Burr was last seen in her home in the 3000 block of north 14th Street in Tacoma, Washington on August 31, 1961. She shared her bedroom with her three-year-old sister, who had a broken arm at the time. In the middle of the night, Burr brought her sister to their parents' room because she was crying. Their parents told them to go back to bed. Burr has never been heard from again.

Burr's mother got up at 5:30 a.m. The front door had been locked and chained the evening before, but Burr's mother found it open. A small living room window which had been closed but not locked the night before was also slightly open, and a wicker bench underneath the window had been overturned. A faint footprint was found outside the open window. It had been distorted by the previous night's heavy rainstorm, but authorities believe it was from a Keds sneaker, size 6 or 7. A small man or a boy would have feet that size. There was no sign of Burr anywhere and no sign of a struggle in her bedroom. Her sister and her two brothers who slept in the basement had not been disturbed, and the family's Cocker Spaniel dog had not barked.

Burr's disappearance was treated as an abduction from the beginning. Authorities theorized that she was possibly taken by someone she knew. They investigated convicted sex offenders living in the neighborhood, but could link no one to her disappearance. One man made a ransom threat, but he turned out to be an opportunist who had nothing to do with Burr's disappearance, and was charged with disorderly conduct.

The case grew cold and remained so until the serial killer Theodore Robert "Ted" Bundy came into the spotlight in the 1970s. A photograph of Bundy is posted below this case summary. He was convicted of several murders and is suspected in scores more, including in the disappearances of Nancy Baird, Lynette Culver, Julie Cunningham, Susan Curtis, Georgeann Hawkins, Vicki Hollar, Rita Jolly, Debra Kent, Donna Manson, Denise Oliverson, and Nancy Wilcox. He was executed in Florida in 1989. Bundy lived only blocks from Burr's home at the time of her disappearance, and he apparently knew her, though accounts differ as to how well they were acquainted. He was only fourteen years old when she disappeared and was not considered a suspect in his case until his killings came to light over fifteen years later. It is worth noting that Bundy confessed to many murders he had not been charged with, he denied involvement in Burr's presumed abduction. Nonetheless, many people believe she was his first victim.

Burr was about to begin the third grade at Grant Elementary School when she vanished. She is described as an intelligent and artistically talented but shy child. Her case remains unsolved.

Above: Bundy, circa 1980s