Local News Story just seems weird

[Impalas]

Former Palo Alto High athlete arrested in kidnapping, sexual assault
John Coté, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, November 2, 2007

A former Palo Alto High School student who played running back on the football team and once tried to join the Marines was behind bars Friday on suspicion of kidnapping a 17-year-old girl off the street from his old neighborhood and sexually assaulting her.

The news came three days after the Gunn High School student was beaten on the sidewalk as she locked her bike outside her home after school, dragged into a car and sexually assaulted. Her assailant held her captive for 90 minutes before the bloodied girl managed to run from his car in Sunnyvale.

"The worst nightmare for a parent and a community and a police department is to have a young person kidnapped and sexually assaulted," Police Chief Lynne Johnson said in announcing that 20-year-old Todd David Burpee had been arrested. "You can imagine the fear a crime like this, especially in a pretty quiet and peaceful community like Palo Alto, causes in parents and young people."

Burpee was arrested about 10:30 p.m. Thursday as he waited with his girlfriend in the drive-through lane at a Wendy's restaurant in San Jose, police said Friday.

Burpee's last known address was in San Jose, but he apparently has been bouncing from one residence to another recently, police Agent Dan Ryan said. There is no indication he knew the victim of Tuesday's attack, although he lived in the same neighborhood as the girl until about six months ago, investigators said.

Burpee played on the football team and ran track for Palo Alto High during his sophomore and junior years. He expressed an intention to go into the Marines after graduation in 2006, according to an article that June in the student newspaper.

He contacted the Marines in November 2005 about joining but failed the armed services aptitude test in December of that year, Marine Capt. Victoria Kelsall said Friday. The test covers topics including vocabulary, paragraph comprehension and mathematics.

"He didn't receive the scores he needed to join the Marine Corps," Kelsall said.

Palo Alto police said they had no previous contact with Burpee. He is being held in Santa Clara County jail on suspicion of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and two counts of sexual assault.

There was no clear motive for the attack, and Burpee may have psychological issues, Ryan said.

"He's broken," Ryan said. "His outlook on life isn't the same as you would have in another human being walking down the street."

Jason Fung, who coached Burpee in track and football at Palo Alto High, called the arrest "really shocking."

"He was always a good kid in my eyes," Fung said. "I never felt intimidated. I never felt awkward around him. ... He was always polite to me."

Burpee wasn't a straight-A student, but he had to have at least a 2.0 grade point average to play sports, Fung said.

Burpee's parents attended his track meets and football games, and his siblings were active at their schools, Fung said.

The case struck a chord in the community and among police, who set up a checkpoint the day after the crime on the block where the girl was abducted and handed out flyers with a sketch of the assailant. Police also used an automated emergency phone system to alert residents to the abduction and then the arrest.

Police gave few details about what led to Burpee's arrest, but the sketch apparently was key. When Officer Eric Bulatao saw it, he went to detectives with information that proved crucial in the case, Ryan said.
The victim was grabbed off the street as she was locking her bike after arriving home on Arastradero Road near El Camino Real after 3 p.m. Tuesday, police said.

The assailant came up behind the girl, pushed her down and slammed her head repeatedly on the concrete. The attack occurred out of sight of traffic on Arastradero, a main thoroughfare, police said.

The man then dragged her into his car, drove her to an undetermined location and sexually assaulted her, police said. Authorities said earlier in the week that the girl was raped, but they would not give details of the attack Friday.

"She was horribly assaulted," Ryan said. "I just want to leave it at that."

The girl was still in the car 90 minutes later as the man was driving on the 500 block of Fair Oaks Avenue in Sunnyvale. When the car stopped, the girl was able to jump out, run down the street and flag down a motorist. Several drivers saw her "obviously traumatized and bleeding" but did not stop, Johnson said.

Fred Burgener was the Sunnyvale resident who finally helped the girl. He said he had been stopped at a red light when he saw her running toward him, blood flowing from her mouth.

"I got out of the car and asked her if someone was chasing her," Burgener said. "I couldn't communicate with her at all. She just insisted on getting in the car. ... Once inside, she just said, 'Faster, faster.' "

The girl was released from the hospital Thursday.

"She's been the bravest person on this planet," Ryan said. "He won't do this to anybody else. Nobody else needs to worry about this guy."

Now I remember reading this story earlier in the week and the girl had no idea who it was that attacked her she said she never got a good look at the man so it wierd to me that this kid is now the number one suspect. Like its an open and shut they need to say more why this is the guy cuz they are putting this guys picture up and based off the little info they said about this rape all she knew he was a young black male around the ages of 18 - 26 and now they have there man just weird so fast to name somebody and say case closed but how did they find this guy? Here is the link to see his pic http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/02/BAPST5CN5.DTL

 

[DubbC415]

^^^Exactly, and i like that the focus of the story is how he USED to be good at sports in high school, and tried for the marines. the weirdest part is that his name is burpee

 

[FDS]

that article doesnt even seem like a real journalist wrote it, the writing style is too whack.

 

[Mi$ta-Murda187]

Damm I used to think Palo Alto was hella safe....I never expect anything to happen there.

I know EPA is no joke though... bullets be bucking every day there...

 

[Rossibreath]

if he sexually assaulted her im sure they have his dna.

 

[TLALOC]

He done fucked up!!!!...........I thought the girl was 15 not 17?! ahh well...

 

[rekomstop]

so he drove from epa to sunnyvale to drop her off?
why sunnyvale?

 

[TLALOC]

Here are 2 articles i pulled from The San Jose Mercury website:

Article 1 including picture of Todd David Burpee:

The man arrested in this week's kidnapping and sexual assault of a Gunn High student was a Palo Alto High graduate who tried to join the Marines and hoped to become a police officer.

Todd David Burpee, 20, was taken into custody Thursday night as he sat with his girlfriend in the drive-through at Wendy's in San Jose's Evergreen area, where his family had recently moved.

The arrest brought a mixture of relief and shock to Palo Alto - relief a suspect was in custody, but shock that he is a Palo Alto High grad. While the victim and her family remain secluded, Burpee's family struggled Friday to reconcile the "mama's boy" who had never been in serious trouble until a recent arrest for credit card fraud with the man police announced was responsible for one of the most brazen attacks in Palo Alto in a dozen years.

"This was a good kid," said his aunt, Maya Wilson. "Clearly, there's something that happened in his mind. Something snapped."

Palo Alto police allege that Burpee kidnapped the girl on Tuesday, smashed her face into the pavement, then sexually assaulted her. After nearly an hour ordeal, authorities said, the girl managed to escape, and was running down a Sunnyvale street - bloodied and hysterical - when a passing motorist drove her to safety.

Burpee graduated from Palo Alto High in 2006, where he had played running back for the Vikings football team and ran track. Until recently he had lived in the same neighborhood as the victim,

however authorities say it's unlikely they knew each other.
"We think it was a random attack," Palo Alto Police Chief Lynne Johnson said at a Friday press conference.

The girl walked home from school Tuesday afternoon and was outside her apartment on Arastradero Road in Palo Alto, police said, when Burpee drove by in a gold 1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme.

The suspect suddenly grabbed and beat her, Johnson said, then "dragged her semi-conscious into" the vehicle.

The attack

shocked the town known more for cafes than crime. Parents began driving their children to and from school and fretted over whether they should even allow them to go trick-or-treating.
On Friday afternoon, several female Gunn students said they still felt vulnerable, despite the arrest. "I don't want to go anywhere alone," said sophomore Shelly Kousnetz.

Hundreds of fliers - complete with the suspect's sketch - were posted from Palo Alto to Sunnyvale. Citizens called in 50 tips. But police would only say that unspecified information from Palo Alto police officer Eric Bulatao led to Burpee.

He did not resist arrest and was booked at the main jail in San Jose for attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and two counts of sexual assault. He is expected to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Sitting outside their house, amid the rocking chair and strollers, his parents Todd Burpee Sr. and Chekita Griggs tried to make sense of the allegations as the phone constantly rang with the calls from stunned relatives. Burpee rarely got in scrapes as a child, unless someone was making "your mama" jokes about his mother, they said.

"He never had aggression to women," she said. "This has devastated my family."

Family members described an obedient boy who tried hard despite a learning disorder that included dyslexia. He was held back from school, but perserved despite his family shuffling between homeless shelters, motels and apartments as they tried to make ends meet.

At Palo Alto High, people couldn't recall any disciplinary problems.

"I'm very, very shocked and very, very saddened," guidance counselor Susan Shultz said.

Burpee wanted to join the Marines after graduation, but failed the armed services vocational aptitude test, said Capt. Victoria Kelsall. His family said a heart problem also hindered his plans.

He instead worked at various stores, including Macy's and Jamba Juice, and attended college in Milpitas. He planned to be a police officer, hopefully in San Jose. His family is unsure if he had filed an application.

He was proud of his accomplishments, his mother said. During New Year's, when one of his younger brothers was discouraged, Burpee gave him a pep talk.

" 'Look at me,' " Griggs recalled him saying. " 'We lived around drug dealers. We lived around people doing crime. And I'm going to school to be a cop.' "

However, in September, Burpee was arrested for allegedly using stolen credit card information to purchase gift cards and other items at local Sports Authority stores, including the one in Mountain View where he was working as a cashier.

According to court documents, he had stolen information from three different customers, then used the numbers to buy the cards, a new snowboard and - unsuccessfully - a football.

His family is unsure what changed. He and his girlfriend were doing well, talking about marriage, they said. But he wasn't one to talk about his problems.

In sharp contrast to the family's comments was a dramatic retelling Friday of the Gunn High girl's escape and return to safety. Sunnyvale resident Fred Burgener told reporters how he first noticed the girl running down the sidewalk along Fair Oaks Avenue. Her face was smeared with blood.

Many motorists passed. But Burgener, a Union Pacific train engineer briefly made eye contact with the teenager as he waited at the red light.

"I jumped out," he said, "and she immediately jumped into my car. She was distressed, shaking, and as we pulled away all she could say was 'Drive. Faster! Faster!"'

"It looked like she'd been hit in the mouth and she was crying and gasping for air," said Burgener, recalling how he started to drive toward the Sunnyvale Police Department. But when traffic slowed his progress and the teenager, who seemed to speak little English, kept yelling "Faster, faster!"' Burgener drove instead to his mother-in-law's house nearby.

"I called police and the 911 operator had me asking her questions, but she was such an emotional wreck she started to go out on me, like she was almost unconscious," said Burgener, whose 11-year-old daughter Mary helped calm down the hysterical teenager, giving her a frozen bottle of water and a roll of paper towels for her bloodied mouth.

"When I made eye contact with her," Burgener said, "I knew I had to help her."

When Griggs visited her son Friday in jail, she was anxious, she said, about his "mental stability' and how he'd hold up in jail. He told her, "Mom, I'm OK."

As they implored people not to dismiss Burpee as a monster, his family also worried about the victim.

"I want to say our deepest sympathy to the girl and her family," Griggs said. "I'm a mother, and I'm a Christian."

Monet Griggs, 21, continually sobbed Friday as she thought about her younger brother's arrest.

Her mother urged her to control herself in front of the four younger children. There are logistics - bail, attorneys - to arrange. They can't fall apart. The adults could cry, Griggs said, but ideally in their bedroom, with the doors closed and the radio up.

Moments later, she ignored her own rules.

"I don't know," she said, the tears falling fast. "As a mother, I feel: What did I do to fail my son? What did I do?"

 

[TLALOC]

Just some more insight to dude from his parent's n shit as well as a repeat in the story
Article 2:

The man arrested in this week's kidnapping and sexual assault of a Gunn High student is a Palo Alto High graduate who tried to join the Marines and hoped to become a police officer.

Todd David Burpee, 20, was taken into custody Thursday night as he sat with his girlfriend in the drive-through at Wendy's in San Jose's Evergreen area, where his family had recently moved.

The arrest brought a mixture of relief and shock to Palo Alto - relief a suspect was in custody, but shock that he is a Palo Alto High grad. While the victim and her family remain secluded, Burpee's family struggled Friday to reconcile the "mama's boy" who had never been in serious trouble until a recent arrest for credit card fraud with the man police announced was responsible for one of the most brazen attacks in Palo Alto in a dozen years.

"This was a good kid," said his aunt, Maya Wilson. "Clearly, there's something that happened in his mind. Something snapped."

Palo Alto police allege that Burpee kidnapped the girl Tuesday, smashed her face into the pavement, then sexually assaulted her. After nearly an hour ordeal, authorities said, the girl managed to escape, and was running down a Sunnyvale street - bloodied and hysterical - when a passing motorist drove her to safety.

Burpee graduated from Palo Alto High in 2006, where he had played running back for the Vikings football team and ran track. Until recently he had lived in the same neighborhood as the victim; however,

authorities say it's unlikely they knew each other.
"We think it was a random attack," Palo Alto Police Chief Lynne Johnson said at a Friday news conference.

The girl walked home from school Tuesday afternoon and was outside her apartment on Arastradero Road in Palo Alto, police said, when Burpee drove by in a gold 1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme.

The suspect suddenly grabbed and beat her, Johnson said, then "dragged her semiconscious into" the vehicle.

The attack shocked the town known more for cafes than crime. Parents began driving their children to and from school and fretted over whether they should even allow them to go trick-or-treating.

On Friday afternoon, several female Gunn students said they still felt vulnerable, despite the arrest. "I don't want to go anywhere alone," sophomore Shelly Kousnetz said.

Hundreds of fliers - complete with the suspect's sketch - were posted from Palo Alto to Sunnyvale. Citizens called in 50 tips. But police would say only that unspecified information from Palo Alto police officer Eric Bulatao led to Burpee.

He did not resist arrest and was booked at the main jail in San Jose for attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and two counts of sexual assault. He is expected to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Sitting outside their house, amid a rocking chair and strollers, his parents Todd Burpee Sr. and Chekita Griggs tried to make sense of the allegations as the phone constantly rang with the calls from stunned relatives. Burpee rarely got in scrapes as a child, unless someone was making "your mama" jokes about his mother, they said.

"He never had aggression to women," she said. "This has devastated my family."

Family members described an obedient boy who tried hard despite a learning disorder that included dyslexia. He was held back from school, but persevered despite his family shuffling between homeless shelters, motels and apartments as they tried to make ends meet.

At Palo Alto High, people couldn't recall any disciplinary problems.

"I'm very, very shocked and very, very saddened," said guidance counselor Susan Shultz.

Burpee wanted to join the Marines after graduation, but failed the armed services vocational aptitude test, Capt. Victoria Kelsall said. His family said a heart problem also hindered his plans.

He instead worked at various stores, including Macy's and Jamba Juice, and attended college in Milpitas. He planned to be a police officer, hopefully in San Jose. His family is unsure if he had filed an application.

He was proud of his accomplishments, his mother said. During New Year's, when one of his younger brothers was discouraged, Burpee gave him a pep talk.

" 'Look at me,' " Griggs recalled him saying. " 'We lived around drug dealers. We lived around people doing crime. And I'm going to school to be a cop.' "

However, in September, Burpee was arrested for allegedly using stolen credit card information to purchase gift cards and other items at local Sports Authority stores, including the one in Mountain View where he was working as a cashier.

According to court documents, he had stolen information from three different customers, then used the numbers to buy the cards, a new snowboard and - unsuccessfully - a football.

His family is unsure what changed. He and his girlfriend were doing well, talking about marriage, they said. But he wasn't one to talk about his problems.

In sharp contrast to the family's comments was a dramatic retelling Friday of the Gunn High girl's escape and return to safety. Sunnyvale resident Fred Burgener told reporters how he first noticed the girl running down the sidewalk along Fair Oaks Avenue. Her face was smeared with blood.

Many motorists passed. But Burgener, a Union Pacific train engineer, briefly made eye contact with the teenager as he waited at the red light.

"I jumped out," he said, "and she immediately jumped into my car. She was distressed, shaking, and as we pulled away all she could say was 'Drive. Faster! Faster!' "

"It looked like she'd been hit in the mouth and she was crying and gasping for air," said Burgener, recalling how he started to drive toward the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety. But when traffic slowed his progress and the teenager, who seemed to speak little English, kept yelling "Faster, faster!"' Burgener drove instead to his mother-in-law's house nearby.

"I called police and the 911 operator had me asking her questions, but she was such an emotional wreck she started to go out on me, like she was almost unconscious," said Burgener, whose 11-year-old daughter Mary helped calm down the hysterical teenager, giving her a frozen bottle of water and a roll of paper towels for her bloodied mouth.

"When I made eye contact with her," Burgener said, "I knew I had to help her."

When Griggs visited her son Friday in jail, she was anxious, she said, about his "mental stability" and how he'd hold up in jail. He told her, "Mom, I'm OK.' "

As they implored people not to dismiss Burpee as a monster, his family also worried about the victim.

"I want to say our deepest sympathy to the girl and her family," Griggs said. "I'm a mother, and I'm a Christian."

Monet Griggs, 21, continually sobbed Friday as she thought about her younger brother's arrest.

Her mother urged her to control herself in front of the four younger children. There are logistics - bail, attorneys - to arrange. They can't fall apart. The adults could cry, Griggs said, but ideally in their bedroom, with the doors closed and the radio up.

Moments later, she ignored her own rules.

"I don't know," she said, the tears falling fast. "As a mother, I feel: What did I do to fail my son? What did I do?"

 

[Impalas]

I read both acticles that you posted and still dont see how they caught him like there main evidence was that he was black between the age of 18 to 26 and drove a gold cutlass. So lets go arrest half of oakland, richmond, and epa. Im sure if he did it the dna will show but damn that some weak ass evidence to go by.

 

[kayvee]

damn i aint readin all that shit.

~k.

 

[Impalas]

Basically they busted the guy burpee for the rape of a 17-yr old girl from palo alto. The make this kid look like a mama's boy turned failure that didnt make it in the marines and just got busted for credit card fraud stealing credit card numbers from customers at the sports autherity were he worked. Dude was going to school at milipitas college and wanted to be a cop. And i fined it funny that the main shit that got him caught up as main suspect came from a cop.

Hundreds of fliers - complete with the suspect's sketch - were posted from Palo Alto to Sunnyvale. Citizens called in 50 tips. But police would say only that unspecified information from Palo Alto police officer Eric Bulatao led to Burpee.
He did not resist arrest and was booked at the main jail in San Jose for attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and two counts of sexual assault. He is expected to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

 

[YG_MAE]

if he sexually assaulted her im sure they have his dna.

thats exactley wat I was thinking

 

[YG_MAE]

"the town known more for cafe's then crime"- lol that was funny

 

[sfgiants2001]

damn, i used to work with that fool at macy's.