Lynnard Burton was on his way home to Lexington when he disappeared in the spring of 2011. A year later, a body was found in an abandoned apartment that matched his description. Just a couple weeks ago, Lynnard’s mom says the coroner confirmed that man was her son. She talked with LEX 18 about what an emotional year it’s been.
Benita Burton says her pain started 21 months ago. For almost two years she’s been searching for the answer to one question: what happened to her son, Lynnard?
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“It’s been a hard year. Just accepting everything we’ve been through, him being gone,” she says.
March 2011: Lynnard had just finished serving time at a prison in Ashland, Kentucky. He was supposed to come home by bus. Despite all his letters telling Benita he was excited to return, Lynnard never showed up.
Then in May, a decomposing body was found at the abandoned Pennington Place Apartments on Codell Drive. Lynnard’s release papers were found next to it.
“Why was he there? How he got home, what kind of frame of mind was he in when he got here? Was he sick? Just a lot of stuff I don’t know why he didn’t come home and let us know he was here,” Benita says.
She may never know the answers to those questions, but she has gotten closure. Two weeks ago, she says she got a call from the coroner. Benita says the man found in those apartments has been positively identified through DNA testing as her son.
“I thought we’d be ready for it, I was ready for it, but I wasn’t. It was hard,” she says.
But she says it’s what she needed to hear to say goodbye. Benita has planned a memorial service for her son, next saturday, January 5, at 11:30am, at First African Baptist Church in Lexington.
“I think that the pain will sooner or later lighten up a little bit. But I will always have him in my heart.”
