Abducted At Auburn

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Discretion is advised. This is ten
minuted murder. Eighteen year old Lauren Burke

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was in her freshman year at Auburn
University in Auburn, Alabama. She was

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a multi talented student, a lacrosse
playing sorority member who was majoring in graphic

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design and dreamed of one day working
and marketing. On the fourth of March

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two thousand and eight, Lawrence spent
the afternoon hanging out with her boyfriend at

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his dorm and planned on an evening
study session at one of the university's libraries

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with a friend. At around eight
pm, Orne walked back to her car,

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a two thousand and one Honda Civic, which she had parked nearby.

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Which she didn't know is that someone
was watching her, and when she moved

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to open her car door, he
struck. Courtney Lockhart had spent the day

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scoping out the university's campus looking for
people to rob. It was an unusual

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behavior for him. Between joining the
military in two thousand and three at the

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age of nineteen and his dishonorable discharge
in two thousand and six, he'd been

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a nightmare for other soldiers to deal
with, doing drugs, picking fights,

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going a wall and even physically assaulting
one of his superiors. After he served

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half a year in confinement, he
was discharged in December two thousand and six,

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but he never cleaned up his act. Throughout Georgia and Alabama, Courtney

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was the perpetrator of a series of
carjackings and robberies. He usually followed the

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same method. First, he selected
a female victim, one who didn't look

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like she could fight back. He
would watch and wait as she climbed into

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her vehicle. Then he would quickly
approach an amos pistol letter while threatening to

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shoot. He would either order her
to hand over her wallet or force her

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to stand by while he stole her
car. When he selected Loren as his

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next target, Courtney began by following
the same mo that he'd always used.

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He pointed his gun at her and
demanded that she'd climb into her car.

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Once Loren was in the passenger's seat, Courtney climbed into the driver's seat,

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and at this point Loren had figured
out she was being robbed and tried to

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give Courtney two hundred dollars in cash. In his previous robberies, Courtney had

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either taken the money or taken the
vehicle while the victim watched helplessly, this

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time still pointing his gun at Loren
and the passenger's seat. He began to

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drive with one hand on the steering
wheel. He told Loren to take her

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clothes off, which she did.
Later, Courtney insisted that he hadn't intended

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on sexually assaulting Lauren. He told
her to undress to make her more vulnerable,

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hoping that if she was naked,
she'd be less likely to fight back.

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For the next half an hour,
Lauren was trapped inside her own vehicle.

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Courtney just kept driving through town,
but at some point he began to

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confide in Lauren about the struggles he
was going through, telling her how he

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was unemployed and down on his luck. Multiple times, Lauren tried to talk

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him out of kidnapping her, even
offering to put him in touch with someone

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who could give him a job.
But then Lauren's fear would get the better

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of her, and she asked Courtney
if he was going to shoot her.

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While courtney was driving down Alabama Highway
one forty seven, Lauren's phone rang.

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It was her boyfriend. He was
concerned because she'd already missed the study session

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that they had planned on. Courtney
made Lauren answer the phone and tell her

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boyfriend that she'd forgotten that they had
plans before suddenly hanging up. At the

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time, Lauren's boyfriend said, I
didn't think about it that much. Looking

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back on the phone call, Wow, I could have realized something was up.

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All of Lauren's attempts to calm down
her abductor were failing. She had

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no idea what Courtney wanted, and
he was just getting more and more agitated.

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Finally, Lauren decided that she had
to do something to get herself out

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of the situation. While Courtney was
driving, she quickly swung open the door.

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Two things happened at once. Lauren
threw herself out of the car,

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and Courtney fired his gun twice.
He had kept the weapon trained on his

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captive the entire time, making it
easy to aim. One bullet entered Lauren's

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body at close range, passing through
her left shoulder and both of her lungs.

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When Lauren managed to stagger uprights and
wave her arms at passing cars for

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help, Courtney panicked. He shut
the door and kept driving, leaving Lauren

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on the highway. Lauren's body was
covered in abrasions from the road, and

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she was bleeding heavily from her bullet
wound. The only item of clothing that

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she was wearing were her socks.
Several vehicles stopped to help. The adrenaline

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faded and Lauren's injuries began to catch
up with her. She lay down on

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the road, struggling to breathe.
At about nine pm, one hour after

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Lauren was first abducted, first responders
arrived at the scene. Lareen was still

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alive, but she was deteriorating quickly. She clung to life throughout the drive

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to the hospital, but died due
to blood loss shortly after she arrived.

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While Lauren was fighting for her life, Courtney had been buying gasoline, hoping

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to hide the evidence of his crime
by burning the Honda Civic. After several

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failed attempts, he managed to get
the blaze going, but only after he'd

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removed Lawrence's credit card, iPod and
cash. He left the campus in his

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own car, throwing Lawrence's credit card
out the window after using it to fuel

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up. Later that night, law
enforcement received a call about a car fire

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on the Auburn University campus. They
were able to recover a bullet, and

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after they found out that Lauren's father
owned the car. They placed a call

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to her family. Her father,
James Burke, traveled to Auburn to identify

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his daughter's body. Three days later, Courtney Lockhart was pulled over after a

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police officer saw him speeding. The
officer, Dale Richards, asked Courtney to

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get out of the car, but
Courtney refused. Instead of complying, he

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started a five person police chase,
during which he attempted to dispose of his

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gun by throwing it out of the
car window. Courtney suddenly screeched his car

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to a halt and opened the door, causing one of the officers, who

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was on a motorbike, to crash
into the door. Then Courtney tried to

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flee on foot, but he was
quickly apprehended. A search of his vehicle

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revealed Lauren Burke's cell phone and iPod, as well as thirty eight caliber shell

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casings. Courtney Lockhart might have been
a hardened criminal, but he wasn't particularly

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smart. Shortly after he was arrested, he confessed to his involvement in Lauren's

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murder, as well as several other
robberies. In November twenty ten, Courtney's

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trial began. He was facing charges
for murdering during the commission of a kidnapping,

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murdered during the commission of an attempt
at rape, and murdered during the

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commission of a robbery, and his
defense team were heavily leaning on claims that

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Courtney suffered from mental illness after his
time in the military, making him not

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guilty by reason of insanity. The
prosecution was barred from mentioning Courtney's other criminal

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history, including his dishonorable discharge.
The jury spent two days deliberating and finally

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reached their conclusion. Although they agreed
that Courtney was guilty of kidnapping and murdering

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Lauren, they believed he was not
guilty of sexually assaulting her. They recommended

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that Courtney be sentenced to life behind
bars instead of a death sentence, but

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Judge Walker felt otherwise. The judge
overturned the jury's decision and sentenced Courtney Lockhart

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to death. The judge had several
reasons for his decision. First, he

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felt as if the jury would have
made a different choice if they'd known more

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information about Courtney, particularly the fact
that he had a criminal history and the

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way he'd behaved when he was in
the military. Judge Walker also argued that

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the way Courtney had kidnapped Lauren meant
that a death sentence was appropriate. Lauren

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alone, unarmed, and she was
chosen by Courtney Lockhart at random. The

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judge said the kidnapping is even more
egregious because she was taken from a college

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campus, a place where students should
feel safe, and forced into her own

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car. Lauren's parents were in favor
of their daughter's killer being sentenced to death,

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and despite Courtney making multiple appeals,
his conviction has been upheld. Lauren's

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family attended every hearing determined to make
sure that their family got justice. Quote,

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we maintain our desire for the death
penalty, Lauren's father said at one

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of Courtney's hearings. Lauren did get
the death penalty without a warning. He

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didn't give Lauren a second chance.
Lauren's mother said he shouldn't get a second

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chance either. That is ten minute
murder for today, brief and binge able

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True crime. I'm Joe the host, and I really appreciate you listening today,

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especially today, because you could have
tuned away any point. My voice

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is I thought a couple of times
during that I was going to lose my

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voice completely. I don't know what's
happening. Maybe it's allergies, but my

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voice is trying to disappear on me. But thanks for with me on this

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episode. If you're brand new to
ten Minute Murder, first of all,

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I don't normally sound like this.
Second welcome, I'm glad that you're here

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despite how I sound. Make sure
you go back and listen to more of

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the back episodes. They are three
hundred and fifty something of them, so

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go and listen to those. Also
subscribe now so that you can more easily

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catch up on the back episodes.
Connect with me on social media to see

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the pictures of what we talk about
here in the podcast. It's never gross

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and graphics stuff though. And if
you like this episode, please leave a

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rating and review on Apple, Spotify, Audible, any place that you listen

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that it's possible to leave a rating
and review. I really do appreciate that.

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And Hey, Joe, aside from
your voice problems, how's your day

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been? Well? Thank you for
asking. I'd love to tell you all

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about it. I was having a
conversation with someone and I said the word

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pajamas, and then a moment later
I said pajamas. After that, I

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tuned out everything they said because I
kept trying to decide in my head do

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you say it pajamas or do you
say it pajamas? And then on that

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topic of conversation, I just said
pj's And now I can't stop questioning myself.

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It's been hours since that conversation and
I still don't know is it pajamas

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or pajamas? I don't even know. So I've got that mental situation going

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on, and I know what you're
about to do, and I'm telling you,

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don't do it. Don't do it. You're going to try to remotely

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diagnose me with whatever thing. Don't
do it. Whatever's wrong with me is

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none of my business. All right, that's your episode for today. I'm

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headed to the kitchen to pour myself
something warm with honey in it. I

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think that's what you're supposed to do
when you can't talk. I'm going to

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do that while you can catch up
on back episodes or go on about your

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day, or go to sleep,
whatever is that you are planning to do.

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I hope you do it well.
Thank you for listening to ten Minute Murder