The city of Etowah, Tenn., on Wednesday will hold a ceremony for a street name change in memory of slain 18-year-old 2017 murder victim Kelsey N. Burnette.
The public ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. on Charles Street between Georgia Avenue and Athens Pike, officials said. Burnette's body was found on July 4, 2017, stuffed into a garbage can near the location where Wednesday's ceremony is planned.
She was last seen alive between June 30 and July 1, 2017.
Joseph Wielzen, who had been at a party at a home on Athens Pike the last night Burnette was seen alive, was arrested in June 2018 and convicted by a jury in November 2019 of first-degree murder and aggravated rape in her slaying. He was 19 years old when he was sentenced to life in prison for the killing.
Burnette's mother, Sissy Burnette, said following the guilty verdict in 2019 that the family suspected Wielzen all along and that with the conviction "we can get back to memories."
Burnette graduated from McMinn Central High School a couple of months before her death and had worked at the local McDonald's restaurant.
Kelsey N. Burnette, 18, of Etowah, Tenn.