While the murder was never solved it is believed to be, based on the testimony of Burdett, that the murder was directly related to Burdett's no longer spying for the Soviet Union due to his ongoing disillusionment with Communism. The story Burdett told at the Congressional hearing was that his wife was working in South Persia, reporting from Kurdistan. When her vehicle was stopped by a truck full of Russian soldiers, they immediately started specifically asking if she was in the car. When they found out she was, she was killed instantly. Burdett believed she was killed because she had uncovered links between military training camps in Iran and an upcoming communist coup in Yugoslavia.