Student remembers best friend's
humor, spontaneity
By Kurt Esposito
Summer
Editor
Only questions remain for the family and friends
of a Purdue student who was found dead a little over a week ago.
Katie Burkhart was found dead from a gunshot wound
to the head June 28 in a home on Indiana 25 North in Lafayette. Police
are still investigating the matter.
"It's just shocking. I don't think she did this
to herself. She was so smart; she just seemed to have so much going
for her," said her sister Sharon Wheeler.
Wheeler had not seen her sister much since Burkhart
began at Purdue in the fall of 2000, but still remembers her as "little
Katie," who had a great smile and was wonderful person.
Burkhart, who would have been a sophomore in the
School of Health Sciences in the fall, was planning on getting her degree
in pharmacy and was leaning toward a career in pharmaceutical research.
Bethany Schneider, a freshman in the School of
Science and Burkhart's best friend, said, "(It's) still really, really
hard to believe and I honestly don't know what to think. My mind flip-flops
in between. One second on one theory and another second on another theory.
In the end I really have no clue."
Schneider said Burkhart was always concocting crazy
schemes.
One time Burkhart and another friend decided to
go to Las Vegas the weekend before Dead Week as a way to unwind. She
had come up with the idea only days before the trip and booked the hotel
and airline tickets without informing her parents.
"She got the mind to do it and there was no turning
back," said Schneider.
She said Burkhart was spontaneous but never reckless.
Burkhart would routinely run up to five miles a
day around West Lafayette, a habit she picked up after running cross-country
in high school. She even received all-city honors.
Schneider said Burkhart liked to run by herself
and would run at all hours of the night, just to make sure she ran at
least once a day. She said Burkhart once ran as late as one in the morning.
"I think she just ran to escape or for time to
think," said Schneider.
She said even though Burkhart was friendly with
everyone she did not open up to everyone completely. Schneider was one
of the few she did open up to. "I've been think a lot lately about how
fortunate I was that she did want to share it with me," said Schneider.
She said Burkhart was smart, funny and "goofier
than anything."
Her father, Bill, described her as a happy kid
and said she had always wanted to go to Purdue and definitely found
her niche there. "She loved it down there; it was her Mecca," he said.
He said he wished everyone at Purdue could have
met her. "She was loved by all of us," he said.
He said the family is still trying to find out
what happened. Wheeler said, "We're sitting here waiting…We're
just waiting until the police will actually tell us something."
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