Missing Person Photos
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
Resources for Missing Persons
According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day.
Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends.
Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.
Missing Person Photos
Ann Marie Burr
Ann Marie, date, approximate 1961; Ted Bundy in the 1980s
Date Missing 08/31/1961
Missing From
Tacoma, Washington
Missing Classification Non-Family Abduction
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 12/14/1952 (69)
Age 8 years old
Height and Weight 4'2, 35 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A handmade ankle-length light blue nightgown with blue and white flowers, a small chain necklace with two religious medals that have engraved images of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, and a silver identification bracelet with her name, address and phone number and the phrase "Saint Christopher Protect Us."
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, hazel eyes. Ann Marie's name may be spelled "Anne Marie" or "Ann-Marie." She has red marks on her left hand and malformed fingernails due to a fungal infection.
Details of Disappearance Ann Marie was last seen in her home in the 3000 block of north 14th Street in Tacoma, Washington on 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, Ann Marie brought her sister to their parents' room because the younger girl's cast was bothering her and she was crying. Their parents told them to go back to bed. Ann Marie has never been heard from again.
Ann Marie's mother got up at 5:30 a.m. and discovered her daughter was missing. The front door had been locked and chained the evening before, but Ann Marie's mother found it unlocked from the inside and open.
Ann Marie'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.
One man made a ransom threat, but he turned out to be an opportunist who had nothing to do with Ann Marie's disappearance, and was charged with disorderly conduct. A teenage boy who was a neighbor of the Ann Marie family failed a polygraph about the . He passed a second test, but the police never ruled him out as a suspect.
An extensive search of Tacoma turned up no clues as to Ann Marie's whereabouts. Various suspects surfaced over the years and several people claimed to be her abductor, but none of the stories could be verified.
The grew cold and remained so until the serial killer Theodore Robert "Ted" Bundy came into the spotlight in the 1970s. A photograph of Bundy is posted with this summary. He was convicted of several murders and is suspected in scores more, including in the disappearances ofNancy Baird, Lynette Culver, Julie Cunningham, Susan Curtis, Georgeann Hawkins, Vicki Hollar, Rita Jolly, Donna Manson, Denise Oliverson andmany other girls and young women. He was executed in Florida in 1989.
Bundy lived only a few blocks from Ann Marie's home at the time of her disappearance, and he apparently knew her, though accounts differ as to how well they were acquainted. He was only fourteen years old when she disappeared and was not considered a suspect in his until his killings came to light over fifteen years later.
It is worth noting that Bundy confessed to many murders he had not been charged with, he always denied involvement in Ann Marie's presumed abduction. Nonetheless, many people believe she was his first victim.
Ann Marie was about to begin the third grade at Grant Elementary School when she vanished, and she had studied piano for two years. She was raised to be independent and, beginning in kindergarten, walked several blocks to school alone every day. Her parents stated she was intelligent, artistically talented and an obedient daughter who didn't cause any problems at home.
Ann Marie's parents adopted another daughter a few years after her disappearance. Her father died in 2003 and her mother in 2008, but all four of her siblings are still alive. Her remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Tacoma Police Department
253-798-4721
Other
NewspaperArchive
The Crime Library
CyberSleuths
Crime Web
The Stranger Beside Me
The Seattle Times
The Tacoma News Tribune
Ted and Ann: The Mystery of a Missing Child and Her Neighbor Ted Bundy
The Daily Mail
Missing Person Photos
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
Resources for Missing Persons
According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day.
Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends.
Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.
Missing Person Photos
