A teenage girl who was strangled in a California hotel room 57 years ago has finally been identified, bringing a long-awaited answer to her family.
“Today, after more than fifty years, the victim previously known as ‘Jane Doe’ has been positively identified as Joanne Yvonne Burdick, known as ‘Joanie’ to her family,” Oakland Police Chief James Beere said in an Oct. 1 press release. “Joanne was only 16 years old when she was killed.”
Police said Burdick was born on Feb. 3, 1953. Authorities also released photographs of her taken when she was 11 and 13 years old.
Burdick’s body was discovered on Oct. 2, 1969, inside the former Hotel St. Louis in downtown Oakland, Beere said during a press conference. She had been “lured” into the room “during broad daylight,” he said.
Her cause of death was determined to be strangulation. Toxicology testing found no drugs or alcohol in her system.
Investigators had little evidence to work with at the time. Burdick was carrying no identification, and no one was ever arrested in connection with her killing.
According to the police release, hotel employees and other witnesses saw Burdick enter the room with a man shortly after 2:45 p.m. Within 30 minutes, staff members heard a scream. When officers arrived, the man had disappeared.
During the original investigation, police identified Taylor Morris Teaford as a possible suspect. Beere said the nickname associated with Teaford came from people outside law enforcement.
Teaford was once included on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list. Beere said Teaford was also identified as a suspect in the 1967 killing of his grandmother. However, he was never arrested in Burdick’s death.
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“He has a significant criminal history,” Beere said of Teaford. “He shot his own sister, and he served time for rape.”
The case remained unsolved for decades, until advances in forensic technology and a voluntary DNA sample provided by Burdick’s brother helped authorities identify her.
With Burdick’s identity confirmed, Oakland police are now working to determine what happened to Teaford and where he may be today.
“We don’t have an actual answer as to where he’s at right now or if he’s even still alive,” Beere said of Teaford. “But there’s additional searches and some more technology that was going to be used to hopefully figure out where he’s at.”
In a statement shared by police, Burdick’s family thanked the investigators who worked on the case and “for caring enough to give Joanne her name.”
Beere also offered encouragement to families still waiting for answers in other cold cases.
“Regardless if this happened 57 years ago or it happened two months ago, we’re still keeping hope alive,” he said. “We’re going to continue to search for your loved ones and our investigations won’t stop.”
An Oakland Police Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to Oxygen’s request for comment.
