NJ NJ - Martin 'Mike' Burkle, 16, Philadelphia, 13 Oct 1975

[bflocket]

Martin Burkle​

Martin Michael Burkle, 16, disappeared in 1975. A body found three days later was finally identified as his in 2000. An unidentified body that had been found in Big Timber Creek in Gloucester Township three days after Burkle's disappearance and later was buried in Lakeland Memorial Park, a veterans cemetery and partial potter's field in the township, was exhumed by court order and positively identified as Burkle's.




I saw this while looking through Doenetwork and looked to see what was on here. I found nothing. When I searched for the name, all I got were things about either Michael Jackson or Elliot Spitzer (?!?). I have never posted a new thread, but I thought he deserved a thread. Sure hope I do it right.

This is a good, fairly lengthy story about the case from Philly.com (Philadelphia Inquirer):
http://articles.philly.com/2010-10-...a-police-portable-radio-missing-person-fliers

Another article from Philly.com:
http://articles.philly.com/2000-06-20/news/25600241_1_unidentified-body-exhumed-bp





*** I know that the above links will likely wind up useless, as they only keep stories up for so long before they're purged or archived. I will try to add snippets from the stories so the info can stay here. ***

 

[bflocket]

Martin Michael Burkle, 16, disappeared from his job at what was then a BP gas station at Delaware Avenue and Spring Garden Streets on Oct. 13, 1975, leaving behind his jacket, cigarettes and lunch.

A caller alerted police that the station was unattended. A search was begun but proved fruitless. At first investigators pursued a theory that Burkle had run away, but later they suspected that something had happened to him. Nothing was discovered missing from the station.

An unidentified body that had been found in Big Timber Creek in Gloucester Township three days after Burkle's disappearance and later was buried in Lakeland Memorial Park, a veterans cemetery and partial potter's field in the township, was exhumed by court order and positively identified as Burkle's.

On Oct. 16, 1975, hunters had found the naked and decomposing corpse on the creek banks. An autopsy revealed the cause of death was drowning. How the person came to drown was never determined.



me:
This is where the case gets complicated. It is terrible that it took so long to identify him. Now that we know more details of his death, it is just as big of a mystery even though we know his name.

He turns up missing while his boss is away. No money was missing, so the only "robbery" was the people stealing gas while the pumps were unattended.

He is discovered drowned, and nude, a few days later. His body was found in a creek, on the other side of the Delaware River, in New Jersey.

Police surmised that he jumped into the Delaware and the tides took him to where he was found.

His workplace was "near" but not "easily accessible" to the Philadelphia side of the Delaware. Tides may be a factor in the Delaware River's flow, but he was found "up" a tributary on the other side of a large river. And naked.

The only way their theory would make sense would be if there were reports of a naked man running around looking for the river that day. I could see the tides being involved in placement of the body, but definitely can't see how the mere floating upstream would remove every stitch of his clothing.




"Official explanations [for Burkle's death] that have been offered so far are unsatisfactory," said Lt. Michael Boyle, of the Philadelphia Special Victims Unit. Boyle was among those who located Burkle's remains, and who argued in 2000 that the case should be ruled a homicide.


excerpts taken from:
http://articles.philly.com/2000-06-20/news/25600241_1_unidentified-body-exhumed-bp)
http://articles.philly.com/2010-10-...a-police-portable-radio-missing-person-fliers

 

[STANDREID]

It sure looks more like foul play than not to me. If a person was thinking about suicide, would they choose to spend the last few hours of their life at a job? Since a bunch of low-lifes were exploiting the situation by stealing gas rather than reporting the suspicious circumstances to police, it must have been in a pretty seedy part of town. I guess stations back then didn't have surveillance cameras.

 

[ynotdivein]

Glad that The Inquirer is keeping this info online.

So the gas station manager left him at 11:15 a.m., and when he returned, Mike was gone. What time did he return to the shop? Why did he refuse comment to the media?

The fact that Mike left so many belonging inside (radio, smokes, glasses, jacket) mitigates against it being a suicide.

 

[marycarney]

Interesting. As far as the station owner not wanting to speak to media - no info as to how old that man might be now, maybe he's just an old guy who does not trust reporters......

 

[Bobby88]

35 years after Philly teen's death, questions remain

Mike's boss and the sex offender are the only logical suspects in this case. I tend to lean more toward the latter for one key reason — no money was taken from the till!

Think about it. If the manager had decided to abduct and kill Mike (for whatever reason), wouldn't a perfect cover for murdering your employee mid-shift and disposing of the body be to stage a robbery gone wrong? It's 1975 and surveillance cameras (which would have been so helpful in a case like this) are several years into the future, so if no other witnesses are around, no one is going to see you empty the till yourself or ransack a couple of things. None of this was done. Not to mention, what would have caused the manager to want Mike dead in the first place?

All these things make much more sense if the sex offender was responsible. He wouldn't have been looking to steal any money or merchandise; he was there for Mike. He need not have even entered the store himself. All he would have to do would pull up, see Mike alone and motion for him to come outside to talk. Mike goes willingly, leaving his lunch and other items in their usual spot with every intention of coming back and resuming his shift. The man may have pretended to apologize for his recent indiscretions and asked for "another chance". Mike may have agreed (many young sex abuse victims are easily guilted into "forgiving" their abuser, especially if it's someone they know) and go into the man's car since it was such a slow day at work. We all know what happened next. I think this person probably stalked Mike and knew he was covering this other employee's shift. I very much doubt that the original cashier who was supposed to work that would have met the same fate had they been on duty that day instead.

I'm kind of curious to know if that incident a few weeks before his death was the only such encounter with this acquaintance or if there were prior abuse acts. I also wonder if Mike disclosed this to his family when it happened or if they found out about it after he was abducted.