Convicted killer says he wants to make amends

updated 6:05 p.m. ET Aug. 12, 2009

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Death row inmate Chadrick Fulks insists he wants to help a slain West Virginia college student's family find solace by leading investigators to her body.

It wouldn't be the first time he's made that claim. State and federal authorities spent six years on wild goose chases prompted by tips from Fulks before one of his clues actually led searchers to another victim of his 2,300-mile crime spree, which left two women dead and several people injured in 2002.

"I will fight until my last breath to make sure that Samantha is recovered as well," Fulks, 32, wrote in a recent letter to The Associated Press from the federal death row in Terre Haute, Ind.

But now, the same volunteer who successfully unearthed one of Fulks' victims says she's not so sure the condemned man really wants anyone to find the second, 19-year-old Marshall University student Samantha Burns.

The volunteer, Monica Caison, is the founder of Community United Effort — Center for Missing Persons. She led the team that found the remains of Alice Donovan, a 44-year-old South Carolina woman, earlier this year, but is frustrated by the search for Burns.

"I've found people missing for 15 years or more, more easily than this," said Caison, whose recent searches of rural, wooded parts of West Virginia based on tips from Fulks have turned up nothing. "I try not to let my frustration show. ... Everybody expects to get out there and find her and have the same success that we had with Alice."

Inmate aids in search
After Fulks sent her a map and photos earlier this year, claiming they were Donovan's final resting place, Caison drove directly from Wilmington, N.C., to South Carolina, where in January she found bones in thick brush near the North Carolina line. Last month, DNA tests confirmed the remains belonged to Donovan, information that left Fulks feeling somewhat vindicated.

"I'm thankful that her family can now have a proper burial for her," Fulks wrote, "and I can only pray that in some way this will help them to begin to heal."

Donovan's daughters are planning to bury their mother Nov. 14, the seventh anniversary of her death. Fulks, who says his own brother recently committed suicide in jail and was buried the same day Donovan's remains were identified, wrote to the AP that he now understands the anguish felt by both victims' families.

"Seeing his pain made me constantly think about Alice and Samanthas familys pain and it has drove me to not give up until they both were found," he wrote.

Earlier this year, Fulks wrote to Caison again, sending a map and photos of the rural area where he says Burns' body was dumped. He and co-defendant Brandon Basham pleaded guilty to killing her during their spree, which authorities said also included carjacking a Kentucky man and leaving him for dead, shooting a South Carolina man who refused to give them his vehicle, and attacking police officers in Kentucky and Ohio.

Fulks claims he is innocent of the slayings but knows where the bodies are.

In March, Caison led a group through a wooded area in southwestern West Virginia at Fulks' direction, her spirits renewed by the success in identifying Donovan's remains.

For 16 days, Caison's team logged hundreds of hours combing the earth for Burns' remains. Cadaver dogs picked up scents. Searchers crawled on hands and knees, hoping to uncover some clue that would verify Fulks' information.

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