Rita Curran’s move to the big city

The newspaper ink stained Rita’s hands as she thumbed through pages of the Burlington Free Press, reaching its final section: the classifieds. Sandwiched between auctions and realtors was Section 42, Furnished Apartments. Rita was getting ready to leave the safety of her parents’ home, in Milton, just north of the city, and meet new people, maybe even get a couple of dates. She found a listing on North Winooski Ave for $47/mo. It read, “female roommate wanted, includes utilities.” It sounded promising. The location was good. Her salary—about $8,000 a year as a second-grade teacher—could easily cover the rent. Plus, she had a summer job in Burlington as a chambermaid at a nearby motel called the Colonial Motor Inn. She kept reading, though, and found one that looked perfect: “Burlington—One to two female roommates, summer, share large apartment on Brookes Avenue, call 864-9883 before 5:00PM.” It was Friday, June 4th, 1971, and it was already a bit too late to call, but she would contact them the next day.

The apartment worked out and she soon moved in. Her year at Milton Elementary School had just ended and she was getting started with her summer job in Burlington. She was 23 years old—her birthday was coming up on June 21st—and she had just finished her second full year of teaching.

Who was Rita Curran?

Rita Curran was the oldest of her three siblings. Thomas was three years younger and Mary was five years younger. Rita had gone to college at Trinity College in Burlington. And though it bears the same name as the big university in Hartford, Connecticut, this Trinity College was a small private Catholic school that was next-door neighbors with an affiliated all-girls Catholic secondary school called Mount St. Mary’s Academy. They were both run by the same group of nuns.

Rita had attended their high school as well from 1961 to 1965. Every day Rita would wear a plaid pleated skirt and a white button-down shirt, neatly tucked in. Everyone was issued a navy three-button blazer with a school patch on the left breast, and it was always kept close at hand. Individual expression was permitted only in the style of hair and the footwear. The nuns that ran the school were decked out in floor-length black robes with huge draping sleeves. Their hair and foreheads were covered with bleach-white veils that were starched to a crisp. Their ears and foreheads were covered with a similar material and a large bib came down from the necks and covered their chests. A rosary would drape down from the sides and rustle against the many folds of fabric as they walked the halls. Rita stayed busy during her time there. She was in the choir and the glee club all four years as well as two other community groups called “Sodality” and “Living Rosary.” In her senior year, she was a class officer, a member of the student council, and part of the yearbook staff, producing a tome called “Misericordia.”

Rita’s younger sister, Mary, attended Mount St. Mary’s as well.

Rita was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1947, and had lived there through the early 50’s, when the family—mom, dad, and two younger siblings—relocated to Milton, Vermont, 15 miles north of Burlington. Burlington is in the northwest part of the state, situated right on the border with New York, overlooking Lake Champlain. It’s just west of the Green Mountains, a substantial range that spans the full length of the state north to south. And though Rita knew Burlington well, she had grown up in the city in Milton.

She had always lived with her parents—including her four years at Trinity College. She had continued with school, taking graduate classes in reading and language arts at the University of Vermont, which had a major presence in downtown Burlington. She was a member—and so was her mother—of the Milton Women’s Club. And she continued singing, joining an all-women barbershop quartet called the Champlain Echoes. She stayed busy, teaching religion classes at St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Milton, and she was a part of the alumni association of Trinity College.

She was petite—just 100 pounds—and had shoulder-length reddish-brown hair. She was self-conscious and quiet. She was well-liked by her peers at the Motor Inn. She had worked there for three or four years, even while she attended Trinity College. One of the managers said, “Rita often referred to herself at the inn as an ugly duckling and often expressed the hope of being married. She told friends that she had attended three weddings just this year and had moved to Burlington because all of the eligible bachelors in Milton were taken.”

Her new apartment wasn’t a good fit

She moved into the apartment in June of 1971. It was a typical New England apartment house with three units. Once you climbed a handful of stairs to the front porch, her unit was on the left—a 2 bedroom apartment with a living room and a kitchen. She shared her bedroom with another woman named Beverly who was almost the exact same age as her. She was born one day prior to Rita, and was also 23 years old. She didn’t know Beverly. She had just met her when she moved in. Rita had her own friends, though, and spent little time in the apartment. She confided in her mom, within just a couple of weeks, that she planning to move out—something about a boy sleeping on the couch. Rita’s sister, Mary, would later share that Rita didn’t know her roommates well and felt that she didn’t fit in with them—she still spent much of her free time with her family in Milton.

The night of Rita’s death

On Monday, July 19th, Rita went to work at Colonial for her regular shift. She had been in her new home for about a month. She worked from 8:00AM - 3:00PM that afternoon. That evening she went to practice with her a cappella singing group, The Champlain Echoes, at a community center on North Avenue in Burlington. Practice went pretty late, and she returned to her apartment around 10:00PM. Her roommate, Beverly, was home, and Rita told her that she was heading to bed. Though Rita was fast asleep by that point, her other roommate’s boyfriend called up Beverly and invited her out to The Harbor Hideaway for drinks. Beverly joined up with the other roommates, Kerry and Paul, leaving Rita peacefully slumbering.

Between 11:20PM (when Beverly left), and 12:30AM (when the trio returned to the apartment), something terrible happened.

A man—a predator—snuck into Rita’s apartment and made his way into her bedroom. She was in her bed, under the covers, when he found her. Though she struggled against him, she was not very strong. He beat her face severely, violently raped her, and then strangled her to death. And just as quietly as he entered, he slipped away, having extinguished a vibrant young life.

Her roommates return home

At 12:30AM, her young roommate Kerry (who was 19 years old) and her boyfriend Paul (who was 23 years old) returned home. Beverly lingered a bit longer at the bar but returned home shortly. They all noticed that Rita’s bedroom door was about 12 inches ajar, but it didn’t strike them as unusual. They just tried to keep their voices down in the living room where they lingered on the sofa and chairs, chatting. They had no idea that their roommate was dead in the other room.

Around 1:20AM, Beverly went to get something from the bedroom and she discovered Rita’s body, laying on her back on the floor, directly inside of the bedroom door. Paul heard a scream. Beverly called out, pleading for Paul and Kerry to come quick. They couldn’t believe their eyes. Paul checked for a pulse, but she was cold to the touch. He told Beverly to call the hospital or the emergency number.

They asked the operator to quickly connect them with the medical center emergency room, but after quickly explaining the situation, they transferred them to the fire department. In short order, two people from the Burlington Fire Department ambulance crew arrived: David Bean and Stephen Olio. They realized right away that they had stepped into a crime scene. They called the Burlington Police Department and told them that there had been a murder.

The cops arrive

An officer arrived and roped off the scene, asking the roommates to stay on the couches in the living room. He relayed the information to dispatch, and the commanding officer at the station summoned several Burlington Police detectives to the scene.

While waiting for the detectives to arrive, he questioned the three witnesses in the living room.

The PD was first contacted by the fire department at 1:29AM, and by 1:50AM, the chief of detectives had arrived at the station. By 2:15AM, he and two other detectives were on site. Shortly after, others arrived: two doctors from the medical examiner’s office, and the county’s district attorney. It was a gaggle of officials: 2 fire department first responders, 1 BPD officer, 3 detectives, 2 doctors, and a prosecutor—9 people altogether. Police worked through the night. Several detectives had to cancel their vacations. The district attorney was Patrick Leahy—a name you might be familiar with—he went on to become the US Senator for Vermont and retired in 2023 as one of the longest-serving members of the senate in the nation’s history after being elected for 9 consecutive terms and 48 years.

Examination of the crime scene

The police made some observations about how Rita was found. She was face-up, laying on her back, with both arms outstretched, her legs spread wide apart, and her head was tilted to the left.

The front of her body was nude. She was wearing a red and white polka-dot house coat that had been ripped down the front, popping off several of its buttons which were later retrieved as evidence. Beneath the house coat, Rita wore an aqua blue silk nightgown with lace trim, and it, too, was ripped down the front. The lower section of the nightgown was found in the doorway to the closet. A white bed sheet, a tan afghan, and a floral bedspread were entangled around her left leg and continued under her bottom. A pair of pink silk panties were ripped from both legs and found underneath her left leg. Her hair had been in curlers (called “wire rollers”) but they were ripped from her head and strewn about the room. There was blood spatter on the walls and smears all around her body on the floor, creating an outline of where she lay.

Her face, especially the forehead and upper cheek, was severely beaten. The left side of her face was especially swollen. Both eyes were black and blue. There were slight cuts and scratches all over her face, and there was dried blood on her face, lips, and teeth. Bruises were visible on her right leg just above the knee. Rita’s left hand had hair in it which was taken as evidence—possibly belonging to the perpetrator.

An outline of the body was made with a blue marking pencil on the floor.

Rita’s purse, which contained $20 cash and personal papers such as her driver’s license, was on the floor directly behind her. There was a lace curtain that was ripped down on the west side of the room. Her car, which was parked in front of the apartment building, had not been tampered with.

The medical examiner wanted to roll her body to the side to examine her back. When they did that, they discovered a cigarette butt under her right arm. It had not been crushed or smooshed out. It had burned out at the scene—its ashes rested on the floor under her arm. The paper on the tobacco side of the filter was jagged, suggesting it had gone out on its own after smoldering for some time. The brand of the cigarette—Lark—was unusual. It had a unique style of filter that contained small granules of charcoal. It was distinctive. Lark was an extremely popular brand of cigarette in Japan but never had much of a market share in the US. The brand started in 1963, meaning it had only been around for 8 years.

The back of Rita’s body was checked and there was no visible bruising.

The detectives and medical examiners took a bunch of photos, documenting everything.

At approximately 4:45AM, an undertaker was called to take Rita’s body to the morgue.

Police took some chips from the door as evidence, part of the linoleum flooring on which Rita was laying, all of the clothing she was wearing, the curlers and buttons from the floor, and a sample of dirt from the floor.

After the body was removed, a latent fingerprint expert was called to examine the crime scene, but nothing usable was found.

Determining how the suspect came and went

Several BPD members did a thorough walk of the property, trying to determine how the culprit may have entered and left. There were two entries to the unit: the front door, which opened directly into the living room, and the back door, which opened into the kitchen. On the exterior side of the back door, there was a small blood stain, which suggested that the attacker may have left that way. All windows and doors to both the first floor and the cellar were examined, and none of them looked disturbed. The only viable entries and exits were the front and back doors, neither of which showed any sign of forced entry.

Detectives asked the roommates if the doors typically remained locked, but they explained that there was just one key that the roommates all shared, and that the policy of the house was not to lock the doors. When they went to the bar, they left the doors unlocked. The attacker likely checked one of the doors and just let himself in.

On the side of the house was a driveway that was partly sand. There was a rainstorm the previous night and it appeared that there was no new prints in the sand since the storm. The backyard had long grass, 12-14 inches tall, that was wet as well. Detectives couldn’t be sure if anyone had walked through it.

Roommates provide statements

The roommates all agreed to go down to the station and provide detailed statements of what they remembered. Paul had been staying at the girls’ apartment—he was, quote, “a 23-year-old mechanic fresh out of college”—but he was not a renter there. They provided a detailed account of the order of events from the evening. Paul picked up Kerry from her work at 7:30PM and they drove around for a bit. They returned to the apartment and then left again around 8:50PM for the restaurant, at which point Beverly was home, but not Rita. Paul called to the apartment around 11:15PM and invited Beverly out. She took them up on the invite and headed out at 11:20PM. By 12:30AM, Paul and Kerry got back home and Beverly followed shortly after. Paul later said, “We were gone maybe two or three hours. We had asked Rita to join us that night, but she said no.” This excursion to Harbor Hideaway had not been planned—it occurred spontaneously—which meant that it wouldn’t have been possible to predict that Rita would have been home alone unless someone was watching the cars and people come and go from the apartment.

One of the questions that each of the roommates was asked was their smoking habits. Neither Rita nor Beverly smoked, but Paul and Kerry did. They smoked the brands Salem, Benson & Hedges, and occasionally Winston. None of them smoked Lark cigarettes.

Canvassing

One of the officers kept guard at the house, not allowing anyone into the crime scene with permission from the chief of detectives of the district attorney. He remained posted until 7:00AM, at which point, he was asked to start canvassing the area. He started by checking the other units in the apartment house. He said that on the 2nd floor, he “couldn’t raise anyone,” and on the third floor he spoke to the tenants who were a husband and wife, both of whom said that they were awake and home around the time of the attack, but didn’t hear anything.

Notifying the family and the community

In the morning, officers traveled to Milton and knocked on the door of Rita’s family home and broke the news to Rita’s parents. Their world was upended. Mary would later recall in an interview that she remembered the shock she felt in that moment of being told that the autopsy had already been completed.

At 11:00AM, within 12 hours of the time she was killed, Patrick Leahy and other Burlington authorities held a press conference. He described the crime as one of the most brutal he had ever seen. He said that though the police were working on a number of leads, no immediate arrests were planned. He asked the public for help—any tips would be welcome.

The early investigation

Friends of Rita were questioned, including a young man that was said to have dated Rita on occasion. Rita’s roommates did not know her very well and could only tell police that she had been a teacher in Milton. They did not have an idea of a motive for the killing or any clue to who had done it. They were still in shock later in the day and worried about their own safety. When a reporter found Beverly, she said, “Well, if you found me, he could too, so you can be sure I’m getting out of here.” It was reported that one unidentified person that had been close to Rita had been given a lie detector test in Montpelier.

Two Burlington police detectives visited Mary and Thomas Curran’s home and questioned them. Rita’s parents gave them a picture “of a quiet, almost painfully shy young woman”.

One of the detectives said, “She knew a lot of people, and we’re talking to as many as we can in hopes of coming up with something that will help us find who did this.” He also said that police were checking to see if there was a connection between Rita’s murder and the assaults that were reported at the University of Vermont and other women in the Burlington area during the past winter. In particular, they were zeroing in on the July 11th crime, which was just a week prior to Rita’s death. Police planned to question all known male sex offenders in the Burlington area.

Rita’s funeral in Milton, VT

3 days after Rita’s body was found, on Friday, July 23rd, 1971, Rita’s parents held a visitation at their residence in the morning. Her funeral service was held at 10:30AM at St. Ann’s Church in Milton where Rita attended and taught classes. 400 people came, including plainclothes police officers who were interspersed with the other attendees. In the reverend’s eulogy, he avoided referencing her violent death. A procession of 20 cars followed the hearse to nearby St. Ann’s Cemetery, where she was buried in a family plot. Her family asked that, in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to the Milton Elementary Library where she taught. The Milton Women’s Club created the Rita Curran Memorial Education Fund in her memory, describing Rita as being “a person truly dedicated to her profession.”

Residents leaving their lights on

Residents of Burlington were nervous. People were leaving their lights on at night. People were installing more locks on their doors and windows. People were reporting anonymous phone calls in the middle of the night.

An op ed published in late August, a month after her murder, opened, “We trust that the murder of Miss Rita P. Curran will not be added to the list of Vermont’s unsolved slayings. The investigation is under wraps, so we do not know how well it going. We do know that time is passing and that Burlingtonians are a bit restive.”

It then cited a few other major unsolved cases going back to 1958, and concluded by saying, “Vermont investigators should recognize that they are under extra pressure because of this rather dismal record.”

Related crimes in Burlington?

The late summer and early fall of 1971 was a particularly scary time in Burlington, especially for women. Already on edge after Rita’s murder, in September, there was a string of seemingly unrelated violent attacks:

On September 7th, a woman was abducted off the street and thrown into a car by several men. She managed to escape by throwing herself out the window at a stoplight and running for help.

Two days later, there were 2 separate attacks on the street; one attempted abduction and another assault that was described as a “karate attack.”

On September 13th, a woman awoke to a man standing over her while she was sleeping. He’d broken in through a sliding glass door. A week later, another woman, a student who lived a few blocks away from Rita, woke up around 3am to a man sitting on top of her and attempting to rape her. Her screams woke her roommates and scared him off before he could be identified.

Over the following months, several more midnight break-ins and attempted assaults occurred, amplifying the fear of young women in the city.

Police had been on the lookout for a nighttime prowler who’d been spotted lurking in backyards near Brooks Avenue. Perhaps this could lead them to her killer. Back in July, they’d received several calls about this suspicious man, and on the night of Rita’s murder, a large man had even attempted to break into a home where several women lived, much like Rita. Were these attacks and break-ins related?

Reward offered

Little news on Rita’s case came in through the fall. On December 15th, the organization Secret Witness publicly announced a $3,000 reward, hoping to shake loose some information.

Case goes cold... 2 years later

That key lead that detectives were hoping for would not come. The case went cold.

On the two-year anniversary of Rita’s death, Patrick Leahy was interviewed and he insisted that the case was still open. He said that if the BPD made an arrest, he would assign two people from his office until a conviction was obtained. He estimated that $200,000 had been spent on the case by various law enforcement agencies, and that was a “conservative estimate.” By this point, the reward had increased to $13,000—which included money from the Burlington Free Press, the Chittendon County District Attorney’s office, and Secret Witness.

Rita’s father was interviewed and told the press that he was still in regular contact with Patrick, and he appealed to the public for help.

“One case that has stumped us”

Between 1973 and 1980, the Burlington Free Press published only two articles about the Rita Curran case. One was on the 8-year anniversary, in 1979, which released some new details. It said that police had zeroed in on four suspects and gave an update on their current whereabouts: one had died of a drug overdose, another had been killed in a highway accident, and two had been convicted on other murder charges in cases unrelated to Rita’s and were in prison.

Patrick Leahy by this point was one of the youngest U.S. senators in the country. He was interviewed for the article and said, “I don’t know of anything that police put more time into.” The chief of detectives said that “no other crime of this magnitude in Burlington has gone unsolved. It’s one case that has stumped us.”

Rita’s mother believed that there had been some kind of cover-up, saying, “We felt a lot more could’ve been done... but wasn’t for political reasons. I haven’t forgotten it. I don’t think it should be let lie. Nothing will ever bring her back but we’d like to see justice done.”

Ted Bundy theory

In 1984, Rita’s family learned of an alarming coincidence connecting Rita’s death to one of America’s most infamous serial killers.

If for some reason you aren’t familiar with the name Ted Bundy, here’s a very brief overview. Ted Bundy was a serial killer and sexual predator in the 1970’s who targeted young women in multiple states, including Washington, Utah, Oregon, Colorado, and more. Despite being linked to additional murders across the country, he was only convicted on 3 counts of murder, and given the death penalty in Florida where he was executed in 1989.

He confessed to killing 30 women, but it’s unknown how many victims he actually has.

He is most known for taking advantage of the kindness of unsuspecting women—in order to abduct them and ultimately kill them—by pretending to need help loading something into his Volkswagen Beetle.

His former friend, Ann Rule, described Bundy as "a sadistic sociopath who took pleasure from another human's pain and the control he had over his victims.”

Ann wrote about him in her 1980 book, “The Stranger Beside Me,” and detailed Bundy’s connection to Vermont.

Ted was born in Burlington in 1946 at the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers. At the time of Rita’s death, he would have been 24 years old. The Elizabeth Lund Home was in south Burlington, a half mile away from the Colonial Motor Inn where Rita was working at the time of her murder.

Ted didn’t know who his father was, and grew up with an older sister that he later discovered was actually his mother. Ann Rule wrote that learning about his birth history gave him deep emotional trauma. She speculated it was possible he may have taken that anger out on an innocent victim. And Rita did bear a striking resemblance to his later victims.

Municipal records even mentioned a person named “Bundy” that was bitten by a dog the week of Rita’s murder, and there were long stretches of time—including the summer of 1971—that Ted was unaccounted for. Still, no evidence placed Ted in Burlington in the summer of 1971.

His first recorded murder occurred in 1974, but he confessed to crimes as early as 1969. Detective Robert Keppel, one of the key investigators in his case, told the press that Bundy had admitted to him that he had murdered a woman in Burlington in 1971 when he went back to learn more about his birth, setting off alarm bells of possible connections to Rita.

Rita’s family learned about the Ted Bundy biography from retired FBI agent John Bassett. He had been on vacation in Burlington (where he grew up) at the time of Rita’s murder, and after reading the book on Bundy, he said “something clicked.” He later said, “I have no doubt that he committed that [murder]… I am certain of it.” Rita’s sister, Mary, would later recall, “When this book first came to our family in 1984, [Rita’s case] was resolved in our minds.” But she acknowledged that the book offered little more than speculation.

Mary sent a telegram with details from Rita’s case (her name, the location of her murder, and date of her death) to Bundy in the Florida prison asking if he was involved. She later told the press, “I don’t really expect to hear anything but I guess I needed to do it.” He never responded.

45 minutes before his execution, on the morning of January 24th, 1989 at 6:15AM, the Florida State Prison warden asked Bundy if he was involved in a couple of other unsolved cases before asking about Rita Curran. He said,

“How about Burlington, Vermont?”

“No,” said Bundy.

“Nothing there?” he asked.

“No,” Bundy repeated.

The Valley News reported that, despite this deathbed denial, Burlington Police kept him on their official suspect list. Detective Thomas Tremblay said, “We are still investigating. I certainly don’t feel totally comfortable eliminating him.”

Many years later, Rita’s parents pass

In 1991, Rita’s father, Thomas Curran, died at the age of 68 after a long battle with cancer. He fought in World War 2 and had a 21-year career at IBM. He was buried in the family plot with Rita.

And eleven years later, in 2002, Rita’s mother, Mary Curran, a nurse, and a devoted community member in Milton, succumbed to Lou Gehrig’s Disease at the age of 83. She had worked for many years as a a leader and a servant in the community of Milton. She was awarded the Milton Outstanding Citizen of the Year in 1977. She volunteered at the libraries, and was a long-time member of St. Ann’s Church. The same barbershop that Rita sang in—The Champlain Echoes—attended her funeral, 41 years after Rita’s death. She, too, was buried in the family plot, joining her late husband and daughter.

2014, DNA evidence

In 2014, there was a major break in the case. Burlington Police Detective Jeff Beerworth was working the case and he sent some of the physical evidence from their archives to the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for DNA testing: the Lark cigarette butt, fingernail scrapings, and 8 vaginal slides. They were shipped on September 19th.

After a little over a month, on October 29th, the lab sent some results to Burlington PD. A male DNA profile was isolated on the cigarette butt. It was entered into CODIS, which is a national DNA database used by law enforcement, as well as several others, but there were no matches.

Over the following 8 years, they ran this DNA profile against all of their potential suspects including Ted Bundy by either direct comparison or through a familial comparison. All 13 men on their list were ruled out. For the sake of thoroughness, the also ran it again Paul (the roommate), and several of the first responders. Again, no match.

2016 - 45th anniversary of the case

On July 19th, 2016, the anniversary of Rita’s death, her brother and sister published a memoriam in the Burlington Free Press. It read: “We will never forget you. We will never give up hope that we will someday know why you were taken from us on this day in Burlington forty-five years ago,” and was signed “Your Sister, Brother and families.”

A week later, police gave an update to the press, explaining that the case was “getting a boost” from modern forensics. Patrick Leahy was contacted for the article and he said, “It was a horrible scene. I can still picture what I saw. A lot of evidence was gathered there, and I can only imaging how relieved her family would be if it were solved.”

2021 - 50th anniversary, family gives up hope

Five years went by with no DNA matches from CODIS, and an article was published on the 50th anniversary of Rita’s death. Her case, at that point, was the oldest case still under investigation by the Burlington PD. Her sister said, “We’ve lived with this day-in and day-out for 50 years. I can’t say that I’m going to give up, but I have to surrender to the powers that be.” The family released a statement, part of which read, “The fifty-year mark confirms that a resolution in our lifetimes to Rita’s murder is not going to happen. The Burlington Police Department has worked every lead they have ever received and have been very compassionate to our family. Somebody somewhere knows what happened that night, and they will take that information to their grave. May God have mercy on their soul.”

Little did they know, they had only a bit longer to wait.

2023 - Burlington PD announcement

On Tuesday, February 21st, 2023, Burlington PD broke the news that they had solved the case. They released a detailed investigative report that walked the public through the steps that led to their conclusion.

2022 - Testing physical evidence for DNA

In early 2022, Burlington PD went through all of the physical evidence in the case and divided it into two categories. Group 1 included items more likely to have suspect DNA and Group 2 was less likely. They knew that the testing was going to be costly and they wanted to choose wisely.

Around this same time, Burlington PD won a grant from the philanthropic organization Season of Justice to help with the cost of testing.

Group 1 included these items: the housecoat that Rita was wearing; a portion of her nightgown; a bloody piece of the linoleum bedroom flooring; her panties; 2 blue cloth drawstrings from the housecoat, and the bloody chips of wood taken from the door.

Group 2 included hair curlers, bedding, and other items.

The Group 1 items were delivered to DNA Labs International in South Florida on March 24th, 2022, and they gave two reference profiles to test the samples against: a profile for Rita Curran and the profile obtained from the Lark cigarette butt.

The bloody piece of linoleum flooring matched Rita’s DNA. So did the bloody wooden chips from the door. These were no help to advancing the suspect theory.

A small piece of the torn panties was selected for analysis. A mixture of 3 different DNA contributors was identified. One of them matched Rita. One of the others matched the DNA profile from the Lark cigarette butt, which I’ll refer to as “the suspect.” The odds that it came from the suspect was 61 times more likely than someone selected at random. The lab translated this to mean that it provided “limited support” to the theory that the DNA on the panties matched the DNA from the cigarette butt.

The same testing was undertaken on the housecoat, and a mixture of 4 different DNA contributors was identified, one of which was Rita. One of the others matched the suspect, and the odds that it came from the suspect was 65,000 times more likely than someone selected at random. The lab said this provided “strong support” to the theory that the DNA on the panties matched the DNA on the cigarette butt.

The big question remained: whose DNA was on the cigarette butt. And that’s where CeCe Moore comes in.

2022 - Genetic genealogy for the win

In the summer of 2022, they sent the cigarette butt to Parabon Nanolabs in Reston, Virginia, where CeCe works. They again extracted a full DNA profile from the butt and entered the information into GED Match and Family Tree DNA, two ancestry sites where the participants have given permission to law enforcement to use their DNA to help solve crime. On August 11th, Parabon asked for a list of any suspects that had not been previously eliminated.

Within a week or two, CeCe Moore got on a video call with Burlington PD to share the news: they had a match... A “high-confidence” match... to one of the names on BPD’s list of suspects. The five nearest relatives in the database had narrowed it down to a single person, and his name... was William DeRoos.

CeCe Moore and her team had constructed family trees for William that went back five generations before him—to relatives born in the late 1700’s—and built it right back down to find 2nd, 3rd, 4th cousins of William’s who had submitted their DNA to the database.

CeCe identified a living half-brother of William named Douglas. Burlington PD contacted him, asking for a DNA sample. He was cooperative and provided it to the police. Again, it was a match to William DeRoos.

The evidence was overwhelming. The DNA on the panties matched the DNA on the housecoat matched the DNA on the cigarette butt, and it all belonged to William. But who was he?

William DeRoos

William was born December 14th, 1939, in Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Lois, died two months later at 27 years old. He was her only child. His father, William Sr., remarried 5 years later, and they had a child together in 1947. William had a half-brother. His parents divorced shortly after his brother was born. His father married again in 1948 when William was 9 years old to a young Japanese woman named Nobuko. William Sr. was 35 years old and Nobuko was 21. They had at least one child together.

Fast forward to 1970. William Jr. was 31 years old at the time, living in San Francisco. He went by “Bill.” He was practicing Buddhism at the Zen Center which was an American outpost of Japanese Buddhism called Soto Zen—a very popular religion in Japan. Even today, there are 14,000 temples worldwide. The Zen Center was founded in 1962, and grew rapidly in the 60’s. Many of the students it attracted were hippies or Beatniks.

William met Michelle, who was 23 years old—she was also into the Buddhist scene. She described him as a great storyteller with greenish-colored eyes. She said he was tall, and recalled that he was missing a portion of his left pinky finger. She said that he did not drink alcohol or use drugs, as he was a, quote, “serious Buddhist.” But he confessed to her that he had been to prison twice in California—which included a 2-3 year stint for armed robbery. They dated for awhile, but Michelle broke up with William and moved back in with her family in Burlington, Vermont in the spring of 1971. Michelle said that her father was the plant manager at IBM—the same place where Rita’s father worked.

William followed her, moving to Burlington unexpectedly. Michelle’s parents met him and were not thrilled about her dating him. Nonetheless, they got back together. In June of 1971, Michelle’s parents moved to a small town in Canada, so she and William moved in together to an apartment in Burlington—the same apartment house that Rita would later occupy. William and Michelle’s address was 15 Brookes Ave while Rita’s was 17 Brookes Ave. Though they were different addresses, they were different units in the same building. Rita was on the first floor, while they were on the 3rd floor.

William told her of his dream of opening a barbershop in Burlington, having children together, and raising a family. Michelle bought into his dream, and they got married on July 5th in a small, sudden ceremony. Their apartment was essentially a studio apartment. It had a slanted ceiling, a bed by the dormer window, a kitchen, and no dividing walls. William had a daytime job as a dishwasher at the time, and he didn’t want her to work at all. It was also reported that he worked at a farm as a laborer in Hinesburg, 15 miles south of Burlington. He wanted her to be pregnant. To illustrate this, he nailed a diaphragm—a female contraceptive device—above the front door.

Michelle’s brother still lived in Burlington, and she would spend time with him and his friends, but William kept to himself. They didn’t get to know their neighbors, and they spent a lot of time with one another.

Which brings us to Rita’s murder.

Revisiting Rita’s murder

On the night that Rita was killed, Michelle and William had a fight. He told his wife that he was going for a walk to cool down. It was during this “walk,” that he beat, raped, and strangled his downstairs neighbor to death.

He likely was familiar with the vehicles that belonged to Rita and her roommates, and noticed that there was only one in the driveway. He probably checked the back door, found it unlocked, and let himself in. He quietly made his way to Rita’s bedroom, found her sleeping, and attacked her. After finishing his heinous deed, he took a moment to pull out a Lark cigarette, smoke half of it in her bedroom, and then flick it at her lifeless body, where it quietly smoldered until it extinguished itself under her arm. He then made his way out the back door, leaving a couple of spots of Rita’s blood on his way out.

William’s alibi

As part of the initial police canvas, at 7:00AM, the morning of Rita’s murder, Burlington PD Officer Richard Garrow went upstairs to talk to the 3rd floor neighbors. He spoke to both of them, and they vouched for one another, saying that they had been home all night. Michelle even said that she had been awake around the time of the murder, but had heard no unusual noises.

Detective Winterbottom, too, went to the third floor, making contact with Michelle only. She reiterated that she didn’t hear or see a thing.

Vermont State Police trooper Bruce Lahue also spoke to them, and, again, he spoke only to Michelle, who said that she heard and saw nothing and neither did her husband.

In a recent 2023 interview with police, Michelle admitted that she lied. She said William had asked her to lie because he convinced her that he had nothing to do with it and that he would likely become the cop’s scapegoat for the murder because of his prior criminal history. She believed him. And the cops believed her.

She said that she remembered sleeping in the same bed as him that night but couldn’t recall if they had sex or not. She didn’t remember any wounds or scrapes on his body, or anything out of the ordinary in his demeanor. She said that William smoked cigarettes but she did not. She couldn’t recall what brand he smoked, and Lark cigarettes didn’t mean anything to her. The thought crossed her mind that he could have committed the murder, but said that it was “inconceivable” because he would have no reason to do so—having never met Rita or even set foot in their apartment. But she admitted that she never asked him directly if he had committed the murder. She said that if she had seen anything indicating that he was involved, she would have “quietly gone to police.”

2023 - Burlington Police press conference

On Tuesday, February 21, 2023, just a week prior to this recording, Burlington PD announced the news to the world in a humble conference room in their headquarters building. Rita’s siblings, Mary and Tom, were both there. So was recently-retired Patrick Leahy who said, “I must admit... after 20, 30, and 40 years, I figured it never would [be solved].”

CeCe Moore joined the press conference by video and said, “This case is a fantastic illustration of the power of genetic genealogy. This case was over 50 years old, and it only took a few hours to narrow it down to William DeRoos.”

The Burlington Police Chief said, “When people doing an ancestry or genealogy test check the box saying it’s okay for law enforcement to use the results, they are helping solve murders. They are bringing evil-doers to justice. They are delivering closure to families.”

The current Chittendon County State’s Attorney was present and she said that she believed, if William were still alive, she could have charged him and gotten a conviction.

Both of Rita’s siblings spoke. Mary Campbell said, “We now have two generations in our family who never knew her. This is our case, and this is our sister, and she’s always with us.”

1971 - William DeRoos fled to Thailand, marriage dissolved

A short time after the murder, in the fall of 1971, William moved to Thailand without his wife, suddenly changing his dreams of having a family and a barbershop in Burlington. They had an understanding that she would follow him shortly. When asked why they didn’t go together—especially as newlyweds—she hesitated, thought carefully, seemed confused, and said that she didn’t know. She repeated “Why.... didn’t we go together,” then guessed that perhaps it was because they only had enough money for one of them to travel. Shortly after he left, she moved into another apartment in Burlington and started working as a nurse out of necessity.

6 months later, in March of 1972, she joined William in Thailand and learned that he had become a monk, but that he had been “disrobed,” which stripped him of his status. They traveled Thailand for a couple of weeks, and then he found a new monastery, where he again became a monk, and she became a nun. She said that they never had much of a relationship after that point because it was, quote, “against the rules.”

She stayed with him for about a year and a half in Thailand, but things came to an abrupt end. William wanted to travel to another country without her but asked her to finance the trip. She was done. She never saw him or spoke to him again for the rest of her life and returned to the United States. She even had to hire an attorney to help her get legally divorced from him without his signature.

1974 - William DeRoos returned to the Zen Center

By 1974 William had returned to the Zen Center in San Francisco again, and it was there that he met Sarah, who had just arrived around the same time. She was living at a “Zen flat” which was just two blocks from the center. She met him at the flat and knew him by his nickname—Dutch. William lived on the same floor as her and asked to spend time with her one-on-one. She described him as tall and slender, with short brown hair that he frequently covered with a hat. They bonded over meditation and cycling. He was mild-mannered. He mentioned that he had been previously married and had lived in Thailand, but failed to mention that he had never legally divorced his wife.

Sarah described William as a “guru” and an influential speaker. He had a “power over people—mental hypnosis almost.” Sarah thought of herself as a “lost hippy” who was under his spell. She remembered William used cocaine occasionally and possibly intravenous drugs, but said that they really didn’t have any money for hard drugs. She remembered he drank heavily and took an anti-psychotic prescription medication called Thorazine that is often used to treat schizophrenia.

William’s father was an actual hypnotist with an office in Vero Beach, Florida. There are numerous ads in the Palm Beach Post advertising his services.

Sarah fell in love with William and they married that same year on November 9th, within 4 months of meeting one another. Strangely, Sarah said that they “never established their relationship,” and wasn’t sure if they were exclusive. She repeatedly described herself as “very insecure.”

William DeRoos - Violent incidents and his death in 1986

William and Sarah were married for four years—from 1974 to 1978—and Sarah remembered a few violent incidents that stood out from their rocky marriage.

One time, a mutual friend, Ophelia, was visiting them. While they were all seated and talking amongst each other, William pulled out a large pocket knife that he normally carried on him and without provocation, stabbed Ophelia in the side. They had not been arguing, and she was completely dumbstruck as to why he had done it. Ophelia went to the hospital and was admitted to the ER. Police later came to their apartment and arrested William. He spent the night in jail and returned to the apartment the next day, acting as if nothing had happened. William asked Sarah if he had stabbed Ophelia. She said that he had, and he seemed to understand her, but then just went about his business. They never discussed it again, and he showed no remorse for what had happened. She didn’t recall him ever facing an “assault with a deadly weapon” charge.

In another incident, William strangled Sarah with his hands to the point that she nearly lost consciousness. They were drinking, and William went on a “rant.” She didn’t engage with him, and that seemed to enrage him. Again, William faced no legal consequences, and they went on without ever addressing it again.

Another time, William bought an AR-15 assault rifle during a camping trip in Sacramento. She said that William was gone for 5-7 days after having been arrested by, quote, “the Feds,” during which she believed he was in jail. After returning, they again didn’t discuss the incident.

Throughout their 4-year marriage, they traveled throughout California living in different apartments together, or out of their beige-colored Plymouth Duster. Neither of them were working at the time, and they were living off of welfare and Social Security income.

Sarah remembered them living at the Triangle Motel for 6 months. In the summer of 1978, she went out for a bike ride, and when she returned home, she found him in bed with another woman. She left him that day.

Within a couple of months, she found a new man and was living with him around September of 1978. One day William showed up at their place without any notice. She had no idea how he figured out where she was living. Although he wasn’t confrontational, she thought he was acting... weird. He stayed for a good part of the day and then left, after which, she never saw him again.

This same year, William’s Japanese stepmother, Nobuko, and his father divorced after 30 years of marriage. Nobuko had been his primary mother figure from the time he was 9 years old until 39 years old.

It’s unclear what became of William after this point, but 8 years later, in 1986, William was discovered in a hotel room, dead, from a morphine overdose. He was 46 years old. His body was cremated. He died 37 years before Rita’s crime would be solved.

Why didn’t this get solved sooner?

William was totally off the police radar. In the years that followed the murder, the list of suspects maintained by the police grew to 15 names, but his did not appear. It wasn’t until the case was revisited in the late 2010’s that his name was added to the list by Burlington Police detectives. What if police in 1971 had insisted on taking a close look at his knuckles—took pictures of them. He had just badly beaten Rita’s face, leaving blood all over her floor... surely he had some nicks and scratches. What if they had asked him what brand of cigarettes that he smoked. What if they had asked to search his apartment, looking for any bloody clothing. Or separated him from his wife and questioned them individually. The narrow window of time in which the crime was committed—just 70 minutes—and the fact that the roommate’s outing that evening was a spontaneous choice, suggested that it was a crime of opportunity by somebody nearby who was knowledgeable about who the tenants were and what vehicles they each drove. In hindsight, William seems like the perfect candidate.

Other than the few brief discussions that had happened during police canvassing, William DeRoos’ name came up one other time in the police records. A confidential informant came forward one week after Rita’s murder and met with two of the primary detectives, and he said that William was “capable of committing a violent crime.” In the police notes, William’s alibi was immediately referenced, casting doubt on the possibility he was the killer.

In terms of the physical evidence, it has only been in the past few years that genetic genealogy has been utilized by law enforcement, so from that standpoint, the investigation has been moving quickly.

It’s a blessing that Mary and Tom, who are in their early 70’s, are both alive to get the news that their sister’s killer has finally been identified.

Could Michelle be charged?

A question that arose during the press conference was, “Would Michelle be charged with a crime?” The police spokesperson said that she would not, and said, “Lying to the police is not a crime.” This, however, isn’t a white lie. This is obstruction of justice. Though the statute of limitations for that crime has expired, it is a crime.

Is Michelle’s story true?

Rita’s roommate, Paul Robinson, told the Daily Beast in 2021 that he remembered the walls being extremely thin, and said, “the idea that nobody heard anything is almost impossible.” If Rita were screaming her head off on the first floor, would that sound have traveled to the third? Would Michelle have heard her screams?

Assuming that William’s clothes were bloodied in the struggle, what would he have done with them? It was the middle of the night and he was on a “cool-down walk.” He, presumably, didn’t have a change of clothes with him, and if he ditched them somewhere, what would he have worn walking back to the house? If he were going on a walk, he might have worn a light jacket or a sweatshirt and pants. According to historical weather records, it would have been about 58 degrees at the time he left. After killing Rita, it seems possible he could have ditched a jacket in a nearby dumpster, but what about the bloody pants? Surely he didn’t discard them in the neighborhood. Walking around in his underwear would have attracted some unwanted attention from passersby and drawn extra notice from his wife... When he returned to his and Michelle’s apartment, what did he do with the bloody pants? Michelle said that there was no washer/dryer in their unit. Did he stuff them away somewhere? And how would he have concealed this activity in their one-room studio apartment from Michelle?

And then there are Michelle’s numerous memory lapses. No recollection of any cuts or scrapes on his body or any change in his demeanor. No explanation as to why they moved to Thailand, abandoning their dreams in Burlington. No recollection of why he went first, leaving her in Burlington for 6 months on her own.

The only thing she admitted to police in 2023 was that William left their unit during the period of time when Rita was murdered. Beyond that, she was “clueless.”

Piano wire? Crowbar?

Something that has come up in some of the reporting is the use of a piano wire as a garrote. It showed up in a blog post from 2019 from a woman who “wanted to remain anonymous.” It has been often repeated since then, but this is untrue. The medical examiner’s report indicates manual strangulation.

Another detail that came up in that blog was the use of a crowbar in either beating or raping Rita. It references a 1989 news article. In the 75 historical articles that were used in the production of this episode, this detail was referenced in two articles, and often repeated in modern blogs and podcasts. It is not referenced in the modern police report, which includes information about the autopsy, and it is unclear whether this is true or not.

Haunting reflection from Paul Robinson

Paul Robinson, Rita’s roommate, in an interview with Pilar Melendez with the Daily Beast in July of 2021 said, “I have always had a question about whether Rita was still alive when we got back into the apartment that night.” They were sitting on the living room couches socializing while their roommate’s life was slipping away, unbeknownst to them. Paul performed CPR immediately upon discovering her body, but it was too late.

You can make a difference

This case was solved with new technology: genetic genealogy. And the organization Season of Justice helped make that possible for the Burlington PD. To give back to the nonprofit, Burlington PD organized a fundraiser on gofundme to raise $7,000, repaying them for their donation. As of February 28th, 2023, after being live for 9 days, it raised $7,300, surpassing their goal.

You can make a difference by supporting this organization. Please take a moment to visit the page and donate an amount that you can afford and be a part of solving the next cold case! (link below)

Rita died in 1971, over 50 years ago. In the time since her death, even her siblings believed she would never get justice. The solve in 2023 was an extraordinary triumph, and it gives hope to other families—like Rita’s—who are still waiting for their justice.

Donate to Season of Justice to help solve other murders: 'Give Back For Rita' (gofundme), created 2/19/2023

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Sources For This Episode

Newspaper articles

Various articles from Bangor Daily News, Bennington Banner, Concord Monitor, Evening Express, North Adams Transcript, Rutland Daily Herald, The Boston Globe, The Brattleboro Reformer, The Burlington Free Press, The Portsmouth Herald, The Times Argus, Valley News, here.

Written by various authors including Bill Porter, Christopher Hapner, Elizabeth Murray, Eloise Hedbor, Eric Loring, Gordon Mills, Jane Smith, Jon Storm, Katherine Gregg, Kip McClure, Kyle Stucker, Mike Connelly, Mike Donoghue, Mike Rosenberg, Nick Monsarrat, Peggy Grodinsky, Peter Anderson, Stuart Perry, and Wilson Ring.

Online written sources

'Rita Patricia Curran' (Find a Grave), 9/6/2006

'VT Rita Curran...' (Web Sleuths), 12/6/2007

'Rita Curran' (Vermont State Police), 7/24/2016

'Police Modern Tools Help...' (Burlington Free Press), 7/28/2016, by Wilson Ring

'Rita Curran Murdered...' (Reddit), 2/2/2018, by u/FedeMarongiu

'Killer in the Archives' (Hi Im Ted Blog), 11/27/2019

'Vermont State Police Rita Curran' (Vermont State Police Facebook), 7/20/2020

'Mystery in the Mountains...' (Reddit), 2/2/2021, by u/dropkickninja

'Rita Curran 24...' (The Crime Journal), 4/13/2021, by Angelica N. Sumter

'Burlington Murder...' (Burlington Free Press), 7/14/2021

'Mystery in the Mountains...' (My Champlain Valley), 7/26/2021, by Libbi Farrow

'The Decades Old Slaying...' (The Daily Beast), 7/30/2021, by Pilar Melendez

'The Murder of Rita Curran' (Syn Writes True Crime), 3/27/2022, by syntheticabdiel

'Rita Curran' (Cold Case New England), 6/13/2022

'Rita Patricia Curran' (Another Bundy Blog), 12/10/2022, by Jessica Woods

'Give Back For Rita' (gofundme), 2/19/2023

'Burlington police say neighbor killed Rita Curran, solving a more than 50-year-old cold case' (VTDigger), 2/21/2023, by Alan J. Keays, Diane Derby

'Rita Curran murder solved: What DNA on a cigarette butt showed after nearly 52 years' (Burlington Free Press), 2/21/2023, by Lilly St. Angelo

'Cigarette Butt Leads to Teacher’s Killer Over 50 Years Later' (Daily Beast), 2/21/2023, by Pilar Melendez

'Burlington police say neighbor killed Rita Curran in 1971' (My Champlain Valley), 2/21/2023, by Brian Wallstin, Isabel Schonemann

Official documents

Investigative report, Burlington Police Dept (02-21-23), here

Books

“The Stranger Beside Me,” by Ann Rule, published August 1, 1980

Photos

Photos from Google Maps, findagrave, ebay, Burlington PD, classmates.com, and various newspaper articles.

Credits

Vocal performance, audio editing, research and writing by Kristen Seavey

Writing, research, and photo editing by Byron Willis

Additional research by Samantha Coltart, Bridget Rowley, and Sarah Lafortune

Murder, She Told is created by Kristen Seavey