The killing of a missionary and former Marine during what was supposed to be a routine Facebook Marketplace sale has exposed, in brutal detail, how quickly online deals can turn into deadly traps. Investigators say four teenagers lured 42-year-old Ryan Burke to a parking lot under the guise of buying his phone, then opened fire when he resisted a robbery. The case has shaken Columbia, Missouri, and raised urgent questions about youth violence, digital marketplaces, and how a man who survived combat could be gunned down over an iPhone.
According to police and court records, Burke, a decorated veteran who had served on dangerous overseas missions, was trying to sell a device to supplement his income from missionary work when he was ambushed. In his final moments, he managed to text his family goodbye, a detail that has turned a local homicide into a national cautionary tale about the risks embedded in everyday technology.
The Facebook Marketplace “ruse” that turned lethal
Investigators in Columbia say the encounter began like countless other online sales, with a listing on Facebook Marketplace and a plan to meet in person. According to Columbia police, the teens set up the deal on the app, not to buy the phone, but intending to rob the seller once he arrived. Court documents later described the setup as a “ruse” centered on stealing his iPhone and quickly flipping it at a Walmart ecoATM kiosk, a pattern that has appeared in other violent robberies tied to Facebook Marketplace. For Burke, who had survived firefights abroad, the risk seemed routine: a quick handoff in a public space, then back to his family and ministry work.
Instead, the meeting spiraled into chaos. Court filings say that when Burke realized the buyers were trying to rob him, a struggle broke out and one of the teens fired, hitting him as he tried to get away. In the seconds that followed, the Decorated Marine used his phone one last time, sending a message that began with the word Hey and told relatives he was dying. That text, relayed later by his family, has become a haunting shorthand for the way a platform built for neighborhood bargains can be weaponized by teenagers chasing quick cash.
Four teens, a murder charge, and a community in shock
Within days, Police announced the arrests of four teenagers they say were involved in the ambush. The suspects were identified as 18-year-old Alexis Bauimann of Hallsville, 18-year-old Kobe Aust of Columbia, and 18-year-old Joseph Crane of Columbia, along with a younger teen whose name has not been released because of age. All four now face murder and related charges, a stunning reversal for families who, days earlier, believed their children were simply hanging out on a Sunday night. The arrests have underscored how quickly a group chat and a bad idea can escalate into a homicide case that will follow these defendants for the rest of their lives.
The Columbia case is not isolated. In South Carolina, deputies investigating a separate online robbery booked a suspect into the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center and later arrested a 16-year-old in connection with a similar scheme, part of a broader pattern of teens using digital platforms to set up violent thefts. In Burke’s killing, prosecutors say the four Missouri teens coordinated the meetup, arrived armed, and fled after the shooting, leaving the missionary bleeding as he typed his final messages. Their alleged roles, from driver to triggerman, will be sorted out in Court, but the shared decision to turn a phone sale into a stickup is already clear.
A missionary’s final texts and the hidden risks of online deals
For Burke’s family, the horror of the crime is bound up in the messages he sent as he realized he might not survive. His relatives say the 42-year-old Marine veteran texted his mother and sister to say goodbye, a detail later confirmed in Court documents. His sister Jan has described the disbelief of watching a man who had survived combat zones and missionary trips to unstable regions die in a parking lot back home, during a transaction arranged through Facebook. The contrast between his life’s work and the petty motive alleged in the charging papers has deepened the sense of senselessness around his death.
Those same filings state that someone shot and killed the 42-year-old during a Facebook marketplace purchase involving his phone, and that he contacted his mother and said his goodbyes as he lay wounded. A separate account notes that he texted “goodbye” to his mother and sister, then told them he loved them before losing consciousness, a sequence later echoed in the phrase Decorated Marine in national coverage. For his relatives, those texts are both a comfort and a torment, proof that he thought first of family even as the consequences of a routine online sale closed in.
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