North Carolina man married to 3 women at once arrested on bigamy charges — as authorities look for other unwitting victims

Three weddings and a criminal.

A North Carolina husband was arrested on bigamy charges after authorities discovered he is currently married to at least three different women.

Harry Irvine Burdick Jr., a 60-year-old resident of Davidson County, was cuffed on Aug. 22 and charged with two counts of felony bigamy after investigators uncovered three separate marriage licenses in his name, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office announced in a news release.

The sham marriages were all motivated by “financial and personal gain,” the sheriff’s office wrote.

The three weddings that officials have confirmed took place in Guilford, Lincoln and Davidson County, and there was no indication that Burdick had ever divorced any of the women, the office said.

It is unclear if his apparent sister wives had any knowledge of each other.

Burdick was released after filing a written promise that he would appear in court on Sept. 22, as scheduled, authorities said.

The sheriff’s office noted that they believe Burdick may have had even more wives and are waiting to hear from the victims.

Officials asked anyone who may have been “legally married without a divorce to Mr. Burdick” or acquainted with a possible victim reach out to the sheriff’s office.

Bigamy, or being legally married to more than one person at a time, is illegal in every state.

It was first banned in federal territories under the Edmund-Tucker Act of 1887 with the explicit aim of restricting practices common in the Church of Latter-Day Saints.

Some prominent polygamist families in the United States, all hailing from the LDS community, include the Brown family featured in TLC’s “Sister Wives,” and the Darger family, who have frequently appeared in other programs studying the multi-marriage practice.

In early August, a Florida man facing the same bigamy charges as Burdick was sentenced to two years’ probation.

None of his wives were aware of the others and said that their sham husband did “all the right things” and took them each “to a county over to get married.”