Mother of Murder Victim
 Died Christmas Eve
Raymond Burrell was shot dead after a day of sleigh riding in Leonardtown...25 years ago

By Kenneth C. Rossignol

ST. MARY'S TODAY

LEONARDTOWN --- Mary Agnes Burrell, 71, of Leonardtown, the mother of Raymond Burrell, who was murdered on a cold snowy night 25 years ago, died at a nursing center in Washington, D.C. on Christmas Eve.  

Raymond Burrell was killed by a gunshot to the head by an unknown killer, who is still walking the streets of St. Mary's County, never having been brought to justice by a system which failed both him and the general public.

After a day of sleigh riding on a hill behind Leonardtown Elementary School, a group of young men left the hill for dinner, promising to return later.  When they returned, the body of Raymond Burrell was found dead in the snow.  Who was there when he was killed and what happened has evolved into one of the classic cases of unsolved murders in St. Mary's County.

The murder on January 6,1980 involved a victim, the only child of a cook at the St. Mary's Nursing Center, who was reportedly a little slow and eager to please folks around Leonardtown.  He was said by those familiar with the case, to be a homosexual and investigators who probed the case at the time worked on the theory that the killer or killers of Burrell had been given oral sex by the victim prior to shooting him in the head.

Political fireworks took place during the murder investigation as then States Attorney Neal Myerberg and the Sheriff at the time, Joe Lee Somerville, had been locking horns. A Grand Jury was convened by Myerberg and numerous witnesses were called. 

Several years later as investigators questioned one of the suspects, his grandmother, a former Clerk of the Circuit Court and member of a politically prominent family in the Seventh District, along with then-Sheriff Wayne Pettit came flying into the office and removed him while he was being interviewed.

After several more years of probing, the investigation simply lingered.
More on this cold case later as this story is developing....