Updated 8:36 p.m.
Police on Friday arrested a man with an extensive criminal history in the death of Dennis Day, an original member of TV’s “The Mickey Mouse Club,” who vanished last summer under mysterious circumstances and whose remains were found nine months later inside his southern Oregon home.
Daniel James Burda, 36, faces charges of manslaughter, abuse of a corpse and identity theft, among other felony crimes, the Oregon State Police said in a news release.
Police said the death investigation is ongoing.
Burda worked as a handyman for Day, 76, and his husband Henry “Ernie” Caswell, 88, at their home in Phoenix, a small town just south of Medford, local police and a friend of the couple told The Oregonian/OregonLive.
The suspect later stayed at the North Pine Street house on occasion in exchange for helping the elderly men with yardwork and other chores.
Burda has been in police custody since last week, when they booked him into the Jackson County Jail on on a probation violation in connection with an unrelated third-degree robbery conviction in 2018, records show.
Day appeared on “The Mickey Mouse Club” during the show’s original 1950s run, which millions of children watched. Bright-eyed and impish, he tap-danced, played banjo and bantered beside the star, Annette Funicello.
Day and Caswell met a couple of decades later in the Bay Area and moved to southern Oregon in the 1980s, eventually buying a home in Phoenix after several years in Ashland, friends told The Oregonian/OregonLive.
“I just find that I’m saddened for Dennis. I’m saddened for Ernie. I’m also sad for Dan,” said Kirk Pederson, 62, who met Day and Caswell around 15 years ago and became one of their closest friends.
“I could never imagine this episode would be part of my life.”
Pederson said he introduced Burda to the couple as they began to need more regular help around their home.
The handyman had previously spent several years doing odd jobs around Pederson’s 3 ½-acre property, which is several miles outside of Phoenix, Pederson said.
Daniel James Burda
Burda had a checkered past.
Oregon court records show he has criminal convictions for sodomy, robbery, and assault going back a decade. He started using methamphetamine in 2017, according to Phoenix police and court records.
Burda told police in January 2018 that a girlfriend was “possessed by spirits” after they arrested him on suspicion of strangling her, a probable cause affidavit alleges.
He started to sometimes sleep at Day and Caswell’s home around May last year, according to Phoenix police.
Day didn’t like having Burda in their home, Caswell later told local police. But they released no other information about what distressed Day.
Day was first reported missing in July 2018, two weeks after Caswell had been hospitalized due to a series of falls at their home.
The missing body wasn’t discovered until this past April despite at least two prior searches inside the home by Phoenix police.
Day’s early acclaim as a Disney actor and performer helped draw attention to his disappearance, prompting a number of local and national news stories.
His family, most of whom live in California and weren’t in regular contact with him, learned Day was missing through a television news report.
Hundreds of people flocked to a Facebook group started by Sylvia McRae and Rosanne Reynolds, two women who studied acting under Day in the 1970s.
“I eagerly await the end of the investigation,” McRae said after the manslaughter charge was announced. “There’s still so much that doesn’t quite make sense.”
Local police finally found the missing Mouseketeer using a cadaver dog, but they couldn’t immediately make an identification.
Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office identified the body on June 6, although investigators were unable to use dental records or DNA because of the condition of the remains, state police said in a statement at the time.
State and local police then on June 26 arrested two women on suspicion of stealing Day’s 1996 Ford Escort . Police said it had been taken less than a week after Day was last seen. Lori Declusin, 34, and Wanda Garcia, 57, each face charges of unauthorized use of a vehicle, a felony.
Garcia is also accused of stealing a brooch from Day and Caswell’s home and later selling it, court records show.
Caswell, who suffers from short-term memory loss and other health issues, now lives at an assisted living facility in Medford.
-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632
Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com
Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh