Rita JollyOn June 29, 1973, teenager Rita Jolly left her West Linn, Oregon home to take a walk alone during the early evening hours. She never returned to her family. Although numerous sightings of Jolly were made in the aftermath of her disappearance, but her whereabouts are unknown. There were several suspects investigated by police, including notorious serial killer Ted Bundy.
On the evening of June 29, 1973, 17-year-old Rita Jolly decided to take a late night walk at around 7:15pm, something that was normal which she did often. Rita took no money, extra clothing, or personal effects with her when she left her West Linn home. The last thing she did, was smile to her parents before she walked away.
When she failed to return home, her parents and siblings grew worried for her safety, and after waiting in hope that she might return later than planned, they started to think something bad might have happened. They reported her missing to Clackamas County law enforcement, who began a search for the teenager, suspecting she might have stayed with friends.
The first assumption was the Rita had run away from home. However, her parents assured police that although their daughter had some personal difficulties growing up, she was happy and content at home. She had no reason to run away, her parents insisted. In the knowledge they were now searching for a potentially vulnerable and underage girl, police set about looking for anyone who had might have witnessed Rita Jolly after she left home.
Born on December 6, 1955, Rita Lorraine Jolly was the youngest child of Donald and Mary Elizabeth Jolly, who lived in West Linn, Oregon, where Rita grew up with her two brothers and sister Jill Elaine. A creative personality, Rita enjoyed spending her time after school writing poetry, reading as well as drawing and painting.
Rita’s parents were passionate about education, and actively encouraged their children to pursue their talents, keeping creativity and critical thinking as important priorities in their upbringing. Considered liberal, especially, for the time, the Jolly’s wanted their children to be able to make independent decisions, and work their way through problems.
Having met at the University of Minnesota, Donald and Mary Elizabeth later opened up a law office together, with Donald pursuing a career as an attorney, worked closely with his wife, who was employed as his legal secretary. Growing up, Rita showed signs of being autistic, however her family never got a diagnosis or any support.
Because of this, she struggled from a young age with various things, including regulating her emotions, and was considered a sensitive child. The Jolly’s decided to reach out to a child psychologist to get some help, however she continued to struggle at school and was often bullied by other kids for being considered different.
As a result she found it difficult to make friends, suffered from peer pressure and found herself trying to catch up to her classmates in lessons. Despite these setbacks and challenges, Rita showed an interest in nature and animals, and immersed herself in reading, writing poetry and creating art.
Rita Jolly was described as a young Caucasian female, 5ft 6in, 130 pounds, with light brown hair, hazel eyes, and was last seen wearing a brown Pendleton shirt, blue jeans or army fatigue pants, and low-cut blue sneakers with buckskin heels. Her parents told detectives Rita had previously fractured her lower left leg and the injury didn’t heal properly, and as a result, she walked with an uneven gait.
Some witnesses did come forward to report last seeing Rita at around 8:30pm to 9:30pm in the Robinwood area, or near Sunset Ave. Another report said Rita was also seen on a main street of Oregon City near the Oregon City Arch bridge at 9:30 pm. Two men reported having tried to pick up a girl who looked like Rita, however, the men did not leave their names, and eventually this was proved not to be Rita Jolly.
Police strongly suspected foul play was the reason for Rita’s disappearance. After exploring all potential avenues, there were no further leads in the case, despite police investigating five alleged possible suspects, none of whom were charged with her abduction. In the years since her murder, a popular suspect was put forward who might have been responsible.
After receiving two death sentences for the murder of Kimberly Leach and the Chi Omega killings, Ted Bundy had been sent to Florida’s death where he continued to protest his innocence in the crimes for which he had been convicted. However, many in law enforcement suspected Bundy was a serial killer, who had claimed many more victims.
He was a prime suspect in eight murders in Washington, which included the disappearances of Lynda Ann Healy, Donna Manson, Susan Rancourt, Roberta Parks, Brenda Ball, Georgeann Hawkins, Janice Ott and Denise Naslund. Bundy was also believed to be responsible for a series of missing women in Utah between 1975 and 1976.
These included five women, some of whom were found dead and others who vanished and were never seen again, such as Nancy Wilcox, Melissa Smith, Laura Aime, Debra Kent and Susan Curtis. There were also unsolved crimes in Oregon, Idaho and Colorado for which investigators wanted to question Bundy.
In his confessions shortly before his execution, Ted Bundy told detectives about previously unconfirmed murders he had committed. In his last hours, he admitted to as many as thirty-seven murders, including two unidentified murders in Oregon. These were believed to have been the disappearances of Vicki Lynn Hollar and Rita Jolly.
24-year-old Hollar went missing from Eugene on August 20, 1973, just under a month before Jolly vanished. However, detectives from Oregon never got the opportunity to question Bundy over the two Oregon cases, and his involvement was never ascertained. A third potential Oregon victim was Suzanne Rae Justis, aged 23, who was last seen in Portland on November 5, 1973.
In his interviews with agents from the FBI Behavioral Science Unit, Bundy maintained that he did not begin killing until early 1975. Before that, he stated that he made the progression from a peeping tom, to a stalker, to attacking women and then running away, before he finally started to commit home invasions, such as the brutal attack against Karen Sparks, considered to be his first victim, and one of the few to survive.
Despite insisting that he committed no crimes before 1974, Ted Bundy is a suspect in numerous other crimes, beginning with the 1961 abduction of Ann Marie Burr, who some suspect was his first victim when he was a teenager. Despite the many theories of law enforcement, Bundy’s Oregon victims remain unidentified.
The Jolly family have received no word on the whereabouts of Rita, and never learned what happened to their daughter. Her sister Jill Elaine said, “…the truth is that we really don’t know what happened to her. We all have theories. Our dad thought she had called several times, mostly just silence on the phone but once he said that he heard her voice, “Mom? Mom?”, then “Dad?”, then a click on the phone hanging up.”
“Could she have gotten involved in a cult or some other situation where it was hard to leave? I find myself wondering how folks can help with solving the mystery of what happened to Rita. After 50 years, I don’t think it’s likely that we will have answers before all of us who knew her are gone from this earth…”
“The advent of DNA gave us so much hope! But the number of unidentified bodies and the expense & difficulty of the tests has been discouraging. It’s not a quick fix. Nonetheless, perhaps someday she will be one of the humans who are ‘given their name back’.” After more than 50 years without answers, the Jilly family still hold some measure of hope that one day they ill learn the truth.
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