The Disappearance of Christopher Bird and the Murder of George Long, Part One
George Long, and Chris Bird
July 1984: Chris Bird’s disappearance
Donna Bird was concerned that her husband had not returned. He was supposed to come home on Sunday from his camping trip to the mountains, but now it was Monday morning, and he still wasn’t back. Her parents were moving, and this was the day of the move. He had committed to help, but he was nowhere to be found. Something, she had decided, was terribly wrong. Chris was the kind of guy that was generous with his time... responsible... reliable. So where was he?
He had left 4 days prior on Thursday, July 26, 1984, with a friend of his, Richard Brunt, who went by Dick. They were going on a camping trip to the White Mountains in New Hampshire, which was about 2 hours away from where Chris and Donna lived.
Dick Brunt was married and had a son, but he was estranged from his family at the moment, and was living at a place called DQ Stables in a tack room. Dick, who was a teacher and the principal for a private religious school, had fewer responsibilities to the school since it was July, so he was working at the stables as a “caretaker” for the summer. Dick said that Chris had “just been at the stable” because he wanted to borrow a ladder. Dick told Donna he would drop it off the next day.
Chris didn’t come home on Sunday night, and Donna’s worries only grew.
In addition to missing his commitment on Monday to help with the move, Chris had also missed work on Sunday evening. He worked part-time during the summer at a halfway house, and he had a shift on Sunday. He didn’t show, and he didn’t call out.
Donna reported him missing to the Haverhill, Massachusetts, police department. She also reported him missing to the Windham, New Hampshire, police department, because that was the location of DQ Stables, and, according to Dick, the last known place that Chris had been seen.
On Tuesday, Haverhill PD issued an all-points bulletin for both Chris and his vehicle—a 1973 brown Mercury Comet.
Chris’s best friend, Brian, and Donna went to Windham and brought a picture of him. They described him to people—6 foot tall, 175 to 180 pounds, blue eyes, brown hair, and a full coarse beard. Though it’s unclear who provided this description, Donna explained that he was last seen wearing a yellow, short-sleeved jersey with black stripes on the sleeves, blue jeans and white high-top sneakers. They stopped by all the shops and businesses near DQ Stables and asked if anyone had seen him. They kept a lookout for Chris’s car, driving up and down the side roads of Windham, but they didn’t find it.
Wednesday, Donna spoke to the Haverhill Gazette, and on Thursday morning, the story broke to the public. Donna stressed to the reporter, “If he were to leave me, he would have left a note. It’s so unlike him [to have missed his commitments]. He’s one that makes a schedule and sticks to it.”
Discovery of Chris’s vehicle
On Friday came the biggest clue in the case.
At 4:30PM, Methuen police found Chris’s Mercury Comet. It was parked at The Methuen Mall. The car had no apparent damage. Its doors were locked. The only trouble was that either one or both of the rear tires were flat—it has been reported both ways.
When the family got the news, they all headed to the mall to show Chris’s picture to customers and employees, asking if anyone had seen him.
At first, Donna thought that the flat tire or tires might have indicated that Chris pulled into the mall parking lot to try and get some help from someone. But then, they reinflated the tires and discovered that they held air just fine, which suggested that they had been manually deflated by the tires’ air valves.
The family brought the spare keys and had immediate access to the Comet. The police had not considered it an important element to preserve forensically. Donna later recalled, in speaking with the Boston Globe, “I called both police stations, and asked, ‘Well, what do I do with the car?’ They said, ‘We don’t want it,’ so I went and picked up the car.” It started up fine, and she drove it home to Haverhill.
A big discovery
Around the time they had returned, Chris has been missing for a week, and his car had been discovered abandoned at the mall, and the cops had just made another big discovery.
They had searched Chris’s locker at the Haverhill YMCA, where he regularly worked out, and discovered some letters. The letters were addressed to Chris and they were written by Dick Brunt. Though little has been said of the contents of the letters—nothing from the police themselves—Donna spoke to the Boston Globe and said the cops told her that they “read like love letters.” Dick, it seems, was expressing his feelings to Chris in writing. They did not say whether they had found any of Chris’s own writing, or whether what they recovered suggested anything about Chris’s feelings toward Dick.
Though it was not reported until much later, it’s estimated that around this same time, police contacted Donna to have a closer look at Chris’s vehicle. They dusted it for fingerprints. They searched it for evidence. And they found something big—ropes in the trunk with “some blood on them.” Donna later said, “Luckily I had not gone in the trunk,” which suggests that the ropes were there when the car was abandoned at Methuen Mall. It’s unknown who the ropes belong to or whose blood is on them.
And then on August 23rd, 4 weeks after Chris’s disappearance, a headline hit the Haverhill Gazette that got everyone’s attention — “Ex-principal did time for slaying.” Dick Brunt had either resigned or was fired from his job at New Life Christian Academy. And the timing of his removal coincided with two other things—the disappearance of Chris Bird and the revelation that he was a convicted killer. And his victim? His partner, George P. Long, with whom he had been in a 4-year-long romantic relationship.
George Long and Richard Brunt
They met in 1971 on the beach in Florida when Dick was 27 and George was 25. They soon began a relationship.
Dick was born in Ashland, New Hampshire, and he went to a college called Plymouth State University, just 10 minutes from his hometown, in center of the state, near the White Mountains. He graduated in 1966 with a bachelor’s degree in education. He taught for a short time in Derry, New Hampshire, at Pinkerton Academy, but soon made his way to Florida, where he pursued a master’s degree.
George was born in Camden, New Jersey, a city outside of Philadelphia, and he grew up there. Though his mom and his dad both lived to old age and lived in the same area, he was raised by his paternal aunt Margaret and her husband Edward, calling his adoptive mother “Aunt Mart,” and she called him “Georgie.”
George was 5 foot 6 inches and slender—weighing about 125 pounds. He had brown eyes and red hair. He drove a new dark blue 1973 Volkswagen bug and carried a big green purse that often-contained makeup and costume jewelry—and by the time that he was 25, he was openly gay. At this point, he lived not far from his adoptive parents in southern Florida, and he was a well-loved member of the gay community. His Aunt Mart called him “gregarious” and “friendly with a lot of people.”
George and Dick lived in a series of houses and apartment, even moving together to New Hampshire over a winter, and then returning to Florida. Dick bought a house and George helped him renovate it. He sold it, and then he bought another one.
Through this series of moves, Dick was a full-time teacher who taught business at Carol City High School in Miami Gardens, and on some nights and weekends worked at the Riverland Athletic Club. It was a hang-out spot for the gay community. It was part-gym, part-bar, part-dance club. George, too, was a part-time employee of Riverland, filling in as needed—as an attendant, cleaner, bartender... he even put on shows.
Though some of his friends from high school in New Jersey knew that he was gay, he did not come out to his adoptive parents until 1972, when George was 26 years old. He explained to them that he and Dick Brunt were in a relationship, and he was going to move in with him.
The murder of George P. Long
It was New Year’s Eve—December 31st, 1974—and George was putting on a show. He was tending bar at the Riverland Athletic Club, and he had changed into his costume for the evening. He was the “New Year’s Baby.” Both Dick and George were on the clock—they had some work responsibilities—from 6:00PM to 2:00AM. Dick, people noticed, was even more quiet and withdrawn than normal this evening.
There had been some tension that December. A man, new to town, had caught George’s eye. His name was James Courtwright. George had expressed to his friends and to his Aunt Mart that he was growing weary of Dick’s possessive nature. George may have been worried that Dick would physically hurt him, as he had bought a gun—a .38 revolver—in early December.
On Monday, December 30th, things reached a fever pitch. James Courtwright came over to the house and spoke to Dick with George. It was tense. James later said, “there was a lot of hostility and animosity directed towards both of us.”
Leading up to the party, George had been telling people that he was making some changes. He was taking the new year as an opportunity to turn the page and start a new chapter of his life. He had already confessed to his adoptive mother that he was going to be living with somebody else—that somebody was James. Everything was a mess, but starting January 1st, he was going to begin putting things in order.
*******
Continue George’s story on Murder, She Told podcast.
Did you know George?
George’s case doesn’t exist anywhere online. The only record of him on the internet is on FindaGrave, which just provides basic biographic details—when he was born, when he died, and an image of the tomb where he was interred. He deserves to be more than a footnote in Chris Bird’s story.
We worked hard to try and unearth details about his life—to more photos of George. If you knew him or were part of the community at Riverland Atheltic Club in Plantation, FL around 1974, I would love to hear from you. Please email me at hello@murdershetold.com.
Part 2 will be released on 4/21
If you have any information on the disappearance of Chris Bird, please contact the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit at (603) 271-3658 or email coldcaseunit@dos.nh.gov.
Continue Chris and George’s stories: Listen to the podcast episode. This text has been adapted from the Murder, She Told podcast episode, The Disappearance of Christopher Bird, Part One. To hear their full stories, find Murder, She Told on your favorite podcast platform or listen on the player at the top of the page.
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George Long, 1965 yearbook, graduation photo, edited by Murder, She Told
George Long, gravestone (findagrave.com)
Elsie Conver, George's mother, gravestone (findagrave.com)
George Long, likely location of his tomb at Harleigh Cemetery (Google Maps)
Chris Bird, ~1976, Haverhill HS yearbook photo (ancestry.com)
Chris Bird, ~1976, Haverhill HS yearbook photo (ancestry.com)
Chris Bird, ~1980, top left, Fitchburg State College yearbook photo, Russian club (ancestry.com)
Chris Bird, ~1980, top row, fifth from right, Fitchburg State yearbook photo, Sigma Upsilon Fraternity
Chris Bird, ~1980, at Fitchburg State graduation, with Donna McGarigal (Leslye Z.)
Chris Bird, ~1984, family party (Leslye Z.)
Chris Bird, ~1984, teaching picture at Haverhill Alternative School (ancestry.com)
Chris Bird (Haverhill Gazette)
Chris Bird, ~1984, with family, Chris, Albert, Greg, Leslye, Dolores (Leslye Z.)
Richard Brunt, ~1968 Plymouth State yearbook (Boston Globe)
Richard Brunt, ~1968, first year teaching (ancestry.com)
Chris Bird’s car was a 1973 Mercury Comet, this is an example (cargurus.com)
Crime scene, Chris's Mercury Comet (Haverhill Gazette)
DQ Stables, Windham, NH ~1984
DQ Stables, Windham, NH ~1984
7 Castle Hill Road, Windham, NH, Dick and Hannelore Brunt's home (Google Maps)
New Life Christian Academy, Haverhill, MA (Haverhill Gazette)
New Life Christian Assembly, 980 Main St., Haverhill, MA (Google Maps)
Sources For This Episode
Newspaper articles
Various articles from Boston Globe, Concord Monitor, Courier Post, Derry News, Fort Lauderdale News, Haverhill Gazette, Ledger, Manchester Ink, Miami Herald, Nashua Telegraph, News and Advance, News Chief, Palm Beach Post, Patriot Ledger, Tampa Bay Times, and the Union Leader, here.
Written by various authors including Andrew Bagnato, Bill Sanderson, Carol Robidoux, Dave Heeren, Donna Doherty, Dorothy Gaiter, Ed Levine, Emily Sweeney, Jim Lenane, Joe Crankshaw, John Chambliss, John Impemba, John Porter, Ken Gould, Mark Hayward, and Tony Marrero.
Online written sources
'NH authorities say Tampa Bay man…' (Tampa Bay Times), 8/15/2017, by Tony Marrero
'Suspect in 1984 cold case camping murder…' (Union Leader), 7/14/2018, by Todd Feathers
'Richard Brunt' (Websleuths), 7/16/2018
'Christopher Bird' (Facebook, NH State Police), 7/19/2018
'Christopher Bird' (Websleuths), 7/20/2018, by u/rats
'Christopher Bird' (Charley Project), 7/31/2018, by Meaghan Good
'Elsie Conver' (Find a Grave), 3/27/2020, by u/D
'Christopher Bird' (Find a Grave), 3/7/2021, by u/malita
'Christopher Bird' (Doe Network), 2/8/2022, by u/hb
'Massachusetts teacher last seen in Windham 39 years ago' (WMUR), 7/29/2022, by Jessica Kisluk
'William Brunt' (Find a Grave), 8/21/2022, by u/Beverly
'Harry Joseph Long' (Find a Grave), 12/21/2022, by u/GarySJ
'George P Long' (Find a Grave), 6/2/2024, by u/noenthusiast
'Christopher Bird' (Facebook), 10/22/2025, by u/chanrahan
'The strange disappearance of Christopher Bird…' (Boston Globe), 10/24/2025, by Emily Sweeney
'Christopher Bird' (NH DOJ), 10/25/2025
Photos
Photos as credited above
Official documents
Various records from Plantation Police Dept in Plantation, FL
Various records from New Hampshire courts
Original interviews
Chris’s friend, Kara, and his sister, Leslye.
Credits
Vocal performance, and audio editing by Kristen Seavey
Research, photo editing, and writing by Byron Willis
Research by Chelsea Hanrahan
Murder, She Told is created by Kristen Seavey.