NBC Dateline: How did Courtney Coco die?

Courtney Coco, 19, was a Northwestern State University student majoring in criminal justice when her badly decomposed body was found in an abandoned building in Willie, Texas, in 2004. Coco vanished from her parents' house while they were out on a camping trip. While the cause of death wasn't immediately established, authorities later learned that she was smothered to death with a pillow.

Reports state that Coco's case was solved more than 16 years later when David Anthony Burns, her elder sister's fiance and the 19-year-old's secret boyfriend, was arrested after witnesses came forward alleging that he had admitted to the crime, a detail police failed to mention during the early stages of the investigation. Burns was sentenced to life in prison without parole last November.

Courtney Coco's case from 2004, which made headlines once again last year, and her family's struggle for justice is set to be featured on NBC Dateline's all-new episode titled Who Killed Courtney Coco?

The two-hour episode is slated to air this Friday, April 14, 2023, at 9:00 pm ET. The synopsis states:

"When a young woman's body is discovered in an abandoned building, it sparks an investigation that lasts nearly two decades and pushes one family’s own search for justice."

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Courtney Coco was house-sitting her parents' dog for the weekend when she disappeared from their house

In 2004, Courtney Coco, a fresh graduate from Alexandria Senior High School, was majoring in criminal justice at Northwestern State University in Louisiana. She lived by herself in Alexandria, Louisiana, three miles from her parents' home and worked as a receptionist at a dental office.

It was during the opening day of squirrel season, which is October 1 of that year, when Coco was over at her parents' house to look after their dog while they were out on a camping trip, which the 19-year-old refused to go to because she wasn't "really the camping type." Instead, she decided to look after their dog until their return two days later. Sadly, around that time, she disappeared from the house.

On October 4, 2004, Courtney Coco's mother, Stephanie Belgard, received a heartbreaking call from an Alexandria Police officer, who informed her that "they found a body in Texas… wearing Courtney’s graduation ring." Belgard reportedly told Dateline that she thought she was hearing things, believing that it couldn’t have been her daughter. She said,

"Like maybe someone had stolen her ring. I just dropped the phone and fell to the floor."

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Regardless of an inconclusive autopsy report, Courtney Coco's death was ruled a homicide

Coco's partially-clothed body was reportedly discovered in an abandoned building on the outskirts of Winnie, Texas, some three hours' drive from where she resided in Alexandria, Louisiana, as per the Alexandria Police Department. A construction worker passing the building in a backhoe found Courtney's body and called 911.

Based on the body's decomposition, investigators concluded that she had been dead for three to four days. Nonetheless, due to the body's badly decomposed state, an autopsy performed the day after was unable to confirm the exact cause of death. Regardless, the teen's death was declared a homicide, leading to the start of a years-long investigation.

The victim's green 1999 Pontiac Bonneville was discovered in Houston, Texas, on October 12. The individuals found in possession of the vehicle were interrogated. All of her belongings were still inside the car along with blood in the trunk. Back then, authorities were only able to confirm that the DNA found was a combination of Coco's and that of an unknown male due to limitations in DNA technology.

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Who was convicted in Courtney Coco's murder case nearly 18 years later?

Courtney Coco's murder case remained unsolved until 2019, when her family, desperate for answers, got in touch with a retired homicide detective and podcast host Woody Overton, who then shared his findings on his podcast Real Life Real Crime. He reported that he received an overwhelming response, conducted countless interviews, and got a fresh look at the case.

Overton claimed he believed that she was strangled to death on October 2, 2004, shortly after midnight. Her body was then placed in her car's trunk before being dumped in the abandoned Winnie building. In 2019, the new findings led to the arrest of 43-year-old David Anthony Burns, who was engaged to Coco's sister at the time of the murder and was also in an alleged relationship with the victim.

Reports state that Burns had been a suspect in the case since 2011. Multiple witnesses came forward, alleging that Burns had admitted to smothering the victim with a pillow in her bedroom before wrapping the body in a comforter and dumping it at the location where it was found. The comforter in question was one of the items missing from the house.

David Anthony Burns, who was indicted on a second-degree murder charge in the case, was convicted of the killing on October 31, 2022, and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole a month later.

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NBC Dateline will shed further light on Courtney Coco's case this Friday.