Kriti Mehrotra
It was on October 4, 2004, when 19-year-old Courtney Coco was found dead in an abandoned building near Winnie, Texas, roughly 200 miles away from her home in Alexandria, Louisiana. According to NBC’s ‘Dateline: Who Killed Courtney Coco?,’ her remains were so badly decomposed by this point that not even her cause of death could be positively ruled. However, with the belief the young woman had been murdered, an investigation ensued, but it did not come to a close until 2022 when David Anthony Burns was finally convicted.
David Anthony Burns Was Reportedly Involved With Courtney Coco and Her Sister
Although not much information about David Anthony Burns’ background, early years, or experiences is known as of writing, we do know that the Alabama native was close to Courtney. As per court records, he had been engaged to Courtney’s elder sister, Lace Evans, for around 6 years by the time the fall of 2004 rolled around, making it evident they were always either directly or indirectly in touch. After all, Lace saw her sister every day since they worked together at the same dental office, and she returned home to David every evening, sometimes even with Courtney.
Lace still vividly remembers that on the evening of October 2, 2004, she and her then-fiance got into a heated argument, and it got to such an extent that he ended up leaving their home. David, she testified during his trial, did return home around 30 minutes later, but he left again shortly after, and she didn’t see him again for the entire weekend. In fact, it was on the afternoon of October 4 that she came across him again when all her loved ones had assembled at her mother’s home after they had all been notified of Courtney’s death.
According to court records, it was challenging to identify the 19-year-old, but her ring helped — one Lace immediately recognized as a gift from her fiancé. In fact, she believed her promise ring was a perfect wedding match to the one Coco had been wearing, which essentially confirmed her suspicion that they had been having an affair. As per Lace’s testimony, she had begun suspecting the infidelity when she was in the hospital shortly prior to her sister’s death, only to notice David and Courtney would often be missing at the same time. But alas, owing to a lack of evidence of any sort at the time, all leads dried up.
David Anthony Burns Was Arrested For Murder in 2021
Because of the complexity surrounding Courtney’s murder, investigators suspected almost everyone close to her, including her mother, her sister, and her sister’s fiance at the time. However, owing to a lack of concrete evidence against any of them, they had no choice but to pursue other avenues, resulting in the case eventually going cold. It was only in 2019 that interest picked up again thanks to Woody Overton’s podcast titled ‘Real Life Real Crime,’ wherein he even urged people to come forward if they knew anything.
This resulted in many tips, some of which suggested David had actually confessed to murdering Courtney to them in one way or another. One of these witnesses even claimed he had asserted how he had wrapped the teenager’s body in plastic before dumping it miles away, which was of great significance. That’s because, in the weeks following Courtney’s death, when her family visited her home, her grandmother noticed that her plastic shower curtains were missing. Moreover, Lace told officials that she had noticed her sister’s leopard-print comforter missing from her bed, which she believes she later saw in David’s mother’s home.
Arguably, the most crucial witness account came from a man named Jude Wilson, a graphic designer from Texas, who had been right near the abandoned building where Courtney was later found. He testified that he was on an errand when he had to swerve to avoid a car backing out of the property and that he later saw the same vehicle with someone walking in front of the headlights to get inside. He actually picked David from a lineup after the case was reopened years later, which further solidified the case against him and resulted in his arrest on April 13, 2021.
David Anthony Burns is Currently Behind Bars in Louisiana
While David was arrested in 2021 and pleaded not guilty to murder just a short while later, he didn’t stand trial until 2022. During his court proceedings, the prosecutors painted a clear picture of how he killed Courtney after arriving at her place following his argument with Lace. They couldn’t precisely determine what had transpired in the teenager’s apartment, but they contended that they likely fought over their alleged affair or the sexually transmitted disease Courtney had. As for the defense, they maintained David’s innocence at every step, but the evidence, the tips, and the testimonies against him were undeniable.
Therefore, following a mere 90 minutes of deliberations, on October 22, 2022, the jury found David Anthony Burns guilty of second-degree murder. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence a little over a month later on November 28. His attorney did try to file two motions ahead of his sentencing hearing – one for acquittal and one for a retrial – yet both were denied. So, today, at the age of 49, he remains incarcerated at the maximum-security Louisiana State Penitentiary in Tunica Trace in Angola, Louisiana, where he is expected to stay for the rest of his natural life.
Read More: Courtney Coco’s Family: Where Are They Now?
