The DNA profile of serial killer Ted Bundy has been added to a national database where it can be compared to evidence from unsolved cases.
In addition, evidence gathered in connection with the 1961 disappearance of a Tacoma girl has been sent to the Washington State Patrol crime lab to see whether it contains DNA that could point to a suspect in the case.
Bundy, a teenager in Tacoma at the time, has long been suspected in the case of 8-year-old Ann Marie Burr, who vanished from her North End home 50 years ago.
The evidence in her case, submitted last week for the DNA test, had never been analyzed. Results could take a couple of months.
Bundy’s DNA profile was uploaded into an FBI-run database Friday, said Keith Kameg, spokesman for Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The database contains DNA profiles of about 10 million convicted felons.
The department has not been notified that Bundy’s DNA matches any unsolved cases, Kameg said Monday.
“We are awaiting the results,” he said.
Law enforcement officials hope that adding Bundy’s DNA to the national database will solve some old cases or eliminate him as a suspect in slayings tied to him over the years.
Bundy, 42, was executed in Florida in 1989 after being convicted of killing two sorority sisters and a 12-year-old girl.
Right before his death, he confessed to killing 30 women, including 11 in Washington state, during a cross-country spree in the 1970s. Law enforcement officials have not been able to identify all 30 women and have long believed he was responsible for many more deaths.
Bundy’s crimes occurred before the creation of state and national DNA databases.
For the past decade or so, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement had a DNA profile of Bundy that was not complete enough to upload into the national database.
In December, Tacoma police homicide detective Lindsey Wade picked up the Burr case and started researching whether Bundy’s DNA was in the national database.
When she learned it wasn’t, she contacted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The calls renewed the push to get Bundy’s DNA into the national database.
A vial of Bundy’s blood taken when he was arrested in 1978 was found, and the Tallahassee, Fla., regional crime lab was able to get a complete DNA profile from it. That profile was loaded into the national database.
“This type of case symbolizes how investigations are changing,” said David Coffman, director of the Florida lab. “Evidence that was a dead end years ago now has the ability to solve a crime.”
Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268
stacey.mulick@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/crime
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