Author Rebecca Morris
I’m often asked how I began writing true crime books after a long career in broadcast and print journalism that took me from Portland, Ore. to New York City, and back to the Pacific Northwest.
In 2007 I was free-lancing for The Seattle Times and spent time with Beverly Burr, the mother of an eight-and-a-half year old girl who had disappeared from her Tacoma home in 1961. Part of the article focused on an idea that had circulated for years – that Ann Marie Burr may have been Ted Bundy’s first victim. The article was about that, but more about how families survive loss. After it was published, I realized that while there had been several great books about Ted Bundy, nod investigated if he could have started killing as a teenager. I visited Bev Burr dozens of times over the next year. She died in 2008. I spent three more years finding childhood friends of Ted’s and of Ann’s, family members of the detectives worked so hard to find her, and those who knew Ted Bundy well during his years on Florida’s Death Row. The book is Ted and Ann – The Mystery of a Missing Child and Her Neighbor Ted Bundy. During that process I met bestselling true crime author and novelist Gregg Olsen, and we began talking about working together. We did some self-publishing, including a series called Notorious USA, about infamous crimes in every state. We were both interested in Susan Powell, a former Washington resident who was missing in Utah and began to follow that case closely. When her husband killed himself and their children in February, 2012, we began our book, If I Can’t Have You and have continued to work together on some projects while Gregg continues his fiction and I continue other non-fiction.
That includes my new book for WildBlue Press, A MURDER IN MY HOMETOWN.
Books
Rebecca is the two-time New York Times bestselling author of A Killing in Amish Country – Sex, Betrayal and a Cold Blooded Murder (St. Martin’s, 2016), If I Can’t Have You – Susan Powell, Her Mysterious Disappearance, and the Murder of Her Children (St. Martin’s, 2014), and Bodies Of Evidence and Overkill (Notorious USA, 2013), all with Gregg Olsen. She is also the author of the Amazon bestseller Ted and Ann – The Mystery of a Missing Child and Her Neighbor Ted Bundy, and Bad Apples – Inside the Teacher/Student Sex Scandal Epidemic.
Journalism
A veteran broadcast journalist, Rebecca worked in New York City; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, Washington. Her writing has appeared in People, Entertainment Weekly,The New York Post, NewYork magazine, New York Newsday, the Seattle Times, The Oregonian, and many other publications.
Media Appearances
Rebecca lives in Seattle and appears frequently as a crime expert on Investigation Discovery, Inside Edition, A&E, HLN, LMN, and in other media.
Praise For Rebecca Morris
Ted and Ann: The Mystery of a Missing Child and Her Neighbor Ted Bundy
“An astonishing achievement”– Gregg Olsen, New York Times Bestselling Author
“Fascinating!”– Ann Rule, New York Times Bestselling Author
“A book as chilling as it is compelling and impossible to put down… startling, never-been-told details about Bundy’s childhood…Morris’ deft writing and detailed research will have you reading Ted and Ann well into the night.”– Ginger Adams Otis, Award-winning Investigative Journalist and Author
If I Can’t Have You – Susan Powell, Her Mysterious Disappearance, and the Murder of Her Children (with Gregg Olsen)
“Compelling,”“haunting”– The Salt Lake Tribune
“A powerful narrative of one family’s tragedy.”– Publishers Weekly
“…absorbing and deeply researched …”– The Seattle Times
“An awful, well-told tale…”– The Salt Lake Tribune
A Killing in Amish Country – Sex, Betrayal, and a Cold-Blooded Murder (with Gregg Olsen)
“A stunning account of what happens when the dark side of human nature collides with the gentle and religious world of the Amish”– New York Times bestselling author Linda Castillo
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