Key facts
- Name: Samantha Nicole Burns (“Sam,” “Sammy”)
- Age at disappearance: 19
- Last seen: November 11, 2002
- Location: Huntington / East Hamlin, West Virginia
- Height / build: 5’4″, ~110 lbs, brown hair, hazel eyes; chicken pox scars on right side of forehead; butterfly tattoo on lower back; pierced ears and tongue
- Status: Still missing — remains never found; two men convicted in her death
- Vehicle: 1999 burgundy Chevrolet Cavalier, tiger sticker in rear window, plate 5X9326
- Investigating agency: West Virginia State Police, (304) 528-5555
The call that was the last
At 9:45 on the night of November 11, 2002, Samantha Burns called her mother from her cell phone. She’d been visiting friends at the Marshall University Courtyard Apartments in Huntington, she said. She was on her way home to East Hamlin.
She never arrived. That call was the last anyone ever heard from her. Her phone — which she never normally switched off — went dark.
At 3:30 the next morning, firefighters answered a report of an explosion and fire at a secluded spot where German Ridge and Haneys Branch Roads meet near the Cabell–Wayne county line. When they got there, Samantha’s 1999 burgundy Cavalier was still burning. It had been set on fire. There was no sign of Samantha anywhere near it.
She was 19 years old: a student in the physical therapy assistant program at Marshall’s Community and Technical College, working part-time at the J.C. Penney in the Huntington Mall. That evening she’d met her aunt at Penney’s at 6:30 to buy clothes for one of her nieces. Hours later she was gone, and her car was a shell of melted metal in the dark.
The case aired on America’s Most Wanted twelve days later. It would take years to learn what happened to her — and even then, the most important thing would stay missing.
The two men who confessed
A week before Samantha vanished, two men escaped from the Hopkins County Jail in Kentucky. Chadrick Fulks and Branden Basham broke out on November 4, 2002, and went on a multi-state crime spree that left another woman, Alice Donovan of South Carolina, dead as well.
Investigators connected them to Samantha quickly, and the details were damning. Fulks used Samantha’s ATM card twice on the evening of November 11 at local banks. Basham was seen wearing a heart-shaped ring that belonged to her. Candy boxes — Samantha had been selling candy for a school fundraiser and kept the boxes in her car — turned up in the escapees’ van, along with mud on their clothing. Her photo ID was found discarded with other items linking the pair to her.
In June 2003 they were charged with carjacking resulting in death in Samantha’s case. In July 2005, both pleaded guilty to the federal charge to avoid a possible death sentence — and confessed in court that they had carjacked Samantha and killed her. Basham apologized to her family in court. They were sentenced to death for Samantha’s killing and for the murder of Alice Donovan.
But they could never say where she was. In 2013, the FBI and West Virginia State Police searched a wooded area of Wayne County based on a tip — and even brought Fulks along to try to help find the body. Nothing was found. Samantha’s aunt has said Fulks exchanged letters with the family and seemed to sincerely want to find her. He never could.
In December 2024, President Joe Biden commuted the death sentences of Fulks and Basham to life imprisonment without parole, as part of a broader federal shift on capital punishment. Samantha’s killers will die in prison. Her family still doesn’t know where she is.
Theories: what might have happened
There is little theorizing left to do about who. Two men confessed in open court to abducting and killing Samantha Burns, and the physical evidence — her ring on Basham’s neck, her ATM card in Fulks’s hand, her candy boxes in their van — corroborates the confession.
Where is she? That is the only open question, and it is the one that matters most. The working belief of investigators has always been that her body was left somewhere in the Wayne County woods or along the route the men drove that night — the secluded area where her car was burned, or somewhere along the roads between Huntington and South Carolina. The 2013 search with Fulks’s cooperation found nothing, which suggests either that his memory of the location is unreliable after so many years, or that the remains are in terrain that has defeated every search.
Could she have survived? No credible evidence supports this, and both convicted men confessed to her murder. The family’s hope is not for her return but for recovery — a place to lay her to rest.
The cruel arithmetic of this case: it is solved, and it is not over. Samantha Burns has been missing for nearly 24 years. Her mother got one last phone call. Her aunt got a shopping trip. And somewhere in West Virginia, there is a grave nobody has found.
Have information?
Contact the West Virginia State Police at (304) 528-5555. In an emergency, dial 911.
Timeline
- 2002 — Samantha Burns, 19, studies in Marshall’s physical therapy assistant program and works at J.C. Penney in the Huntington Mall.
- November 4, 2002 — Chadrick Fulks and Branden Basham escape the Hopkins County (Ky.) Jail.
- November 11, 2002, 6:30 p.m. — Samantha meets her aunt at the Huntington Mall to buy clothes for her niece.
- November 11, 2002, 9:45 p.m. — Samantha calls her mother from the Marshall University Courtyard Apartments: she’s coming home to East Hamlin. Last contact.
- November 12, 2002, 3:30 a.m. — Her Cavalier is found burning at German Ridge and Haneys Branch Roads, Wayne County.
- November 23, 2002 — The case airs on America’s Most Wanted.
- June 2003 — Fulks and Basham charged with carjacking resulting in death.
- July 2005 — Both plead guilty and confess to killing Samantha; sentenced to death.
- 2013 — FBI and WV State Police search Wayne County woods with Fulks’s help; nothing found.
- December 2024 — President Biden commutes both death sentences to life without parole.
- Today — Still missing.
FAQ
Is Samantha Burns still missing?
Yes. As of October 2026, Samantha Burns has been missing for nearly 24 years. Two men confessed to killing her and were convicted, but her remains have never been found.
Was Samantha Burns ever found?
No. Despite the convictions of Chadrick Fulks and Branden Basham, extensive searches — including a 2013 FBI search of Wayne County woods with Fulks’s cooperation — have never located her.
What happened to Samantha Burns’ car?
Her 1999 burgundy Chevrolet Cavalier, with a tiger sticker in the rear window, was found set on fire at 3:30 a.m. on November 12, 2002, at German Ridge and Haneys Branch Roads near the Cabell–Wayne county line. It was still burning when firefighters arrived.
Who killed Samantha Burns?
Chadrick Fulks and Branden Basham, who had escaped from a Kentucky jail a week earlier, confessed in court in 2005 to carjacking and killing her. Both pleaded guilty to federal carjacking-resulting-in-death charges and were sentenced to death; their sentences were commuted to life without parole in December 2024.
Are Fulks and Basham still in prison?
Yes. Both remain incarcerated serving life sentences without parole after their death sentences were commuted by President Biden in December 2024.
How can I help?
Share this case file. If you have any information about where Samantha’s remains might be, contact the West Virginia State Police at (304) 528-5555.
Sources
- Official / law enforcement: U.S. Court of Appeals, 4th Circuit, Appeal 13-9 (govinfo.gov, filed June 15, 2015) — case facts and evidence; FBI/WVSP 2013 search (via WOWK/WSAZ archives).
- News: WSAZ; Herald-Dispatch; WV MetroNews, “Sentences commuted for two men who pleaded guilty in Samantha Burns case” (Dec 26, 2024).
- Reference: CUE – Community United Effort, “Samantha Burns” (ncmissingpersons.org); Charley Project, “Samantha Nicole Burns”; WV Missing Persons Project.
- Media: America’s Most Wanted (Nov 23, 2002 episode).
Found an error? Tell us via the About page and we will fix it promptly and note the change here. Last verified October 2026.