Joseph Henry Burgess Killed in New Mexico

by Alyzee | July 22, 2009 at 02:12 pm

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Joseph Henry Burgess, prime suspect in the murder of a young couple of students in 1972, was killed in a shootout with the police four decades later in New Mexico, according to The Province.

The late Burgess was believed to have murdered a young couple in their sleep on a Tofino beach, leaving behind a fingerprint police later found to be his. Burgess' motivations for the murder appear to have been inspired by his religious zeal:

Joseph Henry Burgess could have passed for a street preacher. Lean, with shaggy hair and a beard, he ended many of his sentences with the word “amen.”

Burgess is remembered as a dogmatic 'Jesus Freak' by his community on the island:

He did, in fact, know his Bible; he'd attended a Jesuit college in New Jersey and had occasionally taught religion classes.

Leif Carlsson, an and Ann Durrant were an umarried couple sharing a tent, a fact which seems to have been a serious religious transgression to Burgess. Police believe he killed the couple with a 0.22-calibre rifle in their sleep.

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