

Security camera photo of Burgess from previous break-in

The burglar killed in a gunfight that also claimed a sheriff’s deputy last week has been identified as the prime suspect in the killing of a young couple in Canada 27 years ago.

However his death leaves unresolved a possible link to the 2004 murder of another young couple, this time in California, leaving the father of one of the victims still waiting for justice.

New Mexico State Police said the Jemez Mountain burglar known for years only as the Cookie Bandit was Joseph Henry Burgess. He’d been wanted since Canadian investigators tied him to the 1972 murders of a young couple camping near Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

“We were quite surprised,” New Mexico State Police Lt. Eric Garcia said. “No one knew.”

Burgess, 62, died early Thursday morning in a shootout with Sgt. Joseph Harris and Deputy Teresa Moriarty in a cabin in La Cueva. Harris was fatally wounded in the femoral artery during the skirmish while Moriarty was not injured.

The two Sandoval County Sheriff’s Department officers had staked out the cabin hoping to capture the mysterious burglar known for breaking into local cabins to get food, clothing and occasionally liquor.

Burgess was identified through his fingerprints. They were in a national database from the 1972 murder case. Investigators said they found his prints on the Leif Carlsson and Ann Durrant’s belongings.

Burgess has been described as religious fanatic who often ended his phrases in, “Amen.” Canadian investigators suspected he may have become outraged because Carlsson and Durrant were sharing a tent but weren’t married.

His name also surfaced in the similar killings of a young couple camped out on a northern California beach in 2004…

Until now many who knew of Burgess thought he was hiding out in Canada or the Pacific Northwest.

Joe Harris never thought of this creep as a cutesy Cookie thief. He always suspected the crook they were tracking, the thief they lay in wait for – was dangerous. He was correct.

I tire of amateurs who always think every Mountain Man is a romantic, heroic figure. They are as likely to be disturbed and dangerous as any other misfit.

I can say that with a smile after all my years of railing against conformity. The question doesn’t have to do with non-conformity, it’s what you refuse to conform to that matters. In this case, it was a fanatic whose religious belief said it was OK to kill people having non-marital sex.