Woman’s Remains Identified 16 Years after Being Found Though Husband & Son Never Reported Her Missing

Female skeletal remains were discovered in 2007 but only identified in November 2022. The woman who was buried in the woods was determined to be Jeana Burrus, who went missing without her family reporting her disappearance. Her death is still a mystery 16 years later.

A nail-biting case was opened when unidentified female skeletal were found in 2007, and the mystery persists until today. The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office (SCSO) identified that the remains belonged to Jeana Burrus.

Despite the many years that Jeana had died, no one reported her missing. Therefore, the Sherriff's office called out to anyone connected to Jeana or her husband, James Burrus.

The female skeletal was reportedly discovered in 2007, buried in a wooded area of Ashton Ct. in Sarasota. However, since then, the investigation has only led to dead ends.

This was not until November 2022, after SCSO collaborated with DNA Labs International Inc and got their hands on the improved technological advancements created to take DNA testing and tracking genetic genealogies to another level.

According to the investigation, Jeana was 39 years old when she died. She had a husband and son who lived in the 6200 block of Pauline Avenue in Sarasota.

Her husband worked at a local body shop while her son attended Gulf Gate Elementary School between 2005-2006. The fact that no one reported the 39-year-old missing hindered the investigation from moving forward. It was only known that the family lived in Maryland, Florida, before moving to Sarasota.

The Woman's Family Finally Broke Their Silence

More surprising details came up in the search for Jeana's family. Her disappearance had not been questioned to the extent that her death was news to her family members. Her uncle, Clare George Wiedmaier, revealed that he and Jeana stopped talking in 2006. He got a hold of her husband but only said, "... We were given a story."

It was because of his wife's decision to use AncestryDNA in 2022 that helped the investigators match Jeana's. Since the investigation was still ongoing, the uncle could not provide more information about Jeana, but he was distraught to hear about her death. He said, "It was tearful news. Shocking. We refused to believe it."

Wiedmaier said he and his wife waited for Jeana to visit, especially on birthdays, because she usually showed up. Her stepfather and brother could also not help because they were reportedly told the same story as the uncle.

Struggling to Crack the Case

Crime scene investigator Lt. Skip Wood expressed how frustrating working on the case was. "We revisit this case quite often," he added. The longer it took to retrieve any information about the woman, the more difficult it was to figure out her death.

However, years later, Wood still remembered the day the body was discovered. A 14-year-old saw a bone while he was with his mother, who worked as a nurse, and realized it was human.

The woman called the police, and Wood and crime scene technician Maxine Miller found the body buried in the woods behind an old auto body shop. According to the investigator, Jeana's body was lying on the side and partially decomposed. The image never left Wood's memory.

After making the discovery, a Medical Examiner, Dr. Russell Vega, looked at the body for clues about what could have happened to Jeana. It was discovered that she weighed about 150 pounds and that her body had been underground for about 12 months, which was a long time for no one to report her missing.

Upon further examination, the body was suspected of having experienced a lot of trauma, such as a fractured skull believed to have been caused before she was buried. Vega brought in another bone expert Dr. Michael Warren, who discovered that the fractures showed several signs of blunt-force trauma, making the case a homicide.

Despite the progress made on the body, no fingerprints could be found because the body had decomposed for too long. And X-rays only showed that she had silicone breast implants and underwent significant dental work.

Before Jeana's uncle was found, the information did not lead the investigation any further than it already was since the DNA retrieved from her breast impacts and dental fixtures did not have anyone else's DNA to be compared with.

Jeana's skull was sent to graduate students to be studied further with the hopes of putting together an image of how she looked before she died.

Here is another story about a six-year-old boy that vanished from a birthday party and was later found dead.