JERSEY CITY AND BEYOND – Several community activists and volunteers from Jersey City spent the weekend posting fliers to help locate Ian Burnet, the 22-year-old Virginia Commonwealth University student who has been missing since Dec 30. Burnet has cousins in Jersey City, including well-known community activist Althea Bernheim.
“As the saying goes, no news,” said John Hanussak, a Jersey City Democratic Committee member who is helping the Burnet family post fliers in Manhattan. “The hope is that Ian is just getting some alone time. There has been discussion that maybe he’s in a homeless shelter.”
Hanussak added that police and the family have contacted several hospitals in the New York City metro area to determine whether Burnet may be injured and unconscious and listed as a John Doe. However, he did not know which specific hospitals have been contacted thus far.
Burnet left Virginia on Dec. 26 and boarded a bus bound for New York City, where he had planned to spend New Year’s with friends. His parents received a text from their son the next day, on Dec. 27, and he had some type of communication with a roommate back home on Dec. 30, according to information released on fliers. Hanussak added that Burnet is known to have had a meal on December 30 as well. His movements after December 30 are unclear.
According to information posted by his brother on reddit.com (see link to our prior story below), Burnet had been staying in New York with people he did not know too well.
The family has set up a webpage at findianburnet.com.
They also have set up a Facebook page.
In addition, an official “missing persons” flier has been created and can be downloaded from here.
On the flier Burnet is described as 5′ 10″ with brown hair and green eyes. A photo of the coed that accompanies the flier shows Burnet with curly hair.
When posting the fliers, Bernheim said that volunteers are targeting libraries, transit hubs, and parks.
Anyone interested in helping the family with putting up posters can call Hanussak at (201) 704-2279.
Anyone who thinks they may have seen Burnet, who is officially registered as a missing person, is encouraged to contact Det. Sanchez, Det. Davis, or Sgt. Greene in the New York Police Department’s 30 Precinct at 451 West 151th Street. The investigators can also be reached at (212) 690-8842. – E. Assata Wright
Jersey City volunteers posting Ian Burnet fliers in New York; more volunteers needed
