Mother and Daughter's Unsolved 1998 Homicide Not Forgotten
70-year-old Agnes Burkin and her 48-year-old daughter Sharyn Burkin were stabbed to death over Labor Day weekend of 1998 in a southeast Las Vegas neighborhood. Despite the savage and apparent random nature of the crime, one of the largest newspapers in the area only carried two stories about the investigation into the Burkin murders. Photo of the crime scene at 4620 Glenn Davis Drive. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District/LVRJ/Anthony T. Smith)
a house fire and a gruesome discovery
It was the early morning hours on September 6, 1998, when units from the Clark County Fire Department were dispatched to a blaze at a one-story residence located at 4620 Glenn Davis Drive on the southeastern side of the Las Vegas Valley, not far from the intersection of Harmon and Nellis.
Firefighters arrived to the home at 1:37 a.m. and were greeted by a hellish scene. Intense flames shot from the home, sending thick spirals of black smoke into the night air. Eventually the inferno was brought under control and then extinguished. Once first responders entered the home, they discovered the bodies of two women – and both bore injuries that clearly did not result from the fire.
Even though nearly 25 years have past since that night, mystery still surrounds a double homicide in one of the older neighborhoods of Las Vegas.
The Burkin murders occurred near the Terra Linda housing development near Nellis Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue. The Terra Linda neighborhood drew plenty of local publicity for its grand opening in 1963, as seen here via ads and coverage in the Las Vegas press. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District/LVRJ/Anthony T. Smith)
The Burkin Family Makes Vegas Home
The Burkin family moved to Las Vegas around 1960, making them old-time locals by the standards of the desert metropolis that had only been founded in 1905 and gained the majority of its denizens during the boom years of the 1990s and beyond.
Robert and Agnes Burkin, both originally from Kansas City, built a life in the growing city along with their daughter Sharyn. The family eventually settled into a rental home on Glenn Davis Drive sometime around 1973. The house was located in the Terra Linda housing development originally constructed during the early-1960s and made available for sale in 1963 with a grand opening event featuring hot dogs, souvenirs, and burro rides. The homes in the neighborhood were were modest single-family homes featuring “large sliding-glass doors providing easy access to patio areas.”
The Burkin household added a new member when the couple adopted a son, Carl. Robert would suddenly pass away in 1986 at the age of 60, but the Burkin family remained in their quiet rental home.
Scene of the Burkin murders in southeast Las Vegas. (Anthony T. Smith)
A brutal crime…
By the time 1998 rolled around, Agnes was retired while Sharyn worked as lead assistant cashier at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino on the Strip. The two remained in the Glenn Davis Drive residence. And until just the prior year, Carl Burkin had also lived in the home – but he was kicked out of the house for reasons unclear in contemporary press reports.
But the Burkins’ quiet existence would be violently disrupted one night over Labor Day weekend. Sometime on the night of September 5th or the early morning of September 6th, an unknown intruder (or intruders) entered the home at 4620 Glenn Davis Drive. The killer must have moved quietly because Sharyn and Agnes were each stabbed to death separately in their respective bedrooms – with one of the women’s necks being slashed by the murderer. The culprit then doused the home in accelerant and set it alight in an effort to cover up the vicious crime.
Photos of Glenn Davis Drive as it appears in 2022. The home where the murders occurred sits across from a brick wall, and as the Google satellite image shows, the home is tucked away on the block. (Anthony T. Smith/Google.com)
…with no suspects
From the beginning, the public record was devoid of any viable suspects in this brutal murder of an elderly woman and her daughter while they slept. However, the police were quick to note that Carl Burkin was not a suspect in the double slayings.
Homicide detectives told the press that Sharyn and Agnes were dead long before smoke or flames could have claimed their lives. Steve La-Sky of the Clark County Fire Department said arson investigators had located several points of origin for the fire that broke out in the home.
One of the few leads investigators had to go on was the fact a blue 1996 Aerostar van owned by one of the victims was missing in the aftermath of the murders. The Aerostar would be found the following day abandoned in the desert near Decatur Boulevard and Ann Road – over fifteen miles from the scene of the Glenn Davis Drive murders.
The next door neighbor of the Burkins wrote a letter to the editor which was published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal in early 1999 lamenting the lack of attention on the case. Screenshot of Metro’s website taken in 2022 listing the Burkin case as one of several cold cases for which information is still being sought. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District/LVRJ/LVMPD)
a cold but not forgotten case
The landlord that had rented the Glenn Davis home to the Burkins since the 70s, Leland Moser of Texas, expressed his shock and sorrow upon learning of the double murder. “They were good people,” Moser told a local reporter. “Sharyn had a steady job. She practically grew up in that house.”
Frustration over the lack of progress in solving the Burkin murders made its way into the pages of one of the city’s major newspapers. A letter to the editor was published in the January 20, 1999, edition of the Las Vegas Review-Journal decrying the lack of attention devoted to the Burkin murders. Agnes and Sharyn’s neighbor Caral Burnside began her letter, “On Sept. 6, my next door neighbors were murdered and their home set on fire to cover up the evil act. This was on the news for only two days…It saddens me greatly that Agnes and Sharyn Burkin were remembered for two days only, and then apparently forgotten by most.”
For what it’s worth, this author spent a significant amount of time in the neighborhood where this crime occurred. One of my closest friends from high school lived on Blanton Drive – just about a two-minute walk from 4620 Glenn Davis Drive – and I would spend several nights a week with the other members of our friend group cramped in a tiny, pink-walled bedroom as we hung out into the early morning hours laughing, watching movies, and smoking substances that teenagers are wont to inhale from time to time.
As a frequent visitor to the area at the time of the Burkin murders, a few things stand out. First, the neighborhood was both quiet and alive. I never felt unsafe, but instinct always ensured that I maintained an awareness of my surroundings. To give a memorable example of the vibe in the neighborhood, my friend’s father and uncle had outfitted their house on Blanton Drive with several expensive surveillance cameras in the days before every other house was equipped with a Ring doorbell and allowed an intimidating Doberman to roam the fenced in front yard (that dog was actually a sweetheart, for the record).
Perhaps the murders were part of a burglary gone wrong. The fact one of the victims’ van was apparently taken from the crime scene and then taken on at least a twenty minute drive to the other side of the city makes it seem more likely that this crime was committed by someone unknown to the Burkins. But, obviously, there remains the possibility that someone in the orbit of Sharyn and Agnes decided to sneak into the home the mother and daughter had cultivated for a quarter-century to commit an act of pure evil.
Despite the passage of almost 25 years, the murders of Agnes and Sharyn is still among the cold cases being pursued by Metro.