Oceanside Woman’s Death Now Being Investigated as Murder

The death of a 75-year-old Oceanside woman last June, first called the result of a car accident near Borrego Springs, is now being investigated as a murder, Sheriff’s Department homicide investigators said Wednesday.

Grace Burrus is believed to have been bludgeoned to death somewhere else and her body put in the car, which fell off county highway S-22 in an area commonly known as Montezuma Grade, said Lt. John Tenwolde of the department’s homicide detail.

“We have uncovered some very provocative leads in our investigation in this case,” Tenwolde said. “The most important news that we can offer is that we’ve labeled this death a murder, versus simply a death investigation.”

He said detectives are examining “leads suggesting that the murder was the result of a grievance involving a money dispute.”

Asked whether a suspect had been identified, Tenwolde said: “We’re still working on that. We realize that the information we’re releasing today poses more questions than answers, but we can’t say a lot more.”

Burrus’ body was found June 28 by relatives, the morning after her estranged husband, John Burrus, telephoned Oceanside police, saying she had failed to meet him as planned at their Salton City rental property in Imperial County.

Her body was found about a third of the way down a 200-foot embankment, below a view spot popular among motorists looking at the desert panorama. Her car was found crashed at the bottom of the hill.

CHP investigators at first thought she died as a result of a car crash, but the San Diego County medical examiner’s office said some of the woman’s injuries, including blunt-force head wounds, were inconsistent with being ejected from the vehicle.

Other “items of physical evidence caused suspicion that Grace Burrus fell victim to foul play,” Tenwolde said.

Follow-up investigation by homicide detectives, Oceanside police, the CHP and the medical examiner’s office showed that Burrus “probably died as the result of a murder, and that her body was subsequently placed in her car. Her vehicle was then sent over the edge of the embankment,” Tenwolde said.

He said the car left the road at a “slow rate of speed,” and that she was not restrained by seat belts.

Grace and John Burrus had been married 30 years, but she filed for divorce from him in 1987, according to court records. The couple were scheduled to be in Vista Superior Court several days after her death for a trial on the dissolution, including the division of the couple’s real estate holdings and other assets.

John Burrus said Wednesday that he was told about a month ago that his estranged wife’s death was being investigated as a homicide, and that he was surprised.

“I have no reason to believe that it was a murder,” he said. “I have no evidence of that. When they told me, I asked them, ‘Why now, three months later, instead of just three days later?’ But they won’t tell me anything. They haven’t told me anything about what they’re basing their information on.”