Deadly affair

Josh Mankiewicz Correspondent • Profile

There are nearly 600 empty, desolate miles between Lander, Wyo., and Pierre, S.D. But every morning Don and Bonnie Burns say they felt the lonely miles melt away when their daughter, Tami, phoned home.

Bonnie Burns: Before anybody was up, we'd make our call to each other, and sometimes it would be, you know maybe five minutes, ten minutes, maybe have an hour, depending on what was gonna happen that day.

Josh Mankiewicz: And this was seven days a week.

Bonnie Burns: Seven days a week. For years.

Bonnie and Tami treasured those long-distance mother-daughter chats: Tami in South Dakota, Bonnie back home in Wyoming.

But on the morning of Feb. 8, 2006, the phone at Bonnie Burns’ house didn't ring at the usual time.

Bonnie Burns: It was quarter to 7 and I thought, well, that's weird, Tami hasn't called me this morning. So I called her home phone, no answer. I called her cell phone, her message came on--nothing.

It might have seemed like nothing more than a momentary glitch in a reassuring ritual. But in the space of that missed connection---mental alarms went off among the members of Tami's family.

Holly Burns: I had stopped by my mom's house before leaving for work. And the minute I walked in the door, my mom said, "I can't get hold of Tami". Obviously, she was worried. And my stomach just--I felt instantly sick.

Tami's sisters, Holly and Raquel, and father, Don, also felt something was wrong, when they heard that Tami had not checked in.

Holly Burns: You know, she didn't call that was so unusual--that something was not right.

Bonnie and Raquel called Tami's cell and home numbers, but got no answer. Since it was nearly 9:00 in Pierre, Raquel thought Tami might be at Kmart, where she worked part time.

Raquel Burns: And the lady who answered put me on hold and it was the longest few minutes of my life waiting, you know, hoping that Tami would answer.

But instead of Tami's voice, only the hollow sound of Tami being paged over the P.A. system crackled through the receiver. 

Video   ‘You're leaving a lot out of this conversation’ See the police interrogation of Brad Reay, Tami's husband. Dateline NBC

Eventually, the Kmart lady came back on the phone with disappointing news: Tami was not there.

Raquel Burns: I hung up and my mom and I thought, "Well, now what do we do?"

Because the family had never been close with Tami's husband, Brad, they didn't even consider calling him. But then Bonnie remembered something Tami had told her over Christmas. Something about a co-worker at Kmart.

Bonnie Burns: She told me that--that he was a manager. I said, “Well, tell me a little bit about him." All I knew was his name was Brian. So, I called Kmart again. Not knowing his last name I just asked for Brian that was a manager of a department.

This time, pay dirt. There was a Brian there.

Bonnie Burns: I told him who I was and I said, "Have you seen Tami?" and he said, "No,” and I said, "Well, we can't get a hold of her. We're a little bit worried."

Brian said he didn't know where Tami was - but he did know that she was about to start a new job at a local pharmacy.

Bonnie Burns: So he called the pharmacy and called me back and said, "She's not there." And I said, "OK, well we need to call Haylee." I said, "What is the name of the school?"

And Brian did know the school. Soon after, Haylee - Tami's 12-year-old daughter - was pulled out of class to talk to her panicked aunt.

Raquel Burns: I said "Haylee, we can't find your mom. Where is your mom?” And she said, "Well, the last time I saw was last night." She said, "Her purse and her cell phone are on the counter."

Feeling helpless, Bonnie and Raquel again turned to Brian.

Bonnie Burns: So I called Brian back and I said she said the last time she saw Tami was last night and I said, "We need to call the police." And he said, "I'll call the police and I'll be in touch."

Josh Mankiewicz: So you're waiting for word. Is Brian calling you back?

Video   Teen reads poem commemorating murdered mom Haylee Reay reads a poem she wrote for her mom called "Meet again, meet again." Dateline NBC

Bonnie Burns: No, no he was not.

Josh Mankiewicz: I mean you Don't know anything about this guy. You--trusted him.

Bonnie Burns: I did.

Josh Mankiewicz: Was that the right thing to do?

Bonnie Burns: At that point in time, yes.

Holly Burns: Worst day of my life. Pace the floor. Pace the floor. Pace the floor.

Later that evening, lawmen in Lander dropped by with alarming news for Tami's family.

Raquel Burns: They've been notified by the Pierre police department that they have found blood in my sister's car and it wasn't looking good.

Josh Mankiewicz: What were you thinking?

Raquel Burns: Awful. You fall to the floor and you're--you feel sick. You're 600 miles away. Should we go look for her? Is she hurt someplace? What do we do?

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