The murder of Rita Curran occurred in Burlington, Vermont, USA, in 1971 and was solved after more than fifty years through the use of DNA technology. Murder In the summer of 1971, 24-year old Rita Curran had just moved out of her parents' home for the first time to live in a Burlington, Vermont apartment, on Brooks Avenue, with three other roommates, whom she didn't know well. Curran was a second-grade school teacher. She'd started graduate courses at the University of Vermont, while also working during the summer months as a maid at a local motel. In the early morning hours of 20 July 1971, a roommate arrived in the apartment and found Curran's dead body. Burlington policemen arrived and determined that the victim had been beaten, sexually assaulted, and asphyxiated. They also found evidence that Curran had resisted fiercely her attacker, putting up a "vicious struggle." Investigation Police officers collected evidence from the crime scene that included a single cigarette butt found near her arm. They interviewed the apartment's neighbors and investigated "hundreds of tips." Among the people questioned were a couple that lived in an apartment two floors above Curran's at the time of the murder. The husband, William DeRoos, who had a criminal record, stated that he was in the apartment with his wife all night and they had not heard or seen anything, a statement confirmed by his wife, Michelle DeRoos. Eventually, the police were unable to identify a suspect. Ted Bundy as suspect The location of the motel where Curran worked was adjacent to serial killer Ted Bundy's birthplace, the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers. Similarities to known Bundy crime scenes led retired FBI agent John Bassett to propose him as a suspect. Inquiring as to Bundy's possible culpability, Curran's sister wrote a telegram to Florida's death row where Bundy was being held. In response, the FBI informed her that Bundy had declined to confirm or deny his culpability. No evidence firmly placed Bundy in Burlington on that date, although municipal records note that a person named "Bundy" was bitten by a dog that week. Detective Robert D. Keppel questioned Bundy who told him that he'd murdered a young woman in 1971 in Burlington when he was there to obtain "information about his birth." However, Bundy, on January 22, 1989, the eve of his execution, denied his involvement in the Curran case to FBI