Arrest Warrant Links Dead Woman with Sex Offender

GREGG COUNTY — Additional details have been released in the death of a Longview woman. Felisha Pearson was reported missing by her mother on July 20. Her body was found in the woods off West Birdsong Street July 24. That same day, the Gregg County Sheriff’s Office announced they were looking for Joseph Wayne Burnette, 41, who had failed to register as a sex offender. According to our news partner KETK, Burnette had been convicted of indecent exposure. He was arrested July 25 in Upshur County, and was eventually transferred to the Gregg County Jail. His bond was set at $500,000. The warrant states Pearson was living in a local hotel with Burnette before her disappearance.

According to online judicial records, Burnette was convicted of vehicle burglary in 1994 and sexual assault in 1996. He was a suspect in a 2006 unsolved murder case. Reports at the time said two hunters had found a woman’s still unidentified body in a wooded area off Fritz Swanson Road, in the Kilgore area,.

He was accused of indecent exposure in April 2017 and also served jail time that same year for failure to register as a sex offender.