Under the Bridge ////// 828 | Forensic Files

n [Music] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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[Music] crime I don't without [Music] [Music] without in 1970 more than a half century ago
15-year-old old marily Bert set out to do something that kids did most days back then walk
home she likely thought nothing of it as she set out to walk the two miles other
than to shudder at the cold it was February in Littleton Colorado at that time of year the
temperatures can be dangerous for Mar's walk home it was dark and it was cold and that is why
perhaps marily might have been open to the idea of accepting a ride but the dark outside was nothing
compared to the dark traveling next to her in whatever vehicle she may have entered merily was last seen on the side
of the road talking to the driver of a vehicle and then she was gone her body was found the next day to
this day the driver of that vehicle has never been found who killed marily Burke this is true crime
[Music] garage marily Ruth Burke was born January 28th 195 5 to parents Nathan Allen Bert and his wife Sher marily had
two older brothers Alan Bert Jr and her other older brother Raymond marily grew up in Littleton Colorado which had a
population of about 26,000 people in 1970 it was a nice small town outside of Denver but Mar's family they weren't the
farming type or the blue collar family the berts owned a number of car dealers ships in the Denver area and were very
well to do financially her father Allan was the VP in general manager of Bert Chevrolet in Englewood which was owned
by his father Nathan mily's Granddad and grandma Mr and Mrs Nate Bert lived in Anglewood and her mom Sherry's parents
last name Booth lived in Middleton marily Bert was about as normal of a kid as you can find she was a ninth grader
at go Middle School a b student a member of the student council and very popular
marily was very pretty she was 110 lbs with blonde hair and a winning smile she was athletic too excelling in both
ballet and tap dancing and she loved swimming and Diving and was an avid water skier and was on a gymnastics team
as well it's been reported that her lifelong goal was to join a ballet troop in New York City for now in ninth grade
she was happy going to school cheering hanging out with friends and pursuing all of her Hobbies on the last day of
her life marle was excited to cheer at the middle school basketball game she wore her green and gold cheerleading
uniform emblazened with a large G on the sweater front and her name merily in cursive embroidered on the back she also
met with her guidance counselor about selecting her classes for her first year of high school in the fall of
1971 she planned to try out for the High School cheer team and she was excited for the next chapter of her life so
let's get into the timeline of this case we're going to start in February 26 1970
this is a Thursday evening we have 15-year-old marily who was scheduled to cheer at the basketball game at her
school Goddard Middle School we don't have any reports about the basketball game or what went down there marily
presumably cheered happily with her Squad and everything was a normal evening after the game marily and her
friend Cheryl cook they decided to walk to Cheryl's home she lives nearby close to the school merily called her mother
or called the house and left a message and there's varying reports on this message and we'll get back to it but the
the what we do know about this message or the phone call home Captain is that somehow her location got Lost in
Translation because she needs a ride home her ride never shows up now what we do know is that her mother actually set
out in her vehicle and drove to marily school that evening where she had picked up her daughter plenty of times before
this night but on this night merily wasn't there she wasn't standing out front and she never walked out of the
building so Mom is puzzled she's sitting in her vehicle engine on and she probably got annoyed and we do know that
she went inside she went inside looking for her daughter marily was not at the school there were only a couple of
custodians left in the building cleaning up none of them had seen marily since the end of the game so she's puzzled
she's concerned and she decides to to return home but she's going to drive slowly because she's looking for her
daughter expecting to see her walking making her way home she doesn't see her and in fact Merit never came home so
later that night frantic mom called around to mily's friends this is when she learned that marily had been at her
friend's house this is Cheryl cook but she had left to walk home hours prior she set out to walk the estimated 2
miles to The Bert home located at 30 Wedge Way and she's on foot it's hard to imagine
the Bert's Panic as they called the Arapaho County Sheriff's Office to report merily missing it was 3 and a
half hours since marily had last been seen so if I'm getting this right after the game marily heads to her friend's
house instead of waiting for her mother to pick her up police searched for marily immediately throughout the the
night and it didn't take long before there was news the nude body of a blonde female teen was found on Friday around 1
p.m. this is about 18 hours after police were called a Jefferson County road crew
worker saw the crumpled form partially submerged in Deer Creek and radioed the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office they
had found a dead girl she lay under a bridge in Deer Creek Canyon this is 1 and 1/2 miles west of Philipsburg and 6
miles from her home this was not one of those High overpass type Bridges this was a one lane Scenic country type
bridge over a stream crime scene photos show police officers standing on the bridge looking down into the creek where
merily was found half in the water half on the Rocks she was dumped off of the low bridge likely from a vehicle stopped
on the roadway the other side of the roadway was Abed by a rocky Hillside her clothing was nowhere to be found all of
the following items are missing and was missing from this horrific scene a green
pullover sweater with a large gold G on the front and the numeral 70 on the sleeve with merily embroidered on the
back a green and gold pleated skirt a white blouse a dark nylon windbreaker and white sneakers now there is no
mention of these items in the missing list but we have to assume that marily was also wearing socks and
undergarments also not located was her book bag and the three textbooks that she had been carrying that day police
officers were dispatched to comb the area looking for these items or any other Clues to what happened to marily a
Denver police helicopter was sent up on Saturday to fly over this area where they found the girl looking for or the
bright colored clothing the book bag or anything suspicious mily's personal items have never been found well if
you're a law enforcement I think you have to then look at the scene where merly is at and say well this is The
Dumping Ground And by by surveilling the rest of the area you're looking for these items to see if these items were
discarded of too I think This lends itself to the idea because we know she wasn't walking 6
miles away from her home so the crime probably took place somewhere else possibly in a vehicle or a house and
then she was discarded here Jefferson County coroner Ken Renee revealed to the media that Mar's cause of death was
strangulation what was not revealed at the time was that marily was found with the murder weapon still attached to her
this is a 10-ft length of sturdy rope that was wrapped around her neck it had been used to strangle her but before she
was strangled she had been immobilized by a single Blow To The Head was something very heavy it left bruising
and abrasion and Trauma to her head but did not fracture the skull so the blow would likely not have killed her but was
believed likely to have knocked her out close inspection of the body detected wood pieces among marly's fingers and
metal shavings in her hair these shavings were described to a reporter for The Denver Post as similar to those
found on the floor of a machine shop the coroner also told the media that there was evidence that marily had been
sexually assaulted a sexual assault kit hair samples and fingernail scrapings were collected a funeral for marily was
held on Monday and it's it's hard to contemplate just how somber that must have been marily was full of Life on
Thursday and within 3 days her parents were at her grave site this from The Denver Post blog quote at her funeral at
the First United Methodist Church Reverend Fred Venable described merily as an angel with the proper amount of
Mischief to make her superbly human end quote well and the whole town must have been shook up because of this because at
that time there's a lot of people that walked home from school events or walked home from school to set the stage here a
little the area where merily had gone missing from this is Coline Valley this at the time was only settled
by about like 120 families so there's not a lot of people here right mily's family lived in the Coline Country Club
development in Littleton when news got out that a girl from a respectable family in a high-end area had been
murdered and dumped in Deer Creek Canyon people were shocked horrified and of course devastated when the Jefferson and
Arapaho County Sheriffs requested anyone who had anything any information at all
to please come forward the community called in about 70 tips some of these tips backed up some crucial information
given to police on the night marily disappeared by her own brother Raymond it's a little unclear what exactly
Raymond saw but here is the gist of of it Raymond who was older than marily was driving on South Middlefield Road
heading home right around 650 p.m. on Thursday evening according to the Denver Post blog this road was at the time a
deserted stretch of road bordered by trees on both sides Raymond's car approached and then passed a girl
walking in the same direction that he was going and he saw a truck flash its lights pull over and stop right where
the girl was walking on the side of the road now of course people have questioned why Raymond didn't in the
moment recognize that the girl he saw walking was his sister we have to keep in mind it's dark out he was driving by
probably fairly fast and he saw the girl from the rear she's going in the same direction that he's driving toward their
home he did not see her face and merily reportedly did not typically wear her hair in pigtails so she's wearing
pigtails that day so it didn't occur to him in the moment that the girl walking on the side of the road was his sister
and the whole thing probably happened very quickly he got a flash of the girl and then the truck pulled over and that
was it I think this is a piece of information that's rightful that people question because she would have been
wearing her cheerleading outfit but because he saw her from the backside she would also been been wearing her book
bag which would have basically covered up any distinguishing marks that he would have
seen as far as clothing or or anything that would he would recognize easily correct and keep in mind due to the cold
due to the the time of year she had a a lightweight jacket on over top of that cheerleading outfit this information
though Captain is a really good clue for the police and their investig a captain Stanley Smith
of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office told the Associated Press quote all indications suggest that the girl in
pigtails was merily Burt but I'm guessing he was questioned by law enforcement Raymond was grilled by
police about every detail relating to the location where he saw his sister what do you know about the truck what
did you see about the truck can you describe the driver the sighting was on South Middlefield Road in a rapo county
near the Coline Country Club Raymond told investigators he drove by a man who was driving in the opposite direction
and as he glanced in his rear viiew mirror he saw the girl turned to speak with the man in the truck Raymond was
able to remember some of the truck's physical features but police Never released any
sketches or photos of similar trucks but they did Issue is a request to the public to call in information about this
vehicle described as a pickup or a carry all which I had to look up what a carry
all is that's not a term that we use in my neck of the woods a carry all the best way I can describe it is more like
an outdoor working type of vehicle it is shaped similarly to a pickup truck but it would be I would considered more of
like an easy go something that you would see maintenance workers or landscap papers using to get around for people
that maintain a golf course or something of that nature yeah or like you said this is a this is a town where it's not
heavily populated and we have individuals in this area that are farmers so it's possibly a utility
vehicle that a farmer would use and I would guess that right now there's somebody that's angry saying well why
would the police if he said truck if Raymond said truck why would the police include carry all it just seems to kind
of confuse the matter but we've seen this in plenty of other cases where the police will go out of their way to be
extra vague with the information that they're seeking and be extra vague about the information that they know in part
because you don't want anybody to rationalize away any information a lot of times people have information that
may be important to the investigation that they don't know is important so you be by being extra vague in a way you are
opening up the phone lines and opening it up for more information to come in yeah for example if the eyewitness
thinks the truck was black but possibly could have been dark blue because of the
lighting or because of the weather or whatever their Vision was somewhat obstructed or maybe their memory is a
little vague then police will put out that it it's a black truck or possibly a dark blue truck because they don't want
anybody to eliminate uh calling in a tip on a on a dark blue vehicle and your witness could be misremembering exactly
the general description here meshing with the somewhat vague description given by Raymond was that it was a late
model light colored two-tone pickup truck now Raymond may not have been the only eyewitness because we have another
witness that says that they saw a truck speed away from the area we don't get a great description on if this is the
exact same spot it's just a truck speeding away from the area but also running a stop sign if in fact this
truck is the same right as what the perpetrator was driving I worry given this description that maybe that she may have
been incapacitated that blow to the Head may have already have taken place it seems to me it would be extra risky
running a stop sign and but maybe he ran the stop sign because he was trying to control her and was struggling to do so
I feel like this this truck may be the same one that we are looking for now Raymond was also able to describe the
man that he saw Drive P him he said that the man was white 30 to maybe 40 years old and had dark brown hair with a
receding hairline and long squared off sideburns it's worth mentioning that at least one of the tip also mentioned that
the car had pulled into Middlefield Road at about 650 p.m. which is exactly the time when marilene when merily was seen
near the truck police sought the car and the driver as well although they had no description to guide them so
they're technically looking for two vehicles and asking the public for help with two vehicles but one of the
vehicles a car other than saying that it was a car they have no discrep for it we
don't know if police were ever able to track down this car or of course the driver that went with it the Jefferson
County Sheriff's Office was involved in the investigation because merily was found in their jurisdiction they
dispatched eight investigators to go door to-door canvasing families who lived near the dump site to see if they
had seen anything now note we' already mentioned this is a remote area so the chances of having additional Witnesses
are very slim of course the abduction was believed to have happened in arapo county and that's where merily
lived and you see this a lot of times with older cases we have two jurisdictions working this
investigation arapo County and Jefferson County she lived in arapo her body was found in Jefferson both were heavily
involved in the investigation they assigned about 20 men under the leadership of Inspector d
David tetch to investigate what had happened to marily several investigators were
assigned to talk to everyone merily knew and others were assigned to look into all sex offenders known to police in the
area Englewood Police Department contributed three detectives to the investigation as well running down tips
and looking into similar crimes the arapo sheriff's department worked Around the Clock holding meetings behind closed
doors interrogating Witnesses and bra brainstorming for ideas authorities revealed that they believed whoever
picked up merily in the truck that he was someone she quote knew and trusted this is according to the
sheriff this is because they learned that mily's parents had a strict policy about any of their kids not accepting
rides from strangers so it was felt that merily by all accounts a good girl who followed
the rules would not have ignored her parents' rules but doesn't this become more complex because it's such a small
community so she would know a lot more people and so the the idea of how well you need to know this individual before
you get or before you accept a ride from them well and she's outgoing she's popular and she's in ninth grade right
just that day alone we talked about she was at school she met with a guidance counselor she went to the basketball
game after school she was a cheerleader at the basketball game she went to a friend's
house marily knows a lot of people so this may in some ways May shorten your list or or gives you a nice Theory to be
working I don't think it trims down the possibilities very much to your point now that we have a rough description and
I'm sure law enforcement has more details about this description if I'm law enforcement I'm going and
questioning everybody at that back basketball game to see if anybody saw this individual's vehicle at the
basketball game during the time that she was Cheerleading police concluded that merily knew the guy even if it was just
on the fringes of her Social Circle it could be something as simple as a parent of a friend or a teacher or
an administrator at the school or a coach it could also be somebody that knew somebody that she knew as we
mentioned it was dark and it was cold she may have been more willing to get into a vehicle due to the
circumstances and I I keep saying this that may have been willing to get into the vehicle because we don't know for
certain that she wasn't pulled into a vehicle after talking to the driver she may not have been willing to get into a
vehicle at all but as said it was cold it was dark her books were heavy and the vehicle may have looked looked warm and
the man may have seemed nice and it is possible that she just got in and accepted the
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[Music] all right welcome back I want to publicly apologize for my throat issues
I'm struggling through but we'll we'll make it through Colonel cheers to you cheers to you I I was considering
Calling You by a different name so the listeners would think that uh that there was a stand like a special guest yeah a
not so special guest yeah Captain uh grumpy throat yeah all right Captain fans thank you cheers to you and cheers
to all the people in the back there were several witnesses here captain that saw
a young girl walking okay and as we heard earlier the sheriff is pretty convinced based off of these statements
and what they probably know about the case tying everything together it just seems likely that the girl that
everybody saw was our victim merily Bert now this is due to the fact that some of
these Witnesses saw a girl walking at different portions of her route and all of the portions where somebody reports
seeing somebody walking on the side of the road would have been a route that would have been natural for her to take
from her friend's house back to her home now no one saw her get into the truck but nobody saw her walking after that so
it also seems likely that this truck is what we should be looking for as well right Raymond her brother later said
that when he realized that marily was not home he realized that it was her likely her that he had seen he goes back
to the spot there's there's once they believe her to be missing he and some others go back to the spot where he had
seen the girl talking to the truck no truck and of course no merily is there and there's no sign or indication of
what what took place well like you said we have missing items clothing backpack jacket all those things so they didn't
find any of that at the scene where he believes that she would have got into that truck and considering the sheriff
and police being so adamant that marily was likely picked up by someone she knew
let's go beyond the rule right established by her parents we have to keep in mind as you've already pointed
out this is a smaller Community this was not a major roadway either where she was
last seen South Middlefield Road is a relatively short Connector Road between commercial West BS Avenue and on its
North End the residential club and Niblick Lanes on its South End its span is all basically in and around the golf
course Community now keep in mind though one thing we do know about the description is that whoever was in that
truck was driving a road that led only to and from the golf course residential community and the Coline Country Club
facilities so this is not a place where one would go trolling for victims after dark you wouldn't expect to see anybody
here there would no be there would be no reason for the driver of the truck to be
there unless they lived or worked there yeah or Poss they were driving home and saw her walking maybe went back switched
Vehicles double back to catch up to her within days of Mar's murder the Metropolitan Denver Automobile Dealers
Association announced a $5,000 reward for information about the case now that is a lot of money in 1970 fact I would
like to have $5,000 right now yeah and plenty of tips were called in keeping investigators busy keeping track of all
the tips and running them down was incredibly timeconsuming in 1970 the days before computers and
cellphones on March 6th the arapo authorities released more information this is when we learned that marily had
been found with a 10-ft piece of rope around her neck we don't know a lot about this rope that was used to
strangle the girl no photos of it have been released so we don't know what it looked like we do that the Rope was sent
to the FBI for analysis reportedly they found a black hair on the Rope merily was blonde but at the time hair analysis
was useful only for comparison and even then it was done imperfectly by imperfect humans using microscopes but
like you said the the brother says this could be a pickup track or it could be some kind of utility vehicle that you
would use on a farm or maybe a golf course if I'm law enforcement I'm going to this golf course to say do you have a
vehicle that matches this description because the 10-ft Rope would lend itself to be something that maybe you would
have on a utility vehicle if if your job was maintenance well and you're working
off the theory that she may have known the attacker may have known the killer in even if it's in some weird roundabout
way but smaller community and keep in mind where she is believed to have been picked up it's described by
the people that live and work there that this is a stretch of road that would only be traveled by people that live or
work there and then where she's found underneath this Scenic Bridge right is a location where I I don't think that they
ended up there by accident I think that now I have something I've got to get rid of and
they chose to go to that location meaning this is a location that would be known to the locals all of this is
lining up to be highly suggestive that it was somebody from the area and I'm with you Captain the first
place I'm looking is I want to know who was leaving that Country Club who was leaving that golf course and heading in
the direction that her brother described the truck as going I I have a feeling it
it may have been somebody that was simply leaving that area to go to their home right it's all an opportunity
exactly and and we we've talked about this before with these with a sexual predator and they're all a little
different but keep in mind some of them at the very basic of level they you have
the abilities well so if I'm law enforcement I'm going to that golf course and saying hey do you have a a
vehicle that matches this description and who works here who's members here and do they have any
connection whether it's their daughter is friends with her or they are on the same cheer squad or is there any
connection between any worker there and and Marley but we have the three abilities that we always want to keep in
mind desirability vulnerability and availability right sometimes it only takes one of those for a predator to see
an opportunity regarding this hair that was found on the Rope as said it can only be used for
comparison I wouldn't put a lot of weight into that I what I'm hoping Captain is that we do have some suspects
that were ultimately ruled out in this case I'm hoping that none of them fall into the category of having been ruled
out based off of this hair that may be key to solving it or leading you to the right guy or may have no connection
to the killer at all we also mentioned that the coroner believed that merily was raped we can presume that this meant
that simal fluid was detected and hopefully collected back then the only way this would prove useful was for
blood typing right from a Sean sample the investigators could learn the suspect's blood type but again that was
only helpful for elimination purposes and even then was only able to eliminate those of a different blood type which
seems like not that big of a deal but I think in a small community that could help you also have secretors and
nonsecretors we've talked about that in other cases right and sometimes that can
be useful as well let's talk about the metal shavings for a moment police said they were found in marly's hair we don't
have her clothing right we NE the clothing was never found because my first thought when I when I learned
metal shavings found in the hair I wanted to know was it found on her clothing as well but obviously that is
going to be of no help this could be obviously metal shavings could be on the floor of this
truck yes could be in the truck no doubt about that but it Al it also could suggest that she was moved to another
location before she was eventually tossed over the side of the bridge almost right away arapo County Sheriff
Roy Voit said that they would be looking into whether there was any connection between Merle's death in that of
constance Paris who was killed in March of 1968 Connie Paris was a an 18-year-old
blonde woman who had gotten off of a Tramway bus on March 26th at 9:45 p.m. at Gerard Avenue and
South Broadway in Englewood Englewood police said she was attacked on Little Dry Creek path and killed by
strangulation similar look similar M Mo possibly her body was found on March 31st on the side of the road on West
Canyon Avenue AB budding Bear Creek Park in Southwest Denver according to the greenle Daily Tribune she was nuded and
badly beaten did they find any wood shavings or metal shavings that we don't know what we do know is her clothing was
never found either at first look her murder sounds an awful lot like marly's case and we roughly think that marle was
picked up a little bit before 700 p.m. correct and so one of the things that this kind of reminds me of so if I'm law
enforcement I'm also asking the public was there anybody neighbor wise was any of your neighbors did they have a fire
that night did they have a bonfire that seemed abnormal this this kind of reminds me a little bit of uh Wayne
Williams Lena child murderers mhm remember how the the neighbors would say that you know he'd be burning stuff real
late hours at night because somehow you have to discard these clothing and you could do that by simply hiding it in
your Workshop or you could burn it somewhere yeah the the clothing never being found and how
distinctive it is in one of the Articles having her name on it right seems like somebody would have to do a good deal of
work to make it so that these items are never located because in some cases look
sometimes we have situations where items belonging to a victim are found by people that don't know about the case or
don't know or have any or have any way of knowing that it belonged to a murdered victim them things can just be
tossed on the side of the road your mind going to a serial killer we're sharing a
brain Captain not just a garage we're sharing a brain my mind immediately I'm I started thinking about Ted Bundy
picking picking up a victim striking them in the head strangulation rape dumping the body in a wooded area or
near the woods that's all very Ted Bundy is it also made me think of Harvey kman
who we had talked about with he he actually used a truck in most of his cases and sometimes he was
picking up girls on the side of the road and he lived for a bit in Minnesota lived for a bit in Washington state it's
it's very likely that it's a local but this case mirrors some other cases that we've examined in the past law
enforcement has to spend a lot of time weeding through these call-ins and these tips but we do end up up with a prime
suspect yeah and it's not clear why Captain this seemed to have taken 11 years but let's fast forward Zoom ahead
to 1981 we have police taking a very hard look at a man who became a prime suspect
in this specific case his name Ronald Bloom he had been a volunteer gymnastics instructor at Goddard Middle School who
helped train merily so he's fitting the bill so far now it's absolutely horrifying to think about him working
with young girls because as it turns out bloom had a history of sexual assaults against women and girls dating back to
1955 yeah but that's what these predators do they put themselves around children they put themselves around
people that they want to make victims and back then it worked yeah in 1981 police investigating Mar's case quote
detained him and interrogated him and he gave a sample of his hair so it could be
compared to the hair found on the murder rope the this must not have matched because Bloom was never charged in Mar's
case even though per The Denver Post citing an affidavit during his interview Bloom told investigators that quote the
problem he had with underage girls involved picking them up in Vans and sexually assaulting them end quote those
are his words to police marily was heavily involved in gymnastics we know that and had a meat scheduled for the
very week after she was killed so she would have known this man she would have known Ronald Bloom right the question is
whether she would have gotten into his truck it's pretty clear police thought that it was highly unlikely to be a
coincidence that Ronald Bloom knew arily she might have trusted him and he was a
pedophile and a rapist who victimized girls and victimized women well this hair that they found might have nothing
to do with the crime in 1998 zooming ahead again there was a major reinvestigation of this case at
that point it's 28 years old detectives decided we're going to start all over with fresh eyes but now they had
something to work with this is from The Denver Post in 1998 quote recently the arapo county sheriff's department
submitted old evidence in the case to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for DNA testing the evidence submitted to us
was collected 28 years ago and never submitted to the laboratory said a Pete mang he's the inspector with the CBI the
Rocky Mountain news had details quote the tests are the results of slides collected and preserved during marily
Le's autopsy Tom Henry of the Denver medical examiner office found the slides still in the original sealed envelope
while making one last sweep through the office's files the discovery gave new life into a stalled investigation
analysis of the slide samples determined that they contained sufficient biological material to develop a full
DNA profile of the offender so this is coming from the the Seaman sample we can't say for certain
but that's what would make the most sense right and what we do know is 1998 was the year that codus the national DNA
database of convicted offenders and arrestes this is when that got up and running in every US state but many of
the states had Statewide databases operating before 98 and Colorado fortunately was one of them they
submitted the DNA samples and searching through these databases they were hopeful that find a match they did not
this is short-lived hope for finally solving this case no match was made whoever had slain merily was not in the
database but at least police did have the DNA sample to work with but with his DNA sample now we with technology
catching up we could do some genealogy testing on this DNA sample so the person might not be in codus cuz they might
never have been arrested or their sample has never been collected but you would think that we could do a
genealogy test and some people were willing to give their DNA to police if they had been questioned or looked at or
if they had any involvement in the case at all even being completely innocent so
what we do know is the sheriff's office is on record saying that they've excluded two dozen suspects or excluded
two dozen persons right because some of these people include family members they
did openly say at this time too that like look we had seven maybe 10 suspects that we really
thought could have been the guy we didn't get a hit on any of them and in fact they went so far as to exume a
body of a suspect who had passed to compare the DNA and still no match and then I know what you're wondering here
Captain everybody's wondering investigators would not confirm that one of those men ruled out was Ronald Bloom
uh this is again 1998 I think they were still locked and loaded on this guy even
though the science would ultimately tell them right he's not the guy they could they had a hard time moving off of him
he knew the victim he was he told the police can you imagine you're a detective you're questioning this rapist
pedophile guy yeah and he tells you he he do even hide from it he says I have a problem my problem is picking up girls
and women and women and sexually assaulting them well it's hard for our brain sometimes to wrap around the idea
that there's different spectrums of monsters to think that somebody could kidnap somebody rape them but not be a
murderer doesn't seem doesn't seem to make a lot of sense and this guy is telling you yeah I'm I I'm a bad dude I
I am a monster but I'm not a monster that kills well and we talked about the old pervert Roundup a dozen times maybe
yeah four dozen times on the show I'd love to make a t-shirt about it but I don't think anybody would wear it it
would be confusing the old pervert Roundup Club to see a man sitting there enjoying a salad at the Olive Garden
wearing a pervert Roundup t-shirt right not something that's going to sell well no on Etsy uh shout out to Olive Garden
hash not a sponsor hash love their bread sticks yes here's the thing so while they couldn't
move off of this guy in in all reality just like you were saying here Captain Ronald
Bloom absolute creep he's a creep and he's a rapist but he wasn't Mar's killer we know this based off of a DNA
comparison that did not match it excluded him and then with the with the Roundup a lot of times when because most
of these guys almost all of them are still on parole when they're doing the Roundup so it's pretty easy to to make
phone calls and knock on doors these guys know that they're being looked at and considered in a major case and so 99% of
the time they're extremely Cooperative they don't want to go back to prison they don't want to end up getting
convicted of something they didn't do right so the Roundup does work it's very successful regardless of what funny name
we choose to give it right this is from February 26 2002 so exactly 32 years after marily was killed this is
from the Rocky Mountain news and here's some excerpts today 32 years to the day after one of Arapaho County's most
notorious homicides investigators are making one last push to crack the heartbreaking mystery Witnesses and
suspects are getting older they are dying said investigator Bruce Isaacson this is probably our last
chance marily had been raped in indignity that investigators now say could give them their best evidence for
the past 3 years authorities have been quietly conducting DNA testing quote we now know if we have DNA it's huge it is
great evidence one way or another to include or exclude Isaacson said we don't have to depend on a confession we
can let let science do some speaking end quote what we do know Captain where it sits today or at least the last time
they gave us a good solid update on this the results of the Laboratory test have
ruled out 24 possible suspects as sources of this DNA the people tested included a child molester who knew
merily a and moved to the top of the suspect list after he told authorities he probably had feelings of wanting to
have sex with her the convicted pedophile was identified years ago as the prime suspect in the slangs his DNA
has been tested twice they couldn't move off of this guy so much that they tested
him twice right and of course we know that it did not match authorities racing the clock racing against the clock have
also tested the DNA of two dead men let me say that more of two dead men in one case the man's DNA was on file from an
autopsy and the other case investigators persuaded the suspect's parents to give
samples both men were cleared the majority of the suspects were more than willing to be tested said the
investigator mily's friends and family hop that the DNA will lead investigators to her killer but said the process of
excluding suspects has also brought some peace since the slaying mily's mother Sherry Bert has devoted her time to
working with victims programs particularly Courthouse Inc which provides court-ordered housing for
young girls many of whom are the victims of sexual assault one of the holes is named after marily Bruce Isaacson and
Rick fallstead the Arapaho Sheriff's investigators who were assigned to work Mar's case after the DNA samples were
analyzed their job was to call through the list of 140 men mentioned in the initial reports some were listed as
Witnesses rather than suspects but they all needed to be Revisited by 2002 they had already contacted 100 of the 140
here's a little more from that Rocky Mountain news this was the friend Cheryl cook the friend whose home merily left
the night that she was killed she said that she was pleased to hear that authorities haven't given up on solving
the crime she said that that would be so great for mily's Mom it was just such an
awful awful time I would love for her to be able to know even if the person is dead she went on to say that sometimes
she dreams about the day her friend disappeared adding you are 15 years old your girlfriend leaves your house and
you never see her again everything just kind of changed after that I'm going to be 47 this year she said I think my God
we were 15 look at all the years she didn't get sadly mily's parents have passed away without having any closure
or answers to who did this to their daughter but this is a very solvable case with technology and we were hearing
as late as 2019 here Captain the this is from the investigators from the authorities
working the case saying that it's the the second oldest unsolved case in the area it's it's probably the most
notorious unsolved case from yester year they did go on record saying that the case still draws about a half dozen or
so tips each year in 2021 the arapo County Sheriff's Office undertook yet another big push to
attempt to solve the now 51-year-old case accompanied by a massive increase in the reward money jumping it up to
$30,000 this was funded by donations Sheriff Tyler Brown said the substantial increase in the reward hopefully allows
us to collect more information and bring the suspects in the merrily Burt case to
Justice it is not a Cold Case by any means every year we receive several tips on this case more tips were called in
after the 2021 publicity push but here we are in 2025 today and nothing has been resolved quote there's got to be
someone out there who knows something said mily's nephew Trevor Bert it really seems that if someone knows anything
about Mar's case they would have come forward by now it's been 55 years if anyone had found her cheer uniform or
her book bag or books police would almost certainly have said as much police have said no tip ever LED them to
the truck it remains unidentified the $30,000 reward has gone unclaimed a a case breaking tip seems very unlikely at
this point but luckily as you said Captain we have the DNA of course knowing that they have DNA we all hope
that the sheriff's office is using forensic genealogy to attempt to solve meril's case it seems likely that this
is the only way mily's case will be solved at this point [Music] without want to thank everybody for
joining us here in the garage each and every week we love you hugs and kisses cheers mates and Colonel do we have any
recommended reading for the beautiful listeners this week we are recommending in light of all darkness by New York
Times bestselling author Kim cross this is a fantastic True Crime book paced like a thriller and full of Insider
information this book embeds listeners in one of the most famous true crime stories of Our Generation the kidnapping
of paully class you can find that great title and many more on our recommended page on our website truecrime garage.com
and until next week be good be kind and don't litter [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Under the Bridge ////// 828

Part 1 of 1

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com (http://www.truecrimegarage.com/)

Who murdered cheerleader Marilee Burt? This week in the Garage we examine one of the oldest and maybe one of the coldest cases from Arapahoe County, Colorado. On a chilly winter evening someone kidnapped and murdered 15-year-old Marilee Burt. The killer left her in Deer Creek under a bridge. Her personal items have never been located. If you have any information regarding this case, please contact the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office at 303-795-4711 OR email Coldcase@arapahoegov.com

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the unsolved murder of Marily Burt and ongoing investigations into her case.

Key points

The Disappearance of Marily Burt. 15-year-old Marily Burt goes missing after leaving a friend's house on a cold February night.
Marily's Body is Found. Marily's body is discovered in Deer Creek Canyon, raising alarm in the community.
Eyewitness Account. Marily's brother Raymond sees a girl matching her description talking to a truck driver.
The Search for Merily. Witnesses saw a girl walking, likely Merily. The investigation focuses on a truck.
A Troubling Suspect Emerges. Ronald Bloom, a gymnastics instructor with a history of assaults, becomes a prime suspect.
DNA Testing Revives the Case. In 1998, detectives submit old evidence for DNA testing, hoping for new leads.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She was an angel with the proper amount of mischief.

Reverend Fred Venable at Marily's funeral.

13:51WatchMar 12, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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