So were his military-issued dog tags, which he once told Antunes were useful in identifying the bodies of dead soldiers, adding "If you ever see these. His car was recovered at a motel three months after his disappearance, with all of his belongings-including his wallet, keys, and ID-inside. Once, she answered the phone and was told to deliver Burgwinkel a message: “The mission” was being called off.Īfter three years in service, Burgwinkel simply vanished. She noticed he carried a briefcase full of shredded paper. When she pressed for details, he told her it was a secret, hinting only that it might involve arms smuggling. While visiting her, he would abruptly tell her he had to leave in order to meet unnamed parties. And then he began acting oddly around his girlfriend, Iolanda Antunes. He had worked hard and aspired to become an Army Ranger, which required specialized and intensive training at Ford Ord in Salinas, California he seemed committed to a career in the military. Private Justin Burgwinkel didn’t seem like a plausible candidate for stepping out on his responsibilities. Soldiers who flee military enlistment without permission are known as being A.W.O.L.: Absent Without Official Leave. Though Gable is still considered the perpetrator, both Francke's family and the team at Unsolved Mysteries consider Francke's untimely death an open case. Francke had a bruise on his face consistent with Crouse’s description. Crouse revealed several key details of the crime, including the fact that he punched Francke in the face during the confrontation. In 2016, a magistrate judge heard arguments for a new trial, including statements that deceased criminal John Crouse made to relatives in which he confessed to killing Francke in a car burglary gone wrong. Gable has thus far been unsuccessful in getting his appeals heard, despite several witnesses coming forward to cite police coercion during interviews and recanting their statements that he was at the crime scene. Oddly, no paperwork detailing Francke’s research was ever found-but several eyewitnesses saw employees carrying bags of shredded documents out of his office following his death. One eyewitness said he saw multiple men running away from the crime scene on the night of his death, contradicting the Gable story. Police pieced together Francke’s final moments and believed he was robbed and stabbed by a drug dealer named Frank Gable.Īlthough Gable was convicted, Francke’s family believed Michael’s death was related to his investigation into the prison system. He spent two years slowly building his case, but before he was able to point the finger at anyone publicly, he was found dead outside of his office in Salem on January 17, 1989-a victim of a knife-wielding assailant who had pierced his heart. Francke, who had previously worked within the New Mexico prison system, had a reputation for doing things by the book. To combat the perception of impropriety, then-Oregon governor Neil Goldschmidt invited Michael Francke to come in and clamp down on the activity as well as cure an overcrowding problem in facilities. Allegations of employees smuggling drugs behind bars and stealing state property were rampant. The Oregon state prison system didn’t have a great reputation in the 1980s.
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