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Florida Lab Builds Ted Bundy's Full DNA Profile From a 1978 Blood Vial Found in a Courthouse Vault

The profile, sought after a Tacoma detective asked about a 1961 disappearance, was headed for the FBI's national database so it could be checked against cold cases.

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Ted Bundy smiling and carrying a box of papers as sheriff's deputies escort him

Ted Bundy was executed in 1989, years before the national DNA database existed. On August 1, 2011, Florida officials said a forgotten vial of his blood had yielded his full DNA profile.

David Coffman, chief of forensic services at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Tallahassee crime lab, said the lab had developed a complete profile, with all 13 core markers used in database comparisons, from blood taken in 1978 when Bundy was arrested in Columbia County. Despite an order to destroy much of the biological evidence in the Florida case, the vial was still on file in the evidence vault at the Columbia County courthouse. The blood had been collected in connection with the death of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach in Lake City, the third murder for which Bundy was convicted. The profile was to be uploaded to the FBI's national DNA database, CODIS, that Friday.

The search began after a detective in Tacoma, Washington, asked about Bundy's DNA while investigating the 1961 disappearance of Ann Marie Burr from her home. Bundy, who was 14 and living in Tacoma at the time, had denied any role. Coffman said investigators asked about Bundy's DNA four or five times a year, but a partial profile made in 2002 from a tissue sample taken at his autopsy was not complete enough for the FBI database, and DNA from two dental molds was too degraded to use. On August 5, the profile was entered into the national database to be compared with DNA evidence from unsolved cases, FDLE spokeswoman Heather Smith said, and no matches had yet been reported.

CBS Miami described Ann Marie Burr as a 6-year-old, while The New York Times reported that she was 8 when she disappeared.

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