Case File 1670DFWA
Ann Marie Burr
Missing since August 31, 1961 from Tacoma, Pierce County, Washington
Classification: Endangered Missing
Vital Statistics
Circumstances of Disappearance
Burr was last seen in her home in Tacoma, Washington on the night of August 31, 1961.
She shared her bedroom with her three-year-old sister, who had a broken arm at the time. In the middle of the night, Burr brought her sister to their parents' room because she was crying. Their parents told them to go back to bed.
Burr's mother got up at 05:30. The front door had been locked and chained the evening before, but Burr's mother found it open. A small living room window which had been closed the night before was also open, and a bench underneath the window had been overturned. Footprints were found outside the house, but they had been distorted by rainy weather and no one could tell if they were from a man, a woman or a child.
There was no sign of Burr anywhere and no sign of a struggle in her bedroom. Her two siblings, who slept in the basement, and her sister had not been disturbed, and the family dog had not barked.
Burr's disappearance was treated as an abduction from the beginning. Authorities theorized that she was possibly taken by someone she knew. They investigated convicted sex offenders living in the neighborhood, but could link no one to her disappearance. The case grew cold and remained so until the serial killer Theodore Robert "Ted" Bundy came into the spotlight in the 1970s. He was convicted of several murders and is suspected in scores more, including in the disappearances of Georgeann Hawkins, Debra Kent, Donna Manson, Denise Oliverson, Nancy Wilcox. Lynette Culver. Vicki Lynn Hollar. and Rita Lorraine Jolly. Bundy lived only blocks from Burr's home at the time of her disappearance, and he knew her. Burr's relatives say he and the child were friendly with each other and he could have convinced her to leave her home with him. He was only 14 years old when she disappeared and was not suspected until the other killings came to light over fifteen years later. Bundy confessed to many murders he had not been charged with, but always denied involvement in Burr's presumed abduction. Burr was about to begin the third grade at school when she vanished. She is described as an intelligent and shy child.
He was executed in Florida in 1989.
Investigators Tacoma Police Department
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Detective Devault
253-798-4721
Agency Case Number: 61-76685
Source Information:
Newspaper Archive
The Crime Library
CyberSleuths
Crime Web
The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule
NamUs MP #4593
Spokesman Review
Washington State Missing Persons