On a summer morning, a young man named James Patrick Burrows, known to his friends and family as Pat, began a journey from which he would not return. He was last seen in Calhoun County, Alabama, driving his Honda 250 motorcycle on Alabama 21, near the Midway community, on August 23, 1990. The 24-year-old had left home around 8:00 a.m. and was reportedly on his way to visit a friend.
At the time of his disappearance, he was described as a white male with brown hair and green eyes, and he may have had long hair and a full beard. He was wearing a black t-shirt and camouflage-print pants. After that morning, he was never heard from again, leaving his loved ones with a void of unanswered questions.
The initial search for James brought no immediate answers, and the silence stretched into a long and agonizing wait for his family. A significant break in the case, though a somber one, came more than a year after he vanished. His Honda 250 motorcycle was discovered submerged in a bog, located within 300 yards of an abandoned brickyard, about three miles south of Piedmont, Alabama. The location was not far from where he was headed on the day he disappeared. The recovery of his motorcycle confirmed the fears of foul play, but James himself remained missing, his whereabouts a painful mystery.
The investigation into his disappearance took a dark turn as authorities began to suspect he was a victim of a homicide connected to the local drug trade. It was theorized that James, along with another man, Jeffery McFry, who went missing less than two weeks after him, may have been targeted for allegedly stealing marijuana from a drug dealer named David Ronald Chandler. In 1991, Chandler was convicted of drug trafficking and of ordering James's death. Although Chandler was initially sentenced to death, his sentence was later commuted to life in prison after a key witness recanted their testimony. Another man, Jimmy Steed, has also been considered a suspect in the presumed murders of both James and Jeffery McFry, as well as in the later disappearance of his own wife. Despite these convictions and suspicions, the remains of James Patrick Burrows have never been found, and the case officially remains an endangered missing person case, a profound and lasting tragedy for all who knew him.Last Seen: Aug 23, 1990
