Ann Burr

*This article includes details of suicide and/or self harm. Discretion is advised.*

## Ann Burr

### Cause of death

Unknown

**Ann Marie Burr** (December 14, 1952 - August 31, 1961) was a girl who is suspected to have been murdered by Ted Bundy in Tacoma, Washington, on August 31, 1961. If Bundy murdered her, she would be his first known murder victim.

## Background

Ann was born on December 14, 1952, in Del Norte County, California. She was the oldest of four children, having two sisters and a brother. Before her disappearance, her family moved to Tacoma, Washington. Ann was described as being intelligent and shy.

## Disappearance

On the evening of August 30, 1961, Ann and her siblings were sent to bed at about 8:00 p.m. Ann shared a room with her younger sister, while her older sister and brother shared a basement room. At some point in the evening, the family reported hearing the family dog barking.

In the early hours of August 31, Ann woke up her parents, complaining that her sister was crying. Ann's sister had recently broken her arm, and it was healing in a cast. Ann's mother soothed Ann's sister, before sending both girls back to bed. The exact time this happened is unknown.

At about 5:30 a.m. that morning, Ann's sister could be heard crying again. When Ann's mother went back to the room, Ann was missing. After inspecting the home, it was noticed the previously locked front door was slightly ajar, a small window in the living room was open, grass from the front yard was scattered around the house, and the bench in front of the window was found overturned.

## Aftermath

### Initial Aftermath

When police searched the home, they noticed the table figurines in front of the opened living room window were undisturbed, despite the window being the perpetrator's believed entrance point. Near the overturned bench, a footprint was found. The shoe was likely a size six or seven *Keds* sneaker. None of Ann's clothing or personal items were missing from the home, apart from what she was wearing at the time of her abduction.

Ann was wearing a blue nightgown, a chain necklace with an engraved medal with Jesus and the virgin Mary, an identification tag, and a Saint Christopher medal.

An extensive search was initiated on August 31, with a hundred soldiers from Fort Lewis and fifty National Guardsmen from Camp Murray aiding the search. Dive teams also searched Commencement Bay for Ann, but nothing was found. By 11:00 p.m. that day, seventy-five square blocks, including wooded areas, were searched, but no sign of Ann was found.

Neighbors claimed to have heard screaming from a vehicle with California license plates, but the driver was identified and told police the screaming was coming from the car's radio.

On September 8, 1961, Ann's parents took voluntary polygraph tests to dispel rumours that they were withholding information in their daughter's disappearance. The both past their polygraph tests.

Over 1,500 people were interviewed about Ann's disappearance, including serial killer Hugh Morse. Police have shown no signs of suspicions that Morse is involved in Ann's disappearance.

In June 1961, a service station employee in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada, told police they saw a child matching Ann's description, accompanied by two adults who spoke "too sharply" to be her parents. The girl also claimed to have been from Tacoma.

In the winter of 1964, police attempted to arrest a man named Ralph Everett Larkee. He was accused with the abduction of Gay Lynn Stewart, and police considered him a possible suspect in Ann's disappearance. While police pounded on his door, Larkee shot himself with a pistol.

### Ted Bundy as a suspect

Ted Bundy, a man who murdered at least thirteen women in Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, and Florida, was arrested in 1978. Bundy became a suspect in Ann's disappearance when it was discovered that he lived in Tacoma at the time. Bundy, then 14, was a paperboy, and delivered newspapers in Ann's neighborhood.

Bundy's great-uncle taught music at the University of Puget Sound (UPS), which was close to Ann's home. The footprint found at the scene of Ann's disappearance was consistent with a teenager perpetrator. Bundy was asked about Ann's disappearance, but he claimed he "wouldn't have hurt a little girl."

Though, Bundy did confess to an author in 1984 that there were murders he'd "never talk about." The criteria of these cases were that they were "too close to home", "too close to family", and involved "victims who were very young." Ann's disappearance matched all three of these factors.

Ann's parents later told investigators that they believed Ann's body was buried at the UPS campus, which was undergoing construction in 1961. Ann's parents also denied them or Ann knowing Bundy before his arrest. Ann's mother exchanged letters with Bundy while he was on death row, but he also dodged her questions, talking about events and the then-unsolved Green River killings instead.

Bundy insisted to Ann's mother that he was "a normal fourteen-year-old boy. I did not wander the streets late at night. I did not steal cars. I had absolutely no desire to harm anyone." Ann's father told an author that he believed he saw Bundy hiding in a ditch on the UPS campus on the morning of Ann's disappearance.

In 2011, evidence in Ann's case was compared to Bundy's DNA, but a full DNA profile couldn't be created from the evidence, leaving the results as inconclusive.

## Sources

* Ann Burr on Wikipedia
* Ann Burr at *NamUs*
* Ann Burr at the *Doe Network*
* Ann Burr at the *Charley Project*
* Ann Burr at *Find a Grave*