OR OR - Rita Jolly, 17, West Linn, 29 June 1973

[Brightchaser47]

Miss Jolly certainly resembles the type of girl Bundy went after, the long dark hair & so forth. Her picture would fit in with all his other known victims.
Apparently he lacked the decency to care about his victims' families even as he faced the electric chair. There are many girls from that time period still missing from areas he was known to have lived in or passed through. Their families will probably never have any idea whether they were his victims or not or what became of their remains.
I think Bundy enjoyed leaving a lot of mystery about just who he killed, how many times he killed & where their remains could be found. It seemed to amuse him knowing that so many questions would remain unanswered after his execution.

It was absolutely a game to him, but I don't think he killed Rita. jmo

 

[Brightchaser47]

Rita's brother has recently said that he thinks it as someone Rita knew and that Rita was likely not taken far.

This area of town and the street she was last seen on, has numerous steep ravens and wooded areas. The area is also winding and in my opinion, would be confusing to navigate your way back to the freeway unless you were familiar with the area. (People still get lost trying to find their way out of my neighborhood if they don't live here and don't use navigation).

I live one street over from where Rita Jolly lived, I am unsure of which house was her house, as I wasn't alive at the time. Most of the houses that are on that street now, were not built in 1973. The area had many fields and still has many ravens.

The street she was last seen on is very close too, although at that time it had more houses on that street than Horton did.

Just wanted to add how difficult I think our town is to navigate for someone who is not familiar with it. This area is filled with many steep hills and wooded areas. The town has 3 exits onto 1-205 and one of those exits it very close to the I-5 interchange.
This town is unique, in that it goes for neighborhoods to rural farmland in a few minutes time. Within just a few minutes of Rita's home is tons of land that is protected from urban growth and still remains undeveloped. There is also the Willamette River on one side of town and the Tualatin River on the other side of town.

Also, from my experience, no one in Rita's hometown of West Linn thinks it was Ted Bundy.

I hope this is helpful - I thought a locals experience of the area would be insightful. We really want answers for the Jolly family.

Thank you all for keeping Rita's case alive over these many years. I am her older sister; I turned 21 just days before she disappeared. We shared a bedroom until we were teenagers. She was a quiet, pensive young person who loved animals. She was an artist and a wonderful writer. She went to the local community college for her senior year of high school, and graduated with her class at West Linn High School in early June, 1973. I offer this information to add some humanity to her memory.

As to Ted Bundy, as I recall, my mother told me that the local detectives managed to get a direct question about Rita through to him before his execution, and his reply was, "No. No more in Oregon."

After her disappearance, our family and other friends, as well as many locals, searched many of the area's woods, though certainly we did not search them all. The gruesomeness of our search hit home with me when we found a dead dog someone had dumped in the woods.

I find myself hopeful that we may someday have some resolution to her disappearance with the advent of DNA: there are so many unidentified bodies. I was just reading about the DNA Doe Project, DNA Doe Project. Perhaps this is her: The Doe Network: 865UFOR, where DNA is listed as "Not available". I've uploaded my DNA to GEDmatch, and have opted in to have it available. I will submit the above Jane Doe case to them.

A possibly related case is the murder of Susan Ann Wickersham, who disappeared on July 11, 1973, from Bend, OR (150 miles away from Rita's home in West Linn), less than 2 weeks after the disappearance of my sister. Her body was found in January, 1976, 5 miles south of Bend. Cold Cases

I believe the comment from BlueRoseBlackLodge paraphrasing one of my brothers is from this FB page James Cole We've all speculated over the years, of course, and there were rumors too. She struggled with the angst that affects so many young people, and it's possible she initially ran away. But her social security number has never had any activity, as far as I know.

If I can help in any way, perhaps by answering any questions, please let me know. We all remain hopeful that we may have an answer to what happened to her someday.

Was Rita in the habit of spending time alone in the woods (sketching, enjoying nature, etc)? Maybe there was a particular spot she liked to go, that was rather secluded and someone she knew followed her or met up with her there and took advantage of her, and she was killed. Or maybe she slipped and fell and was badly injured and wasn't able to get help. jmo

 

[imstilla.grandma]