguely familiar to this story oh you know what
happened to me one night I was driving home minding my own business and these this gang of kids gang of of dudes
started effing with me oh I straighten those guys out I got out of the car I went up and I found one of them right
you know it's I think that this person may have told somebody I think that there's also
a certain probability that this individual may have lived in that neighborhood and if that person if the
shooter did live in that neighborhood then there's a chance that they were hit previously that week if there were other
egg throwing incidents that were going on yeah if I'm law enforcement my first thing is do I
believe the individuals that were with Garrett because their actions afterwards to me seem suspicious so I want to know
their actions beforehand and afterwards and do I believe them but here in Columbus in December of 2006 we had a
similar incident where a young boy 14 years old Danny Crawford he and two of his buddies they were out
egging cars on West Broad Street this in the hilltop area of Columbus they splattered This SUV with a couple
of eggs and it wasn't a situation where the vehicle's owner flipped them off or hit
the horn and drove on no this person instead pulled behind North Terrace Avenue and chased the kids
and opened fire on the teens and Danny in that group of three was shot and killed and it took
till February of 2010. when they finally arrested an individual that lived on East 11th Avenue in South
Linden which is also part of Columbus the shooter at the time was just 19 years old
and so that's just another situation now these two situations are not related in any way at all they happen in the
same city a couple years apart but this is another situation to show you that this is not
completely out of the realm of possibility when this type of behavior is is going on
yeah and again just to reiterate this Gary was a good kid yes but he made a mistake and and his parents say that too
but again have him arrested or you know have his parents come pick him up I mean and the thing that really
bothers me is like if it's a true statement hey I'll even wash your car this kid is showing
remorse for something that maybe he he didn't even do that actual you know I mean he didn't throw that actual egg but
he's he still knows that hey I'm in a bad situation or doing a bad thing and he's showing remorse right away
and it's just it's such a it's such a loss because this kid was 16 years old and um you know and his mother
was a teacher and his father was a a police officer look he he might have grown up to become one of the finest
police officers on on CPD Force you know but we'll never know what he would have
become because he he made a bad decision that night and then this person took the
law into their own hands and that's not okay Garrett's case stalled and in 2010 the family pled for any information to
be called into Crime Stoppers they reminded the public that tips can be anonymous there is no call tracing or
caller ID no names need to be given and computer IP addresses are not visible to
those taking the tips and then let's fast forward another year in 2011 three years after the shooting Central
Ohio Crime Stoppers announced that they were renewing a two thousand dollar reward for information in the case
this is interesting though to me here captain this renewed reward was available only
until September 10th of that year which I I don't know if that was a Crime Stoppers thing or if
that was a strategic thing because this is in August late August of 2011 and they make an announcement this this
reward money is still available we're renewing this reward money but it's only available for
basically 10 11 days so I don't know if they were hoping to really get a push for information or if
that was something significant to their investigation that time frame right there one thing of note in my opinion in
the Crime Stoppers write-up is the following language it says quote on Saturday August 30th 2008 at
approximately 3 A.M several teens were throwing eggs at Vehicles driving on Hilliard Rome Road north of West Broad
Street sixteen-year-old Garrett Burton was one of the teens as a result of one vehicle being struck
a yet unidentified male suspect pursued and shot Garrett sixteen-year-old Garrett died at the scene
so that language is interesting to me because it sounds like there's confirmation that the shooter was in a
vehicle that was hit by one or all of the teens now they could just be making leaps right of their own based off of
what they believe the interaction was between Garrett and the shooter but the interaction is Garrett saying I
did not hit your car so it's all very confusing I again I think this language to me indicates that indeed police have
information possibly from well presumably it'd have to be from Garrett's companions the ones that were
with him that night that one of them did hit this person's car and the shooting was a direct result of that event this
would definitely be a difficult case to investigate but if they know the make and model of this vehicle police should
release that information exactly and the thing is too if if this vehicle was hit
by an egg this would set up a likely situation that one of the survivors that was with Garrett that night could have
possibly if even if they didn't get a good look at the shooter did they get a good look at the gun did
they get a good look at the vehicle it well that goes back to my theory that if you're law enforcement you have to
figure out if you believe these guys are not are they changing the story to benefit themselves was it an SUV was it
a sedan was it a pickup truck I mean there the questions are endless here to trying to lead us to get some more
information about who is responsible for this now I know that everybody's different but one thing that me and a
couple of my buddies we kind of prided ourselves on when we were teenagers and even in our early 20s was the ability to
identify a vehicle make and model in year roughly year based off of a vehicle's headlights
uh because they have specific types of headlights and that was something that we were able
to do at a probably a 90 to 95 success rate so it's one of those situations where
you just go we need more information the public needs more information to see if we can
help here in this situation help Garrett's parents out help solve this case and any information would be good
information makes me sad for the city of Columbus because this is a case that should have never went away from the
public Spotlight this is a case that we should have been outraged about a 16 year old kid being
executed it's just it's it's very sad and as I had referenced earlier there's plenty of
history of pranks like the one Garrett and his buddies were engaged in going bad going horribly wrong specifically
egg throwing has resulted in some serious payback the lethal kind the article that I cited earlier Captain was
from a New York Times article in 2010 it states Halloween agings have left a violent Legacy in New York City since
1984 at least 24 people have been seriously wounded or killed in stabbings shootings beatings or accidents sparked
by egg throwing confrontations around the Halloween holiday all 24 cases played out in roughly the same way a
group of boys hurled eggs at pedestrians cars or houses the targets confronted the
throwers and then violence erupted and it goes on to site 24 such examples of this in this 2010 New York Times article
what articles like these tell us is it sadly fatalities directly resulting from egg throwing
are much more common than one would think these incidents highlight the total lack of regard for human life and
total loss of perspective similar to road rage that can escalate from mundane teenage pranks
Garrett Burton may just be another casualty of a bad egg throwing decision but his life mattered and he in no way
deserve to be snuffed out just because someone's paint job was tarnished across marks the spot
where Garrett was shot it's a reminder to passerbys of the senseless murder of a young man filled
with promise hopefully it also serves as a reminder to his killer that his evil actions destroyed a young
life and hopefully his killer is a haunted man foreign [Music] thank you guys so much for joining us
here in the garage Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners
we'll give you some recommended listening this week we are recommending solving the Black Dahlia available on
Audible this is a case that has fascinated the captain and I for many many years and the solving the Black
Dahlia from audible was the shot in the arm that I needed to restore my Fascination in this case and regardless
if you have Audible or not you should check out my interview with Douglas laux on our other show off the Record
available on Stitcher premium Douglas not only narrates solving the Black Dahlia but spent years conducting his
own investigation which is a breakthrough as Douglas is a former case officer with the CIA check out solving
the Black Dahlia only on Audible and check out our interview with Douglas louks on off the record this week you
can find that title and many more on our recommended page at truecrime garage.com
until next week be good be kind and don't litter [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Garrett Burton ////// 632

Part 1 of 1

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

What can happen when a childish prank goes wrong? Someone gets in trouble. Someone gets injured. Someone gets killed. Sixteen year old Garrett Burton was hanging out with some friends on the Friday before Labor Day 2008. After school activities found Garrett at a local house party full of teenagers and young adults. But when four friends stepped out into the early morning hours looking for some kicks, things got bad real quick. Garrett was shot and killed. His murder is still unsolved. This week we step into the Garage and a little into our teen years to examine this cold case. If you think you could help investigators in this case, you are urged to call the Columbus Police Department at 614-645-2616.

Beer of the Week - BBA Jesus Loves Fall (bourbon barrel aged pumpkin stout) from Holy Trinity Brewing (Columbus, OH)

Garage Grade - 4 out of 5 bottle caps

This week’s True Crime recommendation is “Solving the Black Dahlia” series available on Audible.

Our other show True Crime Garage “Off the Record” (OTR if you’re nasty) is available exclusively on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

Brief Summary

Garrett Burton, 16, was shot and killed after a prank involving egg throwing went wrong in Columbus, Ohio.

Key points

The Tragic Death of Garrett Burton. A harmless prank leads to the tragic death of a bright young man.
Garrett's Legacy Remembered. Hundreds attend Garrett's funeral, honoring a beloved young man.
Police Deliver Unthinkable News. Patty Burton receives devastating news about her son from the police.
Tragic Overreaction. Garrett's father describes his son's death as an execution over a juvenile prank.
The Danger of Pranks. The discussion highlights the unexpected consequences of juvenile pranks and their tragic outcomes.
A Mother's Grief. Patty Garrett expresses her wish to reverse the tragedy, preferring jail over death.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He was a good boy growing up to be a good man.

Patty Burton's reflection on her son.

6:37WatchDec 1, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.