A teenage girl found strangled in a downtown Oakland hotel room in 1969 finally has her name back. Joann Yvonne Burdick, known to her family as Joanie, was just 16 when she was killed on October 2, 1969. For 57 years, she remained unidentified, and her family had no answers about what happened to her. That changed this week when Oakland police announced that investigative genetic genealogy had confirmed her identity.
The breakthrough came through her brother, who voluntarily provided a DNA sample after investigators traced the genetic trail to him. Police have also named a potential suspect: Taylor Morris Teaford, a former FBI 10 Most Wanted fugitive known as the “Crew Cut Killer.” Witnesses reported seeing Burdick enter a hotel room with a white or Native American male just after 2:45 p.m., and staff heard a scream less than thirty minutes later. An autopsy confirmed strangulation, and toxicology found no alcohol or drugs in her system. Teaford’s current whereabouts, and whether he is even still alive, remain unknown.
This case is part of a growing trend of cold cases being reopened through genetic genealogy, the same technique that has resolved dozens of decades-old mysteries nationwide. For Joanie’s family, the identification is a measure of closure after generations of unanswered questions. Investigators say they are not ruling out possible links between Teaford and other unsolved cases.
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