Dark Downeast - The Murder of Dorthea Burke (Maine)

Episode Date: March 14, 2022

STOCKTON SPRINGS, 1984: Nearly four decades is a long time to wait for justice. In the case of Dorthea "Dot" Burke, time proved to be exactly what detectives needed to secure that justice, bringing key witnesses forward to tell their story. You might assume DNA is the key to closing out cold cases, but more often than not, it’s all about getting people talking.It was a 36-year long investigation into Dot’s death. I'll walk you through it. In collaboration with the Maine State Police Unsolved Homicide Unit and with the consent of the immediate family of Dorthea “Dot” Burke, this is her story on Dark Downeast. View source material and photos for this episode at darkdowneast.com/dortheaburkeFollow @darkdowneast on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTokTo suggest a case visit darkdowneast.com/submit-caseDark Downeast is an audiochuck and Kylie Media production hosted by Kylie Low.

Every day we hear the stories of another anniversary in a long-standing cold case. One more year gone, another 365 days passed without answers for the surviving family members or the community they called home. But in the fall of 2020, the story about one of Maine's unsolved homicides was different. Headlines announced that after 36 years, Maine State Police arrested their suspect in the unsolved 1984 murder of Dorothea Dot Burke in Stockton Springs, Maine. In early 2022, Kurt Damon Sr. entered his plea, and a Waldo County Superior Court judge convicted him of manslaughter. Nearly four decades is a long time to wait for justice. In the case of Dot Burke, time proved to be exactly what detectives needed to secure that justice.

Because time is what brought key witnesses forward to tell their story. You might think DNA is the answer to closing out these cold cases, but more often than not, it's all about getting people talking. A 36-year-long investigation into Dot's death, and I've got it all right here. I'm Kylie Lowe, and in collaboration with the Maine State Police Unsolved Homicide Unit, and with the consent of the immediate family of Dorothea Dot Burke, this is her story on Dark Down East. The first thing I did when I received my self-addressed overnight envelope back in the mail from Waldo County Superior Court was grab a highlighter, a pencil, and a cup of coffee. It's not often a 30-plus-year-old

cold case is brought to closure, and I knew that this document would help me understand in greater detail just what goes into investigating and solving a murder that happened decades in the past. Maine State Police Detective Jay Pelletier filed the affidavit of probable cause with the court in October of 2020. Jay is Detective Corporal of the Unsolved Homicide Unit, and you've heard his name before on Dark Down East. He worked with Alaska State Troopers to interview Stephen Downs in the case of Sophie Sergi. I went to work reading and marking up this document, scribbling questions in the margins to ask Jay Pelletier and his lieutenant, Jeff Love. The affidavit outlined in great detail the timeline of the last day of Dot's life, and the celebration that defined the day, only to have it end in senseless tragedy.

It began on June 23rd, 1984. It was a main summer Friday night, and it was going to be a fun one at that. Dot Burke's niece was getting married, and Dot herself was celebrating her 63rd birthday. Since the wedding would occupy the evening, Dot's daughter, Ruth, planned to throw her mother a birthday party the next day. And family members had a plan to make sure Dot had a special moment at the wedding, too. Dot's sister, Pearl, dropped her off at Ruth's house that afternoon. Dot didn't drive, so hitching a ride with friends and family was how she got around. Dot stepped out of the car and slung her black purse strap over her shoulder. It had all the essentials for the evening inside, including a new carton of Bright 100 cigarettes.

According to the affidavit, Ruth's house wasn't the only place Dot had been that day. Dot's granddaughter later told investigators that they were in town together at the Calico shop. Her granddaughter remembered Dot talking to two guys, Kirk and Mike, she thought their names were. For whatever reason, Dot handed the two men 20 bucks for beer and gas. Back at Ruth's house, Dot got herself fixed up for the wedding, removing two ties from her maroon blouse that were used to secure the sleeves, maybe preferring the look or comfort without them. Dot wasn't sure where the night would bring her after the wedding. She liked to have a good time, and it was her birthday after all, so she told Ruth that if she didn't make it back to her house that night, she'd be staying at her sister's place, also in Stockton Springs.

The wedding of Dot's niece was held in Stockton Springs, and the reception was just down the road at Prospect Hall in Prospect. It was a town hall used for gatherings and functions on the second floor, located just above a general store along Route 1A and Fort Knox Road. The space was filled with family and friends celebrating the nuptials of Pat and Danny Eaton, but the family didn't let Dot's birthday go unnoticed either. They called Dot up on stage and sang her happy birthday, tossing confetti up in the air and watching the pastel colors cascade down and settle onto Dot as she smiled. She brushed some of the confetti off her shirt and sweater, but confetti has a funny way of sticking around.

Pieces lingered in Dot's hair. Among the wedding reception guests was a man named Kurt Damon Sr. Dot was social, and she chatted with nearly everyone at the reception that night, according to witnesses. That included Kurt. At some point during the evening, though, Dot took a break from socializing to pop into the convenience store on the first floor of the building to pick up a six-pack of Michelob Light. According to witness statements collected by

Detective Richard Cook, Kurt Damon was beginning to cause a problem at the reception and was in, quote, a fighting mood. So he and two other wedding guests left the reception. The crowd was beginning to thin out, with Dot, too, saying she wanted to go out dancing. At least one other person saw her leave the reception around 9.15pm. Meanwhile, Kurt and his two friends were out looking for their next move, and ended up at D&K in Frankfurt, a local bar and lounge about three miles away from the reception hall. When they left that bar, they drove Kurt to The Square in Stockton Springs, an area between four cross streets near the center of town. It sounds like this area was a typical hangout spot, but when Kurt got out of

the car, he told the two others that he didn't see anyone he knew. But the woman in the car pointed ahead at a person sitting on the game room steps part of Worcester's store. Quote, Dot's right there. You know her. End quote. A witness in the square later told Detective Rex Kelly that he saw an interaction between a woman sitting on the steps of Worcester's store and a man who approached her after getting out of a vehicle that night. He said the woman, who he later identified as Dorothea Burke from a photo, was drinking a beer as a man approached her. According to the witness description, the man

was heavyset, around 5 foot 9 inches tall, with dirty blonde hair, wearing a chamois shirt that might have been blue. It would have been hard to tell at night. The witness could overhear the conversation between the man and woman. The man told Dot he was headed to Cape Docks, another hangout spot near Cape Jellison. The witness would later pick a photo from a lineup, identifying the man talking to Dot as Kurt Damon Sr. Every great wedding has an after-party, and that was the case for Pat and Danny Eaton. As the festivities at Prospect Hall wound down, the new Mr. and Mrs. found their way to Captain Jack's around 11.30 p.m. They didn't stay long, 15 or 20 minutes maybe, but while they were there, they saw Dot come into the bar and use the restroom. Another witness said they saw Dot hanging out with a few men at Captain Jack's that night.

One of those men, described as 20 to 23 years old, heavy set, with sandy brown hair and a dark color chamois shirt on. He would later identify this man as Kurt Damon Sr. in a photo lineup. The witness said Dot left Captain Jack's with Kurt that night. They were headed to Priscilla's, another bar in town. Someone announced, Dot is buying, so they'd be providing the transportation. Just after 11.30pm, Dot walked out the door with Kurt and two other men. According to the affidavit in support of probable cause, one person saw Dot at Priscilla's on the night of June 23, 1984.

She rolled up in a red compact car driven by a stocky young man around 25 years old, the witness estimated. That was the last reported sighting of Dot Burke by any witnesses that night. When Dot's daughter Ruth woke up on Sunday morning, June 24th, 1984, she realized her mother wasn't there. She remembered that Dot said she might stay at her sister's house that night instead, so Ruth called her aunt Beulah to see if Dot was there. But Dot never showed up at her house that night either. Two days passed. There was no sign of Dot, no calls for a ride home. Dot's family called the Stockton Springs Police Department to report Dot missing on Tuesday, June 26, 1984. That was the first question I wanted to ask Jay Pelletier and Jeff Love of the Maine State Police. I've seen it in

numerous cases from this era. A 48 or even 72 hour hold before a missing persons report can be filed. Was that true for Dorothea Burke? Here's Jay Pelletier. I'm not aware of anything that indicated law enforcement had to wait a certain amount of time before an official report. She was supposed to be at home on June 24th. And by home, I mean Ruth's house, her daughter's. And they started looking for her on that day. So I believe the assumption was that Dot at some point would return home. And when she didn't for a couple of days, that's when the official report was made to Stockton Springs Police Department. Dot's family had every reason to be concerned. They'd been searching for Dot

on their own, but it was time to get the support of police to find her. Two days later, a passing motorist driving from Meadow Road onto Old County Road saw something unusual in the tall grass between the Y intersection of the two roads. When he was able to get a closer look, the man realized what he was seeing. Trooper Craig Handley arrived on the scene to find the body of a woman lying on her back in the tall grass. Her clothing was disheveled and displaced. She had wounds on her face. A family member arrived at the scene to confirm that the body was that of Dorothea Dot Burke. A post-mortem examination revealed that Dot suffered several facial and skull fractures, lacerations to her face, partial disruption of the brain stem,

and multiple rib fractures. The medical examiner reported the cause of death as multiple facial and skull fractures with hemorrhage and subdural hematomas due to blunt force trauma. The death was ruled a homicide. The investigation into the murder of Dorothea Burke began with interviewing those who had spent time with Dot on the night she was last seen alive, as well as collecting evidence from the scene where her body was found and where she last spent time that night. Dot's maroon sweater and pink blouse were retained as evidence. In a move that would later prove to be critical to the physical evidence that solved this case, detectives also collected a sample of the original confetti thrown at the wedding reception, the pastel bits of paper that rained down around Dot to celebrate her birthday that night.

Detective Cook noted that the confetti he collected for evidence appeared to be the same shape and color as the confetti that he'd seen in Dot's hair after she was found. Given witness statements that placed Dot in a red vehicle on the last night anyone had seen her alive, investigators located the car they believed to be the one in question, a 1980 maroon Chevette owned by Kurt Damon Sr.'s parents. Kurt was living with his mother and father at the time, and his parents consented to a search of the Chevette. Investigators made a compelling discovery on the floor of the backseat of that car. Confetti.

It looked like the same shape and color as the confetti in Dot's hair and the confetti thrown at the wedding reception. It was collected and retained as evidence. Detectives first spoke with Kurt Damon Sr. about the death of Dorothea Burke on the same day her body was found. So his name came up early on during the investigation, and it came up when investigators were developing a timeline as to where Dot was throughout that night on the 23rd. That timeline brought her to Bucksport and some local establishments in Bucksport. Kurt's name came up on that night when both were seen at the same locations throughout the night. So he was actually interviewed the same day that Dot's body was recovered.

After hearing his Miranda rights, Kurt agreed to answer some questions. He told detectives Rex Kelly and Richard Rachel that he assumed police wanted to talk to him because they were talking to everyone who had been at the wedding reception that night. He told detectives that he was, in fact, at the reception on June 23rd,

and he saw Dot there, but he didn't talk to her. The detectives asked Kurt if he had anything to drink that night, and he told them he was drinking rum and cokes and maybe a few Budweiser's. They asked if he remembered the confetti family members tossed into the air around Dot to celebrate her birthday, and if Kurt got any on him. Kurt shook his head and said no, no confetti on him. Kurt walked detectives through his timeline that evening. He got a ride to D&L to meet up with two friends, but they weren't there, so he got a ride to the square in Stockton Springs around 10 p.m., where he spoke to a few guys. He told

detectives he, quote, saw someone sitting on the steps of the store in the square but not going to say it was her, end quote. According to Kurt's version of events, he left the square in Stockton Springs hitching a ride with a family member who happened to be driving through the area. He got a ride home and was going to stay up to watch some wrestling, but decided to go to bed sometime after 11 p.m. Detectives checked on a few details, asking Kurt if he went to Captain Jack's in Bucksport that night or Priscilla's. Kurt told them he hadn't actually been to those bars in quite some time. Detectives wanted to know, did Kurt use his mother's car, that red Chevette, on the night of June 23rd? Nope. Kurt told them he didn't drive the Chevette that night, but yes, that's usually

the car he drives if he needs to, since his own car had been broken down for several months. They asked Kurt if he knew how Dot died. Kurt told the detectives he didn't know anything about it. Then he asked the detectives if he should have an attorney. That's when the interview stopped. The next day, June 29th, 1994, police returned to the home where Kurt lived with his parents, and they consented to a second search of that maroon Chevette. Detectives actually seized the vehicle and sent it to the crime lab for processing. Additional items of evidence were collected during that second search of the car. Four cigarette butts in the ashtray on the dash. Three of them were bright 100s. That's what Dot

smoked. She had a brand new carton of them with her on the day of the wedding. Then almost a month later, on July 20th, 1984, police executed a search warrant at the residence of Kurt Damon Sr., collecting a red shirt from the household that belonged to Kurt. Kurt watched as the shirt was seized and labeled. Another piece of evidence added to the case of Dot Burke. When another month passed, detectives wanted to speak with Kurt again, and he again agreed to answer their questions. He doubled down on what he'd already told them.

Kurt said he wasn't at Captain Jack's or Priscilla's the night of the wedding reception, and that he didn't see Dot after the reception, and he did not drive his mother's Chevette that night. Quote, I know that for a fact. End quote. The investigation stalled after Kurt's second interview in August of 1984. The next interview noted in the case was in June of 1999. I asked Jay Pelletier, why the long gap in activity? Mainly in an affidavit, you're summarizing the major points of an investigation. So you will highlight whenever those major points occur. And in this particular case, from 1984-85 to early 2000s or late 90s, there wasn't much information in there.

That's a product, unfortunately, sometimes of how these cases grow cold. Officers get promoted, they move on, they retire, the case gets handed over from one detective to another. And that's the reason that you're seeing a gap in those years for information in the affidavit. I appreciate Jay's honesty here and that he didn't dodge the question. Yeah, sometimes the reality is that some cases go cold because of turnover and investigations see long gaps in time without forward motion.

But time became what this case needed. So in 1999, the investigation jump-started again when detectives spoke to a witness who remembered overhearing a conversation between Kurt and her former husband. Her ex-husband had allegedly been in the car with Kurt that night, the maroon chevette that he told investigators he wasn't driving. During the overheard conversation, the witness's ex-husband said he knew what happened to the woman, that she'd gotten out to use the bathroom and Kurt backed over her. The men referred to the woman as Ma Burke and said after they did something with her body and then Kurt and the other man took her money.

In September of 2001, 17 years after Dot was murdered, another witness came forward. Though his name is printed and unredacted in the probable cause affidavit, and therefore public record, I'll call him only by his first name, Mike. After an interview with Detective Warren Furland, another detective named Dean Jackson offered to give Mike a ride home. During the drive, Mike opened up to Detective Jackson. Mike told him that although he'd just denied causing Dot's death in his earlier interview, he felt guilty about her death and he didn't know why. Mike said that if it turned out he killed Dot or was involved in any way, he wanted Detective Jackson

to be the one to quote, take him in, end quote. Mike wondered out loud if a hypnotist might help him retrieve some long-suppressed memories. A few days later, detectives followed up with Mike to see if he could expand on those things he'd said on the ride home with Detective Jackson a few days earlier. Mike again tried to remember the details of that June evening of 1984 but admitted he had a lot to drink that night and smoked a lot of marijuana so his recollections were hazy at best but he knew that he worked at the trend that night and he went to the docks after work

though he didn't remember how he got there Mike said that the next thing he knew he was standing on that dirt road with Kurt, and Kurt was standing over Dot Burke. Mike said that, for sure, positively, Dot had been hit at least once or maybe twice. Detectives asked Mike how he managed to recall all of that information now, and Mike said that just the night before, he had a nightmare about Kirk, quote, clubbing dot, end quote. Mike said maybe it was a hammer or a tire iron.

Mike wanted more help retrieving these supposed repressed memories, saying, quote, if I have to go to jail, then I have to go to jail, end quote. Before detectives left Mike's house that night, he told them that he'd always been scared of Kurt. Kurt used to beat Mike up in school. Mike also seemed regretful, telling the detectives that if only he could have recalled those memories 17 years ago, Dot's murder would have already been solved. A few weeks later, Detective Dean Jackson spoke with Mike once again. Mike's tune had changed a bit. He wasn't there that night, and he didn't have anything to do with the homicide. That's what he said. He said the memories he thought he had of that night Dot died were probably just a dream. And then,

there was another several-year gap in the case. In 2005, investigators caught up with Kurt Damon Sr. again, showing up at his house at 9 a.m. one January morning. Detectives told Kurt that their investigation kept leading back to him, that Kurt was involved in the death of Dorothea Burke. Kurt was sitting in their police cruiser when detectives asked him if Dot's death was an accident. Kurt stated, quote, I don't know. I'm not going to talk about it. End quote. As each year passed in the investigation, Kurt Damon Sr. remained a suspect that police couldn't rule out.

With any cold case or any act of homicide, there is always a number of suspects that we start with. And based on the information, the evidence, the testimonial or physical, wherever that information leads us, it can help us rule people out who might be suspects. But when people aren't able to be ruled out, it may help us focus on who is responsible. The Dorothea Burke homicide investigation was still open in the late summer of 2006. 22 years had passed, and though it might have appeared to be a cold case on the surface, looking at the affidavit now, it's clear that things were happening behind the scenes. I've already said it. Sometimes time is exactly what an investigation needs. Time changes people. It changes relationships

and loyalties. The people whose secrets you kept decades before might not mean the same thing to you anymore. Kurt Damon and his wife separated in 2006. That August, she spoke to investigators. She told detectives that the last time they showed up to their house in 2005, she had asked Kurt what it was all about. Kurt told her there was an accident when he was young, and a friend picked up a girl and wanted to take her home that night. Kurt told his wife that he got dropped off at home in the wee hours of the morning, only to have his friend show up sometime after, saying, something really bad happened.

After Kurt and his wife were granted a formal divorce a few months later in 2006, she spoke to investigators again. Kurt's ex-wife revealed that she wasn't forthcoming about everything she knew during that first conversation. Like others had expressed before her, she too was afraid of Kurt. But the woman kept talking. She told detectives that in either 2001 or 2002, Kurt told her that he was there when Dorothea Burke got backed over by a car. Eleven years would pass before detectives met with Kurt's ex-wife again. The details she provided this time were even clearer. Perhaps time had actually strengthened her recollections, or maybe just dulled the fear she once had

about implicating her ex-husband. She told detectives that the first time Kurt told her about Dot Burke's death, he said that he was with two friends, one of them Mike, the witness with the repressed memories. Kurt said that the three men picked Dot up from a bar because she wanted a ride home. Kurt had a few drinks in him when he told his then-wife what happened that night, explaining that they were in his mother's car and they backed over Dot. Kurt continued on, saying that state police had seized the vehicle to look for forensic evidence and felt investigators would find, quote, evidence that would implicate me, end quote. His then-wife told Kurt he should turn himself in.

Kurt only responded, quote, I would spend the rest of my life in jail, end quote. State police tried to speak with Kurt again in 2018, but Kurt wasn't up for a chat. Forensic testing and crime lab technology saw numerous advancements in the over three decades that passed since Dorothea Burke's murder. In 2019, evidence that had long been part of the investigation could be processed and analyzed in new ways. With the scope of the investigation and numerous witness statements implicating Kurt Damon Sr., the best next step was to re-examine everything they had for physical evidence to either prove or disprove the working theory in the case.

When you boil all the evidence down, what it comes to are brands of beer, certain types of beer that both Dot and Kurt were drinking. There's confetti and there's fibers. And that's the majority of our evidence. In September of 2019, scientists at the Maine State Crime Lab examined fibers removed from Dot's sweater and blouse and compared them to the red shirt

that detectives collected from Kurt's house in the days following Dot's death. Kurt's shirt could not be excluded as a source of the light red cotton fibers removed from Dot's sweater and blouse. Similar fibers were collected from a cigarette carton found at the scene with Dot's body. In January 2020, forensic chemist for the Maine State Crime Lab, Allison Gingras, examined other items of evidence, including a cardboard carton from a six-pack of Michelob beer. It was stained with possible blood spatter on the handle and side, with some of those stains containing possible tissue.

Under microscopic examination, chemist Gingras identified apparent human vellus hairs of undetermined body origin and two red fibers. Dot drank Michelob. She'd left the wedding reception to pick up a six-pack of it that night. Kurt, on the other hand, drank Budweiser. It probably wasn't Kurt's beer. Allison Gingras also examined the confetti that was thrown during the wedding reception, those pieces of a celebration within a celebration, Dot's birthday not forgotten despite the marriage of her niece on the same day. She noted that the multicolored confetti pieces were four,

eight, and ten millimeters in diameter with small scalloped edges, and other pieces were irregularly shaped. She compared these pieces to the confetti found on Dot Burke's body, in and on her belongings at the scene, and inside the 1980 maroon Chevette. They all matched. It was the same confetti. Here's Lieutenant Jeff Love. And the extensive examination that she did, utilizing technologies of today to examine evidence of yesterday, that helped draw connections and helped, I think, the prosecutor solidify the timeline and figure out exactly what took place and what happened. It wasn't just the confetti itself, it was the location of that confetti that revealed intricate but important details about the circumstances of that night. When investigators processed the Chevette and found that confetti, it was on the floor of the back seat of the car, presumably where Dot was sitting as they drove around bar hopping that night. Kurt was also at the wedding reception, but he told police he didn't get any confetti on him.

Even if that had not been true, there was no confetti in the driver's seat of the car. Do you see what I mean? Intricate, but important. The confetti was thrown at the wedding reception on dot while family members were singing Happy Birthday to her. So she got a lot in her hair. And some of that confetti was deposited in other parts. And we feel that it connects scenes together and suspects together. The Michelob carton, the confetti, the fibers,

it all contributed to the growing evidence in Dorothea Burke's case. The evidence wasn't ruling their suspect out. When the case and all of its evidence was presented to a grand jury in September 2020, the grand jury agreed and handed down an indictment. Main State Police arrested Kurt Damon Sr. for the murder of Dorothea Burke. In February 2022,

Kurt Damon Sr. took a deal and pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter. I asked Jay Pelletier and Jeff Love about the plea deal and what goes into the process of changing the charge. Once a person is charged, and in this case with murder, the Attorney General's office, along with our agency, will have conversations about potential disposition. And those conversations also take place with the defendant's attorneys. And obviously, everybody has a right to a trial. And the pros and cons of each side are weighed out. And there's a decision that comes. And in this case, it was an agreed upon guilty plea to the charge of manslaughter, given the circumstances of the case. We have input in that the attorney general's office makes those decisions. And also Dot's family was consulted and also had input as to what the outcome and the final outcome should

be. We always take family's input into consideration because this is their family member, you know, that was taken from them. They definitely deserve to have input as to what happens in their family member's case. In the end, that's really who we're working for. The circumstances of the case pointed to manslaughter, not murder. The difference between murder and manslaughter is murder is intentionally or knowingly causes the death of another human, whereas manslaughter is recklessly or with criminal negligence causes the death of another human being. With that comes different penalties. Murder, if convicted, carries a minimum mandatory sentence of 25 years. Manslaughter in 1985 carried a maximum of 20 years.

Today is different. Manslaughter has a maximum of 30 years, but since this occurred in 1985, we have to apply 1985 law. Kurt Damon Sr. was sentenced to 20 years, all but 12 suspended, with four years probation, in accordance with 1980s law. As of March 2022, this arrest and conviction is the most recent success of the Maine State Police Unsolved Homicide Unit. With about 100 cases still on the main list of unsolved homicides and missing persons, there's more work to be done. But Dotberg's case is proof that justice is possible. We never give up. We've had several successes in the past and we will have several more. But these detectives, this work is their life passion and they want to work for these families and bring closure

to the family and the communities that, you know, this horrific crime has shocked. So Jay, what was the key to closing out this case after so many years? This was a combined effort over years. And obviously, 1985 till now is a long time. More recently, we redoubled our efforts to see if we could bring this case to a closure. And really, I think what brought it to a closure was looking at it from a 30,000-foot view and just a comprehensive review of the entire case file. One crucial element of the investigation was certain witnesses coming forward, willing to share what they knew after their circumstances and relationships changed.

Alliances and relationships change over time. So, for example, if somebody is in fear of retribution or if somebody is concerned for their well-being, relationships can change and that circumstance can change where they at any given period of time are not afraid anymore or can, with good conscience, come forward with information that they have. And that's true for almost any case that we investigate. And it was also true in this case. Alliances change, relationships change, and sometimes that is an example where time is on our side as cold case investigators and can be beneficial to an investigation. It's a testament to the power of sharing what you know or what you think you know in an unsolved case. Really only a small percentage of cases nationwide are solved through DNA alone and I've read some

statistics that suggest it's only about 23%. So really what solves these cases are the totality of the circumstances. And when you put everything together and getting a complete understanding of what the evidence and the information given to you by witnesses means. So we really rely heavily on what people tell us. And if there's anything that can come from this example is that if somebody has information on a cold case that they're not sure they should come forward with, then this should be an example where it has worked. It worked in this case and it can work in whichever case that a listener may know somebody that has information. We do listen to you and it can result in a charge and it can also result in a conviction. Don't assume that we know that we should speak with you. Instead, I would suggest to reach out to us, share the

information that you have. Let us determine if it's relevant to the investigation and we can document it and go from there. Do not discount what your information could do for long-standing unsolved cases like Dot Burke's. Your information could corroborate existing evidence we have in the case file. It could send us in a completely new direction, and it can also provide answers to the families. And that's what our main goal is, is to provide answers to the family and honor their loved one's death by discovering how they died and who was responsible for their death. Jay Pelletier spoke with Dorothea Burke's daughter Ruth about sharing her story with me on Dark Down East. He invited her to reach out to me, but only if she was up for it.

Ultimately, I did not hear from Ruth, but she gave her consent and put her trust in Jay and Jeff, as well as me, to handle this story with care and respect. Her family has been through a lot. Jay recognizes that even though justice is the ending families hope for, the pursuit of that justice can be re-traumatizing.

When we are investigating these cases, at times there can be a long period of time between communications. And with this particular case, we knew that we were at a point that we were going to be requesting charges of the grand jury. And we were able to share that information with the family. But we also know we're reinserting ourselves into their lives all over again. And we're kind of asking them to revisit all those feelings that they had back in 1985. And this case was no different than any of the other cold cases that we've investigated and brought to resolution where that definitely played a factor.

And, you know, it's difficult. It's difficult for us. It's difficult for them that they have to relive all those old emotions again. And now that charges have been filed, now it's a different type of conversation. And to try to walk them through the criminal justice system, it can be very overwhelming. And Dot's family handledin-law, told the court that the day Dot died, quote, It was a day that our hearts were broken forever. Our lives changed forever. For more than 37 years, Kurt went on with his life like nothing ever happened. I hope he spends the rest of his life in prison, end quote. Kurt Damon Sr. is 58 years old. He'll be 70 when he's released from prison, if he serves his entire 12-year sentence. If there's anything we should take away from this story,

it's that you could bring closure to a long-standing unsolved homicide in Maine. If you have information or know someone who does, please share it with investigators. Don't assume they know they should speak with you. You can find the tip form linked in the show description of this episode East, I'm excited to release a special project that I've been working on with the Maine State Police Unsolved Homicide Unit. This episode will give you an inside look at what goes into investigating and solving these longstanding cases and the humans who dedicate their lives to this work. You'll hear from the commanding officer Jeff Love, Assistant Attorney General Lara Nomani, forensic chemist Allison Chingres, victim witness advocate Renee Fornier, and more from investigator Jay Pelletier. Follow Dark Down East on your favorite podcast app

so you're the first to get this new episode. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. Thank you to Jay Pelletier and Jeff Love for contributing to this episode and to the family of Dorothea Burke for placing your trust in me to tell her story. The primary source for this episode was the affidavit in support of probable cause filed by Jay Pelletier. If you're interested in seeing that document, please send me an email

at hello at darkdowneast.com. For the last few months, you know I've been featuring the cases of missing people throughout New England. Every case is listed at darkdowneast.com slash missing. So many of those names and faces, those humans, are still missing. And their families are waiting for them to come home. Please, this week, I hope you'll take a moment to go to darkdowneast.com slash missing and read their names, see their faces, and know their stories in hopes of bringing them home to their family. If there is an active missing persons search going on in New England

and you want it featured on Dark Down East, send me an email at hello at darkdowneast.com subject line missing so I can share their story on missing New England. Thank you for supporting this show and allowing me to do what I do. I'm honored to use this platform for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers in cold missing persons and homicide cases. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East.