Today, I found out that some people included in a tip about the Stacey Burns murder I sent to the New Hampshire State Police four months ago have not been interviewed. These people are part of  group who I was sure would be contacted as a result of this tip. “Playing telephone tag” was mentioned as well an observation that there did not seem a deep commitment on the part of investigators to talk to them. I’m sorry to admit that this is a disappointment, not because my information was necessarily correct or accurate, but because of the apparent dismissal of its possible connection to this case.

As I’ve been told (often), we average citizens do not know how a “real” murder investigation works, and I can handle that. However, I’m having difficulty understanding how four months could pass without at least a conversation with these people to see what it is that they may or may not know. What if they do have fresh information? What if they change their minds and decide not to be interviewed because what they have to say seems no longer seems to be important? Yes, I agree that I am not a trained homicide detective. I am also not stupid enough to share a tip from credible people I’ve known for a long time if I thought there was no value in it.

In a short piece I wrote about my experiences as a paper boy way back when, I closed with this observation, which may be applicable to how I am now feeling about the Stacey Burns murder investigation.

“A few unsettling seeds of disillusionment had been sown in my garden of youthful trust and innocence.” (I was twelve when this happened in my dealings with the adult world.) Now I am a bit (quite a bit) older, but find a few seeds of disillusionment creeping into my disappointment with this latest development.

If I am wrong about this, please, detectives, correct me and I’ll be happy to include it in a future post.

Duke

ps- I made this deliberately vague so as to not interfere with this “ongoing investigation” and to not indicate those who were originally part of the information.