DETROIT – Some murders go unsolved. Some go cold for months, years. Some are never solved.
In the shocking case of Dr. Devon Hoover -- found with two gunshots to his head, his body wrapped up in a bloody carpet and stuffed into a cramped upper crawlspace in the doctor’s massive Boston Edison home -- we are told the investigators were given the name of the person who allegedly did it, as one person tells me “from the jump.”
Last week Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced murder charges against 34-year-old Desmond Burks, naming Burks as the killer of Dr. Hoover.
Worthy started by saying that the complex investigation that finally led to charges 16 months later spanned five states and two countries.
The report, she said, is 181 pages long. Hours of video were gathered and poured over. Cell phone data was extracted and analyzed.
Megan Beemer said she was very close with Dr. Hoover and being around Hoover in his home, she said Desmond Burks was often there and she came to know him as well.
When the doctor was found murdered she said she and Hoover’s inner circle of friends knew Burks was the alleged killer.
Why?
“Because I knew he was a dirtbag. We all knew he was a dirt bag, a leach and we all knew it from the beginning and Dr. Hoover thought the best of everyone,” Beemer said, “Everybody knew exactly who it was. You can go on the Facebook group and see. We have all known.”
I checked with my sources again, who again confirmed what they told me in the days following the murder of Dr. Hoover -- that the Detroit Police Department arrested Burks five days after Hoover’s body was found. I am told by sources that police were led to Hoover’s white Range Rover the day before Hoover’s body was found.
Police noted blood in the SUV. The Range came back to Hoover.
DPD went to his home, the gate was open, but no one came to the door.
The next day Hoover’s family contacted DPD and asked for a welfare check on Hoover. On that day, April 23, 2023, police found Hoover’s body.
The doctor’s bank cards, cash and expensive watches and cell phone were gone.
DPD began to monitor Hoover’s bank cards and charges immediately showed up. Police went to those locations and retrieved video of who was using Hoover’s bank cards.
Data extracted from Hoover’s cell account revealed 4,000 texts between the doctor and Burks. It revealed an intimate relationship between the two, Hoover sometimes paying Burks for sex.
Read: Everything we know after man charged in murder of well-known Detroit doctor
Sources again confirmed that with this roadmap to murder they were unfolding, they went to Burks home. Sources said items belonging to Hoover were allegedly found.
Still, Burks was free month after month after month.
I asked the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office what was it about this case and what was it about any evidence that was missing that prevented WCPO from holding Burks?
“No warrant request was submitted,” I was told.
Were prosecutors told to tell DPD to find the gun used before charges were approved? We don’t know.
I asked DPD Chief White what was happening with Burks after he was released, but still under investigation for the brutal and shocking murder of Dr. Hoover?
Chief White’s answer indicated that DPD was watching Burks, but they were confident no one in the doctor’s life was in danger.
Didn’t Burks 2011 convictions for murder and felony gun crimes make him a violent offender and a possible danger to the public? DPD’s statement to me was they cannot hold anyone on their prior convictions.
Was Burks truly found with Hoover’s items, and or police found video of Burks selling those expensive watches at a store in Dearborn? Source: not enough for a murder charge and Burks would get bond for receiving stolen property anyway.
🗓️ TIMELINE: Full timeline of popular neurosurgeon’s murder in Detroit
With Burks out, Reda Saleh, 67 closed up shop for the night on April 17 of this year and on his way home he got into a fender bender with Desmond Burks.
Prosecutors said Burks and Saleh exited their vehicles, Burks was charged with hitting Saleh and Saleh died from a fractured skull weeks later. Burks is charged with murder in that case.
I sat down with Saleh’s wife. Her pain and suffering is immense.
She is not blaming DPD or WCPO for her husband’s death, but she wants to know more about why Burks was free to be out driving and free to act out violently towards her husband, causing his death,
While DPD was being led to Burks for Hoover’s murder from the start?
That answer we are told will come out at trial.