Going West: True Crime - Tommy Burkett // 148

Episode Date: November 13, 2021

In late November of 1991, a college student from Virginia was visiting home for Thanksgiving when he decided to meet with some old friends for a night out. The next day, his parents returned home to find their son dead. At first glance his death appeared to be a suicide and police labeled it open and shut. But then, more details started to emerge, like a car chase through a neighborhood, unreported injuries, and more, turning this case into an Unsolved Mystery. This is the story of Tommy Burkett. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans, I'm your host Teef and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. Welcome to yet another Friday episode here at Going West. Thank you guys for tuning in. A lot of you guys have been super excited about the second weekly episode, which makes us super happy. Yes, we're so excited to be able to give you guys a second episode a week. And today's case was suggested to us by Luke from Indiana, so thank you so much, Luke.

Yes, thank you, Luke. Thank you to everybody who gives us suggestions. We look into all of them, and we really appreciate you, and thank you so much, Luke. Yes, thank you, Luke. Thank you to everybody who gives us suggestions. We look into all of them and we really appreciate you and thank you so much, Luke, for showing us Tommy's case. Also, if you guys want extra episodes, I know we're doing two a week now, but if you want more going west on top of that, then you guys should definitely check out our Patreon page.

That's patreon.com slash going west podcast. We have over 50 full length ad free bonus episodes for you guys to binge. Alright guys this is episode 148 of going west so let's get into it. In late November of 1991, a college student from Virginia was heading home for Thanksgiving when he decided to meet with some old friends for a night out. The next day, his parents returned home in the evening to find their son dead. At first glance, his death appeared to be a suicide and police labeled it open and shut.

But then more details started to emerge, like a car chase through a neighborhood, unreported injuries and more, that turned this case into an unsolved mystery. is the story of Tommy Burkett. Tommy's Calvin Burkett, who everyone called Tommy, was born on June 9, 1970 in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania to parents Tom David Burkett Sr. and Maxine or Beth Burkett. Tommy's parents were both English teachers who taught in the Corning New York School District, and then at some point they moved to Herndon, Virginia, where they taught in the Fairfax County School District there, and also Tommy by the way had his sister named Amy. Tommy's mother, again known as Beth, taught at Northern Virginia Community College, Mary

Mount University, and George Mason, whereas his father Tom worked as an English teacher at Oakton High School, and he had his poetry work published in numerous journals, like they were all very into poetry, it seemed. Tommy grew up a quiet but confident child who loved to write, play music, especially his guitar, and he loved to ride horses. And just like his parents, Tommy seemed to be interested in poetry, because in his obituary, there is a short poem by him that says, "'High is the clouds, a hawk tries to touch the sun. I think it could be done.'" He attended Shantilly High School, which was just about 15 or so minutes from his parents' house, and he graduated in 1988. After high school, Tommy decided to stay

close to home and attend Marymount University, which, again, his mother actually taught at, located in Arlington, Virginia, which was only about a half-hour drive southeast from his parents' home in Herndon. While in college, Tommy majored in psychology, and he was actually living in the campus dormitory. It was now 1991, and Tommy was a junior at Marymount, and he worked part-time in the campus dormitory. It was now 1991 and Tommy was a junior at Marymount, and he worked part-time in the admissions office on campus, but things weren't really going all that well that year. It appeared that Tommy was the victim of vicious bullying. On November 12, 1991, Tommy called his mother Beth and explained that his locked campus mailbox had been broken

into and his paycheck was stolen. And he was promised by campus security that the Arlington Police Department would be notified and they would come speak to him about this, but that never happened, and it was later found out that Marymount never even contacted police at all. Then, on November 16th, so four days later, an altercation between him and two other students occurred in Gerard Hall on campus. Tommy was assaulted by students Philip Howley and his roommate Donald Adam McEwen, who also lived in the dorms. The Dean of Students at the time, a woman named Judy Baker, actually told Tommy's parents

that he was the one who attacked another student, but other students on campus who witnessed this altercation told a very different story. They explained that Howley and McEwen had been harassing Tommy constantly, and this particular incident left Tommy with black eyes and a swollen face that made him look almost unrecognizable. This wasn't just like a real quick altercation. I mean, they literally like beat him up. It's kind of weird though that Judy the Dean had said that Tommy attacked the other students which I feel like we see this in movies too where the bullies will pin it on the bull,

the bully, the victim? The victim? Yes, the victim. The victim, yeah. The bully and the victim. So I feel like we've seen this in movies, you know, where the bullies will pin it on the victim and it's actually not their fault, but I feel like in this situation,

he got his paycheck stolen, and if a bunch of other students are like, no, Tommy was the one that was attacked, I just wonder why the dean felt the opposite. Yeah, and we're going to get a lot more into this as we go on. So, between November 16th, which was the day of the assault and November 26th, Tommy had met with campus officials on four separate occasions about his harassment, but it appears that nothing was done. It also appears that Tommy called the police in August and in October, so a couple months

prior, according to his parents' website that they later created for him, but again, no action was taken. Tommy is being harassed, he's being bullied, and there's multiple reports about it, but nothing's happening. Yeah, and this will come up later. This is an issue with the campus altogether. So Thanksgiving was coming up, and Tommy was excited to be home for a week

and just enjoy spending time with his family. And he was planning on leaving the dorms upon his return to school because of the harassment that he was suffering from. But for now, it was just good to be home. Tommy returned back home to his parents' house in Herndon, where he would stay in his childhood room on Tuesday, November 26. He spent Thanksgiving with his family on the 28th, and they had plans to attend a poetry

reading on the afternoon of December 1st. But he also wanted to make some time to hang out with his high school friends, of course, that he hadn't seen in a long time, so he made plans with them as well during this break. On November 30th at 8 p.m., Tommy informed his parents that he was heading out to a friend's house, and he would be back later that night. This high school friend of his was living in a townhouse with three other young men, the same age as Tommy, on Westwater Court in centerville, Virginia, which is only about a seven-minute

drive from his parents' house on Mir Kirk Lane in Herndon. And by the way, the names of these friends have not been released. Yeah, exactly, so we don't know who these friends are. So Tommy wasn't going to go too far from from home and he was excited to see an old friend and possibly make some new ones. His mother Beth told him that if he was gonna be late to make sure and call, and Tommy's response was, I will, Mom, but those would be the last words

that he would ever speak to her. Tommy left that night in his 1985 blue-ford Mustang and headed out into the night. Later in the evening, Tommy didn't call or come home, but his parents just figured that he decided to stay at a friend's house, and that he would be home in the morning to attend the poetry reading. But the next day, which again was December 1, 1991, Tommy still hadn't shown up, and by this time it was 11.45am, so his parents decided to run an errand, but when they returned home at 2.45pm, Tommy still wasn't there, so they opted to go to the reading without him.

Tommy didn't leave a phone number where he could be reached, and this being 1991, he also didn't have a cell phone, so there really was no way of reaching him. At exactly 6-10 pm that day, Tom and Beth returned home, and they noticed that Tommy's blue Mustang was sitting in front of the house parked on the curb. They were relieved because Tommy was finally home, so they pulled into the driveway and entered the house through the garage. But remember, you know, he was late, he was supposed to be at the poetry reading,

but they're just glad that they see his car, so everything should be fine, right? All the lights were off in the house, so Beth entered the kitchen and turned the lights on, and then she walked into the living room, but she didn't see Tommy. She then walked out to the front door where she turned on another light and called Tommy's name, but she didn't receive an answer. Then Tom called out for Tommy, but still, nothing. So he decided to walk up the stairs where Tommy's room was located and knock on the door, but again, he didn't hear a thing.

Beth called out to Tommy and said he's probably sleeping, so Tommy opened his son's door and what he found was their worst nightmare. When Tommy entered his son's room, he witnessed Tommy's body seated upright on his couch facing his bedroom door. His legs were crossed at the ankles, and his limp hands were lying in his lap, holding a 357 magnum handgun. Tom immediately called 911, and two ambulances were dispatched. One, according to witnesses, had its lights on when it turned down a street next to the Birkets.

It stopped and then someone got out to retrieve something from a small ravine in the Birkets adjacent neighborhood. Super bizarre. Yeah, really, really weird here and this will come up later as well. So then they got back inside the vehicle, the ambulance. They turned their lights off and then they drove away slowly. The other ambulance arrived at the Perquettes, an examine Tommy's body, explaining that he had been dead for several hours because he was cold to the touch and Rigor Mordus had already set in. But the weird thing is

that law enforcement later recorded the injuries as occurring at 6-10 pm. So right when Beth and Tom got home and the time of death at 7.30 pm, which is so weird because he was already dead by the time, you know, like, why would they do that? Yeah, everybody was already there. If you're saying he's been dead for hours, why would you record his injuries right when his parents got home?

That makes no sense. Right, so the EMTs are saying one thing, the police officers are saying a different thing. Then against procedure, the EMTs left the house abruptly without taking Tommy's body away, which is something that, you know, they don't do that. So overall, just a lot of weird stuff going on. And shortly after the ambulance left, a Fairfax County police officer entered the Birkhet home, and before even going upstairs to look at the scene, he bluntly told Tom and

Beth, quote, �Don't blame yourselves. College kids kill themselves all the time, and there really is no warning sign for suicide. Which is such a terrible thing to say, because one, you're assuming that he committed suicide when you haven't even been upstairs, and two, like that's just kind of harsh. Yeah, that's really unsympathetic. Especially because they were wondering where their son was all day, and they go upstairs to find him dead, and they're the ones who discovered him, so they are really going

through it, and that is a super-insensitive thing to say. I totally agree. The thing is too, both Tom and Beth notice things that just really didn't add up. So first, when Tom had originally entered Tommy's bedroom, he noticed that Tommy had a very badly bruised right ear that was also bloody. On top of this, his white cotton sweater that he was wearing

was torn at the neck and stretched out, and he had multiple cuts and abrasions. He also noticed that the gun cylinder in Tommy's lap was unlatched, meaning that it wouldn't be possible for the gun to fire. Which that is, I mean, that's a big one. On top of, I mean, of course, all the abrasions and stuff like that, it doesn't line up. Yeah, I mean, the fact that that cylinder was unlatched means, I mean, I can't imagine that the cylinder would have magically unlatched after, you know, a shot was fired. Also, to me, I mean, the fact that he's just so, so gracefully holding the gun and it's sitting in his lap. I don't really see that either, I mean I'm not saying that's not possible, I'm just

saying there's a lot of weird things here. So also there were towels placed on each side of Tommy's body to prop him up and they were covered in blood. The Burkets also noticed that there were broken plants in the balcony area, small blood spatter on the wall leading up to the stairs, as well as muddy footprints leading out the back door and towards that small ravine where the first ambulance had stopped and picked something up. So to them, it appeared that this was definitely a crime scene and not just a tragic suicide.

But police apparently thought otherwise, and they produced a bank slip, apparently found in Tommy's jean pocket that simply said, I want to be cremated. What? That is such a, what the heck? I don't know, yeah, that's such a weird like suicide note. I want to be cremated.

It also, how convenient that you would want to be cremated, you know, so that we can't, again, just like we were talking about the last case so that we can't exume the body and analyze it later if we need, you know what I'm saying? But the biggest thing of all here is that Beth and Tom immediately noticed that it was not Tommy's handwriting.

So, Fairfax PD didn't tape off the scene at all, they didn't take any blood samples or evidence, and before lead officer Thomas Lyons left the scene, he told the Birkets, the one thing we don't do is clean up the mess, you're gonna have to do that. So much insensitive shit being said here. I know, just so fucked up. But the Berquets didn't do that because they wanted to preserve what was left of a compromised crime scene. Can I just say how smart they are because the fact that they notice all these discrepancies, the fact that they're not wanting to clean up the scene, like they, they know some things up and they're trying to do everything they can to get it all situated and they're corrected. Yeah, they're legitimately doing a better job than the police here.

So police also didn't retrieve any fingerprints and no cast of the muddy footprints were made. So it was pretty clear that this crime scene had been botched severely. crime scene had been botched severely. Another ambulance arrived to take Tommy's body away just before 7 p.m. and during the body removal, Beth overheard officer Nathan Laney giggling during the process. So it seemed that this department had no regard for this family's tragedy.

So sad. Like that these poor parents, how are you really gonna laugh when this family, these parents, just lost their son? And when there's so much injustice, nothing is being done properly. That's just disgusting. So at 7.06 pm, Beth decided to go out to Tommy's Mustang to see if there might be any clues inside. And an officer named Darryl McEckern, drove up in his cruiser, reached his hand out of his car window,

grabbing Beth's forearm and said, ma'am, we've already done that. I'm gonna say a little prayer for you. And that's when Beth responded with, I don't want your prayers. I want you to find out what happened to my son. And this is another thing. It's like why are you trying to stop her from doing her own due diligence? Like, what are you hiding?

Yeah, I mean, it's clear that you didn't talk to any of the neighbors, you didn't take any fingerprints. I mean, to the police, the Fairfax Police Department, in their mind, they're like, this is cut and dry, a suicide. Nothing more to it. I don't know how this is so cut and dry in their minds, because it's so, it's just so clearly far from just where I'm looking at it. So at 7.10 pm, the Burkets street was seemingly quiet, except for one cruiser monitoring the neighborhood.

During the initial chaos, multiple neighbors came forward as witnesses, explaining what they had seen on their street earlier that day. But of course, officers told them that they weren't interested in their statements. And remember we stated that the ambulance removed Tommy's body at 7pm? Well a Fairfax County hospital record states that it didn't arrive at the hospital until 8.30pm. Like why would it take an hour and a half

to transport his body? Just makes you wonder. Especially when the hospital, by the way, is less than a half hour away. Doesn't make sense. Then also, very strangely, the report states that destination code number 14 was issued, and that code was apparently for the Fairfax Hospital morgue, but employees later stated that that wasn't true. Destination Code number 14 was actually the code for Fort Belvoir Hospital, which is a military medical facility. So either this is a mix-up in codes, or Tommy's body was taken there, but why? An autopsy was conducted by Dr. James C. Byer Jr. that insisted that Tommy had killed himself,

but in the report, it never stated any other injuries aside from a gunshot wound. And when the Berquets asked for the autopsy photos, he explained that they magically disappeared from Tommy's file. It's just absurd how much suspicion there is here. Exactly. But what was found was a small half-inch by quarter-inch exit wound on the back of Tommy's head. That apparently came from the gun being fired into Tommy's mouth, but if you're a gun

person, you probably know that a 357 magnum would leave a much bigger exit wound than this if it was fired at close range, especially considering that exit wounds are typically much larger than entry wounds. The other strange thing here is that police didn't initially retrieve the bullet from the wall behind Tommy, but when it was removed and analyzed, there was no skin tissue or human matter on that bullet at all. I just feel like literally every detail of this case is just like, so bizarre. You're kidding.

Yeah. Also, Tommy's wallet, driver's license, and glasses were all still missing at this point. Tom called his son's bank, which was Central Fidelity Bank, and they explained that Tommy used an ATM just after midnight on December 1st, in Centralville. And when Tom tried to retrieve ATM footage from the bank, lead detective lions subpoenaed the footage and kept it hidden from the Burkets for 7 months. When the Burkets finally were able to get a hold of this footage, it showed Tommy using

the ATM and three white men passing behind him who Tommy looks directly at in one of the frames. Now this could have nothing to do with Tommy's death, but it also could be relevant. But when police had possession of the footage, they never investigated it. Here's what I don't understand though. If Tommy's death was, you know,

an open and shut suicide case, then why did the Fairfax PD feel the need to obtain this footage? That doesn't make any sense to me. And by the way, this footage would have been from like 19 hours before Tommy was found. So that's why it's kind of like, is this relevant? Is this not relevant? But yeah, I completely agree with you.

I don't, none of this makes sense. And by the way, so the gun that Tommy supposedly used to kill himself actually belonged to his father, Tom, and it had been stored away in Beth and Tom's closet. Six bullets were missing from a box, and the chamber of the 357 was full minus one bullet, which was retrieved from Tommy's wall. And another kind of weird thing, so Tommy actually had his own gun that was stored in a case also in his parents' closet, and he would have had to have stepped over the case of his own gun to get to his father's gun.

Tommy's hands were never inspected for gunpowder residue either, which would have given us a better clue as to whether or not Tommy was the one to fire the gun. Like Heath said earlier, these are just basic things to check for. The other thing that's strange to me about the gun is that if Tommy was the person to pull the trigger, it wouldn't have conveniently laid on his lap in his hand after the blast. In most stage suicides involving a gun, also the the perpetrator usually ends up putting the gun in the victim's hand to make it appear that the victim shot themselves, which we have totally heard before, you

know, not realizing really that recoil from the gun firing would typically leave the weapon much further away from the body. I just feel like in every case I've looked at where it feels like a suicide was staged, I feel like the gun is always in the hand. Yeah, it's always the same because people perpetrators don't think ahead like that most of the time. Exactly. It just feels like, oh, well, I'll put it in his hand because then he would have done it himself. It's just, but that's not really how it works.

And there was a study conducted in 1999 on over 500 different self-inflicted gunshot deaths? And it showed that in less than 25% of cases, the gun would remain in the person's hand after death. The remaining 75% of cases found that the gun was at the very least 30 centimeters from the body, so it's possible that he could have held onto the gun, but is it likely not really? So because police refused to admit that Tommy's case was a homicide, the Burkets basically had to do all of this digging themselves, and the first thing that they did was ask their

neighbors if they had seen anything suspicious. All of the neighbors on the Burkhead street said that at no point did any officers canvas the area or go door to door to ask anyone any questions. In fact like we mentioned earlier the neighbors who had come forward returned away by police and told quote we can't talk about this. So Beth and Tom put up flyers with Tommy's blue Mustang on them all over their street and the surrounding streets, and within a few hours people came forward with some interesting information.

Apparently, there had been a car chase through the neighborhood, and it involved Tommy's car. Several neighbors reported that a large, dark-colored sedan was chasing Tommy's blue Mustang, and was serious enough that multiple people corroborated this story. And these witnesses had even seen the car drive through someone's lawn, and Tommy's car ran off the road, but he was able to escape. But from what we understand, neighbors lost sight of him after that.

Yeah, this would definitely stand out in your mind. Yeah, exactly. You would remember this. And this was sometime around noon on December 1st. The same day that Tommy would be found dead later on. Another witness saw a dark colored sedan park at the end of Mirkirk Lane about three houses down from the Berquets

shortly after the chase. Then that same car moved in front of the Berquets home directly, and at some point it just left. Then at 5-10 pm, Tommy's blue Mustang rolled up and parked in front of the Burkette home, but inside was a white male that none of the neighbors recognized like they knew that it was not Tommy. The driver sat in the car while it idled for approximately 15 minutes until all the

neighbors went inside their homes, which is really suspicious. This person knew I don't want to get out of the car because there's neighbors outside I'm going to wait till they go inside. Well, and obviously these neighbors are going to recognize Tommy. For them to all be like, it wasn't him. Why is somebody else in Tommy's car idling outside of his own house? Exactly. Super suspicious here.

And an hour later, Tommy's body would finally be discovered. Which makes it all even more weird. So although campus security refused to report Tommy's assault that occurred on November 16th, the Berkets were able to gain access to the initial report done by campus security. And Marymount University Vice President Linda McMahon advised her staff not to speak to their brackets. On December 3, 1991, about two days

after Tommy's death, Linda McMahon handed over Tommy's driver's license to Beth and Tom. And remember, his driver's license was missing up until that point. Right, and she was claiming that a student brought it into her office, but she would not say who that student was. But months later, they would discover that the student who turned it in was Philip Howley, remember Tommy's abuser. And what's interesting here is that Philip Howey's father was a law enforcement officer, and the other student who assaulted Tommy, Donald Adam McEwen, was the grandson of Marymount Trustee Elizabeth Coulder.

Eric Hulls, who was the director of campus safety at the time, told the Berkett's quote, we're not going around asking questions, we're not going to do anything that would hurt the reputations of other students involved in this. And I guess this was kind of an issue for the campus because multiple students had made complaints about campus crime that were never reported to police. And to make things even weirder, the campus newspaper called The Blue Banner released an article about Tommy in January of 1992, and it listed Howley and McEwen as Tommy's friends who missed him very much. Like what the f, no?

Yeah, when I read that, I was super pissed. Weeks after Tommy's death, the Perquette hired a private blood spatter expert who determined that the blood found in the wall leading up the stairs to Tommy's bedroom was actually blood, but the samples were apparently too small at the time to be tested to see whether or not they were Tommy's blood. Then the Perkets found out that the chief medical examiner, Dr. James Byer, completed Tommy's autopsy on December 3rd, which was one day after a manner of death report was signed and dated, explaining that Tommy's death was a suicide. So this is this is typically not how this works. You would first

conduct the autopsy and then you would determine whether or not it was a suicide, but it was signed two days before that. So it was already determined meaning that when the autopsy was done, it was like he was, he probably didn't even work very hard because he was like, oh, well, this is already a suicide so my job's done. Exactly. Shortly after this, Tommy's body was exhumed, which by the way, his parents didn't believe Tommy wrote the note in his pocket that said, I wanted to be cremated.

So they ended up burying him in New York, which was actually really smart. They knew. They knew. They're so smart, these people. These parents are amazing. Yeah, so when Tommy was exhumed, a second autopsy was conducted that revealed Tommy suffered a broken jaw, battering to his ear and abrasions on his chest, which Dr. Byer hadn't previously noted in his report.

And one of the biggest blows of all in this case came when the Berkets asked the Fairfax County Police Department for Tommy's clothing because they were interested in having their own experts analyze them to determine if anyone else's DNA could be found on them. And the department advised them that funeral director Jay Berkeley Green, who was in charge of preparing Tommy's body to be flown to upstate New York, where he would ultimately be buried, had destroyed the clothing by burning them a week after obtaining them. And the Burkets didn't even know that Green had possession of the items until it was too

late. Green eventually wrote a letter to the Berket dated May 26, 1992, in which he defends his actions saying, quote, it was in your best interest due to Tommy's traumatic death and the repercussions this tragedy had on you. Like, what do you know what's in their best interest? So he then goes on to write, normally the people we serve with a similar situation like this are only too glad we destroyed the clothes. And a few days later, Mr. Green sent the Berkets a check for $205 to apparently reimburse them for his mistake.

Like this is not a $205 mistake. Like you ruined what could potentially be evidence to clear this case. I am appalled. I mean, like, I feel like there's so many different people who are making such grave mistakes. It's like all these people can't be in on this, but I don't understand why it feels like nobody is doing their job properly. Definitely, and with all this information, Beth Berket was curious to see if her senate called 911 the day that he died, so she decided to call a local dispatcher to see if she

could get that information. Remember the calls that Tommy made in August and in October? Well Beth knew about those calls because law enforcement told her about them previously. But when she talked to the dispatcher, she said that Tommy never made them. Here's a quote from Beth Burkett about this incident. The dispatcher said, well, on the computer screen,

it shows his name and the time that he called and that he made two consecutive calls, but the message has been deleted. So she was gone for several minutes and said, I don't know why his name is on the computer, but he didn't call 911. I know Tommy made the calls because the police department personnel told me, I know this to be a fact. I'm angry every day of my life. I wake up angry every morning that this police department did not respond to those 911 calls. The nature of those calls has never been revealed. According to the Burkets who claim this information came from multiple sources, they believe that

Tommy was working as an undercover informant for the DEA and he was assisting in an investigation involving students dealing drugs at his university. They believed that the perpetrators of his death found this out and chased him to his home where they beat him with a baseball bat before staging his suicide with the 357 Magnum. The Berkets mentioned that their phone books also disappeared from their home, which they believe were used to soften the blows and create untraceable and more unnoticeable damage to Tommy's skull. And this tactic was rumored to have been used by law enforcement back in the day because it doesn't leave bruises on the victim. It's more like internal bruises, so it comes across differently and it would look

differently in an autopsy as well. And again, this is pure speculation. it's more like internal bruises, so it comes across differently and it would look differently in an autopsy as well. And again, this is pure speculation. The Breket said that Tommy had a baseball bat in his room, and the grip tape on the bat had been removed at some point, and they believe the killers did this to cover their tracks. The DEA had denied that Tommy ever worked for them, and the Breketts believed that Tommy's death was a cover-up by the FBI, DEA had denied that Tommy ever worked for them, and the ReKETS believed that Tommy's death was a cover-up by the FBI, DEA, and local law enforcement. To us, I mean, this kind of sounds like a bit 21 Jump Street, you know? Yeah, I kind of got that vibe, and especially, you know, not to say that the ReKETS are wrong,

but 21 Jump Street was a very popular TV show back in this time frame like 1991. So to me, it seems a bit far-fetched, but I do believe that Tommy was killed. I agree. At the same time, cases see all kinds of weird coincidences and see all kinds of weird details and sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. So it's absolutely possible, but I 100% agree I think he was,

without a doubt, met with foul play. And I just feel so bad for his parents because they're just teachers and they care what happened to their son. They're using their own time, their own money to try to do their own investigation, which is what the police should have done in the first place, which is why I totally understand why they're looking at this like the law enforcement is covering

it up because I have to agree I feel like they're being way too suspicious here. And another sad part about this case is that Beth Perquette passed away in May of 2003 due to cancer. At the age of 56, and her husband Tom passed away three years later in March of 2006, both never knowing what really happened to Tommy. They both were laid to rest next to their beloved son in upstate New York, and before they passed, they created a website, as we mentioned earlier, detailing all of their suspicions regarding Tommy's case.

They also created an organization called PAC-PA-A-C-C, which stands for Parents Against Corruption and Cover-Up, and their goal was to support families and loved ones that they believe met the same fate as Tommy. I want to leave you guys with a poem written but never published by Beth Perquette. It's titled Unspeakable. My only son, my summer child, whose gray green eyes saw dinosaurs when long neck combines across the field. My boy who heard the kittens cry above the darkest blizzards roar. My boy who watched the beleaguered hawk circle dive and rise the trailing crows, falling

like pepper flakes and clouds, and the hawk safe in the fire of the sun. My boy who dug the kitten out of the snow, who found the warm feather in the grass. My boy, my boy, my battered boy. How many years heard your cry? What soulless eyes watched you die. Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and next week we'll have a

few more cases for you guys to dive into. That poem really just puts it all into play as to how his parents were feeling, like just so sad, the amount of injustice in this case. Yeah, and I really feel like it's important to share this, you know, Tommy's case because- This needs to be fought. Yeah, because they created this whole website, they fought for, you know, the remainder of their lives

to figure out what happened to their son and sadly they passed without knowing. And I know that happens in a lot of cases, but this one is extremely frustrating. So if you can, please share this episode with everyone. What's upsetting is I fully see it that he was murdered and they could have figured out who did it and the police department chose not to do that. So I feel like this case needs to be heard. This case already feels very lesser known. So please share this story.

Let's put this on blast because Mommy still deserves justice because somebody did this to him and they're out there. So thank you guys so much for listening. Thank you for all, again, the nice messages about us doing a second episode a week. We appreciate all your nice reviews. We've been getting so many nice ones lately.

We love you guys. Thank you for sharing this show. Thank you for listening and we'll see you next week. Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh

1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc

1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc Thank you.

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