Rita Lorraine Jolly

• Missing Since 06/29/1973
• Missing From West Linn, Oregon
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 12/06/1955 (70)
• Age 17 years old
• Height and Weight 5'6, 130 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A brown wool Pendleton shirt, blue jeans or green army fatigue pants, heavy socks, low-cut blue sneakers with buckskin heels, and possibly a red and blue checkered cotton flannel shirt.
• Distinguishing Characteristics White female. Light brown hair, hazel eyes. Rita previously fractured her lower left leg and the injury didn't heal properly. As a result, she walks with an uneven gait.

Details of Disappearance

Rita left her residence on Horton Road in West Linn, Oregon at 7:15 p.m. on June 29, 1973 to go for a walk. She was last seen later that evening, walking near the West Linn bridge in Oregon City with an unidentified girl. She never returned home has never been heard from again.

Authorities and Rita's family do not believe she ran away from home. She had recently completed a year at Clackamas Community College, which she attended instead of her final year of high school, and had a near-perfect average. Her father said she had an "extremely harmonious home life" with no problems that would have made her want to leave, and stated she took nothing with her. She also left the heater and electric blanket turned on in her bedroom, suggesting she intended to return shortly.

Rita's parents said she seldom hitchhiked, and that even when friends offered her rides she would often refuse because she preferred to walk places. It wasn't uncharacteristic of her to walk all the way from the Clackamas Community College campus to her home, a distance of eight miles. Her father described his daughter as an independent thinker and a loner without close friends.

Rita may have been a victim of the serial killer Theodore Robert "Ted" Bundy. A photograph of Bundy is posted with this case summary. He was executed in Florida in 1989. He is a suspect in scores of murders, mainly from the Pacific Northwest, though he was convicted only of killing three females in Florida. He confessed to many deaths prior to his execution.

Bundy may be responsible for the disappearances of Nancy Baird, Ann Marie Burr, Lynette Culver, Julie Cunningham, Susan Curtis, Georgeann Hawkins, Vicki Hollar, 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. It is worth noting that Bundy did not confess to Rita's murder before his death, but he is considered a suspect in many deaths and disappearances he did not claim responsibility for.

Rita's disappearance remains unsolved, as her body was not found and Bundy was never charged or confessed to her murder. Foul play is suspected in her case. She was a junior at West Linn High School in 1973.