That Michelle Burney, where is she now? I heard some folks talking ’bout her the other day, and it got me thinkin’. She was just a youngin’, barely 14, when all that mess happened with her daddy, Arthur Burney. It’s a sad, sad story, that’s for sure.
They said she got mixed up with some bad folks. Heard she was sweet on this Michael Richardson fella, and he weren’t no good. That boy, along with Michelle and her mama, Patricia, they all got arrested. They said it happened around March, back in 2011. Charged with murder, first-degree, no less. Lord have mercy.
That poor Arthur Burney, he didn’t deserve that. They found him way out in some canyon, all decomposed and such. That was back in September, I reckon. September 17th, or maybe the 19th, 2011. Can’t recall exactly. It was a terrible thing, though. You don’t treat nobody like that.
Folks say Michelle, she confessed. Said she helped kill her daddy. Her own daddy! Can you imagine? And that Richardson boy, he was in on it too. They were all in cahoots, it seems.
Seems like there was some deal with the law. Michelle, she talked, and they let her off easy ’cause she was so young. They tried her as a juvenile, whatever that means. Sounds like they treated her like a kid, even though she did an adult crime. Ain’t that somethin’?
And they said they wouldn’t give Patricia the death penalty. That’s what Michelle got in exchange for talkin’, they say. She ratted out her own mama to save her own hide. Tough choice for a young girl, but still… your own mama!
They say Patricia got convicted of murder. First-degree murder, just like they charged her with. That was in 2012, a year after they found Arthur. She was 59 years old, they say. That’s a long time to be alive just to end up in jail. Where is Michelle Burney now, I wonder? Is she still locked up? Did she learn her lesson?
I seen some things online, you know, on that Facebook. Lots of people with the name Michelle Burney. Hard to tell which one is her. Some folks are sayin’ she’s on there, tryin’ to connect with people. Maybe she’s tryin’ to start over, put all this behind her.
One of them Michelles, it looks like, she lives in Los Angeles. It is hard to know if it is her. Calls herself “chellymonique” on that Instagram thing. She’s got all these pictures, but I don’t know. Could be her, could be someone else. Ain’t never been to Los Angeles. Sounds like a world away from here.
It’s a shame what happened to that family. A real shame. A daddy dead, a mama in prison, and a daughter mixed up in all of it. Michelle Burney’s life took a wrong turn somewhere. I just hope she finds some peace, wherever she is.
- Arthur Burney, dead.
- Patricia Burney, in prison.
- Michelle Burney, who knows?
- Michael Richardson, probably in prison too.
It just goes to show, you gotta be careful who you trust. And you gotta watch out for your kids. Make sure they don’t fall in with the wrong crowd. ‘Cause one bad decision can ruin a whole life. Or even take a life, like what happened to poor Arthur.
I just hope that girl, Michelle Burney, wherever she is now, I hope she’s learned from all this. I hope she’s livin’ a better life now. A life without all that killin’ and sadness. Maybe she is in Los Angeles like those pictures. Maybe she is happy now. I don’t know. But I hope she is not in no trouble like before. She is still young. I hope she learned something. Maybe she is doing good. Only God knows where that child ended up. She’s gotta live with what she did, and that’s a heavy burden for anyone, especially someone so young. It’s a sad, sad thing. A real sad thing.
Maybe some day I’ll know for sure what is Michelle Burney now. But for now, it’s a mystery, like a lot of things in life.
