James Burrows

Additional details from the official case record, provided for identification.

Date of Birth

July 30, 1966 CP

Clothing Last Seen Wearing

A black t-shirt and camouflage print pants. CP

Distinguishing Characteristics

He may have long hair and a full beard. His nickname is Pat. CP

Timeline, August 23, 1990

He left home at 8:00 a.m. driving his Honda 250 motorcycle on Alabama 21 near the Midway community in Calhoun County, Alabama, and was never heard from again. CP

Timeline, 1991

David Ronald Chandler was convicted of drug trafficking and of ordering Burrows's death, and of a role in several other killings, including the death of Jeffery McFry, who disappeared less than two weeks after Burrows. Investigators theorized that Chandler had the two men killed because he believed they had stolen marijuana from him. CP

Timeline, 2001

Chandler had been sentenced to death, but after the man who said Chandler paid him to murder McFry recanted, and several other witnesses said they had lied, Chandler's death sentence was commuted to life in prison. CP

More than a year after he vanished, his motorcycle was found submerged in a bog within 300 yards of an abandoned brickyard, three miles south of Piedmont, Alabama. Another man, Jimmy Steed, is considered a suspect in the presumed murders of Burrows and McFry and in the 1997 disappearance of his own wife, Karen Steed. Steed pleaded guilty in December 2014 to the murder of another woman and was sentenced to 105 years in prison, and he has not been charged in connection with any of the disappearances. Burrows's remains have never been found, and foul play is suspected. CP

What Would Help Most

Anyone who knows where James Burrows's remains are, or who saw him or his Honda 250 motorcycle in Calhoun County after the morning of August 23, 1990, could still resolve this case, because his motorcycle was recovered but he never was.

Source: The Charley Project