Mrs. Dunstan's body was found in this shallow grave near a Quail Run residence after Ronald Francis Burke confessed to the killing. He led police to the site Sunday. Kevin Martin/Staff

Heavily-wooded area yields shallow grave

COLLIERS, S.C. - While her family and friends made a plaintive plea for Tamara Dunstan's safe return home, her body - and that of her unborn child - rested in a sandy-soiled grave less than a foot deep, guarded by scrub oak and tall, skinny pines.

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Click on graphic for larger image. Ling Low/Staff

Less than 30 feet east of a rocky, dirt track that leads to U.S. Forest Service land about a mile north of this western Edgefield County crossroads community, the burial site is partly hidden by the high bank of an ancient drainage ditch. It is marked only by the faded red plastic of a surveyor's streamer tied to a tree branch and the worn notch of a hunter's trail.

Resting in a slight depression to the rear of the notch, Mrs. Dunstan's unmarked grave is perpendicular to the dirt track. It is about 5 feet long and partially refilled with a pile of soil.

It is here, less than a quarter-mile from the blacktop of Quail Run, that Ronald Francis Burke, the only person arrested in connection with Mrs. Dunstan's death, led Richmond County sheriff's officers and FBI investigators around 7:15 a.m. Sunday, said Edgefield County Sheriff Adel Dobey.

Mrs. Dunstan had been missing since Thursday afternoon.

Quail Run is a road flanked by only three houses and the Quail Unlimited National Headquarters. The dirt track that leads to Mrs. Dunstan's grave is opposite 124 Quail Run, a single-story home owned by Phillip and Edna Lindale.

Mrs. Lindale said she and her husband, who have lived on Quail Run for seven years, were attending morning services at the New Hope Worship Center in Augusta.

"We came home from church, and all the events were going," said Mrs. Lindale, a Mary Kay cosmetics sales director. "It was a shock."

The dirt track that runs opposite her home isn't the scene of late-night partying, she said. People who ride down that track usually do so for a different reason. "They hunt," she said.

Reach Jim Nesbitt at (803) 648-1395 or jim.nesbitt@augustachronicle.com.

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Previous Stories

• Burke asks for attorney at Tamara Dunstan slaying hearing
• Woman's body is found
• Service becomes 'rally of tears'
• Heavily-wooded area yields shallow grave
• Who is Ronald Francis Burke?
• Family hopes public can help
• Woman is selfless, friends say
• Family, friends gather for vigil
• Family of missing woman releases statement
• Family members call on abductors to safely return missing 29-year-old
• Police search for pregnant Augusta woman

--From the Monday, April 19, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle