Background: The Davidson County Sheriff”s Office’s headquarters outside of Lexington, North Carolina (Davidson County Sheriff’s Office). Inset: Harry Irvine Burdick Jr. (Davidson County Sheriff’s Office).
A North Carolina man is accused of being married to three different women in three separate counties – all at the same time.
Harry Burdick Jr. has been charged with two counts of felony bigamy, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office announced. His arrest came after months of investigation, after deputies said they received a report and began investigating in April.
Online records reviewed by Law&Crime show Burdick obtained a marriage license and got married in Davidson County in January 2023. But according to authorities, he did the same in two other counties – one to the east, and one to the west.
Burdick was married in Guilford County and Lincoln County, and no divorce proceedings for any of the three marriages could be found, the sheriff’s office said. As authorities tell it, the man – who is either 60 or 61 years old – had a clear motive for his behavior: “financial motivation and personal gain.”
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It was reportedly a pattern for Burdick – to marry one woman, reap the financial rewards, and then move on to another.
“I can’t imagine anybody even wanting to do that,” Burdick’s neighbor Roger Walser told local ABC affiliate WSOC. “It just don’t make sense. To me it don’t. One woman is all any man needs.”
Law enforcement believes there could be even more victims, with a fourth woman reportedly claiming she was romantically involved with Burdick, too.
While Burdick was arrested on Aug. 22, he was released on a written promise to appear in court, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office said. His first appearance is scheduled for Sept. 22 at the Davidson County Courthouse.
Online court records show Burdick has been divorced before – in January 2019 in Guilford County.
Bigamy is a felony in North Carolina and carries a potential sentence of three to 12 months behind bars.
Davidson, Guilford, and Lincoln counties are all located in the center of North Carolina.
