{"id":484139,"date":"2026-10-03T18:42:41","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T18:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/484139\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T18:42:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T18:42:41","slug":"16-year-old-girl-found-strangled-in-1969-identified-57-years-later-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/484139\/","title":{"rendered":"16-year-old girl found strangled in 1969 identified 57 years later, police say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">OAKLAND, Calif. (Gray News) &#8211; A teenage girl found strangled inside a downtown Oakland hotel in 1969 has been identified 57 years later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The victim was identified as 16-year-old Joann Yvonne Burdick, known to her family as Joanie.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Police have identified Taylor Morris Teaford, a former FBI 10 Most Wanted Fugitive known colloquially as the \u201cCrew Cut Killer,\u201d as a potential suspect in her murder, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/oaklandpoliceca\/posts\/pfbid0KQB7x7zPZZJSMwUhMZrSvoQVv7xzND6Kyou9NVnLZkixpmKbFE7B3PHZsPQEWZ2wl\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/oaklandpoliceca\/posts\/pfbid0KQB7x7zPZZJSMwUhMZrSvoQVv7xzND6Kyou9NVnLZkixpmKbFE7B3PHZsPQEWZ2wl\">a press release said.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"The victim was identified as 16-year-old Joann Yvonne Burdick, known to her family as Joanie.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/QKAWTLU5PBGYJC7UNDA3ZUFFJI.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"512\" \/>The victim was identified as 16-year-old Joann Yvonne Burdick, known to her family as Joanie.(Source: Oakland Police Department)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe don\u2019t have an actual answer as to where he\u2019s at right now or if he\u2019s even still alive,\u201d Oakland Police Chief James Beere said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Burdick was found dead inside a room at the St. Louis Hotel on the 500 block of 7th Street on Oct. 2, 1969.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Witnesses and hotel staff reported seeing the victim enter the room with a white or Native American male just after 2:45 p.m. Less than 30 minutes later, staff heard a scream.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">An autopsy determined she had been strangled. Toxicology testing found no alcohol or drugs in her system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cFor decades, her family lacked the answers they deserved about what happened,\u201d Beere said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Investigative genetic genealogy eventually led investigators to Burdick\u2019s brother, who voluntarily provided a DNA sample. That sample allowed investigators to confirm the unidentified victim was his sister.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Police are now working with other law enforcement agencies and say additional searches and technology could help determine what happened to Teaford.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Investigators also aren\u2019t ruling out the possibility that he could be connected to other cold cases.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND, Calif. (Gray News) &#8211; A teenage girl found strangled inside a downtown Oakland hotel in 1969 has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[25599,189482,723,189480,189481,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-484139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-cold-case","tag-cold-case-solved","tag-crime","tag-crime-california","tag-joann-yvonne-burdick","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}