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
garrick burdette s killing, there was nothing. which means one of two things, either it ended up being an accident, which we would not have had or they never found the person that did it. reporter: what blacks in this rural mississippi county believe is that law enforcement treat crimes and investigations differently, depending on the color of the victim s skin. last summer in rural panola county, johnny lee butts, a 61-year-old black man, walking far off the shoulder of this road, was deliberately run over and killed by a car carrying three white teens. the driver told police he thought he hit a deer. his two passengers both say the 18-year-old driver steered straight for him. the driver s charged with murder. the d.a. though says there s no evidence to suggest a rainal motive. johnny butts brother says the white local law enforcement simply don t want to know the truth. do you believe that the sheriff and the district attorney don t
but we can tell you three and a half years later, the hit and run death of garrick burdette remains unsolved. and as far as we can tell, for three and a half years, the sheriff s department has done very little to find out what happened. has anybody from the sheriff s office investigators, d.a. s office, been in contact with you? no. never? never. never. never came to ask if your son had any enemies, any problems with anybody? no. nothing. how can you say they are still investigating? i m just going by what the paper what the paper say. reporter: last month, cnn again tried to ask the panola county sheriff s department about the unsolved hit and run death of ruby s son. this time, we advised the sheriff s department cnn would be airing this report. and again, we got no response.
they don t want to push that issue. they don t want to push race? i actually believe that, that they don t want to push that issue. reporter: that belief was confirmed to fred butts just days after his brother s death. these boys walking on the side of the road say she watched as a white jeep with two white men barrelled over the top of the hill, increased speed and aimed right at them. and they were laughing with then passed by? yes, sir. and just kept going? yes, sir. scared you, huh? yes, sir. reporter: parents reported it to the police. no follow-up ever took place. when we tried to reach sheriff dennis darby in january about the boys claims, the sheriff told us to not stir up trouble in his county , adding you do something with this and i ll be coming after you. the panola county sheriff s department refuses to talk to us about this case as well. but we can tell you three and a half years later, the hit and run death of garrick burdette remains unsolved.
son died and a mystery began. they know he was hit by a car? yes, that s what they say. did they ever find who drove that car? no. do you feel that they did an adequate investigation to find who did that? i don t really i can t say because they say they still investigating. i don t know. no one relates to me anything. they are still investigating? yeah. reporter: garrick burdette was 41, he walked wherever he went, in rural panola county that can be dangerous, especially if you are black. in november of 2009, burdette s body was found on this site, the autopsy revealed multiple injuries consistent with being hit by a vehicle. for three years, there s been nothing more than this simple one-page incident report about what happened. no one in the panola sheriff s department offered to do anything else did they come down