Girl strangled at California hotel identified in 57-year-old cold case
A 16-year-old girl found strangled in an Oakland, California, hotel room has been identified nearly 57 years after her death, according to officials. Authorities are still trying to locate the suspect and determine whether he is alive.
Officers found the victim in a room at Hotel St. Louis in the 500 block of Seventh Street on October 2, 1969. An autopsy by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department determined that she died from suffocation by strangulation. Toxicology testing found no alcohol or drugs.
Oakland Police Chief James Beere identified the victim on Thursday as 16-year-old Joanne Yvonne Burdick, who was known to her family as Joanie. She had no identification when she was found, and investigators were unable to establish her identity for decades.
The FBI’s San Francisco field office joined the renewed investigation in 2020, providing forensic analysis, genealogical expertise and laboratory support, according to Special Agent in Charge Scott Schelble.
Modern forensic tools allowed investigators to revisit evidence that could not be fully analyzed decades earlier. After traditional investigative avenues were exhausted, genetic genealogy generated leads that helped investigators locate Joanie’s brother.
Her brother voluntarily provided a DNA sample, which enabled investigators to confirm her identity, Schelble said.
During the homicide investigation, police identified Taylor Morris Teaford as a potential suspect, but he was never arrested in the case. Sources outside law enforcement had dubbed the suspect the “Crew Cut Killer.”
The suspect had shot his own sister and served time for rape. He described him as a suspect in his grandmother’s murder, but police later said he had killed her.
Asked whether police were certain they had identified the killer as well as the victim, Chief Beere expressed confidence but said “there are still additional steps we need to do to positively identify him.”
“We recognize that no investigation can change what happened to Joanie,” Beere said. “We hope today’s announcement will provide answers for her family, and we continue to pursue justice 57 years later.”
Police are working with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to pursue leads on the suspect’s whereabouts. Investigators were planning additional searches and the use of more technology, but they had not established where he was or whether he was still alive.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
