From Brentwood to Boston: Searching for George Burdynski Jr.

 

In May of 1993, 10-year-old George Stanley Burdynski Jr.—nicknamed “Junior”—vanished from his neighborhood in Brentwood, Maryland.

On the afternoon of May 24th, around 3:30 p.m., George left his home on 40th Place. He was riding his red and white 1950s Schwinn bicycle, which was easy to recognize. It had a large seat, wide handlebars, and a missing rear fender. George had tied a spare rim around the front handlebars. His plan was to visit an adult friend named Robert Violet, who lived a few blocks away.

Violet later claimed George never arrived, but witnesses reported seeing him outside Violet’s mother’s house around 4:00 p.m. That evening, around 8:30, neighbors saw George still biking around the neighborhood. That would be the last confirmed sighting of him.

The next morning, George’s father and Violet began searching. They found the spare rim from George’s bike near a tennis court just three blocks from his house. But George himself—and his bicycle—were gone.

Not long after, investigators uncovered disturbing leads. Three men, Steven “Bruce” Leak, James Kowalski Jr., and Joseph Lynch, were linked to a child exploitation ring in the mid-Atlantic region. The FBI discovered they were using the early internet to share and produce abusive material. The men were accused of abusing two of George’s friends the weekend before he vanished. Kowalski even recorded television coverage of George’s disappearance, which was found in his home. All three men were convicted of child abuse in unrelated cases. Leak and Kowalski remain in prison, while Lynch has since been released. But despite the connections, none of them were ever charged in George’s disappearance.

In fact, the FBI’s investigation into these suspects led to the launch of a major program called Innocent Images in 1994, targeting online child exploitation. George’s mother even testified during one of the trials, saying her son had visited Lynch’s home with other kids before he went missing.

Nearly a decade later, in 2002, investigators announced they were pursuing a different suspect they believed may have murdered George back in 1993. That person’s identity was never made public, and no charges were ever filed.

Two years later, in 2004, a glimmer of hope appeared. Witnesses in Massachusetts reported seeing a young man who matched George’s description. They noticed his distinctive scar above his mouth and said he looked homeless, traveling with a group selling magazines and coupon books door to door. Detectives from Maryland even traveled to check out the lead. But in the end, the man was never found, and it remains unknown if it really was George.

Today, over 30 years have passed. George would be 43 years old. His bicycle has never been recovered, and his case is still unsolved.

Do you think George was the victim of the exploitation ring—and silenced to cover it up? Or is there still a chance he survived and built a life under a new identity?