Loretta Burroughs

This case is one of the most unusual that I have ever come across. There are some who believe that anyone who can murder someone has to have some sort of mental health issue, and maybe that is true to some extent. While people who have not dealt with people who do truly suffer from mental health issues cannot fathom or understand that stance I personally can see that on some level. However, that does not mean that everyone who commits a murder should be allowed to use mental health as a defense. I am a firm believer that every case, and every defendant is different, no matter the charge and that each case should be looked at as such. Even still there comes a time when you have to ask if the person truly is mentally ill, to what extent that illness expands, the attitude of the person who committed the crime and what risk they are of re-offending. Again, mental illness, at least for me is not an absolute defense. For example I believe that Andrea Yates, the mother who drowned her children one by one in Texas in 2001, was truly mentally ill when she committed the crime. Initially Andrea was sent to prison for her crime but in 2006, at a re-trial, she was determined to be mentally ill and has spent the last twelve years in a mental institution. The same could be said for John Hinckley Jr. He shot President Ronald Reagan in 1980 and spent more than thirty years in a mental institution. Neither Yates or Hinckley were given a pass for their crimes but the courts recognized they had mental issues and punished them in ways that did not include prison. Let me be clear before I go any further. I am not necessarily stating that I do not believe Loretta Burroughs should have gotten prison, to be fair I cannot say I know just quite enough about the case to make that decision. But, I do believe that her actions over the years should make people ask, just where is the line of insanity and how do we determine it.

Daniel and Loretta Burroughs had actually met when they were in high school in the 1960's and had dated for a while. As is often the case they split up after high school and went their separate ways. They both married other people and had children of their own. In fact Loretta's first marriage ended in divorce in the late 1970's. Her second husband, Joseph Doyle died in 1994. It appears that his family found his death suspicious as drugs were allegedly found in his body but nothing came of it. An investigation was re-opened in 2013 but my research has not indicated that anything has ever come of that. But not long later it seems Loretta and Daniel reunited.

Whether they met again before or after Loretta was forced to serve some prison time does not appear to be clear. In March of 1996 she was sentenced to fifteen months in federal prison for embezzling over $480,000 from her employer in Pennsylvania. She was also ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution. In addition to that around the same time she faced charges in New Jersey for stealing from another employer from May to December of 1995 (likely while she knew she was facing prosecution in the other case). The day after she was sentenced in the case in Pennsylvania Loretta pleaded guilty in New Jersey and was ordered to pay over $35,000 in restitution. It has been said that while she was caught and prosecuted in these two cases, Loretta had been doing this sort of thing for years, both before and after her convictions and had lost many jobs over the years, just that few chose to prosecute. It was alleged that she did this to support a gambling habit that she had.

At any rate upon her release from prison Daniel and Loretta decided to marry. They lived in a home together in Mays Landing New Jersey. By 2007 apparently Daniel had decided that they were selling the home in New Jersey and moving to Florida. I say, Daniel, because by all accounts Loretta never seemed to be on board with this idea and yet it appears Daniel still made plans. It was said that Loretta did not want to move further away from her only daughter and grandson who apparently lived nearby.

The last time anyone saw Daniel Burroughs was on August 14, 2007. He had recently had rotator cuff surgery and his arm was in a sling but he was one his riding lawnmower doing the yard. Daniel's half brother, Ray, who saw him every weekend and with whom Daniel was apparently very close, had trouble reaching Daniel. When he called and talked to Loretta she told him that Daniel had left her. The story she gave was that he got into a yellow Hummer that had Florida plates and a younger woman driver and simply drove away. Neither Ray, or any of Daniel's friends really bought this story. The day after Loretta told this to Ray he showed up at the couple's home. He stated he noticed there was a “huge pile” of mothballs behind a shed on the property and when he asked Loretta about it she said it was to mask the smell of a dead groundhog. It soon appeared that Loretta began selling off and giving away many of Daniel's things. By Labor Day weekend Ray and a friend of Daniel's went to the local police and filed a missing person's report. Ray was convinced that Loretta had done something to his brother.

The problem was that there was no proof that anything other than what Loretta said had happened, did. Daniel was a grown man and if he had really chose to leave with another woman and cut everyone off, that was his right, no matter how out of character it seemed. Ray thought maybe Loretta's criminal background would give them some leverage but the officers let him know that embezzlement was a long way from murder.

For the next five and a half years nothing really happened. Loretta moved a few times. Some reports say that in March of 2013 she was in the middle of her third move since Daniel had disappeared and others said it was only her second. She had left Mays Landing of course, selling the house she and Daniel had owned. It would later be learned that sometime in June of 2007 Loretta had contacted someone and had Power of Attorney papers drawn up. The papers were so that she had “control” over things when it came to Daniel. After he had disappeared Loretta used those papers to sell the home the couple had owned. The house garnered over $77,000 in profit but because they were still married and Daniel was not present to collect the money was tied up in escrow. So, in February of 2009 Loretta filed for divorce. An ad was placed in the newspaper to notify Daniel of the proceedings. Loretta was able to receive her half of the escrow when she filed for the divorce and then she was able to get the other half after the divorce was final when Daniel did not respond to any of the proceedings. It was believed that between the home and the selling of Daniels possession such as tools and a collection of remote controlled model airplanes that Loretta had received close to $100,000. I heard no mention of any life insurance proceeds but that does not mean there were not any. Daniel also had at least one child of his own, if not more, so it is possible they were beneficiaries of a policy.

Investigators claim that on March 17, 2013 search warrants were issued not only to the home Loretta was moving into, but also the home she was moving out of, in search of evidence pertaining to documents connected to another embezzlement investigation against her. Investigators would later say that when they told her of the search she asked if the home in Ventnor New Jersey was being searched also. According to the investigator when she was informed that it was her “entire demeanor changed.”

Inside the closet of her Ventnor home officers first found two items wrapped in multiple layers of trash bags. They obviously were not sure what was inside but the officer that found it stated that once she started to barely remove the trash bags she smelled something distinctive that she knew was the smell of decomposition. A medical examiner was called before they moved any further. Once they began again they learned that these were two plastic containers that had been wrapped in at least nine trash bags with air fresheners, dryer sheets and scented beads. Inside one of the containers they found what appeared to be an olive colored purse. To be fair investigators could not say for sure what color the purse used to be because by the time they found it, not only had it been soaking in decomposition fluid but had contained the skull and jawbone of a human. Inside the other plastic container were more remains.

For those who knew the story of her missing husband it was pretty evident whose remains had been found and yet she would not be arrested until November of 2014. By then investigators not only knew for certain that the body in the containers belonged to Daniel Burroughs, they knew many other things. It was in this time that they learned of the Power of Attorney she had obtained in June of 2007. At the time Loretta was working at what seems to be a nursing home or at least was working as a caregiver. One of her patients knew someone to help her get the papers drawn up. She had told people that she and Daniel were selling the house but that he would be out of town and she needed the Power of Attorney to complete the sale. Later another patient went against protocol in notarizing the document and seeing Daniel personally sign. At her later trial Loretta's daughter would testify that she knew her mother often signed her husband's name to things and had seen it personally done several times.

Loretta's trial would last four days and end with her conviction on March 17, 2015 for first degree murder in the death of Daniel Burroughs. Prosecutors allege that she was often at least one, if not more plea bargains prior to going to trial and they were all rejected. Prosecutors argued that the motive was the fact that Loretta did not want to move to Florida and away from her daughter.  They alleged that the body was dismembered using a knife and a saw.  The following month the judge sentenced her to fifty-five years in prison. The judge apparently was overly disgusted by her actions. While I agree with him that it was particularly grisly in the fact that she had carried this decomposing body with her for nearly six years and even moved it with her each time, I do have to disagree with a comparison that the judge made. He stated it was as grisly and callous as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre orchestrated by gangster Al Capone. Many ridiculed the judge later pointing out there was really no comparison in the two crimes.

In New Jersey it seems that one has to serve 85% of their time before they are eligible for parole. In Loretta's case she was already in her mid-60's before she was convicted so the likelihood of her ever getting out of prison alive is not very good. She will be 110 years old before she is even eligible for parole.

So this brings us back to my original thought. Just how mental did Loretta have to be not necessarily to murder her husband (at least one it seems) but to carry and move his body around with her all those years? It seems that if she could have controlled her gambling addiction and her tendency to embezzle money she may not have ever been caught. I am sure Daniel's family may have tried to get something done but it seems as if Loretta could have held out. In fact, I believe she could have gotten away with it if she slowly disposed of the remains over the years. She could have likely somehow gotten rid of the decomposition fluid in one manner and over time disposed of the bones little by little. There were already missing bones at the discovery that have never been found. But, does carrying the body around all that time make her crazy, or does it make her smart?? This is the line that has to be looked at I suppose.