Friday, February 16, 2007

More on the Burkey Story

The Statesman has a follow up story on the exposure death of Jennifer Burkey. Key graf:
Benbrook [Burkey's ill-chosen boyfriend] said the three drove eight miles up the snowmobile trail to hunt coyotes but got stuck when the silver Dodge Durango slid into a ditch. The road was marked closed to motor vehicles.
Hunting coyotes in the woods in deep snow? On a snowmobile trail? On a road closed to motor vehicles?

KTRV, having spoken to Bill Braddock, chief deputy with the Boise County Sheriff's Office, reported
The trio was apparently out on Rabbit Creek Road to hunt coyotes but, according to Braddock, doing that in this rugged part of the county is fairly uncommon.


The photo is a Google Earth shot of the area, obviously in warmer weather. This should be close to where the incident ocurred. Does that look like coyote hunting country to you?

The Statesman quotes Dr. Brandon Wilding as saying that hypothermia can cause "diminished mental function", which might explain the decision to leave Jennifer Burkey lying in the snow. Maybe, but it doesn't explain all the odd decisions leading up to the tragedy.

As Bubblehead recently noted about another odd story, "It does not make sense."

5 comments:

MountainGoat said...

I've been up in that area and I agree that where they were would not be a great coyote hunting area. There is a Rabbit Creek in Owyhee County off Idaho 78 between Murphy and the Silver City road where it would be great coyote hunting terrain. It's BLM land and typical Owyhee dessert with sagebrush and whatnot--typical coyote habitat. There's a recreation trailhead there that get's lots off off-road vehicle use with several trails that go for miles. This may be where they intended to go--perhaps when researching they located the wrong Rabbit Creek.

Anonymous said...

I happened to notice in what is presumably Dobyns' first statement that he said Burkey panicked and fled from the vehicle at one point. That piece of information is not included (or even alluded to) in any other statement, story, or timeline connected with this case. It just makes me wonder.

Anonymous said...

Dobyns and Benbrooke both have different stories of the tragic events that lead to an innocent girls death. I hope they both get what they deserve. I would not leave a stranger in that position, let alone someone I cared about.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes its hard for me to think that she is gone. At first I had a major hatred for Ash...Because of what he did...But I want everyone to know that although he played a major part in her death, ultimately it was her decision to do meth...she promised all of us she wouldnt. But she did...I am just clearing some stuff up.

Anonymous said...

Jennifer was a friend of mine. I miss her very much, I have her picture up all the time. Just 2 days before her death I was planing on calling her. I hadent talked to her in about a year, she moved and I lost touch...I feel so bad that I never got to tell how much I missed her. Anyways as soon as I heard the story about how it all happend I knew something wasn't right. Jennifer hated being in the cold, and had, as far as I knew had never really wanted to go hunting for anything. My friend who was best friends with her never told me she had gotten a boyfriend and we talked about her all the time.

I miss her so much