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Raymond Nash Will Finally Confront The Man Who Murdered His Mother Almost 25 Years Ago

By Denise Grollmus in cold cases, homicide
Wednesday, Nov. 11 2009 @ 10:00AM
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Raymond Nash holds a picture of his father and mother, whose 25-year-old murder case was only recently closed
​Lillian Nash took great pride in her work. For over a decade, the 66-year-old Southern belle had seen to keeping riffraff out of the Houston apartment building she managed -- even if it meant shooing out the criminals herself. Unfortunately, not everyone appreciated her efforts.

On September 30, 1985, someone slipped into her apartment in the middle of the night, made their way to Lillian's bedroom, and then stabbed her at least twenty times. No one in the building heard Lillian's attacker come or go...

It wasn't until the next morning when her coworkers became suspicious. Lillian -- who was never late -- was suddenly a no-show. They called the cops, who eventually found Lillian lying bloody and lifeless in her bed.

It was clear that theft wasn't the issue. Lillian had left cash on her nightstand and had over $80,000 worth of jewelry lying around. The intruder didn't touch any of it. It was also obvious by the viciousness of the crime that whoever broke in had a serious beef with the woman. The only problem was that police could never figure out exactly who it was. 

When Lillian's son, Raymond Nash, got word of his mother's murder, he went into a rage. But his immediate anger couldn't compare with the decades of grief he'd endure knowing that the person who'd done it was still running free. A police officer himself, Nash began his own investigation into the case, but was never able to get very far. "I thought I was going to go to my grave not knowing," he recently told the Houston Chronicle. 

Then, in September, Nash got the call he'd been waiting for, but thought would never come. Houston police had plugged DNA evidence left at the scene of his mother's murder into a national crime database. It was a perfect match with that of 42-year-old Race Burdine -- a name that was all too familiar to Raymond.

Burdine was one of the shady characters that often hung around the apartment complex where Lillian worked and she frequently chased him off. Apparently, Burdine didn't appreciate her diligence and, as a result, brutally murdered the woman in her sleep. 

At the time of the investigation, Burdine's name did come up as a suspect, but police didn't have enough evidence to press charges. 

Since then, Burdine moved from Houston back to Decatur, Illinois -- his hometown. There, he was convicted of sexual assualt and sentenced to 30 years of probation. For that reason, Burdine was in the national database that allowed police to finally track him down twenty-five years after Lillian's horrific death. 

On September 14, Burdine was charged with the murder. He is now behind bars in Illinois, awaiting his extradition to Texas, where Raymond hopes to finally have justice.
 
Tags: Texas