Cindy’s Story
My daughter Cindy was born on January 7, 1982 and murdered on August 25, 2008. She was 7 lbs and 14 ozs. I was the happiest mother in the world when I held her for the first time. They had to pull her out with forceps after 13 hours of labor. She was so beautiful with a head full of thick blonde hair.
The doctors let me check out of the hospital and then told me she couldn’t go home with me because she had a little bit of jaundice, so I stayed with her at the hospital until the next day when I could finally take her home. From that day on I knew she was going to be my special little girl.
She started eating solid foods at 3 months old and started walking at 9 months old. She was so smart.
She knew what words I was spelling by the time she was 3 years old. For her third Christmas I was spelling out tricycle to her Aunt Wilma so she wouldn’t know what she was getting for Christmas and Cindy told me what I had just spelled. Her favorite thing since she was a baby at Christmas was to wear a bow in her hair. She did this until the day she was murdered.
She started Kindergarten at the age of 5 years old. She learned how to use a computer in the writing to read program and her Kindergarten teacher liked her allot. She was a good student and a fast learner.
Her brother, Gary Burton, Jr. was born on April 15, 1985 and he weighed 7lbs. and 13 ozs. Cindy was very close with her brother even up until the day that she was murdered. When her brother was struck by lightening in August, 2003, Cindy took care of him after he got out of the hospital until he could take care of himself again.
Then on August 25, 2008 everything changed in my world. My son-in-law Brian came to my house to tell me that Cindy had been murdered that morning. She was brutally murdered by a man named Jack Edwards, Jr.
To go through arranging your daughter’s funeral, no mother should have to do that. Our children should not die before us and so violently as well.
We had a Bond Hearing on December 22, 2008 and sat through 8 hours of testimony from the DA’s side and at the end of the day it took the judge 10 seconds to look at Jack Edwards and tell him bailed denied. We were all so relieved with his decision even though it was a very tough day for us.
Here it is December 25, 2009, a year after Cindy’s death. The children came over on Christmas Eve and they are getting so big and they all look like their Mom especially Briana. She is her mother made over and I think we have a special connection because of that.
Jack chose to brutally take the life of my baby girl and he should be punished to the full extent of the law. We have waited 14 months for the trial to start and it has been post poned until January 2010.
The trial finally began on February 18, 2010. It lasted 10 days and I heard what really happened to Cindy and how much she really suffered when she was murdered.
On March 2, 2010, Jack Edwards was convicted on 2 counts of murder and 1 count of attempted murder.
On March 25, 2010, Jack Edwards received 160 years for the murders of Cindy Mauntel, Ranear Kirksey, and the attempted murder of David Summerlin. He will spend the rest of his life in prison for these brutal crimes.
It drives me crazy when people say you should be over that by now. I can always tell when people don’t want to hear about it you can see the disinterest in their faces like are you done yet.
On June 23, 2011, Jack Edwards was denied his appeal. This is a glorious day for our family.
On June 23, 2011, Jack Edwards was denied his appeal. This is a glorious day for our family.