A 15-year-old girl is killed on her walk home from a basketball game in 1970
On the evening of February 26, 1970, Marilee Ruth Burt, a 15-year-old white female, was walking home after a basketball game at Goddard Middle School in Littleton, Colorado. Still dressed in her cheerleading uniform, she embarked on a journey she had made many times before, a walk that should have only taken a short while to get to her home in Columbine Valley. Witnesses saw her walking along a route that included Berry Drive, Bowles Avenue, and Middlefield Road. Tragically, she would never make it home.
The last time Marilee was seen alive, she was talking to a person in a vehicle that had stopped on South Middlefield Road. Her own brother, Ramone, saw her speaking to the individual but did not realize it was his sister at the time. When Marilee failed to return home, her family grew frantic and a search began. The following day, their worst fears were realized when a road crew in Jefferson County discovered Marilee's nude body in Deer Creek Canyon, miles from where she was last seen. An investigation determined that she had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death.
Despite the passage of decades, the murder of Marilee Burt remains unsolved, and no arrests have ever been made. The case has deeply affected the community and has been a long-standing priority for the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office, who do not consider it a cold case due to ongoing tips and investigative work. Over the years, evidence collected from the scene, including DNA, has been analyzed, but it has not yet led to a match in law enforcement databases.
A description of a person of interest was provided by Marilee's brother. He described the man she was seen talking to as a white male, between 30 and 40 years old, with dark brown, receding hair and long, square sideburns. This individual has never been identified. Marilee's family, including her mother who passed away without ever knowing who was responsible for her daughter's death, has continued to seek justice. Investigators remain hopeful that advancements in DNA technology and public assistance will one day lead to the identification and arrest of the person or persons responsible for the brutal murder of Marilee Ruth Burt. A significant financial reward is available for information that leads to an arrest in the case.
