By  Seamus McGraw

Novembler 1, 2006

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JO DAVIESS COUNTY, Ill. (Crime Library) —  A 57-year-old ex-convict who was a prime suspect in the disappearance last week of a teenage Iowa girl is being held in an Illinois jail, charged with taking the teen across state lines and murdering her.

But the arrest of Bruce Edward Burt, who shared the same Iowa hometown with the slain child, has raised as many questions as it has answered about the death of 13-year-old Donnisha Hill.

Chief among the questions authorities are trying to answer are these: What was Burt's connection to the teen, and are there any witnesses in Jo Daviess County or elsewhere who can shed light on the circumstances that led to her bludgeoning death?

Authorities in Illinois and Iowa are working the case, as are investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, law enforcement officials from both states told Crime Library. Authorities say their investigation is continuing and have released few details about the case.

But authorities have confirmed that one avenue of investigation includes reports that in the weeks before her disappearance, Donnisha was seen in the company of an older man, who on at least one occasion is reported to have taken her into his van. Family members reportedly became so concerned about the contacts between the child and the as-yet-unnamed man that they filed a police complaint about the incidents and arranged to have Donnisha placed on a different school bus route to avoid him.

So far, investigators have not been able to positively link the reports to Donnisha's slaying, authorities said, nor have they determined whether the man in question was Burt or someone linked to him.

But they acknowledge that the teen, a student at Logan Middle School in Waterloo, vanished after school Friday on what was to have been her first day on the new bus route.

Family members reported the teen missing late Friday, and initial reports indicated that the child had gotten onto the wrong bus. But it is unclear whether the girl made a simple mistake or whether she intentionally got on the wrong bus. Instead of taking the new route home, she took the old one, authorities said.

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