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Wedding pictures, body of groom found in storage unit
QUESTION:Wedding pictures, body of groom found in storage unit
UPLAND, Calif. (AP) -- When Maria Blackburn opened the contents of an
abandoned storage unit she bought at auction, she found wedding pictures,
glasses used to toast the newlyweds and the body of the groom.
Now, the bride has been charged with murder.
Darlene Bourk, 31, pleaded innocent to killing 27-year-old Robert Bourk, the
San Bernardino County district attorney's office said Thursday. Mrs. Bourk
was being held without bail in a San Bernardino County jail.
Bourk was reported missing in June 1997 after his mother called police,
saying she hadn't heard from him in more than six months.
"When we received the initial missing person's report, we looked into it,"
said Upland police Lt. Ed Gray. "But apparently it wasn't unusual for this
guy to drop out of sight for a while."
Investigators now believe Bourk was killed in late December 1996 and his
body placed in a cardboard box at Stor-King, a self-storage facility in this
San Bernardino County town about 50 miles east of Los Angeles. They haven't
said how he died.
Gray would not say what events led up to Bourk's death, but he said the man
would have remained "missing" had his wife not failed to make payments on
the storage space.
It was not immediately known how long the two were married.
Mrs. Blackburn paid $20 on Sept. 14 for the storage unit's contents -- items
she planned to use to stock shelves at a thrift store she is opening in Los
Angeles.
Meanwhile, Stor-King manager Susie Gonzalez said Mrs. Bourk called in a
panic after receiving notice her belongings had been auctioned because she
missed two $25 payments.
Mrs. Bourk left two notes on the storage unit, saying that "she'd give
anything, anything to get the storage back," Mrs. Blackburn told The Press
Enterprise of Riverside.
The note said: "I've got pictures in there. Things that belonged to my
husband," Mrs. Blackburn said.
Among the 20 to 30 boxes in the storage unit, Mrs. Blackburn said she found
blood-stained clothing, wedding photos, a wedding cake server and a pair of
champagne glasses.
She also said she found a carefully wrapped 2-by-2-by-4 foot box, stuffed
with two tarps, a blanket, a layer of thick roofing plastic and a body.
Police arrested Mrs. Bourk a day later.
Although most of the contents of the storage unit were taken by police as
evidence, Mrs. Blackburn said she was able to keep some of the items,
including wedding pictures of a smiling Bourk.
ANSWER: If it's the same one I recall, the second wife is the one who forgot
to pay the bill for the storage and they had been married for 10 years or so.
This is a great way to dispose of a body and ensure that no one will find it
until after the death of the storage unit owner. I'm sure the police
routinely get search warrants for these storage units if a murder is suspected
and the body can't be found, but I don't know how they'd find out in the first
place that a unit had been rented.
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