The Case of Troy Burress

Troy Burress, a 50-year-old sausage salesman, disappeared on 30 July 1990 while making deliveries in Florida. His abandoned delivery truck was found the following day, and his body was discovered several days later in a wooded area along State Road 19 in Marion County. Aileen Wuornos later confessed to killing Burress and received a death sentence for his murder.

Troy Eugene Burress was a 50-year-old sausage salesman from Ocala, Florida. His work involved travelling throughout central Florida making deliveries to customers and businesses. On 30 July 1990, Burress left to make his usual deliveries but failed to return home. During his journey, he encountered Aileen Wuornos, who was then living a transient lifestyle and supporting herself through sex work along Florida's highways. Wuornos later admitted killing Burress. As with her other victims, she gave varying explanations for the circumstances surrounding the shooting and maintained at different times that the men she killed had assaulted, threatened or attempted to sexually assault her. Prosecutors rejected her broader claims that the killings were committed in self-defence and maintained that robbery was a central motive behind the murders. Burress became the fifth known victim in the series attributed to Wuornos.

Burress's delivery truck was discovered abandoned on 31 July 1990, one day after he disappeared. On 4 August, his body was found by a family picnicking in a wooded area along State Road 19 in Marion County. Burress had been shot twice with a .22-calibre firearm. Investigators processed the location and recovered evidence that was later compared with the other murders occurring across Florida. By the time Burress was killed, several men had already disappeared or been found shot in isolated locations. The repeated use of a .22-calibre weapon, abandonment of bodies away from populated areas and theft of victims' property contributed to investigators eventually recognising a pattern.

Burress's murder initially formed part of separate investigations being conducted by law enforcement agencies across several Florida counties. As detectives began exchanging information, similarities between the deaths became increasingly difficult to ignore. The victims were male motorists, several were middle-aged, their bodies were abandoned in secluded locations, and their vehicles or possessions were often taken. The investigation accelerated after the disappearance of Peter Siems and the subsequent discovery of his crashed Pontiac. Witnesses had observed two women leaving the vehicle, and investigators later identified them as Aileen Wuornos and Tyria Moore. Additional evidence emerged when police traced property belonging to victims through pawn shops. Wuornos had used identification and left fingerprints during transactions involving stolen property. After Wuornos was identified as a suspect, investigators tracked her movements and arrested her in January 1991. Tyria Moore cooperated with police and participated in recorded telephone conversations with Wuornos. Concerned that Moore might face prosecution, Wuornos began confessing to the killings. She admitted responsibility for Troy Burress's death along with the other murders attributed to her.

Following her conviction and death sentence for the murder of Richard Mallory, Wuornos resolved several of the remaining cases without separate jury trials. In March 1992, she pleaded no contest to the murders of Troy Burress, David Spears and Charles Carskaddon. Wuornos received additional death sentences for the killings. She eventually received six death sentences relating to six of her seven known victims. She was not prosecuted for the presumed murder of Peter Siems because his body was never recovered. Aileen Wuornos remained on Florida's death row until she was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison on 9 October 2002.