Joanna Phillips has been trying to find Joseph Burris for more than a decade, and on Monday she took her plea for help to the county commissioners.
Joseph Leon Burris, 25, was kidnapped from his home near Chadbourn in 1988. Burris has never been located, but the man accused of kidnapping him was convicted of felonious restraint and sent to prison.
Phillips has repeatedly asked Sheriff Bill Rogers and the State Bureau of Investigation to officially enter Burris’ name in the NamUs database, to no avail.
Monday she asked the commissioners for their assistance.
“I’m not asking the sheriff to investigate,” Phillips said. “I’m not asking for a reward. All I am asking for is for the CCSO to do the right thing.”
Phillips helps relatives searching for missing kin. A still-unidentified body from 1991 led her to Burris’ case.
“In November 1991, a skeleton was discovered in our county on a blanket near a pond outside of Whiteville,” she said. The skeletal remains were estimated to be several years old, according to reports at the time. A group of hunters found the bones while investigating a flight of vultures circling near the pond. “Those remains became known as the ‘Columbus County John Doe,’ and he is unidentified to this day,” she explained.
While researching that case, she came across stories and reports about Burris, who was kidnapped on Nov. 22, 1988. His abductor was immediately identified, and he was extradited from Florida to stand trial. The man was convicted and sentenced to prison. He has since been released.
“The victim, however, has never been seen nor heard from again,” she said.
In 2012, on the 30th anniversary of a different missing person case with ties to the county, Phillips said she became aware of NamUs.gov.
NamUs is the National Association of Missing and Unidentified Persons System. It is maintained by the federal government. NamUs acts as a national information clearinghouse and resource center for missing, unidentified and unclaimed person cases.
Phillips found out about NamUs while researching the disappearance of Alexander “Edwin” Shaw IV, 23. Shaw’s father was town manager of Chadbourn, although the family lived in Wagram.
“When I heard how Edwin’s father quit his job as Town Manager in Chadbourn to search for his only son, it broke my heart,” she said. “It gave me an inkling of how families of missing persons suffer.” Edwin Shaw’s case remains unsolved.
Phillips researched NamUs and discovered that there is no cost for law enforcement agencies to use the program. The investigative agency must file an official request to put the missing person in the database. NamUs then creates a page on its website with the particulars, whether the person is missing or if an unidentified body has been reported. NamUs maintains a DNA database that helps identify unknown bodies. The database has been used to solve numerous cases across the country.
Phillips said she has received no assistance from the sheriff’s office in her efforts to get Burris listed on NamUs.
“I requested several times that the Columbus County Sheriff’s Office input this 1988 case into the NamUs.gov database, which is funded and run by the U.S. Department of Justice, at no cost to law enforcement nor to families,” she said.
Phillips noted that she has done the legwork for the NamUs page on Burris, but the sheriff’s office and SBI have not taken the last step and officially requested he be added. Private citizens can also access and use NamUs.
“After my requests yielded no results over a period of time, I finally created the case in NamUs for Burris myself in May 2024, with help from the family,” she said. “My intention was to be helpful to the sheriff’s department, who informed me that no one there had the knowledge to do it. However, Burris’ case remains today in a ‘Pending’ state, until someone from within the CCSO makes it an ‘Active’ case.”
In 2019, the N.C. General Assembly passed a law that requires missing persons be entered into NamUS if a case goes 30 days without being solved.
“All I am asking for is for the CCSO to do the right thing and to comply with North Carolina General Statute 143B,” she said.
A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said last week that Burris has not been entered, but detectives are planning to enter a more recent missing person, Barry Freedman, into the network.
“Burris’ body could have been disposed of anywhere from here to Florida,” Phillips noted. “Chances are good that his remains may never be found after almost 38 long years. But I am asking that the Burris family be given a chance for answers and also that we uphold the laws of our great state.”
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