BOISE, Idaho — A Boise father disappeared 19 years ago today, leaving behind a 3-year-old daughter who is now speaking out about the justice she's still waiting for.
Jeramy Burt vanished on February 11, 2007, after telling family members he was going to meet friends. He never came home.
"Not long after, his ex-wife, who was in Las Vegas at the time, began receiving text messages sent from his phone. The messages were cryptic. She thought it was a little odd," Sgt. Justin Kendall with Boise Police's Violent Crime Unit said.
WATCH: Mackenzie Burt speaks out for the first time after father went missing 19-years-ago
The messages claimed Burt was leaving forever, but his family didn't believe it.
"How do you sit there not knowing whether or not the man you love is either dead or left you because that's what she was handed. She was handed text messages saying, 'I'm leaving you forever.’ But then in her heart— she knew something else happened," his daughter Mackenzie Burt said.
Three months after Burt disappeared, Boise Police found his car burned out in a ravine in the Owyhee Desert.
"We do know that Jeramy did not vanish into thin air. We believe he was murdered," Kendall said.
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The uncertainty consumed Mackenzie's mother.
"I think it hurt her a lot; she fell into alcoholism, and ended up taking her life when I was 12," Mackenzie recalled.
The loss of both parents deeply impacted her childhood.
"I had internalized that as a teenager that my parents had left me in a way, right, because what else does your brain do in that situation?” she explained. “With that in mind, I just wasn't really able to connect with anyone without the fear of them leaving, without the fear of them just disappearing one day.”
Now 22, Mackenzie lives with her stepdad and is learning how to navigate adulthood without her parents.
"I have their traits. I have their personalities, their biology, so the struggles that I have, they're not there to help me with them," Mackenzie added.
But when she talks about her dad, her face lights up. She remembers him as a hunter, and some of her fondest memories are in nature.
"He would take me out hunting pretty often when I was a kid. I just remember being so quiet and just sitting with him and watching how he just interacted with the land and everything, and it was just such a beautiful thing," she said.
Mackenzie is now a video game design student at Boise State — another link to her father.
"I would also want to play video games with him too, because he's really interested in those as well. So video games were definitely encouraged by him, and yeah, I appreciate that," she said.
But she said his favorite feature she's inherited is his resilience.
"He went through a lot of things that a lot of people should never have to. He went to war. I mean, he's seen a lot of stuff and even to just be interested in the things he was interested in, it takes a lot of resilience, and I do think that translated over to me quite significantly," she said.
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Nearly two decades later, the case remains unsolved.
"This is the 19th year, I haven't even heard anything from anyone when it comes to the officers or detectives or anything my entire life,” Mackenzie said. “It almost just feels like he's been forgotten.”
Boise Police said they now have more than 44 chapters of casework in their investigative binders and hope to put the final pieces together.
For Mackenzie, justice would mean answers.
"I know my family feels the same way, and we're helpless. His killers getting the justice they deserved is really what it comes down to, but I just don't see that happening at this point, and so in a way, I think just him being remembered is what I really care about now," Mackenzie said.
Boise Police ask anyone with information to come forward. You can contact Boise Police detectives directly or call Crime Stoppers at 343-COPS.
