Someone must know something. Someone must have seen something.
That’s what Una Ripley has been telling herself all week, seldom venturing far from her son’s bedside at Harborview Medical Center.
Seattle police, as well, want to know what happened to Rory Burks, 33, who was taken to Harborview with severe head injuries after being found on a Belltown sidewalk early Sunday.
Burks was in serious condition in intensive care Friday.
His mother said he has been “in a fog” much of the week, and that doctors have told the family that Burks faces a long road to recovery.
She said he still fears someone is attempting to hurt him, and he was unable to recognize his sister on the phone.
The unusual case began late Saturday when Burks, clad in a tuxedo, was a groomsman at a friend’s wedding in a hotel at Fourth Avenue and Stewart Street.
At about 1 a.m., some of the celebrants decided to walk to a pub near Pike Place Market for a final drink. Burks somehow got separated from the group.
Then shortly before 2 a.m., a passer-by called 911 after seeing a man unconscious, his head bleeding, on the sidewalk near Fourth Avenue and Blanchard Street.
Burks, who had no I.D. on him when medics arrived, was taken to the hospital and originally listed as a “John Doe.”
But a short time later, a medic who had been on the call saw other men downtown, wearing tuxedos identical to Burks’. One of the men went to Harborview and identified Burks.
As of late Friday, no one who saw what happened to Burks had come forward.
