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Background: The headquarters of the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office in Lexington, North Carolina (Davidson County Sheriff’s Office). Inset: Harry Irvine Burdick Jr. (Davidson County Sheriff’s Office).
A North Carolina man is accused of being married to three different women in three separate counties – all at the same time.
Harry Burdick Jr. has been charged with two felony counts of bigamy, as announced by the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office. His arrest followed several months of investigation, which began after authorities received a report in April.
Online records examined by Law&Crime reveal that Burdick acquired a marriage license and wed in Davidson County in January 2023. However, according to officials, he repeated this process in two other counties—one in the east and one in the west.
Burdick got married in both Guilford County and Lincoln County, and no record of divorce proceedings for any of the marriages has been found, according to the sheriff’s office. Officials suggest that the 60 or 61-year-old man had a clear motive: “financial motivation and personal gain.”
It was reportedly a pattern for Burdick – to marry one woman, reap the financial rewards, and then move on to another.
“I can’t imagine anyone even wanting to do that,” Burdick’s neighbor, Roger Walser, told WSOC, a local ABC affiliate. “It just doesn’t make sense. To me, it doesn’t. One woman is all any man needs.”
Law enforcement believes there could be even more victims, with a fourth woman reportedly claiming she was romantically involved with Burdick, too.
Though Burdick was arrested on August 22, he was released on a written promise to appear in court, according to the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office. His initial court appearance is set for September 22 at the Davidson County Courthouse.
Online court records show Burdick has been divorced before – in January 2019 in Guilford County.
Bigamy is a felony in North Carolina and carries a potential sentence of three to 12 months behind bars.
Davidson, Guilford, and Lincoln counties are all located in the center of North Carolina.