[ad_1]
BALTIMORE – Cumberland High School sweethearts Brian and Kelly Sue Robinette had created an idyllic family and a comfortable life in Ellicott City, Maryland.
Their son graduated from college and their daughter was right behind. They posted picturesque beach vacation photos and happy family portraits at sunset.
Brian Robinette, 58, was planning to retire from his job as a Walgreens pharmacist in Severna Park, said Jerome “Jerry” Robinette, 83, Brian’s father. And as he and Kelly Robinette, 57, thought about their futures, they knew their tight-knit family meant they wouldn’t stray from their Maryland roots.
Back home in Cumberland, the life of Brian’s half-brother with whom he had mostly cut ties with years earlier, Jeffrey Burnham, took a different course.
He still lived with their mother, Evelyn Burnham, in a small brick house. He had a security system in place for his room and told his mother the FBI was after them. Evelyn Burnham told Cumberland Police she was concerned. His appearance was disheveled, and neighbors noticed that his manners were deteriorating. On September 27 or 28, according to neighbors, he broke out against a group of children playing outside in the narrow street.
This Thursday, September 30, the paths of separated half-brothers crossed during a deadly encounter. After killing his mother’s 83-year-old friend Rebecca Reynolds of Cumberland and stealing his pristine Lincoln Corsair SUV, police said, Jeffrey Burnham, 46, traveled to Ellicott City and shot Brian and Kelly Robinette in their suburban home. Their bodies were found with gunshot wounds in an upstairs bedroom, and their red Corvette was missing.
An 6-hour manhunt ensued, leading to the capture of Jeffrey Burnham on October 1 in Davis, West Virginia.
That day, he told a firefighter outside the Billy Motel & Bar that he had been “forced to kill three people”.
Burnham also worried his mother by expressing her displeasure with Brian Robinette’s job as a pharmacist administering coronavirus vaccines. He told one person, who was not named in his prosecution documents, that his half-brother “was killing people with the COVID vaccine.”
In Cumberland and Ellicott City, the Robinette family are left with the grief associated with the seemingly inexplicable and unpredictable loss. They wondered why a half-brother with whom Brian Robinette was barely associated had taken the couple’s life.
“He was a great father and I wouldn’t want a better son than the one I had in Brian,” said Jerome Robinette, of Cumberland, who raised Brian with his second wife and was not the father of Burnham.
His daughter broke the news to him over the phone on September 29.
“As a father, I was broken down,” he said. “You lose a son, it’s nothing but sadness and sadness.”
In West Virginia, Kelly Robinette’s family also remains in shock.
“She was very outgoing. Always had a smile on his face. She was happy, ”Todd Miller said of his older sister. “They have made a good life. “
Brian Robinette’s niece, Carrie Robinette, who lives in Glen Burnie, said: “It’s still unreal. Brian and Kelly are just amazing people.
Several family members say they are still wondering why Burnham allegedly targeted his brother who they said has been estranged in recent years.
“They haven’t really spoken, as far as I know, for a while,” Carrie Robinette said.
She attributed this to Burnham’s withdrawal from others. She also said she wondered if Burnham, who continued to live with his mother, harbored some jealousy towards her brother, who had built a successful life in Ellicott City.
“He was very smart, was successful and everyone loved him,” she said of Brian Robinette.
Brian and Kelly Robinette attended Fort Hill High School, where he graduated in 1981. Brian continued his pre-pharmacy education at Allegany Community College before attending the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, said Jerome Robinette. They married soon after graduating in 1986 and settled in Ellicott City.
State property records show the couple bought their home on Kerger Road, where police found them killed last week, 1996.
Brian Robinette found work at the Walgreens Pharmacy on Ritchie Highway in Severna Park, but staff directed all questions to the company’s offices. A man who greeted a journalist at the Robinette family home on Thursday afternoon refused to answer questions.
Jérôme Robinette said his son and daughter-in-law could not have children, so they adopted two children. The children played sports and at home they organized family reunions in a nearby community.
“It was an ideal family,” said Jérôme Robinette. He described them as inseparable spouses. Kelly Robinette “has never met an enemy,” he continued. “She was like Brian. They were a perfect match.
While the Robinettes maintained close ties with Cumberland, who visited regularly, Jérôme Robinette said Brian would not be visiting his mother.
“He broke off the relationship with her for a reason that I do not know,” said Jérôme Robinette. “When he came to town, he didn’t make a point of going to see her. My other kids would.
And, while Brian and his mother seemed to have drifted apart, Burnham, too, has increasingly withdrawn from others in recent years.
Carrie Robinette has said her uncle Jeffrey Burnham is estranged from her half-siblings. But he also seemed different from the others. She said he has long believed in conspiracy theories.
“Whenever I’m with him he’s really quiet. He was just a little weird, ”she said.
Recently, she said her Aunt Kelly, not her uncle Brian Robinette, had been pushing for their mother to be vaccinated against COVID-19, but Jeffrey Burnham opposed it.
The family said they were looking for other answers, such as why Burnham allegedly killed Reynolds.
“I wonder myself,” Carrie Robinette said. “We’re all trying to figure this out.”
Reynolds’ neighbors described her as a small but independent woman, who loved her dogs and maintained a fiery spirit. They said she would have fought.
Paramedics found Reynolds dead in her Cumberland home with a deep laceration on her throat and a pillow on her face, prosecution documents show. Cumberland Police described signs of a struggle in court documents.
Reynolds graduated from Fort Hill High School with Evelyn Burnham in 1956 and continued her education at Western Maryland College for the undergraduate level and George Washington University for her Masters of Education, according to a family obituary. She was a teacher in Virginia for 35 years.
Police said after killing Reynolds he took his SUV and drove him to Ellicott City. But Carrie Robinette said her grandmother, Evelyn Burnham, had a car and asked why Jeffrey Burnham killed her if he had access to a vehicle.
Evelyn Burnham could not be reached for comment. In a previous interview with The Sun, she mourned the loss of a son to violence and the other to prison. She said she was sorry for what Jeffrey Burnham did and expressed concerns about his mental health.
Lawyers for Jeffrey Burnham have filed a petition for a skills assessment, according to court records online. An Allegany County District Court judge signed an order asking mental health professionals to determine if he can help his own defense and understands the court system.
“Sir. Burnham is presumed innocent. He has the right to a fair trial and due process under the law,” said Michael Allan Stankan, one of Burnham’s attorneys at the county public defender’s office. right now, we are meeting with our client and reviewing the evidence. “
Jeffrey Burnham faces charges of first degree murder and unlawful taking of a motor vehicle in Allegany County, where he is being held at the county detention center. He has yet to be charged with the Robinettes’ deaths in Ellicott City, although Howard County Police have indicated charges are pending.
Miller said he and other family members are still trying to figure out what happened.
“It’s a little surreal,” said Miller, Kelly Robinette’s brother.
And now Miller imagines a future without his older sister.
While she lived in a different state, he said, their families still got together on vacation.
“They won’t be the same anymore. “
____
(Baltimore Sun reporter Tim Prudente contributed to this article.)
____
[ad_2]
Source link