00:00:04
[suspenseful music] NARRATOR: In
Harrisburg, Illinois, a search is on for missing
wife and mother, Carla Burns.
00:00:12
Family and friends are getting
really nervous because they usually would have
heard from her by now,
00:00:17
and she's not responding to
any text messages or calls. NARRATOR: Joining the
search, her husband, Brian.
00:00:23
He warns-- she's suicidal. He also offered that maybe
she-- because she was a nurse,
00:00:28
that she maybe overdosed,
and put-- you know, she took insulin,
injected herself
00:00:32
with insulin and overdosed
herself in that way. NARRATOR: But when charred
human remains are discovered,
00:00:36
police become
immediately suspicious. What part has her husband
played in all of this?
00:00:42
He was very nervous. He was pacing. He kept asking,
did we find Carla? And he kept looking
towards the burn pile area.
00:00:51
And he was just extremely
nervous, I felt. NARRATOR: It's a story of
control, of a failing marriage,
00:00:59
and of greed. He had, almost, a fetish for-- for money and property and
control in the relationship.
00:01:09
NARRATOR: Can
investigators prove that Brian Burns
murdered his wife, and so, bring justice
for her children?
00:01:16
They're great kids. And they went through a
horrible, horrible thing losing their mother that way.
00:01:25
So sorry-- [sob] [suspenseful music] NARRATOR: The woman who
was to become Carla Burns,
00:02:03
first met Brian Burns in 2008. Both were in the medical
business in Texas. He was an emergency room doctor.
00:02:11
She, a mother of
two teenage boys, and a popular teacher of
Nursing at a local college.
00:02:17
MATT GOETTEN: A very
caring person, obviously. She went into a health
care field, where she--
00:02:23
where she had had some
success, and was-- ha-- had gotten into teaching
in the health care field.
00:02:30
And so very caring
person, very outgoing. Someone who was adventurous. NARRATOR: Stacy Kinter, an
Illinois Police Special Agent,
00:02:38
would get to know all about
Mr. And Mrs. Brian Burns. Dr. Burns was a-- I guess, he was an ER
physician in the area,
00:02:47
and Carla was a nurse. So they were doing
quite well for the area. They made very good money.
00:02:52
NARRATOR: Carla and Brian
bonded through a lot of travel. He encouraged her to try one
of his lifelong passions.
00:02:59
Carolyn Canville
is a reporter who's been researching the
story of a marriage, a murder, and a relationship,
which got off to a great start.
00:03:09
Brian Burns has always
loved scuba diving. He's done it since he was young. And he really wants Carla
to get into it because he
00:03:16
thinks they could really share
some good time together doing that. So he-- he shows her.
00:03:21
He teaches her how to do it. She gets her certification. And so now, the two of them
enjoy traveling together
00:03:27
and scuba diving together and
seeing all the beautiful colors under the water. NARRATOR: The couple
went on exotic holidays
00:03:33
to indulge their
newfound love of diving. It was on one of
those trips that they
00:03:38
witnessed something that
was to prove significant later in their lives-- a cremation.
00:03:44
CAROLYN CANVILLE: They go on
this one trip to Costa Rica. The two of them were--
00:03:47
were looking through
their binoculars. And they see
something that really makes a lasting impression
on them, he says.
00:03:53
Says, they see on
this nearby island, they're forming this
beautiful cremation ceremony.
00:04:00
This-- this ritual that
they do to cremate and bury, scatter the ashes of a
loved one who has passed.
00:04:08
The two of them look at
each other and they say, isn't that beautiful? And-- and they-- at that moment,
right then and there, they
00:04:15
both decide that when they
die, they want to be cremated. NARRATOR: In 2009, after dating
for a year, the couple married.
00:04:24
They settled in
Harrisburg, Illinois. CAROLYN CANVILLE: Brian Burns
takes a job as a local doctor
00:04:29
at Harrisburg Medical Center. And Carla is working as a
nurse, and also teaching
00:04:35
at Southeastern
Illinois College. NARRATOR: With good jobs,
the couple could afford
00:04:40
a high standard of living. STACY KINTER: They
owned a very nice home. It was just outside
of Harrisburg.
00:04:47
And it was located on a pond. And it was in a wooded area. And it was a nice piece of
property that they owned.
00:04:54
NARRATOR: Safe too--
a community to enjoy. STACY KINTER: Its
in Saline County. And it's pretty rural.
00:05:00
It's a good sized town. It's one of those towns, where
everybody knows everybody.
00:05:05
And not a lot happens
there, usually. NARRATOR: But behind the
facade, the relationship
00:05:11
was showing signs of strain. Forensic psychologist Dr.
Judy Ho has been reviewing
00:05:17
the married couples timeline. They were both caregivers. Brian was a physician. Carla was a nurse.
00:05:24
They both seem like givers. And maybe their relationship
was actually quite peaceful in the beginning.
00:05:28
But a few years in,
their relationship became very conflictual. There were multiple
accusations from Brian
00:05:34
that Carla was cheating on him. And perhaps, committing
financial crimes against him.
00:05:39
And it seemed that the
relationship had really devolved to a point
where it was almost
00:05:45
past the point of no return. NARRATOR: In 2010,
Carla had reestablished contact with her ex-husband,
and the father of her sons.
00:05:53
Brian wasn't happy. MATT GOETTEN: Brian
Burns did accused his wife, Carla, of some
infidelity with her ex-husband.
00:06:05
She had-- had taken
up a relationship with her ex-husband. At least, emotionally
again, she was talking
00:06:13
to him frequently on the phone. I think she was confiding
in him about the troubles
00:06:19
she was having. NARRATOR: But Carla
insisted she was just reconnecting as a friend,
talking about their children.
00:06:26
Brian did not believe her. DR. JUDY HO: The
relationship had gotten so bad that
Carla finally decided
00:06:31
that she wanted a divorce. But he would always
reject that idea. He would insist that they
stay married even though there
00:06:37
were obviously very unhappy. And she grew more and more
fearful of him over time.
00:06:41
NARRATOR: The marriage
was simply not working. At one point, Carla and
Brian agreed to separate.
00:06:47
But months later,
they agreed to give the relationship one more try. At one point,
they did rekindle
00:06:53
their relationship after
several months of separation. They got back together again.
00:07:00
And they ended up,
actually, at that point, moving to the residence that
they lived in in Saline County.
00:07:07
NARRATOR: In 2013, Carla
decided she finally wanted out of her marriage. She started to
confide in friends
00:07:16
that he was doing things
that were concerning to her. CAROLYN CANVILLE: Carla
files for divorce.
00:07:22
She's citing
irreconcilable differences. And she also says that he
is verbally abusing her.
00:07:28
She packs up her belongings. She moves out. And Brian is, you know,
he's not happy about this.
00:07:37
NARRATOR: Carla moved
into a hotel in Marion, 30 minutes from the family home. Arguments about money
began to dominate
00:07:43
the divorce proceedings. CAROLYN CANVILLE:
In August of 2015, Carla says, that Brian
forges her signature,
00:07:52
and drains their savings
account of the $63,000 that they had both put together.
00:07:59
So you can see from
the divorce papers that they're
fighting about money. Just constantly on
and off about how
00:08:06
the money is gonna be split. She's asking for support. He's-- he's accusing her
of economic blackmail.
00:08:12
NARRATOR: Carla
began to discover the secretive way
that her husband had organized their finances.
00:08:17
MATT GOETTEN: He
had the paperwork drawn up, so that he was
the only person on the deed.
00:08:22
Even though they had gone
to the realtor together, even though they had gone,
and it was her understanding
00:08:28
that she would be
on the deed as well, as is typical in
the United States when it comes to
marital property.
00:08:37
After their initial meeting,
he had contacted the realtor and instructed them to put
the deed only in his name.
00:08:44
NARRATOR: For investigators,
there was only one reason that he had done that. MATT GOETTEN: Burns
would not have
00:08:50
included her name on
the deeds because he had almost a fetish for-- for money and property and
control in the relationship.
00:09:01
NARRATOR: Brian was
also rearranging things, so that he would
appear to have less
00:09:05
money than he actually did. MATT GOETTEN: The
real Brian Burns was a Brian Burns who sent
his $300,000 in savings
00:09:14
to his uncle Curly during
the pendency of the divorce. The real Brian Burns was the
Brian Burns who put the deed
00:09:23
to his house only in his name. And then during
the divorce, deeded the house to his Uncle
Curly, so that he
00:09:29
could later get it back. NARRATOR: Brian Burns'
fetish for money made this fall from an easy divorce.
00:09:37
CAROLYN CANVILLE: It's not
just in the divorce papers that-- that they're fighting.
00:09:40
Brian is apparently really
harassing Carla by text message and by phone calls. He sends her these-- these
just angry text messages.
00:09:50
And she texted him back and
she says, stop texting me, leave me alone. NARRATOR: Rod Demery is
a one-time murder squad
00:09:57
detective. Carla claimed that she
was being harassed by him. She revealed text messages
on his phone that said,
00:10:05
you know, please stop calling
me, please stop harassing me, and if you want to talk
to me, call my lawyer.
00:10:11
Even her therapist had
taken note that she-- she was-- she did have
some fear of Burns
00:10:18
at the very end of
that relationship. CAROLYN CANVILLE: It's just
getting more and more angry.
00:10:23
And she's getting nervous. She's thinking, you
know, he might be-- he might turn violent.
00:10:28
She ended up applying for
several protection orders from Brian. And all of them
claim verbal abuse
00:10:36
and that she feared
that it was going to escalate to physical abuse. NARRATOR: Carla
wanted to go home.
00:10:42
Brian did everything
he could to stop her, accusing her of being in a mess. MATT GOETTEN: She was
asking for relief--
00:10:50
being afforded the family
home to live in because she was living out of a hotel room.
00:10:58
He made accusations that she
was abusing prescription drugs. Text messages between
the two of them
00:11:07
show that he was probably the
one abusing her prescription. NARRATOR: Shortly
after the split,
00:11:15
Brian's accountant
informed him that Carla was filing her taxes separately,
and not as a married couple.
00:11:22
It meant that Brian's
tax payments would rise. If they decided
to get a divorce,
00:11:28
and they would file
separately, Brian's taxes would be increased by $15,000 a year.
00:11:33
And it seemed like that
really aggravated him. NARRATOR: As someone who
earned around $300,000 a year,
00:11:39
$15,000 may not have been
very much to Brian Burns. But detectives soon
faced the question--
00:11:45
was it enough to make him kill
the woman that he'd married just five years earlier?
00:11:51
MARIA DWYER: One of our
dispatchers, actually, came back to my office when
this is not a normal thing.
00:11:57
He came back to my office
to advise me that they had received calls all throughout
the day about Carla
00:12:04
Burns missing,
and all the family members expressed sincere
concern about her well-being.
00:12:16
NARRATOR: On March the
6th, 2016, Carla Burns was seen leaving the nursing
college where she taught.
00:12:21
MATT GOETTEN: Carla
burns was seen on video leaving her
place of employment at approximately 3:00 PM.
00:12:28
NARRATOR: Carla was
known to regularly call and text friends and family. But from that afternoon,
messages and calls to her,
00:12:34
went unanswered. Family and friends are
getting really nervous. They haven't heard
from her in two days.
00:12:40
On the 10th of March,
Carla was reported missing by family and friends. They hadn't heard from
her since the 8th.
00:12:45
NARRATOR: Detective Maria Dwyer
was on call at the Illinois Police Department. A co-worker of Carla Burns
had contacted Marion PD
00:12:53
and expressed her
concern because Carla had not been at
work, and had not called to work for two days.
00:13:00
So we sent one of our
patrolmen out to the motel, where Carla Burns was
supposed to be staying.
00:13:06
He just did a
well-being check, did not discover Carla to be there. Then, throughout the day
we received numerous calls
00:13:14
from her coworkers,
to her family, to even her ex-husband had
called the Marion PD to express
00:13:24
their concern about
her not showing up for work, not calling
anyone, to explain her absence.
00:13:33
When a missing
person report comes in, police check the obvious. If this person may be with a
friend, family or somewhere,
00:13:43
they just send and told anyone. Then they look for things
that are extraordinary.
00:13:47
NARRATOR: And what was
extraordinary to her friends and family was the context
of her disappearance.
00:13:52
MARIA DWYER: They wanted
to, almost immediately, make me aware that she
was going through a kind
00:13:59
of turbulent divorce. They haven't heard
from her in two days, so they contact police and
file a missing person's report.
00:14:06
We received a call, also, from
Carla Burns' divorce attorney. He had indicated that Brian
Burns' divorce attorney had
00:14:15
contacted him because Brian
had showed up at his office to express he is now concern
because he was being advised
00:14:24
by friends and family that
Carla had not shown up for work and had not called for work.
00:14:30
NARRATOR: A Sheriff's
deputy was dispatched to the Burns family home. CAROLYN CANVILLE: Brian
is friendly, come on in,
00:14:37
let me show you around. He's very talkative. Talks up a storm. But claims he has no
idea where Carla is--
00:14:44
I've no clue. Where she's staying at
this motel in Marion, I'd be happy to go
over there with you.
00:14:50
But he claims that
he just-- he has no idea where Carla could be. NARRATOR: A few hours
later, the officer
00:14:58
returned to check
for her car, which he found parked in the garage. This was his only
mode of transport.
00:15:05
Six days after
his disappearance, Brian Burns contacted
the Sheriff's Office. On that day, Saline
County Sheriff's deputies
00:15:13
were invited by Brian
Burns out to his property to look for his wife. He lived in rural Saline County,
a home surrounded by woods.
00:15:23
Brian Burns had indicated
to Sheriff's deputies that, perhaps, Carla burns
had committed suicide
00:15:29
and she was out in
the woods somewhere. NARRATOR: Burns
joined the officers, but they found nothing.
00:15:38
As part of the search,
deputies wanted to look over a neighbor's
land, but Brian
00:15:44
was reluctant to join them. MATT GOETTEN: He didn't like
to trespass, and that there
00:15:47
were horses on the property. And those horses were
not very friendly. After they dropped Brian
Burns off at his home,
00:15:54
they obviously thought that
was an area of interest and went back to the property.
00:16:00
The deputies found
a burned pile, which was suspicious because
it had rake marks in the ashes.
00:16:08
Upon further inspection,
the deputies found what they believed to be human remains.
00:16:15
NARRATOR: It was just
six days since Carla had been reported missing. Sheriff has called
in Illinois Police.
00:16:21
Detective Stacy Kinter
was assigned to work alongside detective Dwyer. When we had received
the phone call
00:16:27
from the deputy on the
property near Dr. Burns' house, with the burn pile with a
suspected bone fragments,
00:16:35
that really-- we responded immediately
to that area, detective Dwyer and myself.
00:16:41
And our crime scene, they
began processing that area. We had gained permission
from the property owner.
00:16:47
And it really
piqued our interest because it was directly
adjacent to Dr. Burns' property.
00:16:55
It really made us
start thinking, maybe, we need to narrow our focus
a little bit on Dr. Burns.
00:17:01
NARRATOR: As the detectives
surveyed the scene, Brian Burns arrived. STACY KINTER: He
was very nervous.
00:17:06
He was pacing. He kept asking,
did we find Carla. And he kept looking
towards the burn pile area.
00:17:14
And he was just extremely
nervous, I felt. NARRATOR: Based on what she had
learned from talking to Carla's
00:17:20
friends, several
other things appeared strange to investigators. MARIA DWYER: The
vehicle of Carla Burns,
00:17:26
the RAV4, actually being parked
over at Brian Burns' residence was a red flag. That was the vehicle that
all of her friends and family
00:17:36
described to be her vehicle. And that she would not
be in any other vehicle. MATT GOETTEN: It was known
by her family, friends,
00:17:44
and co-workers to be
the car that she drove. And so when deputies found
the car at the family home,
00:17:50
that immediately made them
suspicious that-- that something was rotten there. She would not be
driving any other vehicle.
00:17:58
So for that vehicle to
turn up in-- in his garage, was definitely a red flag. The other major red
flag for us was the fact
00:18:08
that Brian Burns, at that
moment, had Chloe, the dog, with him. That was also another thing
that her friends and family
00:18:16
had clearly expressed
that if he had the dog, there was something
wrong because Carla would
00:18:23
never leave without her dog. NARRATOR: Detectives
Dwyer and Kinter asked to interview Brian
Burns about the day
00:18:30
his wife disappeared. STACY KINTER: He
seemed very nervous. He was pacing. He was looking out the window.
00:18:38
He would frequently get
up from the table where we were interviewing him, and-- and check to see what our crime
scene services were doing.
00:18:44
And he would frequently ask
us, did we find Carla, do we-- what's going on, do we
know what's going on.
00:18:51
And he would ask us to check
what the crime scene services people, to determine
what was happening
00:18:56
with the investigation. His initial story
was that Carla was on spring break, that she was
off of school, her teaching,
00:19:05
and from work. And that she was
simply on spring break, and that she would turn
up in several days.
00:19:11
NARRATOR: Burns claimed
that Carla's state of mind could have been the cause
of her disappearance.
00:19:16
STACY KINTER: He also provided
other stories about Carla possibly committing suicide,
that she had a handgun,
00:19:22
and that she could
have killed herself, and we just hadn't located her. He also offered that maybe
she-- because she was a nurse,
00:19:28
that she maybe overdosed
and put-- you know, she took insulin, injected
herself with insulin
00:19:33
and overdosed
herself in that way. NARRATOR: Burns was asked why
Carla's car was at the house.
00:19:38
MARIA DWYER: One
of the other things that he mentioned was that it
was quite common for her to go
00:19:45
ahead and leave the
vehicle at his residence, that she would come and
go freely to the residence
00:19:53
even though they were no--
no longer in, you know, a functional relationship. That he was working so much,
it was an amicable relationship
00:20:01
that she-- she could come to the
residence to do her laundry or watch her television
shows, and stuff like that.
00:20:08
So that was his explanation
for the vehicle being there. NARRATOR: A tissue of lies.
00:20:15
STACY KINTER: I didn't buy
into that, at that point, just from the information
that we had-- that they were
00:20:19
estranged, and that he was
in possession of her dog, and her vehicle was
located in his garage.
00:20:26
NARRATOR: In the garage the
detectives inspect the car. MARIA DWYER: He opens
the doors for myself
00:20:32
and the Saline County detective,
and we begin to look around. There was an orange bag that
was located inside Carla Burns'
00:20:40
vehicle, which I began to open
up, and start to look inside to see if there might be
any type of clues to where--
00:20:49
what or whereabouts may be. But I think, we just knew
that this was not good. That this was the things
that he was telling us,
00:20:56
that Carla was probably
not going to be OK. At that point, I believe,
law enforcement would indicate
00:21:01
that Brian Burns
did become a suspect in Carla Burns' disappearance. NARRATOR: Detective Dwyer
asked for the details
00:21:07
of any of Carla's credit cards. MARIA DWYER: Once
again, he kind of became defensive
that you, know, why
00:21:13
did we need that information. And we explained,
you know, so we could track her--
her financials,
00:21:19
you know, to see
if she had actually used her card anywhere more
recently, and that would help.
00:21:24
And then he kind of
laughed that off, explaining that he had just
know heard a lot about identity
00:21:32
thefts and credit card thefts,
so he was just being cautious. And mind you, he's
talking to the police,
00:21:38
so it was a kind of a strange
statement to make at that time. NARRATOR: Carla Burns was
still officially missing.
00:21:47
But detectives had one leading
thought on their minds. Mrs. Burns had been
killed by Mr. Burns.
00:21:54
And they didn't like what
they were hearing about Dr. Burns' recent behavior. MARIA DWYER: I'm receiving
additional phone calls even
00:22:01
from his own best
friend, who had-- had since had contact with Brian. He didn't know what to think.
00:22:08
And that maybe nothing at
all had happened to Carla, or she was chopped
up into pieces.
00:22:14
And that was his
actual statement. NARRATOR: The strange
behavior of Dr. Brian Burns
00:22:24
was a red flag to investigators
looking into the disappearance of his wife, Carla.
00:22:28
STACY KINTER: I think that there
was a general consensus that we did not believe what
things he was telling us
00:22:34
and that he was offering up
almost too much information and just trying to give
us anything, I guess,
00:22:41
to maybe lead away from him. NARRATOR: The police
department had also been taking
00:22:45
calls from Brian's colleagues. It seemed that his odd
behavior hadn't just been obvious to investigators.
00:22:51
MARIA DWYER: His co-workers
didn't normally consider him to be a very friendly person.
00:22:56
Some coworkers either avoided
or did not talk with Brian. But the day that she is
actually being reported missing
00:23:03
to our department, he was
almost going out of his way to have conversations with
some of his co-workers
00:23:10
and being overly friendly. NARRATOR: Burns'
closest friend also offered startling information
about claims that he'd made.
00:23:18
MARIA DWYER: Brian had actually
made threats to harm himself, and that he started to plan
his own funeral when they
00:23:26
were separated once before. And that they ultimately
got him to agree to-- to go to a mental
institute at that point.
00:23:36
And then they rekindled
their relationship. But now, this-- this most
recent separation, again,
00:23:43
had his friend concerned
about Brian's mental state. He said, he didn't know what to
think that either Carla wasn't
00:23:51
truly missing,
and she, you know, she was going to
turn up at any point during the next couple of
days, or she was chopped
00:23:59
up into pieces somewhere. That's how he explained it. NARRATOR: For the detectives,
too much wasn't adding up.
00:24:06
And Burns' odd behavior suggests
that he was hiding something. They asked him back to
answer more questions.
00:24:13
MARIA DWYER: In my
interactions with Brian, getting to know Brian, he just
had a tendency to over talk.
00:24:19
And that was actually
a lot of the way that I went about
my investigation was just making that
contact with Brian,
00:24:29
and just letting him talk. And I think that that
worked to our advantage because in doing so, he just--
00:24:37
when you over talk that
much, you tend to say things that you probably shouldn't.
00:24:42
DR. JUDY HO: I don't
think that Brian was actually very
arrogant, that the police
00:24:45
was going to believe him. I think he was becoming
increasingly desperate because he saw what
might be in his future,
00:24:52
which would be a
very, very long prison sentence at the very best. And so he started to
make up, increasingly,
00:24:59
fantastical stories that
had no bearing in reality. NARRATOR: It was
the next day, when
00:25:05
the County Sheriff's Office
decided to arrest Brian Burns. STACY KINTER: I believe, the
State's Attorney's Office
00:25:09
decided there was
enough information to go ahead with an arrest
for the murder of Carla Burns.
00:25:16
NARRATOR: The tactic worked. He began to talk. ROD DEMERY: the
16th of March, Brian
00:25:23
told police that his
wife was actually dead. NARRATOR: Investigators
were finally
00:25:28
about to hear Dr. Brian Burns'
version of his wife's death. MARIA DWYER: He advised that
Carla came to his residence
00:25:35
after work because he
had, Chloe, the dog. He had taken Chloe
to a vet that day,
00:25:42
and Carla was coming
there to pick up Chloe. Carla shows up. They had previously
agreed to prepare dinner
00:25:50
and to have dinner together. So he had prepared
her favorite meal. Carla gets there.
00:25:57
They eat. And then, she decides
she would like to shoot his 9 millimeter handgun.
00:26:04
MATT GOETTEN: Burns
had taken them out into a more wooded
area of the property to show her how to
shoot this weapon.
00:26:12
He handed Carla the handgun. She shot the first round. And the second around,
the gun kicked back,
00:26:22
shooting Carla in the forehead. [gunshot] [crow cawing] Dr. Burns said
that he panicked.
00:26:30
He's a doctor, but he panicked. He tried to save her, but
he was unable to save her.
00:26:36
She started bubbling
from the mouth, that he tried to give her
CPR, but it was difficult.
00:26:47
He felt her pulse, and then
she was no longer there. He didn't have his
cell phone with them,
00:26:55
so that was why he
couldn't initially contact anyone to, you
know, request an ambulance
00:27:02
or anything like that. He indicated that, Chloe, the
dog, started to lick at Carla.
00:27:10
So that grossed him out. So he picked up the dog. And he took Chloe, the dog,
back up to the residence,
00:27:19
where he would put
her inside the house. NARRATOR: Burns claims that he
decided to cremate his wife,
00:27:26
there and then,
the way the couple have agreed way back on
their Costa Rica adventure.
00:27:32
STACY KINTER: He
indicated that Carla's wishes were that she were-- she wanted to be cremated.
00:27:36
And her ashes should be
spread on their property that they owned in Harrisburg. So I burned her
body and scattered
00:27:43
the ashes because I remembered,
that was her final wish-- to be cremated. He's so noble.
00:27:52
MARIA DWYER: At that point, he
decides to go ahead and drag Carla several hundred
feet, probably,
00:28:00
to a burned pile that's
located in a pasture area. He specifically described
turning Carla over,
00:28:07
so she would have been in
a prone position face up. And he turned her over
face down and dragged her
00:28:15
through the yard. He specifically describes
tissue and brain matter was seen collecting on--
00:28:26
on the gra-- on the
grass and sticks as he was dragging her on the ground. Brian then says that
he picked her up,
00:28:35
and then carries her
the remaining few feet to the burn pile,
where he then throws
00:28:40
her on top of the burn pile. And at that point, he
sets the burn pile ablaze. [wood burning]
00:28:49
STACY KINTER: And after that, he
spread the ashes in the pond-- in a creek on the property.
00:28:55
And he said that that was
what she would have wanted. NARRATOR: Was his
story credible?
00:29:03
Not to forensic
psychologist, Judy Ho. DR. JUDY HO: Of course,
none of this makes sense.
00:29:07
The reasonable thing for
anybody to do after an accident would be-- to call 911.
00:29:12
But I do not think that
he was in his logical mind at this point. I think, he was suffering
a mental breakdown.
00:29:17
NARRATOR: Was Dr. Brian Burns
about to get away with a story that his wife had
accidentally killed herself?
00:29:23
As a medic, he had specialist
knowledge that he could use. DR. JUDY HO: I
think, Brian really
00:29:28
didn't have an
idea of what he was going to tell the detectives
that would make sense.
00:29:31
And so I think he
was trying to just throw a bunch of things at
the board to see what sticks.
00:29:36
And he thought, oh,
trauma-induced amnesia because then,
maybe, I wouldn't be responsible for my behaviors.
00:29:41
STACY KINTER: Dr. Burns talked
about a fugue state, kind of an amnesia that,
you know, maybe he
00:29:47
went into some type
of an amnesia thing, and just is not-- not able
to recall what happened.
00:29:53
That's probably the closest
that we ever got to him confessing to what happened.
00:29:57
He says, I just-- I forgot. I had trauma-induced amnesia. I didn't remember a
thing until just now.
00:30:07
This is a self diagnosis
by Dr. Brian Burns. Police are having a hard
time buying that, obviously.
00:30:15
MATT GOETTEN: He does
indicate to investigators that the reason he didn't
come forward with that story,
00:30:20
to begin with, was
he was suffering from what he, now, describes
as a psychogenic fugue
00:30:27
or a fugue state. And that he has
witnessed something so horrific that his mind was
not allowing him to recall
00:30:37
what had actually happened. DR. JUDY HO: I think, he
knew that the gig was up, and he had to make something
up that would make sense.
00:30:43
But this didn't make sense. I think this was
an emotional plea. I don't think he really thought
through what he would say
00:30:47
to the detectives that would
cause them to understand what had happened. NARRATOR: When he had finally
remembered what have actually
00:30:55
happened, Burns said
that he hoped to avoid being tried for any offense. STACY KINTER: He had already
had a plan in his mind
00:31:02
that when police came
to his residence, he was going to take
himself hostage by holding
00:31:08
a gun to his head. And he was going
to request myself and Detective Dwyer
respond to his residence,
00:31:14
so that he could speak with us. He was going to
make us coffee, we were going to sit out
on the front porch
00:31:19
and overlooking the pond,
and he was going to tell us what had happened to Carla.
00:31:26
And if we didn't believe
him, Dr. Burns said that he would have committed suicide.
00:31:31
NARRATOR: By now,
detectives couldn't be sure what to believe. The truth would prove to be
much more elusive than anyone
00:31:38
could possibly have thought. He had hatched a scheme with
a cellmate to have the State's
00:31:45
attorney kidnapped and held
for ransom until his murder charges were dismissed. NARRATOR: All that remained of
collarbones were charred bone
00:32:01
fragments, making it impossible
to establish how she had died. But the type of gun
she had allegedly,
00:32:07
accidentally killed herself
with suggested problems with husband Brian's story. There simply weren't enough
rounds to have been fired
00:32:15
through that gun to have
allowed Carla Burns to have killed herself accidentally.
00:32:21
A 9 millimeter has
very, very low recoil. There are very few guns that
have enough recoil to even,
00:32:28
you know, rise over an inch
out of your-- your-- your hand. NARRATOR: One of
the early reasons
00:32:34
that Brian gave for his wife's
disappearance was that she had possibly killed herself--
00:32:38
a tale, which may have
given one truth away. MATT GOETTEN: Brian
Burns had indicated
00:32:42
to investigators that,
perhaps, his wife had killed herself with insulin. That is an area of
interest to investigators.
00:32:52
That is an area
of interest to me. I firmly believe that
Brian Burns incapacitated
00:32:59
Carla burns with insulin. I'm not sure that Carla Burns
was dead when Brian Burns put
00:33:08
her on the burn
pile, and admittedly burned her body
beyond recognition, and beyond forensic analysis.
00:33:18
But if she were dead,
it was not by a gunshot wound from that weapon. NARRATOR: Burns takes the
detectives back to his home
00:33:25
to show them what had happened. STACY KINTER: He
took us to the area where he said that
Carla was shot.
00:33:31
And then he showed us
how he was able to take her body over to the burn pile. And the steps that he took
to place her on the burn
00:33:43
pile to light the fire,
how he removed her shoes, and took them back to
the house and place
00:33:48
them in her closet, and just
different details about how-- how-- what he did with Carla's
body after she was dead.
00:33:59
NARRATOR: But for
investigators, it was clear-- this was no accident. MATT GOETTEN: When the case
was first presented to me,
00:34:06
as I reviewed the voluminous
amount of evidence in the case and
interviews, the burn pit
00:34:12
on the neighbor's
property did seem like it was a little sloppy. Because I did
believe, and I think
00:34:21
the evidence shows, that this
was not an act of passion. This was a premeditated
murder, which--
00:34:29
which Dr. Burns had gone
to great lengths to plan. NARRATOR: As police
collected evidence,
00:34:36
more discoveries
incriminated Burns in the murder of his wife. MARIA DWYER: He was
seen on the trail cam,
00:34:43
actually, getting a chainsaw
from his-- his neighbor's pole barn, and collecting
some of the debris
00:34:53
and tree and twigs. And ultimately, he created
that burn pile just days prior to this incident.
00:35:01
NARRATOR: Further
suggestion of premeditation was provided by Burns' strange
behavior with his neighbors
00:35:06
before Carla's death. MATT GOETTEN: Two days before
Carla Burns was murdered, Brian Burns had taken a
firearm to his neighbor,
00:35:16
and asked his neighbor if he
wanted to shoot the firearm. And then Brian Burns
is wearing gloves--
00:35:25
rubber gloves, like
surgical gloves at the time. And asks his neighbor if
he would load the weapon.
00:35:32
The neighbor thought that was
a little unusual that he was wearing gloves and even asked
Brian Burns about the wearing
00:35:36
of the gloves, to
which Brian Burns said, his grandfather
always taught him to wear rubber gloves
because, otherwise,
00:35:44
the rounds would possibly rust. Now, this neighbor thought
that was a little weird,
00:35:51
but he didn't question it. Effectively, what we
believe, two days earlier, he was trying to do is get his
neighbor's prints on the rounds
00:35:58
on the gun, so that he
could frame his neighbor for the murder of Carla Burns. And I think he even cleaned
the gun wearing the gloves.
00:36:08
And I-- we believe that
it was to put John Baker's fingerprints on that gun. NARRATOR: Burns treatment
of Carla's cell phone
00:36:16
was also suspect. STACY KINTER: Carla's phone was
discovered underneath the car--
00:36:22
truck seat of John
Baker's that was located in an adjacent-- just
north of Dr. Burns' house.
00:36:27
And her phone was in a plastic
bag underneath the seat in John Baker's truck. MATT GOETTEN: Further
evidence to us
00:36:32
that he was intending,
at some point, to frame his neighbor for
the murder of Carla Burns.
00:36:39
NARRATOR: Burns was held
in custody to await trial. And it seemed that
reality began to bite.
00:36:45
MATT GOETTEN:
Burns was desperate when he was in custody. I don't think he had a
bail that he could reach.
00:36:51
My recollection is his
cash bail was $3 million. He knew he would not be
able to post that in bail.
00:37:01
And so he further knew that
he was in custody until-- and if he went to trial for
the murder of Carla Burns.
00:37:09
I think Burns was desperate
to get out of custody NARRATOR: Desperate
and afraid, Burns
00:37:16
began talking to his cellmate--
an experienced career criminal. Carla's husband Brian was about
to display behavior, which
00:37:24
could be thought of as
outlandish, but for the fact that he'd already killed once.
00:37:28
MATT GOETTEN: Burns
approaches his cellmate, asking him if he had-- almost in a TV show
fashion, asking him
00:37:37
if his cellmate had someone
who could "do a job for him." The cellmate had been in and
out of prison his entire life.
00:37:47
And he saw an opportunity
to, perhaps, help himself with his current predicament.
00:37:52
Burns' cellmate went
directly to the jailer, and indicated that the
doctor, as he called him,
00:38:02
was desirous of getting
some help with something he didn't know what. He had hatched a scheme with
a cellmate to have the state's
00:38:13
attorney kidnapped and held
for ransom until his murder charges were dismissed. NARRATOR: Burns' plan was
reported to investigators.
00:38:23
They had to gather evidence
before they could prosecute. STACY KINTER: Dr.
Burns, I believe,
00:38:27
from listening to some of
the phone calls that he made or the recorded conversations
that he had with our source,
00:38:32
he believed that if he could
make it look like supporters of him had abducted
the state's Attorney
00:38:40
and were wanting to,
I guess, support Dr. burns and his innocence, and
wanted to claim his innocence,
00:38:47
that if the state's
attorney was out of the way, that this would all go away,
that he would be set free.
00:38:53
I think, it was all
about self-preservation at that point. And it was self-preservation
beyond logic.
00:39:00
And it's quite
possible, at this point, he was starting to
suffer more delusional
00:39:04
thinking that wasn't treated,
and possibly, not even discovered. And that can happen, sometimes,
with relatively healthy
00:39:11
individuals when
they are thrown into a huge and intense stressor. It's like the mind doesn't
know how to cope with it.
00:39:19
And when the mind
is overwhelmed, we sometimes see the people
suffering mental breaks,
00:39:22
when otherwise, they didn't
have any mental health problems to speak of or at
least, that anybody knew of.
00:39:28
And so I think, at
this point, he wasn't able to reason logically. And his desire to preserve
himself, at any cost,
00:39:37
was taking over and
causing the exacerbation of his mental breakdown. NARRATOR: Maybe delusional,
but not so much that he didn't
00:39:45
have very well the motivations. Those directly
involved with the case, consider Burns'
motivation for the killing
00:39:51
to be purely financial. The divorce settlement
was not to his liking. I feel like this whole divorce
was very upsetting to him
00:40:00
due to the fact that
he was a doctor. They had a lot of money. And he knew that he was going
to lose a significant amount
00:40:08
of money during this divorce. Brian's accountant testified
that Carla had planned
00:40:14
to file separately,
and Brian's taxes would increase by $15,000. The reason I know the
taxes is the impetus
00:40:21
is because while his wife was
burning, he went to Marion-- went into her hotel room,
gathered tax documents,
00:40:32
is seen on video
surveillance coming out. NARRATOR: Brian
Burns was convicted of the murder of Carla
Burns in December 2019,
00:40:40
and sentenced to 40 years. He was also sentenced to five
years for the concealment
00:40:47
of the homicidal death. Based on his sentences
in the attempted kidnapping of the state's attorney,
the murder of Carla Burns,
00:40:57
and the concealment
of a homicidal death. I was glad to see that
this finally came to an end,
00:41:03
that he was convicted. And that her-- Carla's family was able to
have some sort of closure,
00:41:11
and could move on with this. It had been four years before-- since this went to trial.
00:41:16
So I-- I felt good
about where we were. And I felt like we-- we put a lot of time and
effort into the investigation.
00:41:23
And it's always good to
see these type of results. And that the right person
was convicted of this.
00:41:30
I did, also, eventually
meet both of her sons. They would fly here from
Texas during the trial.
00:41:40
That was when I
initially met with them, and got to know them. And I mean, they're--
00:41:47
they're great kids. And they went through a
horrible, horrible thing losing their mother that way.
00:41:55
So, sorry-- [sob] NARRATOR: Married in 2009,
the relationship on the rocks by 2013.
00:42:09
Carla and Brian Burns were
two medical professionals, who had seemed the
perfect match for a couple
00:42:15
later in their life. But Dr. Brian Burns
was not about to let nurse Carla Burns take what he
believed was rightfully his--
00:42:23
everything. [car door closing] [music playing]