On September 17, 1996, Paula Michelle Burnette disappeared from Harrison, Tennessee. The 21-year-old mother of two was last seen at 6:00 a.m. that day.
At the time, she was estranged from her husband, Donald Ray Burnette. She had a two-year-old daughter by Donald and a four-year-old son from a previous marriage.
Her marriage to Donald was strained and had a history of violence. The day before she went missing, Paula called the police to have Donald removed from her home. She asked her father to stay the night because she was afraid Donald would come back and harm her.
On September 17, Donald called Paula’s father and asked him to pick up the kids. He said that Paula needed a vacation and some time to herself because she was upset about warrants being issued for her arrest for writing bad checks.
However, those warrants did not exist at the time she disappeared. They were not issued until over a month later.
By September 21, Paula’s father reported her missing, as she had failed to contact her loved ones for four days after she was last seen. Since then, Paula has never been heard from again. Paula had called a friend, Tinika Hollis, twice before she vanished.
“She had even mentioned about two weeks before she disappeared that if anything ever happened to her, don’t stop looking…she was in fear,” said Tinika.
“She was a very loving mother; she wouldn’t have walked away from her children. She was having problems with her husband, but they could have gotten a divorce.”
In October, her driver’s license was found next to a mailbox along a gravel road leading to an abandoned water treatment plant. Investigators brought cadaver dogs to the area, and something triggered an intense response from them. Still, a search did not turn up any sign of Paula or her remains.
In November 1996, just weeks after Paula went missing, Donald and an accomplice, James Travis White, committed a terrible crime. They took a bank manager and her family hostage, forcing her to rob her own bank of $187,000.
They drove around with her family overnight to make sure that she did their bidding. Both men were arrested in December 1996. Donald was sentenced to 39 years in prison. He has been investigated by authorities for Paula’s disappearance.
Months later, in April 1997, Paula’s purse and address book washed up in someone’s yard after a period of heavy rain and flooding. Her case remains open and unsolved. The evidence in her case points to foul play.
At the time of her disappearance, Paula was 5’1″ and weighed 110 pounds. She had brown hair, blue eyes, and pierced ears. Her maiden name is Caudill.
If you have any information about the disappearance of Paula Michelle Burnette, you can reach out to the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office at 423-622-0022.
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By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
