The Disappearance of Christopher Bird, Part Two
Chris Bird, photo edited by Murder, She Told
This is part 2 of 2. Click here for Part 1.
Chris Bird Goes Missing
Richard Brunt’s life had taken on an entirely new character. He had met and married a woman and they had a child together in 1981. And it was in this new context that Dick Brunt met Chris Bird while working out at the Haverhill YMCA. Dick was 14 years older than Chris, he had a masters degree, he was a teacher and a prominent figure at his church. He probably seemed to Chris like someone with everything together.
It seems that Dick left his life in Florida behind and started a new life as a married man back in his home state of New Hampshire. It was in December of 1983 that Chris and Dick became friends, and seven months later, in July 1984, Chris would go missing.
We spoke to one of Chris’s best friends for this episode, Kara, who grew up with him in school and was in touch with him throughout his life.
She remembers a serious incident that happened during these seven months.
Chris called and said he wanted to come over to the house to visit. He explained that he was really worried about his job because there were all these pamphlets and letters being sent to people at his work, alleging that he was gay and that he was carrying on an improper relationship with an underage male student. He told Kara and her family that that it was all lies. He thought it was someone trying to sabotage his job. Kara and her family tried to comfort him, telling him not to worry—that the truth would prevail.
The Haverhill Gazette reported on the letters, saying that they had been received in April 1984 and were signed by “a concerned parent.” The letter writer threatened to “expose the charges” to the public if officials took no action. The letters were initially sent to his school, school administrators, the mayor, and Chris Bird himself. At first, they were in sealed envelopes, but then they were changed to postcards, perhaps in an effort to spread rumors. School officials spoke to the Haverhill Gazette and said that they investigated the claims, but failed to confirm any of the charges, pointing out that Chris’s record was exemplary.
After Chris disappeared in July of 1984, these letters took on a different sheen. Could the person responsible for his disappearance have been behind the smear campaign? The letters were all collected by the police and examined for clues. Since all of the letters were typed, they were working on comparing them to typewriters owned or used by possible suspects in Chris’s disappearance.
The evidence against Dick was persuasive. Circumstantially, he was the last person to be seen with Chris, he had just borrowed a gun, and he was a previously convicted killer. He was the person likely behind the letter-writing campaign against Chris. HIs life seemed to be on shaky ground—separated from his wife and son, the subject of a restraining order. He was suspect #1. But without a body, without a crime scene, the cops were stuck.
Remembering Chris Bird
We spoke to Chris’s friend Kara and to his sister, Leslye, for this episode, and what became immediately clear is what a great guy Chris was.
Kara met Chris at Haverhill High School and they became best friends. Chris was regularly making the 5-mile trek from his house to hers on his 10-speed yellow bike. And though they were very close, they never dated. Kara said he was “kind of silly, bubbly, happy. He would do funny things. [He was] happy-go-lucky.” Leslye thought of him as a great older brother, “extremely friendly... helpful... fun.” She said he was “on the straight and narrow.” He got along easily with people. Kara, in fact, couldn’t “think of a [single] fight or disagreement with him” in all the years of their friendship.
Chris was the eldest of three kids, and he lived with both of his parents¬, Paul and Dolly Bird. He was born in November of 1958, and their family of five grew up in Haverhill, MA in the 60s and 70s. Leslye recalls that he was “very close to his parents.” Kara thought that he was “proud of his love for his parents and his sister.”
Chris was really bright. He was one of the top-ranked students in his class¬—of the 550 kids, one of the top 20. He did really well in math and took Latin as a foreign language. He was inducted into the National Honor Society.
Music was an important part of his life, and Kara’s family always had something playing in the house. They had portable turntables that they would take to different spots around the neighborhood. He could be a little silly and theatrical, acting out some of the lyrics (he was also part of the school’s drama club). He loved the soundtrack to Godspell, a big Broadway musical that made its debut in 1971 and was taking the world by storm. He loved Elton John and Bette Midler.
Chris went to a school in Massachusetts that was well-known for becoming a teacher—Fitchburg State College. He got a Bachelor’s degree in teaching with a focus on special education. That’s where he met Donna, who he would end up marrying shortly after graduation in 1980. She, too, was majoring in special education.
After a short time in southwest Massachusetts, Chris and Donna moved back to Haverhill and Chris ended up taking a job at the Haverhill Alternative School, where he taught special education. Donna also taught in Haverhill at an elementary school called the Tilton School.
Richard Brunt Arrested
Years later, on June 6th, 2018, Richard Brunt was arrested as he was pulling into his driveway in Lakeland, Florida, but not for Chris Bird’s murder—for an entirely different crime. A victim who has never been publicly named—who we will refer to as John Doe—alleged that Dick had sexually assaulted him between June 1999 and June 2000 in Manchester, NH. Dick was arrested on a “fugitive from justice” charge in Florida, after which he was to be extradited back to New Hampshire.
Dick’s attorney attacked the case, too, saying that there was no hospital record of the incident, no psychological report, and nothing retained as physical evidence. He said, furthermore, John Doe had met with Dick and given him an expensive gift after the incident and before Dick moved to Florida. Dick was released on $25,000 bail and it was announced he would be under house arrest with GPS monitoring at his home in Lakeland, FL, only being allowed to leave for doctor’s appointments.
In March of 2019, 9 months after Dick’s arrest, prosecutors dropped the charges, noting the age of the allegations, and “proof items that could not be overcome.” Dick was free again, and he returned to Florida.
9 months later, in December of 2019, Dick died. We have searched extensively for any record of his death, including an obituary, but have not been successful. He was 75 years old at the time of his death, and we assume that he died of natural causes.
Where is Chris Bird?
Dick died without revealing, if he knew, the location of Chris’s body. Dick died without ever facing any consequences for Chris’s disappearance, if in fact he was involved.
The evidence against him is persuasive. Law enforcement is fairly convinced. The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office said in one of their court filings in 2017 that,
“There is probable cause to believe that Christopher Bird is a missing person, that he is likely deceased, and that he was likely murdered. Furthermore, there is probable cause to believe that Richard Brunt was responsible for the disappearance and murder of Christopher Bird on July 30, 1984, or soon thereafter.”
Chris went camping with Dick the weekend he disappeared forever, and Dick borrowed a gun from his brother shortly before the trip. Dick had a history of violence and the car situation in both cases was similar—in George’s case, Dick drove George’s VW Bug to the airport and abandoned it; in Chris’s case, someone drove Chris’s Mercury Comet to the Methuen Mall and abandoned it.
Although it’s unknown to anyone we spoke to, it was possible that Chris was ending his and Dick’s relationship, a situation that was similar to George’s decision to leave Dick and move in with somebody else. This appeared to be Dick’s motive in killing George—if Dick couldn’t have him, then nobody else could either.
But Dick went on to lead a long life, living until he was 75 years old. He got to watch his son grow up, a son who still writes glowing things about his father on social media.
Chris was robbed of that possibility. So was George Long.
I can’t help but be struck by the leniency of Dick’s sentence for having killed George—a man described as well-liked by everyone, who didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, and was unarmed and petite. Dick was a tall stocky guy who probably weighed closer to 200 pounds. George was planning to put down a deposit the next day for his new apartment, his new life, without Dick. Dick murdered George and somehow ended up serving 2 ½ years. I can only attribute it to one of two things—leniency in domestic violence cases against the perpetrator, or prejudice against the gay community.
If Dick had received a sentence commensurate with the crime he committed, perhaps Chris Bird would still be alive.
Continue Chris’s story on Murder, She Told podcast.
Did you know George P. Long of Plantation, FL or Camden, NJ?
George Long’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.
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 Two. 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
Chris Bird, ~8 years old (facebook.com)
Chris Bird, ~3 years old (facebook.com)
Chris Bird, ~15 years old (facebook.com)
Chris Bird, ~1976, Haverhill HS graduation photo (facebook.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 (Leslye Z.)
Chris Bird - high school graduation (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)
Richard Brunt, 2018, extradition hearing
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
Thank you to Camden NJ Historical Society for helping with George’s yearbook
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.