‘Lavender Doe’ killer sentenced 50 years

GREGG COUNTY – A man known as the “Lavender Doe” killer pleaded guilty on Tuesday to committing two murders. According to our news partner KETK, Joseph Wayne Burnette received three sentences for 50 years each, which will be served concurrently. Joseph Wayne Burnette, 43, had confessed to the slaying of Dana Lynn Dodd back on August 27, 2018. Dodd’s body had been found badly burned laying in a bush in a Kilgore oil-lease back on October 29, 2006. She remained unidentified for more than a decade, despite vigorous efforts by multiple agencies. Dodd became known as “Lavender Doe.” The DNA Doe Project, an organization that looks to find family DNA matches to unidentified bodies, gave Dana Lynn Dodd her name back. She was 21 years old when she got into Burnette’s car at a Longview Walmart. When he confessed, he was unable to provide police any information on her identity. Through the work between the DNA Doe Project and the Gregg County Sheriff’s Office, Dodd’s identity was released back in February 2019.

Felisha Pearson was reported missing by her mother on July 20, 2018. Pearson’s body was found in the woods off West Birdsong Street in Longview. On that same day, the Gregg County Sheriff’s Office announced it was looking for Burnette, who had failed to register as a sex offender. Burnette had been convicted of indecent exposure. Pearson had been living with him at a local hotel as well as a home nearby. According to records, Burnette was convicted of vehicle burglary in 1994 and sexual assault in 1996.