these streets, handing out fliers, knocking on doors, asking if they had seen anything? >> no, not out this way. >> you know in of any activity that way? >> no, no one said anything. >> so, how do you know they are investigating? >> well, they had put it on the paper, you know, when they found him dead and then they had put on there, and then they wrote it in the newspaper, they said there was a -- it was still being investigated. >> reporter: ruby burdette's hope rests in this one small news article from three years ago that says police are still investigating. cnn has learned they never really have. >> never had a case turned into us. >> reporter: in january, we asked the district attorney who covers panola county to search his records to find out if anyone from the sheriff's office had contacted him regarding garrick burdette's killing, there was nothing. >> which means one of two things, either it ended up being an accident, which we would not