Missing
Julie L. Cunningham
Cunningham, approximately 1975; Ted Bundy in the 1980s
Date and time person was reported missing : 03/15/1975
Missing location (approx) :
Vail, Colorado
Missing classification : Endangered Missing
Gender : Female
Ethnicity :
White
DOB : 01/10/1949 (72)
Age at the time of disappearance: 26 years old
Height / Weight : 5'5, 110 pounds
Description, clothing, jewerly and more : A brown suede jacket, blue jeans, a ski cap and boots.
Medical conditions : Cunningham was depressed at the time of her disappearance and may have been suicidal.
Distinguishing characteristics, birthmarks, tattoos
: Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Cunningham appeared younger than her actual Age at the time of disappearance: in 1975.
Information on the case from local sources, may or may not be correct : Cunningham was last seen in Vail, Colorado on March 15, 1975. She worked for a ski shop and part time as a ski instructor at the time of her disappearance. She had lived in the Vail area for several years. Cunningham disappeared early in the evening after she left her apartment in the Apollo Park neighborhood to visit a local tavern. She has never been heard from again.
Although he was never charged in her case, Cunningham is believed to have been a victim of the serial killer Ted Bundy. A photograph of Bundy is posted with this case summary. He was executed in Florida in 1989 and confessed to many murders before his death, including Cunningham's. She fits the profile of his other victims.
Bundy stated he lured Cunningham into his vehicle by posing as an injured skier on crutches and asking her to help carry his ski boots. Feigning injury was a common technique for him. He knocked her unconscious, drove her to a remote area about eighty miles west of Vail and raped her.
Bundy stated Cunningham regained consciousness at some point and tried to escape, but he caught her. He strangled her before disposing of her body in a shallow grave near Rife, Colorado. Bundy said the gravesite was in a high desert area with a circular drive and some large trees. In April 1989, a team of experts who specialized in finding bodies brought a bloodhound to a likely spot, but their search didn't turn up anything of interest.
Bundy is a suspect in the murders of Nancy Baird, Ann Marie Burr, Lynette Culver, Susan Curtis, Georgeann Hawkins, Vicki Hollar, Rita Jolly, Donna Manson, Denise Oliverson, Nancy Wilcox, and many other girls and young women. The women continue to be listed as missing persons. Their remains have never been recovered.
Other information and links : ncy
Vail Police Department
970-479-2200
September 2021 updates and sources
The Doe Network
The Rocky Mountain News
The Stranger Beside Me
Colorado Bureau of Investigation
No Stone Unturned: The True Story of the World's Premier Forensic Investigators
Interactive Missing Person Search Map
