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

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welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and
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crime we were all teenagers once we all all remember being young Carefree having
fun with our friends and doing stupid things things that were pointless done just for the fun of it pranks that
caused no harm but were a nuisance and 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 the true crime story
of the still unsolved homicide of Garrett [Music] [Music] Burton [Music] in 2008 Garrett Burton was a 16-year-old
Junior at wesland 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 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
10TV 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 funloving 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 6 foot one inch 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 Cavs and Spurs on Labor Day 2008 eight there was rumors that a student had been killed texts were flying among
the students at wesland 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
fraize with those who were he didn't do drugs and he certainly didn't sell them so everybody was wondering one 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 in 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
school so they get detentions or suspended no one expects to hear that the kid got killed police knocked on the
door of Patty Burton in the we 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 officer's 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 Green Lawn 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 a trusted friend the family didn't know what Garrett was up to that evening but they
would tell tentv that his curfew was 11:30 p.m. 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 over night 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 people's 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 911 call from a young man
who was with Garrett that night that said quote I have to report a murder the voices clearly panicked on
911 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 911 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 if that makes any sense the first Clues police responding to the scene
noted were eggshells on the road this is Hillyard Rome Road the cops learned that
the boys had been throwing eggs at passing cars on Hillyard 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
Hillyard roome 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 shoeprints 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 get a better idea of what went down that night leading up to this murder now tentv 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 Hillyard 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 call toac
the address is 542 Ripple me Road this is south of I70 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 Hillyard Rome Road and it was separated from the roadway with a
white fence and a line of evergreen trees picture this look we're we have a wonderful audience the True Crime garage
Army deputies whatever we're supposed to be calling them I I I haven't been told
lately what to call them uh 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 stupid 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 this 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 Hillyard
Rome Road and I got hit by 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 say on the windshield not so with a egg that egg
could 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 across hilard Rome Road a couple of
hundred feet away so up the road the 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 Hillyard roome 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 hes 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're hit yeah I agree with you that this is um a convenient spot to throw
eggs but it's also possible that they weren't hiding in the tree line and that they were 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 going to we're going to have to lead up 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 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 think about this when you're a kid and and we we both did this you know You' 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 dingdong 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 in the we
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 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 we 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 lost control these are aren't
all situations of throwing eggs at cars most of them are but the motorist 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 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 deserved 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 tentv
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 Hillyard 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 firsthand 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 6'1 in tall 240 lbs 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
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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 3 in the morning there was no moon that at night
question for you cuz 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 Garrett 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 exit 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 10t 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 and 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 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 and In Cold Blood shot a 16-year-old right in the head this is
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 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 seems 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 and 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 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 rucket and hear some people
talking I mean if I'm in my house house and I start hearing some people talking at 3:00 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 Hillyard Rome Road and where this neighborhood is that backs up to Hillyard Rome Road keep in
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 they're not out looking to go pick up some fast
food the probability of the person traveling on Hillyard roome Road in that direction at that time of night and them
living in that neighborhood that backs up to Hillyard 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 Hillyard roome road but it's
also somebody that was driving to that neighborhood anyway yeah and like you said their car is 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 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 to the situation and
Garrett's father George said to the media quote it was a dumb juvenile prank you get your car washed 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 10v 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 end 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 you know I'm sorry
uh but but I'll wash your car I 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 gun or 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 have the statement of that the gun one of the
boys believes that he saw the shooter put the gun right to Garrett's neck or more one shot was
fired 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 it of the guys he was with because it's hard to say that these guys
were even friends with him 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 complic you can see how
complicated and convoluted this case gets from Jump Street yeah but well let's let's go back to the road for a
second this Hillyard 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 Hillyard roome 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 MH and so to
see this car you know at almost 3:00 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 what 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 I get it I actually I wish it 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 an inference I'm choosing to make is that those other
three dudes are 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 here this person approaching them or at the very least they're going to
hear the person scolding 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 [ __ ] and bricks
and so but you bring up some really good questions here and again this is things
that I think look Deli is a case that's on everybody's mind right now and has been for 5 and A2
years and we all have looked at that case and looked at many other cases in 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 would all be
things that would help the public help the police we don't know did the car stopped 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 I Witnesses 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 20t 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
but it certain of possibility but it Beyond a car par not 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 look 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
are describing or trying to relay almost Verbatim what they believe 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 well it was male okay was he
was he black was he white could could you tell 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 3:00 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 and 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 himself in a situation
he shouldn't have been in if you are approaching a 6'1 240 lb 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 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 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 um Simply Safe cameras on people's homes
but we have businesses in that general area we also have traffic cameras in that area on Hillyard Rome Road 100% 200
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 hilard Rome Road that night between the hours of 2 and 3 a.m. did they look 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
eggs at cars and then did it escalate were they throw in branches at cars were they throw in rocks at cars did they do
something that escalated the 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 911 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 from a previous incident so this is from The chikoy 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 shot Burton this is because it was reported
that other residents who live near by 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 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 19yearold 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 liken this case to that of a road
rage situation 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 solving 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
but 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
shaking 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 spoton 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 oneoff 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 this is
the type of guy that says not me if that happened to me oh I'd teach those boys a
lesson oh I'd straighten that kid out or I'd straighten that guy out you know what I'd do with him I'd 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 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 straightened 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 Terren 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 Lyon which is also part of Columbus the shooter at the time was just 19 years 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 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 G 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 what
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 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 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 20110 the family pled for any information to be called into Crim
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 $2,000 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 Crim 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 I've note in my opinion in the Crim 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 Hillyard Rome Road north of West Broad Street 16-year-old Garrett Burton was
one of of the teens as a result of one vehicle being struck a yet unidentified male suspect pursued and shot Garrett
16-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 intera action 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 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 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 or not are they changing the
story to benefit themselves was it an SUV was it a sedan was it a pickup truck I mean the 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
making 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 that states Halloween eggings have left a violent Legacy in New York City
since 1984 at least 24 people have been seriously wounded or killed in stabbing 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 that 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 deserved to be snuffed out just because someone's paint job was
tarnished a cross marks the spot where Garrett was shot it's a reminder to Pastor by 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 [Music] [Music] man want to 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 Dalia
available on Audible this is a case that has fascinated the captain and I for many many years and the solving the
Black Dalia 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 LS on our other show off the Record
available on Stitcher premium Douglas not only narrates solving the Black Dalia 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
Dalia only on Audible and check out our interview with Douglas LS on off the record this week you can find that title
and many more on our recommended page at true Crim garage.com until next week be
good be kind and don't litter [Music] is it possible to predict the unpredictable could surgeons use a
patients own Anatomy to create 3D printed life-size organ models to map out challenges ahead of time making
surgery more precise efficient and less invasive is it possible it already is because every day we're doing what's
never been done learn more at mayoclinic.org Sloss Mayo Clinic you know where to
go

Garrett Burton ////// 632

Part 1 of 1

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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.

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Brief Summary

Garrett Burton, 16, was shot and killed during a prank gone wrong in Columbus, Ohio, leaving his family devastated and the case unsolved.

Key points

The Tragic Prank. A harmless prank leads to a senseless tragedy when a teenager is shot.
Garrett Burton's Life. Garrett was a well-liked, active teen with a bright future ahead.
The Night of the Incident. Garrett and friends throw eggs at cars, leading to a fatal confrontation.
The Dangers of Pranks. Pranks can escalate quickly, leading to tragic consequences. 'You're spinning the wheel of what could this reaction be.'
Garrett's Tragic Death. Garrett was shot after a prank involving egging cars. 'It was basically an execution.'
The Complexity of Eyewitness Accounts. Eyewitnesses struggled to identify the shooter, complicating the investigation. 'We don't have a good look at the shooter.'

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

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

Patty Burton reflecting on her son Garrett.

7:34WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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