Julie L. Cunningham

• Missing Since 03/15/1975
• Missing From Vail, Colorado
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 01/10/1949 (75)
• Age 26 years old
• Height and Weight 5'5, 110 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A brown suede jacket, blue jeans, a ski cap and boots.
• Medical Conditions Cunningham was depressed at the time of her disappearance and may have been suicidal.
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Cunningham appeared younger than her actual age in 1975.

Details of Disappearance

Cunningham was last seen in Vail, Colorado on March 15, 1975. She worked for a ski shop and part time as a ski instructor at the time of her disappearance. She had lived in the Vail area for several years. Cunningham disappeared early in the evening after she left her apartment in the Apollo Park neighborhood to visit a local tavern. She has never been heard from again.

Although he was never charged in her case, Cunningham is believed to have been a victim of the serial killer Ted Bundy. A photograph of Bundy is posted with this case summary. He was executed in Florida in 1989 and confessed to many murders before his death, including Cunningham's. She fits the profile of his other victims.

Bundy stated he lured Cunningham into his vehicle by posing as an injured skier on crutches and asking her to help carry his ski boots. Feigning injury was a common technique for him. He knocked her unconscious, drove her to a remote area about eighty miles west of Vail and raped her.

Bundy stated Cunningham regained consciousness at some point and tried to escape, but he caught her. He strangled her before disposing of her body in a shallow grave near Rife, Colorado. Bundy said the gravesite was in a high desert area with a circular drive and some large trees. In April 1989, a team of experts who specialized in finding bodies brought a bloodhound to a likely spot, but their search didn't turn up anything of interest.

Bundy is a suspect in the murders of Nancy Baird, Ann Marie Burr, Lynette Culver, Susan Curtis, Georgeann Hawkins, Vicki Hollar, Rita Jolly, Donna Manson, Denise Oliverson, Nancy Wilcox, and many other girls and young women. The women continue to be listed as missing persons. Their remains have never been recovered.