OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – For nearly 30 years, Dallas Burr thought her parents were missing. When she went looking for them with the help of social media, Burr discovered her parents are actually at the center of an Oklahoma cold case.
Brian and Rachel Burr were identified by the Oklahoma State Board of Investigations (OSBI) on April 10. The two were found dead on April 9, 1995, with gunshot wounds, and remained unidentified until this month.
Burr said her parents left when she was 3 years old, and she never heard from them again.
“I’m 30 years old and I don’t even remember my parents,” said Burr. “I’ve been looking for them for most of my adult life but there’s not a lot of resources when all you have is a name and a birthday.”
Burr said she was inspired when she saw a 26-year-old woman on TikTok in a similar situation. “She found out that she was a kidnapping victim. And the only reason she found out was posting to TikTok.”
Burr decided to post to the social media platform and hoped to find answers. For nearly two years, she posted videos featuring her story and the story of her parents with a plea to help find them.
In September 2022, the OSBI received a report identifying the cold case victims as 23-year-old Brian and 21-year-old Rachel Burr of Texas. Dallas received a phone call with the news her parents weren’t missing – they were dead.
“The agents called me and I knew I had to take that phone call. It was earth-shattering when they told me what had happened,” she said.
While happy to finally have an answer, it seemed like more questions remained. Investigators still do not know who fired the shots that killed the couple.
“Wouldn’t you want answers to what happened? I know I do,” said Burr. “I ask people about them but I just get so little information about them because they were so young.”
“They died when they were hardly in their twenties so they really didn’t have time to develop into people yet,” she said. “All I knew was their names and that my mom really liked to play the saxophone.”
Burr hopes people will hear her story and help her finish finding answers.
“They’ve been gone for so long and I have spent my whole life being sad about it. It has impacted me in ways that I can’t even begin to articulate in an interview like this.”
Anyone with information regarding the case is asked to contact the OSBI at 800-522-8017 or email tips@osbi.ok.gov.
