Tuesday, Feb 1, 2022 • 46min
Packed Away (Daniel Burroughs)
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A dad with a history of disappearing vanishes once again when he’s 61. Where he was finally found stunned every investigator and family member… and it will shock you too.
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Talking about
Speakers
(3)
Scott Weinberger
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
Caroline Burroughs
Transcript
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Caroline Burroughs
01:06
A good father is somebody who's always there. You know, who shows up for the good times and the bad times. Someone you can cry on their shoulder. Someone who shows up for Christmas and your birthdays and who's there through your life. That surely wasn't my father.
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Scott Weinberger
01:35
I'm Scott Weinberger, Investigative Journalist and former Deputy Sheriff.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
01:40
I'm Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi, former New York City
Homicide
prosecutor and host of Investigation Discovery's True Conviction.Share
Scott Weinberger
01:47
And this is "Anatomy Of Murder."
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01:51
A common thread in every
Homicide
story we tell is we get to celebrate the life of a victim, frequently through the eyes of a loved one.Share
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
02:02
We hear about the loss of life, the love within the family and the void left behind.
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Scott Weinberger
02:09
And as no two
Homicide
investigations are alike, no family dynamic is the same. And today's case is a real example of that.Share
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
02:18
Today's case takes us to
Point Pleasant
New Jersey
and we're talking about the Burroughs Family. The father was Daniel, the mom was Carol and the two kids were also named Daniel and you guessed it Caroline.Share
Caroline Burroughs
02:32
He didn't take rocket science for them to name us.
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Scott Weinberger
02:37
We spoke with younger Caroline about her parents and what life was like growing up. Her mom worked as a Banquet Manager and her dad Daniel, well, did so many different things.
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Caroline Burroughs
02:47
He was a bricklayer, truck driver, a body shop owner, a restaurant owner, you name it. He was a jack of all trades, and he was pretty crafty.
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Scott Weinberger
02:58
The house Caroline grew up in, was built by Daniel.
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Caroline Burroughs
03:03
It was beautiful, it was all brick, it had a built fireplace, the kitchen, and the dining room floor was made of sleep. It was just really, really cool.
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Scott Weinberger
03:13
You know, he really loved his toys and I'm talking about cars, motorcycles, speedboats, radio controlled airplanes. He also was a musician, a drummer, and I could totally relate with that Anna-Sigga, because you know that's kind of like my passion since I was young.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
03:27
His friends talked about him as this animated guy who was funny but they also pointed out that he had this willingness to stop whatever he was doing to help someone in need. And that was the thing that to his friends really set him apart.
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Caroline Burroughs
03:41
He was a great friend, a wonderful person. Just not so great to his family or children.
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Scott Weinberger
03:49
Caroline's feelings for her father were very raw and very real, and you could just hear in her voice. Caroline did not have a great relationship with her dad while growing up and she is not shy talking about it.
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Caroline Burroughs
04:02
My mom said he was great with me and my brother until we started walking and talking, and he didn't want nothing to do with us.
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Scott Weinberger
04:10
In fact, when she looks back at her childhood, she cannot recall one loving memory between her dad and the kids.
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Caroline Burroughs
04:17
You see other families, and their mom and dad and you know, mine wasn't like that. Mine wasn't to leave it to beaver family, he was around father, he spent a lot of time in the garage. So, we were either kept outside all day in the summer or in our rooms all day in the winter. Even when we were locked in our bedrooms, I used to have to talk to my brother through the vent in our rooms.
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Scott Weinberger
04:47
I thought that was a really sad moment in the interview. I mean you know, I could picture that the way she described it and the loneliness feeling. The feeling of not being supported by someone that you depend on so much for. You know, that brings sort of a sadness to it.
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Caroline Burroughs
05:03
My dad never told us he loved us, never, not once in his entire life, ever. I can't speak for my brother, but I never had that father-daughter bond with my father, ever.
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Scott Weinberger
05:18
You know, how some people have great memories of their parents. Well, this is a memory that Caroline has about her dad in the dead of winter when it was freezing, the kids were locked out of the house.
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Caroline Burroughs
05:30
He was in the garage and he wouldn't answer the door.
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Scott Weinberger
05:35
And he just left them there.
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Caroline Burroughs
05:38
For about an hour or so before he called us in. It was pretty cold.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
05:44
When I hear these stories, I am getting a knot in my stomach for these kids, but I'm also feeling incredibly angry at their dad.
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Scott Weinberger
05:53
Clearly, at that age, you want to feel the love in the room, the love in the home. And by the way that Caroline describes it, that really wasn't present. It was with her mom and it was with her brother. But the fact that there was an incredible disconnect with her father is disconcerting and obviously sad.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
06:12
According to Caroline, the family dynamics and the relations stayed that way until she was about six or seven years old. And then after that her dad basically was out of the picture.
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Caroline Burroughs
06:23
He was driving a truck at the time and somebody had mentioned to my mom that they seen her in the truck and why didn't she wave? And my mom was like, I was never in that truck. So, two and two put together, my mom found out that my father was being unfaithful, he wanted up leaving and we never seen him again.
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Scott Weinberger
06:44
While her dad was presumed to be seeing another woman and having another relationship. Caroline's mother and brother moved out and their life changed.
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Caroline Burroughs
06:53
We moved into a trailer park and we were glad he was gone because we can actually live a normal life outside of our bedrooms or locked out of the house.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
07:02
While in some ways, of course the breakup of every family is sad and this one had actually made me smile because they clearly had less means the mom had to be out of the house all the more because she was the one who really had to take care of everything and make sure this family got by, there was so much more humanity, decency and love. Now that was just the three of them inside that house.
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Scott Weinberger
07:27
You know, to really see how unhappy things were in the home with Daniel is to see how happy they were with the simplest of things.
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Caroline Burroughs
07:37
My mom was an amazing mother, although she worked sixteen hour days to take care of us, she made time to be at ball games and dance recitals, you know school functions, P. T. A. meetings. She got up early in the morning, got us ready for school, always make his dinner, make sure our homework was done and signed papers for school, and look over our homework and put us to bed and she did it all.
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Scott Weinberger
08:08
But Caroline's dad was not entirely out of the picture over the course of her life he would periodically resurfaced and each and every time it would just reinforce that he wasn't really ready to be her father.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
08:23
When Caroline was about thirteen years old, her brother had this idea to call their dad.
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Caroline Burroughs
08:29
Being a male. He missed that father-son bond and maybe in his mind he thought with him being older that my dad would see him in a different light, I could care less either way and he made me call, it's just something he wanted and I wanted to see my brother happy.
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08:49
So, I did it actually. We got in touch with him and that following weekend my father and his brother, my uncle Raymond came down on their motorcycles and they picked me and my brother up. It turned out to be a good time.
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Scott Weinberger
09:06
And it was more than one weekend. He started seeing them every weekend and this could be the reunion they hoped and dreamed for maybe this was a time that Daniel was going to be the father more than just in name only.
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Caroline Burroughs
09:19
But there was a motive to that. I found out as when I got older was that my father was paying child support. And then when he was picking us up, he was giving my mom money and then he basically said to her, listen, I'm seeing the kids now, just sign this paper. They won't garnish his wages for child support and he'll just continue to give her the cash. He was pretty persuasive and my mom did it.
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Scott Weinberger
09:49
Two months later. It just stopped again.
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Caroline Burroughs
09:54
And then we didn't see him again after that.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
09:58
Hearing that just, built up to maybe this time it was going to get better Scott and then boom, he let them down again. And in some way it feels even harder because they had built up their hopes yet again to be let down.
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Scott Weinberger
10:13
You know, we obviously don't know what was going on in his life, but they're really can never be a good reason for this.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
10:22
Let's fast forward four more years. Caroline was seventeen, and what's on every teenager's mind at that point, right around the time you roll into seventeen, you're thinking about a car. But for Caroline, she didn't have the money.
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Caroline Burroughs
10:36
I was so frustrated because I wanted a car and you know, there's things that I needed and I asked my mom can I get that back child support. And what happened was I went and I got a lawyer to sue him, they told me I could get up to eighteen thousand dollars in back child support. But the catch was I'd have to sue my mother too. Because she's the one who signed the paper. So, of course I immediately dropped it.
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Scott Weinberger
11:04
Now we're even going further down the timeline to 1990 when Caroline was twenty years old. It was a huge moment for her, giving birth to her daughter and becoming a parent herself. And for Caroline that completely shifted her perspective, her priorities and her outlook on life.
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Caroline Burroughs
11:22
When my daughter was born, I knew my dad had a restaurant in Mays Landing and was like a little pizzeria and I went there with the baby to let him know he was a grandfather and boy, he welcomed us with open arms.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
11:41
And according to Caroline, he seemed to light up when he saw her little girl.
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Caroline Burroughs
11:47
He carried my daughter Amanda all around showing her off.
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Scott Weinberger
11:53
You could just picture that in your mind about how proud he was at that moment. You can imagine Caroline looking at her daughter in his arms. That must have been a very sweet moment.
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Caroline Burroughs
12:04
I thought we start something up again. You know, maybe something good could come out of this. Maybe, you know, he messed up and realizes that you know, everything he missed.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
12:14
And then all of a sudden on the turn of a dime, he dropped back out of the picture, again.
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Caroline Burroughs
12:21
Then he never reached back out to us. And because I figured if you wanted to see us, he'd call.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
12:28
And that wasn't the last time that Daniel was going to pop back into his daughter's life. Now we're heading into the early 2000's, Caroline was thirty-three years old, her daughter was now thirteen, and she got a call out of the blue, but it wasn't her dad.
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Scott Weinberger
12:44
The call came from Daniel's new wife and her name was Loretta. She made it clear that she felt the right thing to do was to reunite this family and she had an idea. A family reunion bringing several members of Daniel's families together, aunts, uncles and of course Caroline, her daughter and her brother.
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Caroline Burroughs
13:03
She called us, said that our dad would like to see us and she's like, you know, family's important to me. And she said that she had a daughter and grandchildren and she expressed to my father how important it is that he should see his children and his grandchildren and that my dad agreed.
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Scott Weinberger
13:22
Loretta said that this was going to be different. Daniel wanted this and he wanted it to be real. And perhaps Loretta was the key to finally reuniting this family.
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Caroline Burroughs
13:33
So, actually we all went to the house. My mother actually came and we wind up having this really great kind of reunion barbecue that turned out to be pretty amazing. But I believe we were looking at photo albums and then we went into the garage and we did some karaoke. It was a good time.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
13:55
You know, Scott. When I started hearing this, I start to think two things like one again, of course it's going to take something else, something else. He wants to maybe bring him back into his children's life. But on the other hand, another piece of me is like, who cares what it is, But if it's this woman that is a good influence on him, that can finally give something to his children that they actually need and want, which maybe is this relationship with him again, then I just say clap, clap, who cares where it comes from. It's maybe just this time a good thing.
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Scott Weinberger
14:24
We all know families who have some type of issue and a catalyst comes in and brings it all together. And when I heard Caroline talk about this, it made total sense to me that it would take an outsider to come in to reconnect this family.
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Caroline Burroughs
14:40
From there on, we started seeing my dad and Loretta maybe every couple of months, my dad had a speedboat. We took a speedboat out for the day and we docked, we got pizza, you know, put the tube in the water. I mean that was a great day, me and my brother, we finally felt, you know, we had some kind of relationship with my father. It took us till our, you know, late thirties to get it, but we thought it would only get better in time.
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Scott Weinberger
15:13
Almost thirty years later, everything looked like it had changed for Caroline when it came to her dad. But in 2007 again, Daniel drops out of the picture except this time it was a little different.
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Caroline Burroughs
15:28
2007, my uncle Raymond reached out to me, and told me that my father was missing, and that Loretta had said that my dad had gotten to a Yellow Hummer and took off with some girl.
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Scott Weinberger
15:44
So, the question was, who was the woman in this vehicle? And why did he leave?
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
15:49
You know, for all of you out there? They're saying, oh we've heard this story before. And so the wife for a loved one says that the other partner left with a new love interest and we know what's going to happen here, but I'm going to give a big but here this really is unfortunately would be history repeating itself exactly.
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16:09
Almost how it happened before. Because Daniel Burroughs had an actual track record. He had done the very same thing to Caroline and Daniel's mom. So, to hear that whatever it was that next captured his attention, it definitely seems to have more credence when it comes to him than when we hear it in many other scenarios.
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Scott Weinberger
16:31
It may not surprise you that both Caroline and her uncle Raymond, they had a really hard time believing that this was history repeating itself and they were suspicious.
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Caroline Burroughs
16:43
My dad had rotor cuff surgery maybe two weeks before that. So, his arm was still in the sling. I know my dad was putting the house up for sale and he had mowed the lawn the day before.
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Scott Weinberger
16:57
Why would Daniel leave in the middle of a huge financial move? That's a decent question.
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Caroline Burroughs
17:05
So, we knew something wasn't right. He wouldn't do that. He, he just wouldn't get up and leave.
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Scott Weinberger
17:11
For Daniel Burrough, this reconnection with his son and his daughter was the longest that had ever been. In fact, the happiest for all.
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Caroline Burroughs
17:18
We had spent about two years on and off with my dad and Loretta more time than we've ever spent with my father in our entire life.
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Scott Weinberger
17:29
So, the questions are being raised. Was this a cycle of past behavior by walking away from his family? Or was this a suspicious disappearance? And that was the real question. And there were a couple of signs that concerned Caroline.
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Caroline Burroughs
17:42
He had boats. He had model airplanes, he had motorcycles. He had a vet. I mean, there would be no way in hell that my dad would get up and leave everything. He worked for his entire life.
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Scott Weinberger
17:57
Almost immediately Caroline knew something had happened to her father, and she believed she knew exactly who was behind it.
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Caroline Burroughs
18:08
I knew he was dead. I knew he wasn't on this earth and I knew Loretta killed him.
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Break
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
19:32
So, let's talk a little bit about Loretta. We know that she is the one that brought Daniel closer to both of his now grown children. And we know that she was well liked. She was loved by both those kids.
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Caroline Burroughs
19:44
She was great to us. I enjoyed being around her.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
19:49
She worked at an assisted living facility. But let's learn a little bit about how she met Daniel.
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Scott Weinberger
19:55
Daniel and Loretta were high school sweethearts before life took them in separate ways. It was many years later that Daniel and Caroline's mom divorced. And then Loretta and Daniel reconnected. Loretta had been married twice before and her last husband had passed away. Daniel was divorced and both had children from previous marriages.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
20:16
And it sounds like that is some of the things that bonded them.
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Scott Weinberger
20:20
But that was then and now Caroline was highly suspicious that Loretta was somehow involved in the disappearance of her father Daniel Burroughs.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
20:30
And so if she's right, then we have to talk about the "Why?", when you look at these scenarios, it often comes down to one of two things when it comes to motive it's love or money. And we certainly know that Daniel had had a relationship go sideways because of another love interest in his life. And that was with Caroline's mom. So, did the same thing happen here?
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Caroline Burroughs
20:54
He wouldn't do that. And he was younger back then. I mean we're talking sixty-one when he went missing. You know, that's teenage sh-.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
21:03
Scott, let's just suppose for a second that this is what's happened and it's about money. If it was a plan from the beginning, why then get his estranged family, both those kids more involved in their lives?
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Scott Weinberger
21:17
I think it's a great question and my thought would be and I kind of go back to a Chinese military strategist Sun Su who said, "Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer". And perhaps Loretta's thought was here, you know, let them see that I'm doing everything to bring this family together.
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21:33
I am extending every angle I could find to really show you that I'm the peacemaker within this family. And perhaps I would be the least likely of suspects, In fact, maybe you'll feel sorry for me because your father did to me what he did to your mother. He left with another woman and she would then be someone who they would embrace like they did their mother. When Daniel left her.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
21:58
Hearing you lay it out. I'm being very honest, like I'm buying it. But then there's this other possibility that hearing what you're saying that also comes into play is that maybe she wasn't planning it from the very beginning. But that's something happened during their romance that actually now led down this unfortunate path.
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Scott Weinberger
22:16
That's a great way to look at it because as an investigator, you want to have another path to investigate.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
22:22
There's this interesting story that Caroline shared about her dad before he disappeared, and I do wonder how it may have played into this.
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Scott Weinberger
22:31
After Caroline graduated college, she moved to
Florida
and after Loretta got Daniel and Caroline to reconnect. Daniel was making moves, not just emotionally to be closer to her, but also geographically.Share
Caroline Burroughs
22:45
My dad was going to move to
Florida
. He wanted to retire. My brother was a landscaper at the time, and had been landscaping for over twenty years and I believe they talked about opening a business together and moving to Florida
to be closer to us. Meaning me and my brother Danny.Share
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
23:04
And all of it sounds like a great plan. You get the weather of
Florida
, you get the kids, but there's a problem. Loretta wasn't on board.Share
Caroline Burroughs
23:14
She didn't want to go because she had her children and grandchildren in
New Jersey
and she didn't want to leave them.Share
Scott Weinberger
23:23
This all sounds eerily familiar to another case we featured on AOM which was the Dave Turin case, military secrets and lies. In that case, Dave's wife did not want to move back to Canada as she loved their brand new life in
Florida
, but Dave, who was a member of the Canadian Royal Air Force was returning back to Canada for his job, and that apparently was the motive for her to kill him.Share
Caroline Burroughs
23:48
I guess when they started talking about new then we didn't really go over there too much after that because they were always arguing. I just remember Loretta telling me and my daughter was there that she would move to
Florida
over her dead body, and then the next thing you know, he's missing.Share
Scott Weinberger
24:10
So, at this point there is no evidence that suggests that Loretta had anything to do with Daniel's disappearance. In fact, I'll take it one step further. There's not really much evidence to suggest that Daniel is actually missing. He may have very well ran away with another woman just like Loretta had said.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
24:27
Loretta said that, Daniel had contacted her a couple of times before, and he's a guy who when he doesn't want to be found, he isn't found until he decides to come back on his terms. That's exactly what had happened with Caroline and her brother in the past. So, that is definitely something.
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Scott Weinberger
24:44
But that did not stop Caroline and her uncle Raymond from taking action.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
24:49
And on September 1st of 2007, they filed a missing persons report for Daniel Burroughs. But that's not going to be an easy leap for investigators because here is someone who has definitely left and taken off more than once before. He has no mental health condition that they're aware of. He doesn't have any health condition that they know about and there doesn't seem to be any concern for his safety other than this gut feeling that both his brother and daughter have.
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Caroline Burroughs
25:19
They figured, you know he's an adult, he can move about. However, he wants to, it's nobody's business.
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Scott Weinberger
25:27
Investigators re interviewed, Loretta and she stuck to her original statement, investigators had no leads at that very moment. There was nothing else they could really do except to continue to search for Daniel.
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Caroline Burroughs
25:40
You know, everybody else had their own theories, his friends and neighbors. The last time they seen him was you know, a couple of days before she said he took off and he was mowing the lawn. He was cleaning the pool. He had his arm in a sling. So, you know everybody I talked to, knew something wasn't right.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
26:00
And while the family is out there searching and looking for Daniel trying to figure out what happened and where he might be. Loretta is acting all the more suspicious, at least in Daniel's family's eyes.
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Caroline Burroughs
26:12
She would never answer the door. I talked to Loretta one time. My uncle Raymond called me and said, "Listen, I'm not sure what's going on, but she's selling things in the house. Your dad had that drum set for over ten years, if he's coming back he's gonna want his drum set, you know."
Share
26:30
So, I called Loretta and I told her, "Listen I want that drum set, I'm coming there and I'm picking it up, I'll take it apart but I'm coming to get it." So, she said okay that's not a problem. The very next day I called her up, and I told her I was on my way and she told me that she sold it but she had twelve hundred dollars for me and that really pissed me off.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
26:56
You know Scott, when you hear that she sold his drum set and his other belongings. How suspicious is that to you?
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Scott Weinberger
27:03
Boy, that hurts me
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
27:05
I know it's going to hurt you, but not personally, not personally. Where does it sit with you? Beyond that?
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Scott Weinberger
27:10
I guess he was really never expecting him to come back. You knowing how much the drum set meant to him. And I can tell you from experience these drum kits are personal. You become attached to things like that. I mean they become almost your musical signature sound. You know, for me this is the most obvious sign of something or someone's actions are questionable. Loretta was making moves, quickly selling her husband's possessions. I've called him in the past, BRF's Anna-Sigga and you know what that stands for.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
27:39
Big Red Flag.
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Caroline Burroughs
27:40
You know, at this point now we know she's selling his things. And I actually went and got a lawyer and asked a lawyer to help me stop everything that was going on until we knew where my father was. They said, I don't know. It was after a couple of meetings on the phone that they found out she had a power of attorney. They couldn't do anything.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
28:02
So, for anyone that might not know what it means when you have power of attorney. Just keeping it very simple. It means this that basically you are giving someone else the authority to make usually financial decisions for you. It's very common when you talk about older parents with their now adult children.
Share
28:19
It's very common between spouses and it's usually something that is set up long before something happens to one or the other person's health and you're really setting it up as a safety valve so that your finances don't get locked up and tied up. If there's something with their health that makes them unable to render those financial decisions on their own.
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Scott Weinberger
28:39
So, while all of this is going on, there's still a looming question. Where is Daniel?
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Caroline Burroughs
28:44
You try to think? Okay, what would she do with him? She had to have help. Where would she put him? I feel sorry for people who have relatives that are missing, and when you don't have that closure, it really sucks because where do you start to look for somebody that's missing? You know, sometimes you have clues. You know, where was the last place you've seen him? Well he was with this person, he was with that. So, we didn't have that. He disappeared, in thin air. We only had what Loretta told us. Som where do you start looking?
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Scott Weinberger
29:21
When the investigators went to Daniel and Loretta's neighborhood, they did obviously talk to their neighbors and people who may have seen things in the past. But the investigation doesn't only involve past activity. The investigation also involves what's going on now. While Daniel is missing and in this case that investigative lead did pay off. They would hear from a neighbor that they noticed something very unusual still going on at Daniel and Loretta's house.
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Caroline Burroughs
29:54
There was neighbors that said that smelled like there was something dead in the yard and apparently called the detectives and when the detectives went to the house, she said that there had been a dead animal in the backyard or on the road, something like that. And that's what the smell was from.
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Scott Weinberger
30:13
But with lots of speculation came little answers. No sign of Daniel, and no sign of Loretta having anything to do at this point with his disappearance.
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Caroline Burroughs
30:24
After that, you know, things just went slow. That investigation went slow. Everything just slowed down. I knew she was involved somehow, some way, but just nothing ever came of it.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
30:37
And from there it really did become a
Cold Case
. Caroline moved on with her life. And so did Loretta. eighteen months or a year and a half after Daniel's disappearance, Loretta actually divorced him, and she sold the house that they shared and she moved to a different city in New Jersey
.Share
Scott Weinberger
30:52
The final judgment of that divorce did award Loretta the escrow sale proceeds of their home.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
30:59
And for me Scott, I don't know about you. This one cuts both ways because if he's gone after that set of time, she can now legally divorce him without his consent. At least in some states are certainly in
New Jersey
. But also maybe it goes back to your theory about this ultimate grand master plan. And it's just another piece in that puzzle.Share
Scott Weinberger
31:21
So in 2010, Daniel's family turned to social media setting up a Facebook page with hopes of finding new information.
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Caroline Burroughs
31:30
It was just a page where everybody could go on, and you know, post condolences or leave the last time they saw him just so that we can try to put a timeline together.
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Scott Weinberger
31:42
But once again, nothing came up.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
31:46
Then in 2013, Caroline got unexpected news.
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Caroline Burroughs
31:50
We were having a yard sale, I was selling my stuff because I was moving back to
Florida
. My mother called me.Share
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
31:58
Somebody had found Daniel.
Share
Caroline Burroughs
32:02
And I was like, oh my God, where is he?
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Break
Scott Weinberger
32:39
So, we're gonna back up a little, it's 2013 and Daniel's family had urged investigators to look into his case.
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32:48
But this time was different because the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office had recently established a
Cold Case
unit and as a result, the case was reopened and investigators found out that Loretta was in the process of moving to another home, and she had past convictions for Embezzlement
and Theft
.Share
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
33:08
And we know that saying that "When there's smoke, sometimes there's fire."
Share
Scott Weinberger
33:12
And being convicted of a
Financial Crime
is definitely a great reason to relook at Loretta's involvement in Daniel's disappearance. But it is a far cry from a Homicide
. But as I always say, you can't find anything unless you look.Share
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
33:26
So, when they looked more closely in June of 2007, just a few months before Daniel supposedly ran off with this other woman, Loretta had gone on her own to ask an attorney to draft that Power Of Attorney we're talking about earlier because as she said they, the two of them, were about to sell their home.
Share
Scott Weinberger
33:44
Loretta made it clear at the time that her husband wasn't going to be around during certain periods, and she wanted to be able to move the process forward. So, she felt like she had the right permissions to do it.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
33:56
But it's also interesting that Loretta went by herself, and the attorney that she went to was someone whose parent was a patient or client of this assisted living facility where Loretta worked at. And so the attorney drafted this for Loretta, and did it free of charge as a favor because of her care for his parent that was in that home.
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Scott Weinberger
34:17
There are a few things to unpack here. It looks like Loretta was getting favors from friends to potentially keep off the radar.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
34:25
There's an additional layer that we should talk about with this Power Of Attorney and I'm sorry to go so deep but it's relevant is that for something to be notarized, you need to have the person whose signature is present. And I can say that because as an attorney I am an automatic notary. So, I notarize things for people all the time and I always need to have them in front of me.
Share
34:44
And here's the thing is that when she went to this notary, she was by herself, and she got that person to notarize the at least purported signature of Daniel without him being present. So, that is the thing that is the real ding. Big red flag. You can't get away from that isn't how you're supposed to execute a power of attorney.
Share
35:05
The attorney wasn't supposed to do it that way. The notary wasn't supposed to do that way. Loretta leveraged her work to get these favors for the different people to take these unauthorized illegal steps for her. And now when you have this evidence that the actual power of attorney that was used for the sale of this home is fake. Well, then what does that mean for the investigation?
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Scott Weinberger
35:26
I'd like everyone to step into this room with me and it's called my motive room. So, there's a few important things to go over so far. After Daniel left, Loretta got a profit of seventy-seven thousand one hundred and one dollar from the sale of their home. But there was a problem the money was locked up in escrow and Daniel was entitled to at least half of that.
Share
35:48
So, the only way to get the money was if she divorced Daniel, Loretta hired an attorney filed for divorce and in 2009 got half the money, then got the other half when the divorce was finalized. So, between the profit of the house and selling all of Daniel's stuff which we've just mentioned before. Loretta received close to one hundred thousand dollars. So, we may have a motive if all of you have joined me in my room, but we do not have Daniel.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
36:18
And here's something else I thought was interesting when investigators looked into Loretta bit more, they found out that not only did they guess that she had forged his signature for this power of attorney, but that she had likely also forged his signature frequently in the past.
Share
Scott Weinberger
36:32
So, for investigators, they were able to get a
Search Warrant
but not because of Daniel.Share
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
36:39
And the thing that's important about it is this, that now it gave investigators a way to get inside her house to investigate it. And so while Loretta was in the process of actually moving outside of that home, authorities entered and executed a
Search Warrant
.Share
Caroline Burroughs
36:55
I do know that she was at her sister's, there was a group of detectives there to let her know that they were there to execute a
Search Warrant
.Share
Scott Weinberger
37:05
So, I think it's worth reading you a quote from a local newspaper at the time. This was all going on and it's from Sergeant Lin Daughtery of the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office quote "She asked if we were also searching the Ventnor House. When we told her that we were, Loretta's physical demeanor changed completely, her whole body sunk, she lost the color on her face. She was wringing her hands very nervous." And I guess they believed they were clearly on to something.
Share
Caroline Burroughs
37:36
And within them couple minutes detectives at the Ventnor home had called the detectives at Loretta's sisters and said that they had found something.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
37:46
As they were searching this home which was not the home that she had ever lived in with Daniel or the home that she had moved into immediately afterwards. But now a third home as they are searching inside that house, a member of the Forensic Crime Scene Unit smelled something that they knew that faint but wafting more than unpleasant odor. And it was coming from the back of an upstairs closet.
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Scott Weinberger
38:11
Upon closer inspection, she discovered a plastic trash bag and within that trash bag, another trash bag and then another there were a total of nine layers of trash bags. Nine as she started to open the bags, she smelled the distinct odor of decomposition and immediately called the Medical Examiner. Inside the plastic bags were dryer sheets. Air fresheners, scented beads and two large plastic containers.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
38:40
Hearing about the dryer sheets and the air fresheners while it's obvious that this is clearly an attempt to mask some sort of odor.
Share
Scott Weinberger
38:48
Someone has something inside this container. Clearly, they did not want the smell to leave that room or to leave that house. This was an extreme attempt at covering up something big.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
39:00
Those boxes were transported to the morgue and inside the first container the forensic pathologist found a woman's handbag sitting in decomposition fluid. And inside that handbag was a cranium and mandible. In other words a skull and jawbone.
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Scott Weinberger
39:18
The second larger plastic container contained more bones including the left upper arm and lower leg.
Share
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
39:26
The pathologist could see cut marks on the ribs that were also consistent with stab wounds. The pathology determined that the person had died by
Homicide
.Share
Scott Weinberger
39:34
A Forensic Odontologist positively I. D. the remains in the plastic tote as being Daniel Burroughs.
Share
Caroline Burroughs
39:43
Apparently, she took his body from the home in Mays Landing my father's home, took him to her Ventnor home where she stored him for approximately six years.
Share
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
39:54
You know Scott, when I first read that it was just like this this is actually like house of horrors stuff.
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Scott Weinberger
40:04
You know, I thought about the fact that Daniel was last seen in 2007 riding his lawnmower in front of his house. They found his remains in 2013. That's six years, six years where she had to keep his body in her own home and then she had moved from house to house and she kept taking the containers with her.
Share
Caroline Burroughs
40:26
And I did ask how they couldn't smell that smell, you know, because from what I understand the smell of death, it just, it lingers and they said because the containers were airtight and once they were sealed they were sealed and being kept in the closet and with a bunch of blankets on top and all the air fresheners couldn't smell it.
Share
Scott Weinberger
40:48
That is incredible to me.
Share
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
40:51
And then we have to think back now, and start to think about Caroline.
Share
Caroline Burroughs
40:57
I was around the corner when my mom called and said that they found my dad her exact words in Loretta's closet. So, I hung up and I tried to process that because I just couldn't put it together in my head like
Dismemberment
did not come into my mind so I just couldn't process that. And about a half hour after that phone call, my mother called me back again and she said you need to come home and you have to come home now. Every news van, every channel was up and down her condo complex looking to speak with me.Share
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
41:38
And eventually what investigators put together was that Daniel and Loretta had had some sort of argument, they've been arguing for a while about this move to
Florida
.Share
Caroline Burroughs
41:47
He told her he was leaving, he was moving to
Florida
argument ensued, she stabbed him.Share
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
41:54
And remember at this point Daniel had one of his arms in a sling. So, he really wasn't as agile as he might have been otherwise.
Share
Caroline Burroughs
42:01
He was pushed into the bathtub, and she left him there. So, nobody knows how long he lived if he suffered while he was in the bathtub bleeding to death. She packed up a bag and left him there.
Share
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
42:15
And then we know at some point after that, she literally cut his body up to pieces and packed him away.
Share
Caroline Burroughs
42:23
Apparently from what detectives told me that I asked her how she was able to move him. She said that by the time she got back he had bled out.
Share
Scott Weinberger
42:33
Loretta claims she's innocent and she would go to trial. But there's a lot more to this story. Remember that Daniel was Loretta's third husband, her second husband passed away and you all could probably guess where we're going with this.
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Break
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
43:21
The police have now arrested and charged the person who they believed has killed Daniel Burroughs, his wife Loretta.
Share
Scott Weinberger
43:29
While his family had some closure and answers to the mystery. It is an unsettling feeling for his daughter Caroline.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
43:36
You think about the push and the pole for Caroline while she clearly cared enough to be involved and continue trying to make sure that he was searched for and figured out. She couldn't sit in that courtroom like so many other family members can't remember. It is a rocky history at best.
Share
Caroline Burroughs
43:55
I didn't have those feelings. I didn't go to the funeral, and I didn't go to the court house for the trial. You know, I knew what happened to him. I seen all the photos I was brought into the interview room. And that was enough for me.
Share
Scott Weinberger
44:12
Even though Caroline chose not to attend each and every day in the courtroom, she was able to follow the proceedings as the entire trial was livestreamed.
Share
Caroline Burroughs
44:22
I followed the trial and I was able to also follow it through the prosecutor who kept me, and my brother posted every day. What was shown the pictures that were shown what was said, what was happening. Yeah, I knew everything that was going on day to day through them.
Share
Scott Weinberger
44:40
So, walking into the courtroom with the evidence that prosecutors have in this case, how confident would you be?
Share
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
44:45
The body in the tupperware three moves later found in the closet. I'm saying it's a pretty strong case but the thing that really is a thing that I'm going to start that case with and emphasize the Jury is that you make sure that it was her, is you go back to when she is starting to take the financial reins without Daniel knowing it, and that I think really gave prosecutors a very, very strong case.
Share
Scott Weinberger
45:10
It clearly was a very compelling case and jurors agreed. On March 17th 2015, Loretta was found guilty of Daniel's
Murder
and hindering her own apprehension. Loretta, who was sixty-three at the time of her conviction, was sentenced to fifty-five years in prison for the Murder
and a concurrent three year term for hindering that apprehension.Share
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
45:34
But the story doesn't end there because soon after Loretta Burroughs was arrested for Daniel's
Murder
. Police reopened the investigation into the death of her second husband. Back in 1994 several years before she had married Daniel, her second husband, a man by the name of Joseph Doyle died.Share
Scott Weinberger
45:52
According to the
Delaware County
medical examiner's office, his death was caused by drugs and the manner of death was undetermined. And according to authorities, Joseph's family had long suspected Loretta had something to do with his death and at the time, the family insisted that he did not have a drug problem, and they could not explain why traces of Percocet and Xanax were found in his system during the autopsy.Share
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
46:17
Her being convicted of Daniel Burroughs
Homicide
certainly may put a new focus on how her previous husband died. It's just this interesting question mark at least for now because by everything we can tell, the case into Joseph's death is still unsolved today.Share
Caroline Burroughs
46:36
Being without a father. I don't know, I'm very independent. I have the mindset that I don't need a man, which is kind of ironic. I don't know. I think maybe I got that from not having a father in my life.
Share
Scott Weinberger
46:53
It's clear your parents helped shape the person you are, but shaping is not necessarily defining.
Share
Caroline Burroughs
46:59
My mother did everything for us and by watching her be the strong woman that she is, I take right after her.
Share
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
47:10
And it is Caroline's and Daniel's mom that I give the big shout out to for giving these two kids exactly what they needed, who worked those eighteen hour days and that emotionally these kids were fulfilled. And so that is the legacy and the thing that I at least want to end on.
Share
Caroline Burroughs
47:29
We never lacked for anything. I remember wanting a pair of designer jeans. They were really big back then at Georgia's and Sergio Valente, and they were like eighty bucks for a pair of jeans. And I remember, you know, looking at my mom in town and look what I did. You know, like her, I worked for him and I've, you know, because of my mother, I had that mindset, she took us to Disney World when I was eight, which was amazing. I don't know where she got the money to do that.
Share
Scott Weinberger
48:02
And remember that car that Caroline wanted when she was just seventeen? Her mom helped her buy that car too.
Share
Caroline Burroughs
48:09
Everything I wanted to do, I got to do. And it's because of my mother.
Share
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
48:16
And Daniel no one deserves to die the way that he did. And it seemed like he was really maybe getting it by the end, you know, for thirty plus years, Daniel locked his children out of his life. But then that door was finally opened and this time when the door was shut, it was Loretta who shot it permanently.
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48:49
Tune in next week for another new episode of "Anatomy of Murder."
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Scott Weinberger
48:53
"Anatomy of Murder" is an Audiochuck original Produced and created by Weinberger Media and 1st City Media.
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49:01
Ashley Flowers and submit. David our Executive Producers.
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
49:05
So, what do you think chuck, do you approve?
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Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi
Scott Weinberger
Caroline Burroughs