Serial killer's DNA profile expected to become available soon - He was executed in 1989TACOMA, WA - Tacoma police detectives hope to soon compare the DNA profile of serial killer Ted Bundy with evidence in the 1961 disappearance of an eight-year-old girl in her north Tacoma home, The News Tribune reported.
Officials in Florida are working to have Bundy's DNA profile uploaded into the FBI's national database by mid-August, when Tacoma detectives hope to compare it with evidence that was never analyzed in the disappearance of Ann Marie Burr, the newspaper said.
“From a historical standpoint, there is this belief that Ted Bundy could be responsible,” detective Gene Miller, who heads the Tacoma Police Department’s cold case unit, told The News Tribune.
Bundy, who was executed in Florida in 1989, confessed to killing 30 people, including 11 women inWashington. Investigators were able to identify eight of the victims in Washington. The other three remain a mystery.
Eight-year-old Ann Marie Burr vanished from her home in the early morning hours of Aug. 31, 1961. Her mother found a living room window open and the front door ajar. She was never seen again.
Bundy lived in Tacoma as a boy and frequently visited his uncle, who lived in the Burr’s neighborhood. Bundy began his known spree of raping, torturing and killing women and girls in the 1970s.
Before his execution, Bundy wrote to Ann Marie’s parents, now deceased, and responded to questions they had about their daughter. He said he didn’t know what happened to the little girl and denied having anything to do with her disappearance.
“At the time, I was a normal 14-year-old-boy,” Bundy wrote. “I did not wander the streets late at night. I did not steal cars. I had absolutely no desire to harm anyone. I was just an average kid.”
Bundy was executed and cremated before DNA evidence became widely used. But a vial of Bundy's blood taken from an arrest in a Florida county in 1978 was discovered and recently became legally usable for DNA purposes.
Though Bundy is the most prominent possible suspect in Ann Marie’s disappearance, he isn’t the only one. “There are many other names listed in the case file,” Wade told The News Tribune.
If a DNA profile can be found, it will be compared with those of convicted felons in the state and national databases. It also will be run against unsolved cases where there is DNA evidence from unknown suspects.
The FBI will issue a nationwide bulletin informing law enforcement agencies when Bundy’s DNA has been added to the national database. Tacoma investigators are working with the Washington Attorney General’s office on a similar announcement to agencies in the state.
“It’s not just our case,” Wade told the newspaper. “Once the word gets out, other agencies can look at their old cases.”
