How a genealogy test in Maryland helped investigators in Florida solve a cold case

BALTIMORE — A woman with Maryland ties vanished without a trace in Florida and for 17 years, her family has wondered what happened to her.

Jeana Lynn Burrus was 39 when she disappeared in 2006 in Sarasota, Florida. She had moved there from Frederick with her husband and young son.

After she moved, her uncle in Maryland said her phone calls and visits stopped.

Eventually, police in Florida determined she was killed and placed in a shallow grave.

Her family in Maryland told WJZ investigator Mike Hellgren that they’re into tracing their genealogy and, at one point, submitted their DNA in hopes of finding long-lost relatives. 

But they ended up solving a cold case. 

“In 2006, we didn’t hear,” Clare George Wiedmaier said. “So, I waited a little bit to see if her stepfather heard. He didn’t. Or her brother heard. He didn’t. So then I proceeded to call the husband.” 

Wiedmaier said her husband told him a story—that he won’t reveal publicly because the case is under investigation. 

“And it went on and on, and the following year or before, I attempted to call Jamie again, and there was no answer,” he said. “The phone was turned off, and then I had no way of tracking him.”

No missing person’s report was ever filed for Burrus.

But in Florida—just months after Burrus’ family last contact with her, police found skeletal remains behind a body shop where her husband worked. 

“She was dressed in a shirt, in a skirt, no shoes or anything like that to indicate she didn’t walk into those woods on her own,” Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Mark LeFebvre. “The body was there for probably a year to a year and a half.”

The FBI made a sketch of the victim—but the case went cold until late last year. Due to advances in DNA, investigators were able to match the remains to the family in Maryland—and positively identify Burrus.

“We were shocked when the police came here from Florida to knock on our door,” Wiedmaier said.

He described Burrus as a good mother who did “anything and everything to please her husband.”

“The relatives in Maryland were actually very surprised at how close the son lives to them now without them ever knowing over the years,” Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Mark LeFebvre. “James Junior was always told he was abandoned by his mother. In this case, he’s learning new information so he’s struggling with those things. 

Police have not made any arrests or filed any charges in the case. Burrus’ family hopes there will be justice. 

Burrus’ husband may currently live in the Baltimore area. WJZ was unable to reach him for comment.