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Burris death still unexplained
Published 11:24am Monday, July 2, 2012The Otter Tail County Sheriff Office is continuing its investigation into the death of Ottertail resident Scott Burris, 33, but there are still no suspects in the case at this time.
“Over the last several weeks, we’ve been investigating this incident, talking to numerous contacts, trying to get a picture of what led up to this,” said Sheriff Brian Schlueter.
At this point, however, what picture authorities have doesn’t include who was responsible for Burris’ death. Though Schlueter said the investigation is gathering information, no arrests have been made, and there are no people of interest. Since they haven’t gained a complete idea of what happened leading up to Burris’ death, investigators also don’t know if the killer was local or if he or she is still in the area. However, law enforcement doesn’t believe the person responsible for the death is a threat to the public at large.
It has now been two weeks since Burris’ body was discovered in the Otter Tail River near Orwell Dam on June 15, and it’s been more than a month since Burris’ abandoned van was found near Elizabeth (a small amount of blood was found in the van). The sheriff’s office has sent evidence related to the case to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for analysis, and they are waiting on the results as they investigate other avenues (Schlueter declined to talk about the nature of the evidence).
“We’ve done evidence searches, and we’ve got really nothing back from the crime lab as far as evidence collected from the scene of his van and from where his body was found,” Schlueter said.
Burris’ autopsy was completed the weekend he was found, though the sheriff’s office is still waiting on toxicology reports and some other information. However, Burris’ cause of death has still not been released, and Schlueter would not comment on why. He also did not want to confirm or deny any rumors surrounding the nature or reasons behind Burris’ death.
As of Friday, Schlueter did not know if Burris’ remains had been released to his family from the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office in Ramsey, though he said that they had not been as of earlier this week.
Schlueter noted that he’s aware of the large public interest in the case, and he said law enforcement wants to track down the person or people responsible as much as anyone.
“We’ve put in hundreds of hours,” he said. “We have a lot of people working on this.”
Anyone with possible information related to the case is encouraged to call the sheriff’s office at 998-8555.
