Was this Ted Bundy's first victim? Forensics use DNA of serial killer to try solve murder mystery of eight-year-old girl



Serial killer Ted Bundy is suspected of abducting and killing Ann Marie Burr

Forensic experts are to use the DNA of serial killer Ted Bundy to see if an eight year old girl was his first victim.

The notorious killer is suspected of abducting and killing Ann Marie Burr who disappeared from her home in Tacoma, Washington in 1961.

She would have been Bundy's first known victim with the murder carried out when he was aged just 14.

Years later he went on his spree of raping, torturing and killing women and girls in at least five states, including 11 in Washington.



Bundy, one of America's most notorious serial killers, is suspected of murdering up to 40 women before being executed in Florida in 1989 for the murder of two students.

He has long been suspected of being involved with Burr's disappearance - despite denying to her parents that he was involved.

Detectives from a cold case unit in Tacoma are hoping to solve the decades old murder case once Bundy's DNA is uploaded into the FBI's data base for the first time later this month.



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Missing: Ann Marie Burr, who was just eight at the time, disappeared from her home in Washington in 1961 - half a century ago

By comparing Bundy's DNA with samples taken from the Burr house they are hoping to find a match.

'From a historical standpoint, there is this belief that Ted Bundy could be responsible,' said detective Gene Miller, who leads the Tacoma Police Department's cold case unit.

'It's a question that needs to be answered from a historical standpoint as well as an investigative standpoint.'



Ann Marie's family also want to know what happened back in 1961.

'It would help put some closure on it one way or another,' said Julie Burr.

'If we could learn anything to understand what happened or learn what happened, that would be our desire.'

Search: People search for little Ann Marie Burr after she disappeared in 1961 and her mother, right, appears on television to appeal for help finding her



Bundy's killing spree and execution came before the creation of state and national databases that contain millions of DNA samples of convicted offenders.

It was thought any DNA samples from the killer were lost when he was executed.

But after detectives from Tacoma began making inquires about Bundy's DNA it was discovered that a vial of his blood had been taken after his arrest in 1978.

Forensic experts were able to get a full DNA profile from the blood and get it accepted on to the FBI database.

Detectives in Tacoma, where Bundy lived as a teenager with his step-father, are preparing evidence from the case to see if they can get a match.

Records show that he lived close to the Burr family home.

In custody: Ted Bundy is led into the Pitkin County courthouse in Aspen on June 8, 1977

He also had a paper route and frequently visited his uncle, who lived in the Burr neighbourhood.

The soon to be killer later studied at the University of Puget Sound and University of Washington.



Shortly before his execution the parents of Burr wrote to Bundy to ask if he was responsible for their daughter's death.

He replied: 'At the time, I was a normal 14-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. I was just an average kid.'



Police forces across the U.S. will be eagerly awaiting Bundy's DNA profile on the FBI data base so they can check it against unsolved murders on their files.

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