Deputies: Fraud may have been brother's motive to kill

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Ohio (WDTN) - A shocking motive is emerging in the case of a brother accused of killing his sister.

Valerie Burba, 41, and her brother Zachary, 39, were each adopted, and their parents have passed away, but what should have been a close relationship between siblings, deputies said was anything but.

After a two day missing persons case out of Dayton, an officer stopped at the siblings' childhood home at 3567 Wales Drive in Harrison Township Tuesday night. When he found an open window in the back of the home, the officer went inside and found Valerie Burba's body, with a gunshot wound to the head.

"It just shakes you up, makes you really pay attention to what's going on around you," said Brenda Lewis, who lives down the street.

The house on Wales Drive was where Zachary and Valerie grew up. It was sitting empty Tuesday because it had gone into foreclosure. That's why Valerie ended up living on Delmar Avenue in Dayton. Neighbors said she moved in about two weeks ago, but the Wright State graduate with a master's degree in English had already made her mark, especially with the neighbors next door, the Riebe's.

"She was very friendly, chatty," said Brett Riebe.

That's why when she didn't come home Saturday night, the Riebes started to worry. Her dogs, which she called her babies, were inside the house barking.

"I started asking the neighbors if they had seen her, nobody had seen her. She wouldn't leave them dogs, so I knew something was wrong," Riebe said.

Less than 12 hours after police found Valerie's body, deputies had arrested her brother Zachary outside his home on Eisenhower Drive in Riverside. Deputies said Zachary was found driving his sister's car, and using her credit cards.

"I didn't even know she had a brother. She never mentioned any family in the conversations we had," said Riebe.

According to police records, there might have been a reason Valerie chose not to talk about her brother. The siblings had a checkered past. Montgomery County deputie said they had been called to their childhood home on Wales Drive many times over the years for domestic disturbances.

"We've had a history with Zach Burba for years," said Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer. "He's always been a problem child out in the community. We've dealt with him, I've dealt with him personally."

Burba has multiple arrests on his record for theft, drug possession, fraud and receiving stolen property. But what deputies believe might have served as a motive was a fake signature.

According to police records, Zachary spent four years in federal prison after he forged his sister's signature in 2007 on a second mortgage on the Wales Drive home, which they'd inherited from their parents. Zachary was released from prison in late July of 2011.

The fraud put more than $130,000 in Zachary's pocket, and when Valerie found out, she pressed charges. Records show that Valerie was in the process of suing her brother when she died.