Brother of accused woman offers no support

Throughout the first four weeks of Suzette Welton's trial for allegedly murdering her teen son in a house fire, the courtroom remained absent of her relatives.

Welton's mother, Sue Soles of Bald Knob, Ark., recently issued a written statement to the Frontiersman that she cannot be physically present at her daughter's trial, but is with her in spirit and support.

The trial made local headlines in the Arkansas Gazette, aired nationally on CNN soon after Welton's Nov. 21, 2000, arrest, and Soles apparently had grown wary of press questions.

Then, in the fifth week of the trial, a stranger showed up in the Palmer courtroom. He was neither a witness for the defense nor the prosecution, appearing in a polished avocado green suit and shiny leather shoes, copper hair combed straight back. A zippered case was opened on his lap, and on its legal pad he scrawled notes from prosecution witnesses.

The stranger soon let the press know he is Welton's brother, 41-year-old Robert Burghardt of Bridgeport, N.J. For the first two days, he sat directly behind his sister in first-row court seats.

"I love my sister, and I came here to support her," Burghardt said Tuesday morning.

During a recess break in testimony, Burghardt approached his sister, standing near the defense table. "I wanted her to say 'hello, thanks for coming,' something to acknowledge that I had come 4,000 miles to be here for her," he said.

Instead, Welton declined to speak to him. Her attorneys asked him to leave her alone and called in a guard to enforce his distance.

Welton was defensive because her brother had sent a letter to her at Hiland Correctional Center dated May 31, 2001. With the type-written, unsigned letter, he included the police blotter item announcing Welton's arrest and a news story with certain points highlighted in pink. "The letter accused her and offered no support," Sole wrote.

On Wednesday evening, a Burghardt interview aired on Channel 2 News as "the brother of accused murderer Suzette Welton speaks."

As in interviews with radio reporters and the Frontiersman on Tuesday, he told Channel 2 reporter Iris Keogh that he felt his sister was guilty of murdering her son Samuel.

"Why?" she asked.

"Greed," he said. "She wanted her sons out of the way."

Burghardt's mother, watching her daughter's trial through online news reports, let Welton's defense team know where she stood on the issue of her son showing up in Palmer, issuing his indictment and leaving town before hearing out the defense.

"I cannot be there for her physically and that hurts me," Welton's mother said in the written statement. "I am there with her in spirit and prayer. I am ashamed of Robert and his behavior. He is nothing but trouble and does not represent anyone's opinions from the family."

Sole said her two children had visited only one time between 1979 and 2002. Burghardt entered the Navy in 1979 and left home. Welton finished high school and left home two years later. Burghardt ended up in New Jersey, and Welton in Alaska. The first time they came together was in 1992 for a Christmas gathering in Bald Knob.

Burghardt readily admitted he "no longer knew the sister he grew up with." He had few criticisms of her as a girl.

In interviews, he described his little sister as "docile and reclusive" growing up. The two of them endured an abusive stepfather, a "mean country boy" from Kenesett, Ark., in the first years following their parent's divorce, he said. The two kids spent time in emergency rooms for broken bones at the the man's hand, Burghardt said.

Sole married her present husband 29 years ago, apparently marrying him when Welton was 10 years old. The couple had two more children. Burghardt described Welton acting as their caretaker, the "nanny of the family."

Burghardt confessed he teased Welton "real hard" when she was little, and that he "got into her things." But in their teen years, he said the two were close.

Due to the abuse in his childhood and a kind of "twisted thinking that goes with it," Burghardt said he got into trouble with the law at various times, had abusive relationships of his own, and entered into counseling 13 years ago to help him overcome the turmoil. In studying the news accounts about his sister's arrest, Burghardt said he began to fear the abusive cycle was repeating itself through her actions.

He talked it over with his father, Charles Burghardt of Kissimmee, Fla., who he recently began to get to know again. "He told me that for what you two have been through, he wouldn't be surprised if Suzette would take the life of her son," Burghardt said.

Burghardt left town on Thursday morning after telling the press he thought his sister had committed the murder. He had spent all week at the Gold Rush Hotel, attending court hearings during the day and speaking to news reporters about his life.

He could not wait to hear what his sister's defense attorneys had to say. He said the small window of time he was able to take this trip was up, and he had to get back home to his own life.