BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (AP) — Police are trying to help the mother of a 9/11 hero recover his missing high school letter jacket so she can donate it to be displayed at his alma mater in a suburb of the Twin Cities.
Tom Burnett Jr. of Bloomington was among several passengers on United Flight 93 who fought off terrorists planning to crash the plane in Washington, D.C. The passengers charged the cockpit and tried to regain control of the plane before the hijackers crashed it into a field in Pennsylvania, killing all 44 people on board.
His mother, Beverly Burnett, loaned the letter jacket in 2004 to a restaurant at Southtown Shopping Center in Bloomington. After the store was remodeled in 2012, the jacket went missing and no one has seen it since, KSTP-TV reported.
Police launched an investigation, but it’s unclear whether the jacket was stolen, lost or thrown out.
“I can’t imagine anyone stealing a hero of flight 93’s jacket. Who would steal a jacket that belonged to Tom Burnett?” said Beverly Burnett, who lives in Eden Prairie.
She’s hoping to get her son’s jacket back so it can be included in a display at Jefferson High School in Bloomington.
Friday marks the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but the timing of the Bloomington Police Department’s request for information is a coincidence, said deputy chief Mike Hartley.
“It’s kind of the type of thing, someone very well could come forward and say I believe that was thrown out. We just don’t know,” he said.
The week following up to the anniversary of her son’s death is a very difficult time for Beverly Burnett, she said.
“It has been 14 years and we are still grieving; the loss of him and everybody else,” Burnett said.
