Barrow Co. family speaks on daughter killed in wreck

BARROW COUNTY, Ga. — A Barrow County family is speaking out for the first time after all leads in their daughter's hit-and- run case dried up.

The family gave Channel 2's Liz Artz a picture of Deborah Burton that was taken 20 years ago, but her family says she hadn't changed a bit.

It's how she looked, they say, the night she was killed walking to a friend's house on Manning Gin Road on July 13 about 10 p.m. Friend Donna McNeese says Burton was headed to her house to pick fresh cucumbers out of the garden. She said Burton wanted a ride, McNeese told her she didn't have time, so Burton walked the quarter of a mile to McNeese's house and that's when she was struck and killed.

Deputies say it was a rainy night and the suspect was not driving that fast.

Investigators said Burton was headed eastbound on Manning Gin Road in Monroe, walking on the shoulder of the road when the car struck her near Jeremy's Drive. The person driving the car they say never braked, or swerved. The impact knocked Burton out of her shoes. Her limp body was found several feet away.

McNeese said she believes the driver had been drinking.

Left at the scene was a broken reflector. Detectives traced it to a General Motors car, likely a late model 1980s or early 1990s. Her family on Saturday said the driver needs to do the right thing and turn themselves in.

Burton's dad, Don Burton, still said the family is heartbroken. He said the pain is deep.

Burton's older sister died in an automobile accident when she was 17 years old. The second daughter now has been lost in his lifetime.

Anyone with information about the hit-and-run is being asked to call the Barrow County Sheriff's Office at 770-307-3080.

WSBTV