Park Predators Host or Narrator (23:53)

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Delia d'Ambra (Park Predators Host) (24:58)

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Delia d'Ambra (Park Predators Host) (26:08)

On August 18, 2004, a young couple named Lindsay Cutshaw and Jason Allen were found dead on a remote beach just outside of the town of Jenner, California. Peter King reported for the Los Angeles Times that they'd been working as camp counselors at a Christian camp several hours away, but had taken a few days over the weekend to visit the coast when they were discovered in their sleeping bags. Investigators determined they'd both been shot at close range with a rifle. I'll be diving much more into their case in a future episode, but for right now I want to stay grounded in Leif and Ann's story because the location and basic circumstances of the Jenner beach murders were extremely similar to what had happened to Leif and Ann. The RCMP had to at least look into whether or not Joseph Burgess could be behind those crimes. Police had long suspected that he'd fled Canada and returned to the United States at some point after the radar beach slayings. Because, turns out, in 1977, US President Jimmy Carter granted full amnesty to all citizens who'd evaded the draft in the 1960s, which meant that if Joseph had come home at any point after 1977, he was no longer facing criminal charges for dodging the draft. His record for that specific offense had been expunged, in other words. So really, all he needed to do was lay low, not get arrested again, and he'd stay off Canadian law enforcement's radar. Unfortunately, within a few years of Lindsay and Jason's murders in California, investigators there fell into a similar slump as the RCMP had in Leith and Ann's case. They'd exhausted most leads and couldn't solve it. By 2005, the television program America's Most Wanted had taken interest in both the Radar beach case and the Jenner beach murders and was in the process of producing episodes about them. An RCMP constable told reporter Shane Morrow. That's when his agency really began to take a closer look at a possible connection between Leaf and Ann's murders and the double slaying that had recently occurred in California. He explained that it was hard to deny the uncanny similarities between the two crimes, remarking, quote, you could take our crime scene in Tofino and set it right down in California, end quote. The problem was, it was a long shot. 32 years had passed since the Radar beach murders in 2005, Joseph would have been in his late 50s. So I think the RCMP's logical question was what were the chances he'd strike again, seemingly at random, in northern California after being on the lam for so long? The statistical likelihood was low, but not impossible. So the RCMP moved forward with America's most wanted and created an age progressed image of what Joseph would have looked like as an older man and distributed that when the segment aired. The broadcast sparked renewed interest in Ann and Leif's case as well as Lindsay and Jason's. For a little while, there was rampant speculation Online that the two double murders were definitely connected. But by 2007, authorities in California weren't as convinced. They were open to the possibility that it could be the work of the same killer. But when it came down to it, there just wasn't anything tangible that linked the crimes other than the similarity of their circumstances. Not to mention, the gun used in Lindsey and Jason's case was a.45 caliber Marlin brand rifle, which was a completely different type of weapon than what had been used to kill Ann and Leif. The Los Angeles Times reached out to Joseph's two surviving sisters when their article was published in 2007, and each woman had interesting responses when Asked about their brother, one sister told the news publication she didn't have anything to say about Joseph and was more focused on why the paper was even still talking about him or the Radar beach murders. She suggested that the story was old news and needed to just go away. His other sister said that she was really close with Joseph before He fled the US in the late 1960s. At the time of her interview with the LA Times, she said she still loved him dearly and wanted him to be alive wherever he was. She explained that she didn't like the use of the word caught regarding her brother, but only wished for him to come back home. Neither woman confirmed or denied if Joseph had ever contacted them or their late mother before her death in 2001. A former Canadian investigator who'd originally been assigned Leif in Ann's case told the LA Times in 2007 that he always suspected Joseph had reached out to his family at some point while on the run, but could never prove it to this investigator. It seemed almost impossible that he wouldn't try to contact them for assistance or check in. For that same article, the Times interviewed Anne's father, Jeffrey, who at that point was in his early 90s. His wife Barbara, Ann's mother, had passed away several years prior to that, but he still lived in their home outside of Vancouver. He told reporter Peter King that losing Anne had been very difficult for the entire Durant family and changed everything about their lives. For example, his other daughter had a particularly hard time with it, and family relationships had suffered over the years as a result. Ann's brother eventually died of heart failure, and Ann's mom lived for a long time with regret because she blamed herself for choosing to move the family from South South Africa to Canada in the years prior to the crime. The gist of Jeffrey's explanation to Peter King about the emotions Barbara wrestled with was that his wife felt guilty for unknowingly putting Anne on a trajectory of being in Vancouver, which led her to meet Leaf, and then they'd ended up at Radar Beach. I know it's heartbreaking to think Ann's mom dealt with such tormenting thoughts, but loss and grief do wildly unfair things to people who are left behind and experience trauma like this. Jeffrey went on to explain in his interview that shortly after Ann was murdered, the two of them had disagreed about the people she was hanging out with and the alternative lifestyle choices she was making, but thankfully they'd been able to reconcile before she was ripped from his life. In his old age, he reflected on the fact that the case had never been solved and remarked to Peter King that it was both devastating and astonishing to know that law enforcement had been unable to close it. When Jeffrey gave that interview, he was 93 years old and I imagine probably convinced that his daughter's killer would never be caught. But the universe had different plans. Plans that would come to fruition just two years later.

Park Predators Host or Narrator (32:46)

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Delia d'Ambra (Park Predators Host) (35:02)

Free $60G around 4:30 in the morning on Thursday, July 16, 2009, a sergeant with the Sandoval County Sheriff's Office in New Mexico named Joe Harris and his partner, Teresa Moriarty, were hunkered down inside a cabin in a rural part of the county. They were actively investigating a string of burglaries that had been happening for about six to possibly slightly more than 10 years at homes in the Jemez Mountains. The sheriff's office suspected many of the thefts were being perpetrated by the same man. In most of the cases, the thief had stolen survival supplies, liquor and food from people's pantries, which had earned him the nickname the Cookie Bandit. But in a few instances, he'd stolen firearms and even menaced homeowners. The thefts had become so regular, nearly 200 in total, that law enforcement in Sandoval county had decided to step up their efforts to find him. So they sent Joe and Teresa undercover to try and catch the elusive bandit once and for all. Prior attempts to identify him through surveillance photos and fingerprint collection had failed, so putting officers in some of the cabins in plain clothes was the department's next logical move. As Joe and Teresa sat and waited for trouble to arrive, they fell asleep in the home they were staking out, but were suddenly awakened to the sound of a man breaking into one of the cabin's windows. Joe and Teresa jumped into action, and when the suspect got inside, they confronted him and tried to place him into handcuffs. But after about 20 to 30 minutes of him fighting against them, gunfire erupted. In the ensuing blur of scuffling and muzzle flashes, Joe's partner Teresa heard him call out to her to shoot the suspect. And that's when she realized Joe had been hit in the torso. When the dust finally settled, both Joe and the unknown man who'd broken into the cabin were dead. Turns out the perpetrator had somehow managed to get a.357 revolver out of the back of his pants and fired it at Joe. In his final moments, Joe had shot his service weapon twice and killed the intruder. Teresa was unharmed, but very stunned. Emergency responders arrived to the cabin and rushed 46 year old Joe to a hospital in Albuquerque. But his prognosis was Grimm. He was officially pronounced dead. At 6:45am a few hours after the shootout, the sheriff's office held a press conference and released the basic details of what happened and announced that Joe was the first officer from their department to be killed in the line of duty since 1903, when the county became a county. So it was truly a tragic and historic loss for everyone. In the aftermath of the incident, the sheriff's office called in the New Mexico State Police to handle the investigation. And one of their first actions was to determine who exactly the perpetrator was. They transported the man's body to the office of the medical examiner to make copies of his fingerprints and, I imagine, also conduct an autopsy. The prints were sent off to the FBI for analysis and comparison, but the results didn't come back right away. Meanwhile, at the crime scene, state agents collected three handguns as evidence and worked to determine who each of the weapons belonged to. I think it's safe to assume one was likely Joe's, the other was possibly Teresa's, and the third belonged to the burglar. But because this was an officer involved shooting, the state police were making sure they did everything by the book. And so they seized all of the firearms as evidence. In the meantime, Joe's loved ones prepared to lay him to rest in the town of Rio Rancho, and a memorial fund was set up in his honor. I want to pause here for just a beat because I know we've covered a lot of ground, but Joe Harris sacrifice in confronting the man inside the cabin that fateful morning should not be overlooked. He did his job bravely and heroically. A woman who knew his family well told the press that Joe had made it his mission to catch the burglar in the Jemez Mountains who'd been terrifying people for so long because it's just the kind of determined protector he was. He'd only been working for the Sandoval County Sheriff's Office for about six and a half years when he was killed. But before becoming a deputy with that agency, he'd spent two decades as a police officer for the city of Rio Rancho and had an impressive law enforcement career to show for it. He was dedicated to serving in area schools and spearheading community safety programs which benefited kids and adults. One area he shined bright in was working alongside his K9 Harley and visiting children with disabilities. Outside of his job, he ran a private security business and did concealed carry instruction classes. Above all, though, he was a dedicated dad and husband to his wife, Tanya, two adult sons, two adult daughters, and one young daughter who all loved him deeply. His family wrote in his obituary how passionate he was about his family, faith and community. They described him as a legend and an irreplaceable lover of God and people. Also, according to his obituary, he and his partner, Teresa Moriarty, considered each other brother and sister who'd been Separated at birth, she'd retired from the New York Police Department and somehow entered Joe's life, which resulted in him asking her to be his partner at the sheriff's office. Over time, they eventually discovered they had many things in common. Teresa, Joe's family, and thousands of others mourned him at his memorial Service on Tuesday, July 21. It was a public event that celebrated his life and the many ways he would be missed by his loved ones and community. Around that same time, results from the fingerprint comparison the FBI had done on his killer came in, and the findings confirmed that the murderer was 62 year old Joseph Henry Burgess, the same man who'd been at the center of the RCMP's double murder investigation for more than three decades. The FBI had managed to track down copies of fingerprints from evidence that was already on file in the Radar beach case and realized that Joseph had a long, outstanding warrant for his arrest in Canada for murder. After Joseph was formally identified, the RCMP began to wrap up its investigation into Leif and Ann's murders. There was paperwork that had to be done and ongoing communication with officials in New Mexico. But for the most part, it was determined that Joseph was responsible for the infamous double murder at Radar Beach. However, there would be no prosecution since he was dead. A big part of the RCMP's task to close the case was to track down Leif and Ann's surviving family members. It had been more than 37 years, and making those notifications was not going to be easy, especially when the reality was Joseph would never see the inside of a courtroom. It's unclear from the source material when or how law enforcement connected with Leaf's family, but eventually word of Joseph's death got to Ann's father, Jeffrey, who was in his mid-90s and seemingly still living in Vancouver. Jo Harris, widow Tanya spoke with Jeffrey over the phone about a week after her husband's murder, and they bonded in a very touching way. She wanted to make sure Jeffrey knew that Joe had avenged Ann's death, and Jeffrey thanked her for Joe's service in eliminating the man who'd killed his daughter so many years earlier. He told Tonya that the pain of losing a loved one in such a violent way would likely never go away. But he believed she was a strong person who would remain strong for her and Joe's children. A few years after that phone call, Jeffrey passed away. People who owned several of the cabins Joseph Burgess had burglarized in New Mexico over the years told the Albuquerque Journal that they always suspected the cookie Bandit was a man who had some sort of survival training and most likely a violent past. Over the years, various residents had bumped into him or found him in their homes and gotten bad vibes. They described him as a reclusive, dangerous and bold individual. They suspected he was likely on the run for something, but never knew what. Interestingly, Jo Harris wife Tanya told Koat News that even though her husband didn't know at the time of his murder who Joseph Burgess was or that he and the Cookie Bandit were one and the same, Joe had an unexplainable feeling deep down in his gut that whoever the Cookie Bandit was, they were bad news and needed to be taken off the streets. Tonya explained Joe's apparent sixth sense to Koat like this, quote, people kept telling him, you know, why are you going after this guy? He steals groceries and why are you trying so hard? And he kept saying, I'm going to get him. There's something about this guy, he needs to be gotten. There's something about him. And he was right, end quote. A remark Joe's partner Teresa made to Koat News after his death that I found myself thinking about a lot had to do with how she felt when she and Joe realized the Cookie Bandit had entered the cabin they were staking out. She said, quote, I believe the person who came into that cabin was evil, an evil entity. We could feel it when he came in, end quote. Unfortunately, because Teresa passed away in 2014, I can't ask her exactly what she meant by that statement. It feels self explanatory. And perhaps in some ways, maybe it is the perfect way to describe the aura Joseph Burgess carried around with him. I mean, the man was for sure a serial killer. And it's almost certain that he committed other violent crimes while he was on the run for nearly 40 years. According to more reporting by Koat and the Sacramento Bee, the gun he used to kill Joe Harris was later determined to belong to a 50 year old man named David Ely, who'd been reported missing in the Jemez Mountains in 2006. In August 2009, nearly a month after Joe Harris was killed, David's remains were discovered at a campsite in the mountains and positively identified through dental records. An autopsy later concluded he'd been shot in his torso. His manner of death was ruled as a homicide, and Joseph Burgess is considered the prime suspect. Unfortunately, though, we'll truly never know more than that because Joseph is deceased and can't be interviewed. Upon learning that, David was no longer considered a missing person, but rather a murder victim. His family released a statement that said, quote, david was a wonderful son, brother and uncle, and a devoted family member. We loved him and we miss him. We grieve for Sergeant Joe Harris family. We appreciate the work of the authorities to bring the case to resolution. End quote. Additional coverage by NBC News stated that after Joseph's death death authorities from several different states got in touch with New Mexico investigators inquiring about him and his known movements. Law enforcement believed he may have kept a diary with people's names in it that he'd come across during his nomadic life, and they wanted to compare that list with known cold cases. The Albuquerque Journal also reported that officers in New Mexico took to the woods after Joseph's death to try and locate a hideout he was suspected of staying at. They wanted to recover items he'd stolen from cabin owners and search for other possible firearms he'd used in crimes. Whether or not they found that hideout is unclear from the available source material. But speaking of unresolved questions, I know a question many of you probably have for me is, wait, what about Lindsay Cutshaw and Jason Allen's unsolved murders in California? Was Joseph Burgess responsible for those, too? The answer is no. He was posthumously cleared in that case. And you'll find out exactly why next week when I cover their story right here on the Park Predators feed. Park Predators is an Audio Chuck production. You can view a list of all the source material for this episode on our website parkpredators.com and you can also follow park predators on Instagram arcpredators. I think Chuck would approve.

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