Duty, Death, Dishonor

A Soldier Returns From War And Vanishes

(CBS) 
When he got to the car, Burgoyne went after Richard, and admits that he hit him a few times and that Richard didn't hit back. Afterwards, Woodcoff says everyone got back in the car, and he thought they were driving back to the barracks.

It was around midnight when the five soldiers drove off in Alberto Martinez' car. At formation the next day, they all reported for duty, except Richard. The Army didn't initiate an official search but listed Richard as AWOL, absent without leave. And the four soldiers who were with Richard weren't asked any questions.

"We tried numerous calls down there. And all we could get from the unit at the time was, 'We're looking for him,' " remembers Lanny.

Lanny and Remy were very worried, because they say it didn't sound like their son to go AWOL.

By mid-August, Richard had been missing for a month, and Lanny headed off to Georgia to search for his son himself. "I kept hope that we'd find him, I'd find him. It wouldn't mattered if I got a lead to go to South America, I'd have went," he explains.

But when Lanny got to Fort Benning, he says it became clear no one was looking very hard for his son. That's when his old military policeman instincts kicked in. Lanny starting digging around, and soon made a significant discovery.

"If you're gonna go AWOL, number one, you gotta think about it at least for five minutes. And when you think about that, 'Well, I better bring some clothing. You know, I better bring my shaving gear or my toothbrush or my medication, whatever it is,' " says Lanny.

Instead, Richard had taken nothing.

It wasn't until September, two months after Richard disappeared, that the Army finally opened an official investigation. The four soldiers still hadn't told anyone they were out with Richard the night he disappeared.

But, on Nov. 7, 2003, a tip came in that led to a gruesome discovery. Coroner James Dunnavant says Richard's remains were scattered in woods several miles from Fort Benning. They had been there for months.

All that was left of Richard were his bones, and Dunnavant says nicks and cuts on the bones indicated to investigators that Richard had been stabbed multiple times.

"He was stabbed in the head, neck and chest. Approximately 33 times," Dunnavant says. But those were the stab wounds his team could find; because all that was left of Richard was his bones, Dunnavant said he was sure Richard was stabbed more than 33 times.

Their worst fears now realized, Lanny and Remy finally brought Richard home to bury him. But the search for who killed their son was only beginning; Lanny is now convinced his son was the victim of premeditated murder.

"I can just hardly imagine about the fear he had," says Lanny.

The truth about what happened to Richard was still a secret months after he disappeared. The four soldiers who were with him had kept to themselves. And one of them, Jacob Burgoyne, told investigators he had last seen Richard alive. But Burgoyne then told his closest friend, Matt Thompson, a completely different story.

"He said, 'I got to tell you something. I don't know if I should, but it's bothering me,' " Thompson said.

In a drunken conversation with Thompson, Burgoyne made a startling revelation. "He said 'I know who did it to Davis. I know who killed Davis.' He said, 'I was there,' " Thompson says.

Burgoyne even told Thompson where Richard's body lay. Thompson says Burgoyne offered to take him to the body, near Columbus, Georgia, but Thompson wouldn’t go.