Some pictures of Margaret Bowman I don’t frequently see:
Margaret Bowman.
Month: February 2023
Sara A. Survivor: Part One (Susan Lorrayne Roller).
I’m going to preface this by saying I decided to split this article into two parts: the first will be about Sara A. Survivors background (whose real, legal name is Susan Lorrayne Roller) and her supposed relationship with Ted Bundy. The second piece will be a breakdown and review of her second book, ‘Reflections on Green River: The Letters of, and Conversations with Ted Bundy.‘
The tl;dr version of Ms. Survivors story is (whose real name is easily found in police documents so the need to publish under a pseudonym doesn’t make any sense): she is a surviving victim of Ted Bundy and over a four year period while in high school and college he repeatedly stalked, kidnapped, and sexually assaulted her. Survivor further claims that Seattle based law enforcement purposefully left out evidence in Bundy related reports (specifically related to the Taylor Mountain dump site), and even goes so far as to suggest there were additional victims that law enforcement refuses to investigate or even acknowledge. In a letter written to former Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole dated July 18, 2017, Survivor said that ‘there has been a cover up of the Ted Bundy cases in general and in particular relative to the findings at Taylor Mountain. Victims were left behind and never investigated and evidence at the crime scene of both Issaquah and Taylor Mountain are not protected. People were allowed to profit from the case and too much information was released and other evidence was simply lost, destroyed and discounted.’
Susan Lorrayne Roller was born on September 13, 1954 to Gilbert and Lois (nee Moore) in Portsmouth, Virginia; the family eventually relocated to Lakewood, Washington. She graduated from Clover Park High School in 1972, the same year she was elected to represent her high school as Daffodil Princess in the Pierce County Daffodil Festival (an event to help support the flower bulb business). She went on to attend the University of Washington in Seattle, where she was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority; Roller graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Medical Sciences in 1976. At first, I wasn’t able to find a great deal of information on her background (not having access to her memoir put me at a huge disadvantage), however once I discovered her real name I was able to find quite a bit more information. Well, let me clarify: I only found a handful of websites with useful information BUT this is one of those instances where quality is more important than quantity because the few sources I found were VERY helpful (I will include all links in the works cited section at the bottom)… Personally, I’d rather have 3-4 informative, high-quality resources than twenty crappy ones rehashing the same information over and over.
Beginning in 2016, a woman going by the name of ‘Sara A. Survivor’ published a trilogy of books about the Ted Bundy case. Her first release, ‘Reconstructing Sara: The Lost Victim of Ted Bundy,‘ is (for the most part) a memoir that is currently out of circulation waiting to be rewritten by a professional writer (as of May 2023). I tried my hardest to get my hands on a copy (I searched many websites, used bookstores, and even asked my sister the bookworm to check her local library but sadly she was unsuccessful). For that reason, I heavily relied on information from a variety of different sources including Erin Banks’ extremely well written book ‘Ted Bundy: Examining the Unconfirmed Survivor Stories.’ On the ‘Google Books’ page for Survivors first novel is the blurb: ‘what happened to Sara, both with Ted Bundy and with law enforcement, needs to be publicly reviewed. Bullying, cover up of materials (moving them into sealed areas during the time Sara was coming forward), and deciding who gets access to the justice system and who doesn’t are not elements of a democracy. They do not represent what the justice system of the United States was intended to be.’ Ms. Survivors second book is the one I’m reading, ‘Reflections on Green River: The Letters of, and Conversations with Ted Bundy.‘ The is composed of never before released interviews, transcripts, and information that took place between 1984 and 1988 related to Ted’s Washington state murders while he was on death row in Florida.
Last is the transcript of Bundy’s Final Prison Interview with Bob Keppel in January 1989: ‘In Defense of Denial: Ted Bundy’s Florida Confession Interview.’ Right before Ted was strapped into ‘Ol’ Sparky’ he met with Dr. Keppel in what would be his final interview with law enforcement regarding his atrocities in Washington. Nearly all of his confessions have been published in full through a variety of different mediums, however ‘Ms. Survivors’ final book is the transcript of it in full (as provided by her FOIA request originally made in June of 2015). In 2014 and 2015, she requested (and was granted) over 1,000 pages of original documents related to the Bundy case never before released to the public in their entirety as well as over 12 hours of original audio files. Upon reviewing the newly obtained files, she came to the conclusion that the case out of Washington state was ‘peppered with problems,’ and there was evidence that was purposefully misplaced. She elaborated that ‘documents couldn’t be found in some instances, and witness statements were not factored into the entire spectrum of the case in a consistent cohesive manner.’ The FOIA, or the ‘Freedom of Information Act’ was created in 1966 and states that any person has the right to request access to federal agency records. Survivor claims that the transcript is proof that information was purposefully withheld by law enforcement in relation to crimes Bundy committed before 1974 (when his ‘official’ reign of terror began with the brutal assault of Karen Sparks). On her website, ‘Sara discusses her concern that law enforcement withheld information about the Bundy case to the public (she specifically called it ‘incomplete information), elaborating that: ‘questions need to be raised as to why Bundy cases were released publicly with so much information put out when girls were still missing and not all was known. The case was never protected in the event future witnesses and victims came forward.’ The book (or more specifically, the transcribed original document) was not changed or altered in any way from how it was released to her (aside from taking out some names not directly related to the case). Perhaps I’ll read it after ‘Reflections on GRK.’
One of Sara’s more shocking revelations (for what I think are obvious reasons) is that detectives deliberately left important information out of case files, including the fact that they found ‘additional heads were found on Taylor Mountain.’ She claims the information released to her is proof that ‘158 items of evidence were found that included: skeletal remains, women’s clothing, evidence the killer spent time there; jewelry; signs of bondage and weapons (shotgun casings, gun shells, snug tie, etc) animal trails indicating animals had scattered the remains and human remains (female) who were not identified as being with the known victims there. There was also an abandoned home nearby and the ME statement states that the girls known and found there were not decapitated as has been claimed publicly. At Issaquah, there were also findings of women’s clothing, jewelry and a bicycle shift cable (labeled with a question mark). Much of this evidence was significant enough that at the time it was forwarded on to the Superior Court so why was it publicly denied? Evidence supports Sara and her contentions: her memories time and date stamped contained details which at the time the memories emerged as far back as 2001 had never been publicly released. They also contain details that are still not publicly released.’ I included the document in full below, and for this particular portion please refer to pages 12-15 of the Susan L. Roller document from cavdef.org.
In her first book, Ms. Survivor admits that she isn’t 100% certain when exactly she became acquainted with Bundy, however feels it most likely happened sometime in her junior year of high school in the winter months of 1970/71. One way that Survivor speculated she could have met him was on a ski trip to the Washington Cascade Mountains with her friend ‘Robert.‘ While there, she attracted the attention of Ted, who just happened to be there at the same time; she alleges to remember the two men fighting over her at some point. Sadly, Robert died about a year and a half after the incident in a waterskiing accident. Regarding the circumstances surrounding her friends death, Sara can’t help but wonder if somehow Ted was involved (whether it was from screwing around with his jet skis or boat), and despite having absolutely no tangible proof of this her inner voice ‘felt something was wrong back then…’ I’m sorry, but why would Bundy give one single crap about some guy he randomly met a year and a half earlier, one time? Was he so obsessed with Survivor that he jealously killed any other man that showed any sort of interest in her? Keep in mind at this time Ted was in a committed, long-term relationship with Liz (in fact this was towards the beginning of their romance, where Kloepfer reported they spent a lot of time together). He was also a student at the University of Washington as well and from June 5, 1970 to December 31, 1971 was employed as a delivery driver for Pedline Supply Company (a small, family-owned medical supply company). This is obviously a busy, vigorous schedule and his life was pretty busy at this time… so, let me get this straight: Survivor is saying Ted had all this extra time to follow her around AND was still able to go about his normal, everyday routine? Although I don’t believe Bundy had anything to do with Roberts death, in her book Ms. Banks does point out that one’s of his Seattle based attorneys John Henry Browne wrote in his book ‘The Devils Defender‘ that Ted allegedly confessed to him (and conveniently only him) that his first murder victim was a male (although it’s widely speculated Browne often embellished and wasn’t always truthful in his storytelling).
A second scenario Sara said she could have possibly become acquainted with Bundy was through her modeling job, and that he was stalking her while at shoots across various states. In her book, Ms. Banks points out that Survivor ‘repeatedly points out in her memoir how beautiful and petite she was at the time. This seems to hold particular meaning to her, as though it validated her claim that Bundy had targeted her. Bundy, she writes, came to stalk her at her tearoom, runway, and photography modeling jobs, yet she neither recognized him as the person who’d previously dated a friends sister in California nor as the man who had approached her during a prior ski trip (Banks, 81).’ Survivor claims their relationship started off innocently enough (like most do): movies, late night walks, skiing trips (you know… normal, nonthreatening dates). It didn’t take long before the date part of their meet-ups disappeared, only to turn into walks in the dark alone, which eventually led to the first time Ted sexually assaulted her. He apologized after, saying he had been drinking before their date and she forgave him. In an email to true crime writer and Bundy bff (kidding) Ann Rule, Susan said that ‘the relationship was not about fear. There were many times on many walks and nights on the phone, where we just talked in the beginning of 1974, he was asking me out skiing, to movies, to do things. I canceled a skiing date due to weather, but shortly after that he stopped asking for the traditional dating things and we wound up basically just on walks and talks. But, he had overpowered me in Tacoma when I knew him (when I was in high school) and he had raped me there, this was the violent time that hurt me physically and I never said anything because I blamed myself and he had been drinking and he was apologetic about it afterwards, to at least claimed to be that I forgave him.’ Survivor then claims that she began dating Bundy again in 1974 but couldn’t get past the sexual assault as well as his increasing possessiveness of her, to the point she suspected he was following her late at night and was slowly isolating her from her friends. Further on in the same email to Rule, Survivor said her ‘injuries were done in Tacoma and they were bad: I never went to a hospital but probably should have. I developed severe endometriosis (normally only seen in seat belt injury or violent rape) on nearly ever organ and space in the abdomen as well as on my lungs. Doctors said it was the worst case they had ever seen.’
Ms. Survivor said she remembers Bundy coming to her house at some time in late 1970/early 71 (despite the fact she didn’t know or recognize him in any capacity) to play with her pet raccoon (I want one). She further alleges he pulled up to her house driving a cream-colored VW Beetle BUT… a damning piece of evidence against her story is that Bundy drove a light blue VW Beetle at that time in the early 70’s: he didn’t purchase his yellow (or cream/tan/gold/bronze/ beige) roving death machine until sometime in the spring of 1973. Sara also claims that in 1971 Bundy started calling her family home despite not knowing her name, phone number, or where she lived. She further claims that one of the reasons he contacted her was to offer up his counseling services to her, and I mean… Why would he do that when he didn’t have his Psychology degree until 1973? Obviously Survivor took him up on the offer (I mean, who wouldn’t accept help from some stranger on the phone?) and began freely sharing all of her deepest, most personal secrets with this mystery man, such as her feelings about her parents splitting up, the fact that she was frequently left home alone, and that she was suffering from extreme loneliness as a result of the whole situation. It’s worth mentioning that Sara freely admits she was drinking quite a bit at this time, which would most likely affect her memory in some capacity.
In ‘Reconstructing Sara,’ Survivor claims she was so terribly victimized by the serial killer that a Stockholm Syndrome type relationship began taking place. Stockholm Syndrome is defined as a condition where hostages develop a psychological bond with their captors and occurs when a specific set of circumstances or criteria occur. In most situations, it’s directly related to the power imbalances that take place in hostage-taking/kidnapping/abusive relationships. Survivor often referred to herself as Teds ‘secret friend’ and even made a promise to him that she wouldn’t tell anyone about their ‘relationship.’ In an email to ‘BlueZinnia9@aol.com,’ Sara said that a friend named ‘Anne’ can confirm the time frames of Survivors ‘secret friend,’ and that ‘it started slowly after we moved into the annex which she believes was in October and which I think was more than likely November, but sometime in here. She also told me that she remembered it gradually escalating from the point until becoming more intense right before we left for California.’ Ms. Survivor also claims that sometime in 1971 Bundy began aggressively stalking her, even claiming he broke into her childhood bedroom (while her entire family was home). On page 16 of the cavdev.org document, Survivor said that ‘Ted lived in Tacoma; I lived in a nearby suburb Lakewood. Ted’s parents lived less than one mile from my fathers home in Tacoma in 1974 and prior to that even closer to my fathers apartment at the time (he was separated from my mother in summer of 1971 when Ted was actively stalking me). Phone records would prove contact with him if they still exist. There are other facts as well that would prove what I am saying. I think he was using me as a blueprint for his killing, he stated to FBI he was abducting a woman and releasing her to test his skill as a ‘dry run.’ A dry run is against a target by definition.’ Additionally, Survivor is fairly certain that he followed her and some friends while they were on a walk one night into a secluded, wooded area. She said that the violence Bundy inflicted on her was so extreme that it left her with permanent psychological and structural brain damage: psychological because of the incredible amount of stress, trauma, and grief he inflicted on her and structurally because of repeated violent head injuries she sustained by him. Ms. Survivor further alleges the memory loss she experienced before Bundy came into her life was the result of being sexually abused by multiple other men during her childhood and adolescence.
Now, I could be totally off base so forgive me if I get too far off track but I’ve been studying Bundy for quite a few years now, and it wasn’t until I was in Seattle in April 2022 that I stumbled upon Ms. Survivors story (I’ve spent MANY nights in the past few years going down the Ted Bundy rabbit hole at 3 AM)… on a side note, has anyone ever really looked into ‘Bundy is innocent‘ theories or that he was somehow involved with the ‘MK Ultra’ project? I’m not saying I believe he’s innocent (he obviously wasn’t) or that I think the government had a hand in Bundy killing innocent young girls (I don’t)… I’m just saying, there is some really weeeeeeeeeeeeird shit out there. Anyways, I digress… back to Sara. There was a night I literally didn’t sleep a single wink while in Washington and while surfing the interwebs I stumbled upon Sara’s story (I didn’t do very well being away from my new husband and leaving my Wellbutrin at home really messed with my mental health). I did buy Erin’s book back when it was first published in 2021 and read it right away but to be truthful, at the time I was more interested in the confirmed victims just because I was still learning the basics (I felt like I was reading a masterclass level text while at a beginners skill level, to be truthful). When I picked it up again while researching this story (I can’t even call it a case because technically it isn’t) it was like, 11:30 at night and as I was flipping through it I sat up in bed and said ‘OH MY GOD!’ really loudly, to which my husband said ‘you’re not staying up all night reading, we’re going to bed.’ Just… I know I made a post about it already on my FB page but wow! What a wealth of information. If you haven’t read it yet you’re missing out. Anyways, I had zero knowledge of Survivors story before my trip in April 2022 and I’ve read many (many many) books on Bundy (I’ll post a picture of my collection below), but for the life of me I don’t recall ever seeing anything about this victim before (even under her ‘real name’). Maybe I’m wrong but if there is anything written about her it must be very short and concise because I can’t for the life of me remember anything. Anyways, her first book is said to be written in ‘fragmented, confused and repetitive order in which most of these events and the emotions that are associated to them still exist in her mind.’ Sara claims she blocked out all of her traumatic memories until ‘recently’ (for reference, her first book was published on September 13, 2016) and she regained only partial ones from the damaged regions of her brain: all of the memories she experienced with Bundy during that four-year period in her youth came back to her in pieces between 2001 and 2009. The book/website said that ‘her memory fragments documented in emails back and forth between Sara and law enforcement over a fourteen-year period dating back to 2001 containing specific details of the Bundy case that were never publicly released. Her physical features, locations, travels and proximity to Bundy in high school and in college also line up to the case overall.’
In a letter to Kathleen O’Toole, Survivor started out by apologizing for being so ’emotional and disorganized,’ and that she can’t help it: ‘I am a professional writer and I work from home due to the trauma of what happened to me decades ago and I am organized in most aspects of my life but I struggle still to this day in trying to communicate all that happened and why it’s relevant. There has been a cover up of the Ted Bundy cases in general and in particular relative to the findings at Taylor Mountain. Victims were left behind and never investigated and evidence at the crime scene of both Issaquah ad Taylor Mountain was not protected. People were allowed to profit from the case and too much information was released and other evidence was simply lost, destroyed and discounted.’ Common sense should tell you (plus it’s still widely discussed in the true crime community) that law enforcement is still looking to solve all unsolved Ted-related cases and put them to bed. Despite this, Survivor claims that for over 14 years they refused to investigate any of her claims (that they admitted to her anyways, remember how police were still investigating Bundy despite telling Liz they cleared him?), acknowledge her as a victim (or even talk to her), or even assign her a case number. It is worth noting that people in general have trouble remembering events that happened a long time ago (I think I’ve said that in my last few articles when discussing Bundy’s family attempting to answer questions about Teds activities as a youth). Ms. Survivor heavily implies that Ann Rule helped plant false memories into her head and that was why she gave contradictory statements and false memories (which could be why she pulled her book from publication and is rewriting parts of it); I am including some screen shots of these emails below (Banks, 80).
Something really interesting Erin touched on in her book was that Ms. Survivor claimed that after spending time in Modesto, California she realized she looked strikingly similar to many of the Santa Rosa Hitchhiking victims (which were at one time also thought to be committed by Bundy)… now, why she felt this way we’ll probably never know, as the girls had a broad range of hair colors (light/dark… black, blonde, and brunettes) and were ‘Caucasian, Polynesians, South-East Asians, Hispanic Americans, and those of mixed ethnicity (Banks, 82).’ Why did she feel she somehow looked like this very broad range of women? The SRH murders took place in 1972 and 1973 throughout both Sonoma and Santa Rosa counties in the North Bay region of California. There are seven unsolved homicides related to the case and involve female hitchhikers, all of which were discovered completely naked in rural areas close to steep embankments or creek beds close to roadways. The case remains unsolved to this day; Bundy was strongly suspected in relation to these cases after he was taken into custody for the final time in 1978 (it’s proven he had spent some time in nearby Marin County in California). Ted was eventually ruled out a suspect by Sonoma County detectives twice: once in the 1970’s then again in 1989 thanks to credit card receipts and Bundy being placed in Washington state at the times of some of the disappearances. However, in 2011 ‘The San Francisco Chronicle’ published an article looking into the logistics of Ted’s potential trips from Seattle to California and after comparing the dates and times of his credit card receipts to the where the murders took place it was determined he would have been enough time to drive to California, commit the murders, then hightail it back to Seattle in time for his alibi (it would have taken slightly over 12 hours to drive from the Rogers Rooming House on 12th Ave in Seattle to Santa Rosa County, one-way). Some law enforcement officials feel Ted was a poor suspect in the SRH murders because they strongly felt the killer was native to the Santa Rosa area… perhaps someone who worked as a rural letter carrier or utility worker that would have been familiar with the remote areas where the bodies were dumped. However, about his relation to the case, Bob Keppel said that ‘Bundy is definitely a good suspect.The killings in Santa Rosa would fit his methods, he spent time in the area, and I’m sure he started killing well before 1974. It was an open market for Bundy.’
From page 28 of ‘Citizens Complaint: SLR June 2017’: ‘also, I know Georgann and Ted started with her in his confessions. She was important to him because she was important to me: she was my friend. He was dropping one of his hints to police at the time and being superior to them as was typical of him because he knew what they didn’t: that he had been catching and releasing a victim over and over (me) and that I had been the target all along.’ I mean, this just sounds like the ramblings of a person suffering from delusions: why wouldn’t he just talk about Roller? Why would he be so insistent on keeping his relationship with her a secret? If I can be completely honest, I was almost ready to completely write off Ms. Survivors claims that she knew Georgann Hawkins in any sort of capacity. And where I couldn’t find actual proof of their friendship I did discover that Sara was a Daffodil Princess in 1972… It’s fairly common knowledge in the Bundy community that Georgann was Pierce County’s Daffodil Princess the following year in 1973… now, I scoured the internet to find any pictures/videos of them together and came up with absolutely nothing. Perhaps this isn’t the groundbreaking proof I originally thought it was, however it does make me wonder if they were at the very least acquaintances through events with the flower bulb business. It definitely makes me wonder…
The severe PTSD and ‘fragmented memory’ Ms. Survivor claims to suffer from is due to the severe head trauma she experienced from multiple head fractures inflicted on her by Bundy and previous assailants. In her memoir she claims the only reason Bundy even abducted Georgann was because she was trying to stop him from pursuing his frequent attacks, assaults, and abductions on her. Survivor claimed that Hawkins walked through the pathway by the Theta house when she was talking to Ted: he was mad at her for avoiding him (she said it had been going on for a few weeks). During her freshman year, Hawkins joined the sorority Kappa Alpha Theta and lived in their house on campus, where Sara was a sister and resident at the Kappa Kappa Gamma house. Ted told Survivor that he ‘wanted her to carry the briefcase and go out for a drive with him to talk but Manfred (who I’m assuming is a dog) was pacing at the door to go in and I was not supposed to have him in the annex and he could get in trouble so I told him that I would go later to talk. George volunteered to help Ted, she was my friend, we were close and had been in Daffodil and she was like another little sister to me (similar to Anne) and I think she could tell that there was tension between us and she was trying to help me. They walked me to the annex door, which was only a short distance with George having to stop and wait for Ted several times as he kept trying to get me to go with him. I went in and left the light off to go to bed and put my pajamas on and shortly thereafter I heart the noise outside my window. It sounded like a body falling. I kept telling myself I was imagining things. I was also alarmed because the lot was big and rarely did anyone park outside of my window at night unless it was Ted. I was alarmed as I had not seen the lights of his car and if he was indeed parked outside of my window then he had broken his routine and not put his lights on and that frightened me. I snuck to the window and peeked out the side, lower edge of it. He did not see me. All I saw was him, standing by his VW, with the door open staring into my window. I never saw George, but just the actions and the sound terrified me. I tried to call the police as I stated, but I had nothing to go on but a noise.’ Additionally, per the ‘Citizens Complaint: SLR June 2017,’ on the evening that Georgann Hawkins was abducted Survivor said that she: ‘heard Bundy but I did not see him, knock Georgann out and I peeked out the window to see what the sound was as I was terrified of him (related to what happened with me, I did not realize at the time all else he was doing).’ … ‘I saw him drive away that night but did not know he had George. I also wasn’t processing anything very well at that time. Repeated captivity with rape, head trauma, and unrecognized and untreated rape syndrome from high school was taking a serious toll on me.’
One of the biggest parts of Survivors story that I don’t understand is why Bundy would keep her alive. I mean, this is the first time I ever heard about him leaving a victim alive like this, and a part of me feels like an asshole picking apart a possible sexual assault victims story but immediately after looking into her background Sotria Kritsonis and Rhonda Stapley came to my mind, and I’m sorry, I don’t believe either one of them. Rhonda because she’s… Rhonda and Ms. Kritsonis because of her claim that Bundy LET HER GO BECAUSE OF HER HAIR/the missing door handle lie. Just off the top of my head, Kim Leach had shorter hair at the time she was killed and I’m sorry, the long brown hair parted down the middle was simply NOT an absolute requirement when Bundy picked his victims. Quite a few of them had light hair even on the medium length side. Anyways, I digress…
Ms. Banks points out that in Sara’s ‘memoir,’ roughly 1/3 of the text is simply a list of discovered items not properly cataloged in relation to the Bundy dump sites. Survivor claims that King County law enforcement purposefully kept this information from the community and that ‘what was put before the public for decades by Keppel and others especially early on has been incomplete, misrepresented, fabricated and blatant lies.’ This part I pulled directly from ‘Reflections on Green River’ (from the ‘table of contents’): ‘There were additional audio tapes noted in the files beyond the ones given here but they were designed ‘unplayable.’ Where are the transcripts of those tapes? What did those tapes contain in information? Why were records allowed to be held privately?’ … ‘Keppel set the tone of the case from the beginning and made sure he was the face of it but his positioning of the case was inaccurate at best and self-serving. He made every effort he could for years even after he ‘retired’ to use his connections to the justice system and to media to silence me and continue to control the case as the ‘expert’ but from what I see in the records some of his maneuverings in the case files were illegal. His statements to press were false and misleading about the case in general in WA.’ She further claims that there were many additional, never before released to the public items found at both dump sites that law enforcement never even bothered cataloging. I’m again citing Erin Banks, who very eloquently commented: ‘anyone who read Bob Keppel’s ‘The Riverman,’ knowing how meticulously the young Detective and his team combed Taylor Mountain and its surrounding area for skeletal remains and any evidence that could have been relevant to solving the case. Thousands of items were collected, thousands of items were collected thousands of callers reported their boyfriends, co-workers, family members and suspicious neighbors to the police tip line.’ Despite a massive amount of data collected from law enforcement in relation to the Bundy case that translated into a massive amount of physical documentation… Sara still claimed they (for whatever reason) purposefully left out items found at crime scenes (like skeletal human remains) in official reports. Not willing to take into account that perhaps if anything were to be missing it was more likely due to human error instead of being done purposefully. Banks also points out that ‘The Ted Task Force consisted of relatively few members. And, untoward as it may be, even investigators make mistakes, including misspelling names and losing evidence. If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it most likely is a duck.’ I’m going to have to agree with her, 100%. Sara seemed to have a particular disdain for Dr. Keppel, even going so far as to suggest or hint that he had some sort of collaborative type-relationship with Bundy, which was why certain things were left off the record.
Survivor further claims that investigators in Seattle were in communication with other states where Bundy was active (even though they said to have had no awareness of his general activities during that period in the 1970’s)… in fact, there are quite a few documents that prove law enforcement was keeping tabs on him at the time (for example, they were aware he worked for the Seattle Crime Commission studying rape, the WA state Republican Party, the Olympic Hotel, The Seattle Yacht Club, and Pedline Medical Company). In her blog, Survivor said: ‘his sites in WA had multiple bodies each (skeletal remains) and over 100 pieces of evidence at both locations including clothing that matched the description of what at least some missing girls were wearing. This evidence found on site appears per record sheets at the time to have been earmarked for Superior Court of WA. Why was it denied as existing by Keppel? Missing girls found at WA state sites of Bundy were even from out of King County jurisdiction (Rancourt and Parks) and out of WA State (Parks). Yet the public claim for decades was that this never existed. That evidence from one site was lost and per Keppel nothing existed at the other site. Interstate abduction of a young girl (Parks) and FBI was never called in when her remains were found? Multiple bodies at two major crime sites? Private ownership and profit off a multiple serial case by one cop who works the media while still under color of law to the detriment of the cases and families and victims?? There needs to be some answers and accountability. I firmly believe having seen so many of these records that Keppel attacked me publicly and behind the scenes as a ‘consensual’ survivor knowing full well that I was a victim because he didn’t want anyone in law enforcement to review the case and realize all that he had done that was not only unethical but also in my opinion appears to be illegal.’ Personally, I think that Keppel didn’t buy Survivors stories and didn’t attempt to hide it, which is why she most likely writes about him in a very negative light.
As I said earlier, I didn’t read ‘Reconstructing Sara’ (although I did notice the Amazon site said it’s available for ‘professional use only,’ but I feel I don’t quite apply) so I can’t give it any sort of review. I read through her write up in Erin Banks book multiple times when preparing for this piece, who said a good portion of what was in it could be found on her WordPress page (I included that in the works cited portion). When I first stumbled upon Sara’s story in April 2022 her website was fully operational and all of her blog posts and articles were still available (the page is also titled ‘Reconstructing Sara: The Lost Victim of Ted Bundy’). However, now (or as of May 2023) it appears that most articles have been pulled and are no longer available. When I clicked on numerous articles it took me to a page that said ‘Oops! That page can’t be found. It looks like nothing was found at this location.’ The pieces had names such as: ‘Ted Bundy Evidence Taylor Mountain: 158 items: Denied, Destroyed, Discounted for Decades,’ ‘Ted Bundy & The Public Image The Authorities Initially Created Of Him To Create Their Own ‘Super Cop’ Scenarios,’ ‘Ted Bundy & Pornography: He talked of it years before the execution,’ ‘Refuting Riverman: Doesn’t Match Original Case Files In Multiple Places,’ and ‘1989 Ted Bundy Final Confession: Was it Planned and Rehearsed?’ I wonder if this is possibly because Survivor is working on a rewrite of the book (per her Amazon page). Oddly enough, only one remains; it’s titled ‘Ted Bundy: WA Crime Sites Itemized’ and discusses how she thinks Bob Keppel purposefully tainted the Bundy investigation in Seattle and goes over the 158 items related to the Taylor Mountain evidence list. She starts it with the intro: ‘this website isn’t as much about me anymore as about justice process in the Bundy case. Keppel’s original efforts to become the face of the case suppressed important case information that should have been worked – his suppression of Bundy’s comments about Rule’s book sending it to psychiatrists instead of into evidence and suppression of Bundy’s comments about Michaud’s interview being possibly not all fact [Bundy claimed some was done by Bundy for effect] shows his willingness to protect his buddies behind the scenes and also to lessen any evidentiary probe into possible facts that were included in Bundy’s complaints [its not always just psychology – Bundy claimed Hawkins was found at Tiger Mountain with Ott and Naslund and the records appear to support that]; even the attack on me over the years as to my character was an effort to redirect any investigation away from the facts of my experiences versus what actually happened: a psychological behind the scenes gas lighting of me – no one was evaluating the correlations and facts of my experiences objectively. Keppel walked the line between ‘author’ and ‘expert’ for decades, ‘updating’ as ‘new’ what was already in evidence years earlier, using the inherent protections of both roles to cover up his original transgressions. This type of loophole in current justice system standards needs new laws.’
I had a fairly tough time getting through parts of Sara’s writing. I found it to be very wordy and almost made a point of being elegant on purpose (I hope this makes sense, in my opinion Bundy oddly wrote the same way). I found my eyes glazing over whenever I attempted to read it (on multiple occasions) and I quickly grew bored with what I was trying to process.
As I said earlier, Ms. Survivor claims that Bundy stalked and followed her while in school (both at Clover Park High School in Tacoma and the University of Washington), even going so far as to follow her when she traveled for modeling jobs throughout the western part of Washington state and beyond… she said that wherever she went, Bundy was there, waiting… but WHY? And how? I hopefully don’t need to say this took place way before the days of social media. Yes, I definitely think Bundy stalked his prey before he went in for the kill but how did he track her from states away? Logically, it makes absolutely no sense and timewise… how would he have been able to pull something that time consuming off and not have anyone notice this incredibly erratic behavior? Survivor claimed that what Bundy did to her back in the 1970’s is still being looked into by law enforcement. On page 28 of ‘Citizens Complaint: SLR June 2017, ‘if I am ever given an honest chance at having what I am saying evaluated it will not only make sense to the cases as a while but it will help solve a few also that I know he did such as Georgann’s, possibly one in Oregon and CA as well.’
Per her website, ‘what happened to me back then is being investigated and so too I hope is the behind the scenes maneuvering that favored the killer instead of the victims and for now I am going to defer to, and trust in, those who have committed their time and expense to giving what happened back then the comprehensive, objective investigation it warrants. I am grateful the investigation is being done for my own sense of closure, but in addition to that for a lot of reasons, including reviewing the maneuverings back then that allowed critical evidence to be denied, moved about without chain of custody and destroyed. The Bundy cases were never an example of good police work though some did do their jobs faithfully. In my opinion, having healed enough to process some of this it was about politics. And those politics continued into the present day and the stalking, threats, and intimidation tactics used against me to prevent any of this from coming into public awareness. It makes me sad and upset that politics back then over-rode common decency and that politics continued to influence the silencing that occurred decades later. The Bundy cases deserved a new investigation. It needed to be done.’
Roller currently resides in Oneida, WI. Per her ‘classmates’ page, she said: ‘I am living in the midwest now after many years in Washington. I am very happy here. I am still actively working and enjoying life. The older I become the more I appreciate the journey and the intangibles in life. The updated photo is from Christmas 2019. I have a collie now that is my constant companion at home and at work, always by my side. She is a blessing as keeps me active walking her at least 2 miles a day even when I wish I didn’t have to such as in the snow or rain. I love the Midwest storms, the approaching thunderstorms, and the hard wood forests. I grew up in the Midwest. For me, this region is like coming home.’ After completing her degree at the University of Washington, Roller got a job as the Director Medical Programming for the Omnia Corporation from 1980 to 1982. After leaving them she got a position with Golle & Holmes in Minneapolis as a program developer; she left the following year. In 1983 Susan was briefly employed as the Director of Marketing for The Santal Corporation in St. Louis. In 1984 she started a company called ‘Fine Line, Ltd.’ based out of Reno, Nevada; her position is the President. Additionally under the ‘career’ section of her website ‘independent film producer and writer’ is listed as well. Under the ‘achievements’ portion is: ‘screenwriting, cowboy poetry, skiing, art FC.’ Roller is also a member of the Reno Chamber of Commerce, is a practicing Episcopalian, and sides with the Republican party.
Works Cited:
Banks, Erin. ‘Ted Bundy: Examining The Unconfirmed Survivor Stories.’ Published March 7, 2021.
Survivor, Sara A. ‘Reflections on Green River: The Letters of, and Conversations with, Ted Bundy.’ Published on April 5, 2016.
archive.org/details/953-32-10-bundy-notes-keppel-redacted/page/n44/mode/2up (Opinion at the end of document is that of Maria Serban).
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Ted-Bundy-a-suspect-in-Sonoma-County-cold-cases-2355670.php
books.google.com/books/about/Reconstructing_Sara.html?id=TGhYvgAACAAJ
reconstructingsara.com
On October 15, 1984, Bundy sent the Green River Task Force a second letter, this time via his former attorney John Henry Brown, again offering his help in solving the Green River serial murders. He signed this second letter, ‘Sincerely, Ted Bundy.’ Photo courtesy of Maria Serban.
Rita Patricia Curran: Case File.
I’m still going to update my article, but I want to include the Burlington PD case file on Rita as well.
Nancy Wilcox.
Nancy Wilcox was born on July 4, 1958 to Herbert and Constance (nee Mouritsen) Wilcox of Holladay, Utah; she was one of six kids and had four brothers and a sister (David Michael, Richard Stephen, Thomas Brent, James Patrick and Susie Wilcox-Nelson). The Wilcox family were devout Latter-day Saint’s and Nancy was very active in the LDS community; she was described as being incredibly kind, very pretty, funny, and it seemed that everyone who knew her liked her. She was said to have a small, close-knit group of friends, was a straight shooter, and didn’t drink, do drugs, or party. The young girl had medium length strawberry-blondish hair, brown eyes, stood roughly 5’6” and weighed around 120 pounds; she used minimal make-up, had a small scar on the side of her face, wore a size 6.5 shoe and a size 9 dress. At the time of her disappearance in early October 1974, Nancy was sixteen years old and a junior at Olympus High School. It’s commonly reported that she was a cheerleader however according to her best friend Louisa Paulson-Graves, it was her that participated in that extracurricular activity, not Nancy. In September and October 1974, Wilcox worked part time at a small coffee shop called the Arctic Circle Drive-In near her home but was fired prior to her murder. When she disappeared she was in a healthy, committed relationship with a guy from her high school named John Hood.
Wilcox was last seen by some classmates near her high school in the passengers seat of a tan VW Beetle close to her home on Arnette Drive in Holladay, Utah on October 2, 1974. The young lady was on her way to the store to purchase a pack of gum, and it’s speculated that from there she was on her way to her high school to see her boyfriend, who was a football player and may have been somewhere on campus. Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Detective Jerry Thompson said she was last seen wearing a blouse of unknown color, blue corduroy pants, a silver chain necklace with beads and a turquoise ring; she wasn’t wearing a coat. In an interview with YouTuber ‘Captain Borax,’ Susie Nelson said that on the day she went missing her sister left the house in a huff after getting into a fight with her Dad about John’s pick-up truck leaking oil on the families driveway (oh my gosh my Dad would be the same way!). Both Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox said because of this initially law enforcement deemed her to be a runaway, however it was glaringly obvious to her loved ones that she had no intention of leaving home and had no troubles whatsoever in her personal life. Nancy left all of her personal belongings behind including some expensive jewelry that held deep sentimental value to her.
From January to July 1974, young women in Washington state were disappearing at an alarming rate, and even though most residents of Utah were somewhat aware of what was happening it still seemed too far away to really affect them. After all, it was Seattle’s problem, not theirs. At the time in the mid-70’s, law enforcement felt so strongly that the killer was going after young coeds in the general Seattle area that they were even hesitant to link ‘Ted’ to the disappearance of Kathy Parks out of Corvallis, Oregon. I probably don’t need to say that Nancy was the first of many young women to vanish without a trace from the Salt Lake City area in 1974. The juvenile division of the sheriff’s department did not release a public appeal for information related to her disappearance until December of 1974, three months after she vanished (and even then they stressed that she ‘might still be a runaway’). On the day after Ms. WIlcox’s case first made the news a waitress from Lake Point contacted the Sheriff’s Department and told them she had seen a girl matching Wilcox’s description at the restaurant where she worked. She further claimed that the young girl was with a ‘tall young man who had a mustache’ and when they were done with their meal drove off in a ‘light-colored Volkswagen.’
I hope I don’t need to point out that we live in different times now and back in 1974 there was no internet scroll with news constantly updating itself. Additionally, at that time police jurisdictions didn’t like to share information with one another, and Utah wasn’t on high alert like Washington state was about missing young females: Nancy was the first (known) of Bundy’s Utah victims to go missing. After Wilcox vanished, Utah law enforcement were unable to find very many helpful clues that would help them locate her (they had few leads and not much to go on). During the course of the investigation they spoke with at least 45 of her family, friends, school mates and acquaintances, however none of them knew anything about her disappearance. Several of her loved ones were also given polygraph tests but passed. On November 30, 1974, Utah police began a two day search of the canyons around Salt Lake City but were unable to find any trace of Nancy.
It’s speculated that Bundy may have been grooming Nancy Wilcox: family members said she mentioned an older man who would come into the drive-in that she briefly worked at and flirt with her. As I said earlier, she was employed at an Arctic Circle located on 3300 South and shared with her cousin Jamie Hayden that while there she had met an ‘older guy in law school.’ Susie told a similar story: one time Nancy became visibly excited when she saw this same older gentleman drive by their family home, and said something like, ‘oh my gosh, that’s the guy who has been coming into my work!’ During his final interviews with law enforcement, Ted didn’t share that he knew Wilcox beforehand nor did he elaborate or give any intimate details about her murder. Ted did admit he remembered Nancy’s case vividly because it took a fair amount of time for her name to appear in the news after she disappeared: ‘because nothing came out in the paper about it for some time, as I recall, in this particular case. Which I later would associate with Wilcox.’ This shows he was paying close attention to the media coverage surrounding his atrocities.
On September 2nd, 1974 Bundy left Washington and moved to Salt Lake City to attend the University of Utah School of Law. After Nancy’s mysterious disappearance on October 18, 1974, he abducted 17-year-old Melissa Smith from Midvale, Utah; her naked body was discovered nine days later by two deer hunters on a hillside in Summit Park, UT. A stocking was found tied around her neck and she had sustained multiple blows to the head. Less than two weeks later on the evening of October 31, 1974, 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime vanished after leaving a cafe in Lehi, Utah. Almost a month later on November 27th two hikers stumbled upon her remains in American Fork Canyon. A little over a week later on November 8, 1974, Bundy attempted to kidnap 18-year-old Carol DaRonch from the Fashion Place Mall on South State Street in Murray but was unsuccessful. After DaRonch escaped, Bundy quickly realized he’d need a new victim and drove roughly 25 miles away to Bountiful to abduct 17 year-old Debra Kent. Kent and her parents were at a play at Viewmont High School when it went later than expected. She volunteered to take the family car and pick up her two younger brothers at a nearby roller skating rink. On her way out to the parking lot, Bundy abducted then killed her and dumped her body roughly 50 miles away in American Fork Canyon. Upon realizing that a worrying pattern was emerging, the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office began a review of all their cases involving missing girls. Subsequently, they determined that Nancy Wilcox and Debra Kent were the only girls who were still unaccounted for.
Before Bundy was put to death in Florida, he confessed to killing Nancy on January 22, 1989 in a 90-minute confession with Salt Lake City Detective Dennis Couch. It’s not surprising: she fits the physical profile of one of his victims and it was established he was in the Holliday, Utah area at the time of her disappearance. During his confession, Ted said that he was driving on a ‘main roadway’ south of the University of Utah when he saw Wilcox walking along the side of the road, forcibly abducted her at knife point then ‘ushered’ her into a nearby orchard; he elaborated that it was dark at the time, the lighting in the area wasn’t the greatest, and that the area was ‘small’ and ‘residential’). Bundy then ‘restrained’ her, put her in his waiting VW then drove her back to his apartment (at 565 1st Avenue), where he sexually assaulted her; he kept her alive for a day. He then killed her and dumped her body in Capitol Reef National Park, located roughly 216 miles away; he specifically told law enforcement that he remembered disposing of Nancy’s body after driving south on I-15 then onto U-89. He had trouble giving them an exact location, claiming ‘we need better maps. That would help. We need just a clearer picture of what it looks like. I do not remember this Capitol Reef National Park. But I don’t imagine that it looks any different from the rest of it, except its name.’ Now, there’s two schools of thought here: either he couldn’t recall exactly where he dumped her body or he purposefully withheld information using the excuse about the map as an excuse. It is worth noting that Bundy claimed Nancy was never in his car which to me is just bizarre. Now, let me get this straight: he abducted her, killed her, then took her body over 200 miles away to dispose of it but she never was in his vehicle? That just doesn’t make any sense. And at first I thought maybe he had Liz’s car or a family members, then I quickly remembered she was a Utah victim not a Washington one and that Bundy is a notorious fucking liar.
During one of Bundy’s third-person ‘pseudo-confessions’ with Stephen Michaud, he suggested that ‘the killer’ parked his car further down the road then ran up behind Nancy and forced her to go into the orchard. He elaborated that they right then and there that he planned on raping her but didn’t intend on killing her. In his mind, avoiding murder might help bring less attention to the crime; obviously, this plan didn’t work when she began to struggle against him. At that point he started to get paranoid that someone nearby might hear Nancy’s cries of distress and decide to investigate so out of pure fear he wrapped his hands around her throat and strangled her until she passed out (or so he thought). Once she was unconscious, he then took off her clothes and sexually assaulted her. After he was finished he realized that she had stopped moving, which panicked him so much that he dragged her body into a corner and then left. However, once ‘the killer’ had returned to his apartment he began to worry that he had left behind physical evidence so he decided to return to the orchard and see if her remains were still there.
According to Ted, ‘the killer’ was so inebriated when he killed Nancy that it took him some time afterwards to piece together exactly what happened so he could locate the orchard again. Once he finally found it, he realized that her body was still there, completely undisturbed. He then swiftly loaded her into his Bug along with her discarded clothing and took her body back to his apartment. He waited ‘a day or two’ before finally dumping her body somewhere near Capitol Reef National Park, but was not able to provide an exact location. I don’t know, I don’t buy Bundy bringing her back to his apartment in any capacity, it just doesn’t sound plausible (unless she was dead but even that’s incredibly risky). Getting caught carrying an unconscious or dead girl in and out of your rooming house in the middle of the night is a bit of a red flag, in my opinion. Also, if she wasn’t dead and regained consciousness she could have screamed or made noise and getting caught was the last thing Bundy wanted. Obviously there are giant discrepancies between his third person ‘confession’ and what he shared with law enforcement before he was executed in 1989. Who knows what to believe.
After Bundy confessed to Nancy’s murder and the Wilcox family was informed their daughter was gone, Herbert Wilcox commented: ‘the sheriff’s office has advised us that the case is closed. The whereabouts of Nancy’s earthly remains are known only to her Heavenly Father.’ Sadly her older brother, David Michael passed away from a kidney disease four months after she vanished. In a 1984 letter to Belva Kent, Mrs, Wilcox wrote of their daughters deaths: ‘I compare my feelings in the loss of both of the children. Knowing that we buried (David’s) body is sad but peaceful and I have had some wonderful dreams wherein I have talked to him, and I know he is happy. I have never had a pleasant or comforting feeling about Nancy. It is a constant pain. Even now when the phone rings on Mother’s Day, Christmas or her birthday, for a split second I think she might be calling (I cannot imagine losing two children so young, so tragically).’ At Nancy’s memorial service on June 30, 1990, Robert Carlyle Stephens of the West Valley Utah Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints said she ‘has been at peace for 16 years, but there has been turmoil in our minds because we did not know what happened to her until recently. Now all those who knew and loved Nancy can be at peace and know that she left home happy and died quickly.’ … ‘When Nancy died, so white, so splendid, so fine, so beautiful and so innocent, she was received immediately into the Savior’s arms.’ He further said that the memorial service was ‘a final act to settle our minds and thoughts and remember her for who she was and how she was rather than what happened to her.’
On March 19, 1989, the Deseret News reported that after Ted confessed his crimes to law enforcement they searched Capitol Reef National Park and found bones along with the tattered remnants of an old, tan blouse with lace: ‘it was deteriorated to the point that it could have been 14.5 years ago, that they say may have belonged to Nancy.’ They found bones in three different areas during a 2.5 square mile search located one mile east of the park: it was from the location Bundy confessed to dumping her body roughly two months earlier. Forensic experts felt that most of the bones belonged to animals and at the time of the discovery former Wayne County Sheriff Kerry Ekker claimed that the bones found in one area could possibly have been human and that: ‘they were of the size that alarmed us to the point that it could have been human.’ … ‘he (Bundy) claimed that he buried her, but in past victims he didn’t bury them. The information that we got on this is very vague.’…’We didn’t extricate any of the bones.’ … ‘He thought the word `Notom’ meant something to him when he left the highway.’ Sheriffs found a ‘shoulder blade that would have to be off of a small animal or a human of approximately Nancy’s size.’ Shortly after they were found the bones were sent off to be tested and unfortunately none were a match to Wilcox. The only human bone found after Ted gave his death row confessions was a patella (knee cap) in Fairview Canyon a little over 130 miles away from Capitol Reef National Park; it was assumed to have been Debra Kent’s and was given to her family. However, because investigators were unable to get DNA from the remains they were unable to 100% confirm the identification until 2015. After going through the missing persons report, it was noted that Kent’s mother had the kneecap, which authorities at the time didn’t know about. Bountiful Police Sergeant Shane Alexander said: ‘Belva Kent was very hesitant at first, but eventually she agreed, believing that it would be a good thing to know and have that confirmation. I sent the patella to the University of North Texas as well as the samples that were collected, and then they were able to determine that the patella matched the family DNA that was collected.’
Steven Kuick has a different theory about Nancy’s death: ‘Just found a new one, so he said he remembers driving Nancy Wilcox through Scipio, Fillmore, and Beaver Utah, which is about 2.5 hours west from Capitol Reef National Park, and the road through the mountains would have been way too much at the time. Bundy spoke of being worried about driving the speed limit because a cop may be trying to reach his quota, and said (he drove through Beaver, which is 2.5 hours south of his apartment, and Capitol Reef National Park is another 2.5 hours east through a mountainous road at night, I just do not believe he did all of that, I do not. If he feels he went east out of Beaver towards the National Park, he very well could have, that would have been HWY 153 East towards Junction, Utah. Drive east off Highway 153 east heading towards Junction, it’s a 40.5 mile journey, and about 10 miles down 153 east there is a road that heads north, and it goes nowhere, it is not a named road on the map that I have, and it looks like it would be a perfect spot for Bundy, and it looks like a spot he could confuse with Capitol Reef National Park. I do not think he went down the road very far either once he went North on that road off of 153. He wanted to hurry up at that point and just get rid of her. Jim Reed Creek follows the road I am talking about, and there looks to be a gravel road that breaks off of there as well, which could truly be where Nancy Wilcox is located.’
Both Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox have both passed away as well as two of Nancy’s brothers. As of 1987, the orchard where Bundy took Wilcox no longer exists; it is now occupied by Summerspring Court, a housing development.
Works Cited:
deseret.com/1989/3/19/18799046/bones-blouse-may-belong-to-bundy-victim
thisinterestsme.com/nancy-wilcox/
int-missing.fandom.com/wiki/Nancy_Wilcox
bci.utah.gov/coldcases/nancy-wilcox
https://www.deseret.com/1990/7/1/18869477/victim-s-family-lays-hope-and-grief-to-rest-in-empty-grave
Ted Bundy, College Information and Transcripts.
Vicki Lynn Hollar.
Vicki Lynn Hollar was born on March 8, 1949 to Benjamin and Aida (nee Presta) Hollar in Flossmoor, Illinois; the couple also had a son named Kenneth. Sadly Aida gave birth to a son they named Benny Gene on November 11, 1959 but he only lived for four days. An attractive, small framed girl, Ms. Hollar stood 5’1” tall, had brown hair and eyes and weighed a mere 115 pounds. She moved to Eugene from Illinois in June 1972 after graduating from Southern Illinois University and moved into an apartment with five roommates. She was employed as a seamstress at Bon Marche located at 175 West Broadway (now Macy’s) and had only worked there for two weeks. Friends and coworkers told law enforcement that Vicki was happy and was looking forward to being scheduled for full-time hours the following work week.
On Monday, August 20, 1973 twenty-four-year-old Vicki disappeared without a trace: she was last seen getting into her black 1965 Volkswagen Bug close to 8th Avenue and Washington Street in Eugene; her Beetle had Illinois plates (numbered GR7738) and its running boards were removed. After work at around 5:00 PM she walked with her supervisor to their cars parked in a vacant service station at 8th Avenue and Washington; she was wearing a pink dress. The coworker said that she ‘hadn’t seen anyone else in the area that night.’ That was the last time anyone saw Vicki: law enforcement said that ‘it’s like both she and the car were swallowed up.‘
It’s strongly theorized that after her workday Vicki was on her way to her apartment about 1.7 miles away located in the 6600 block of West 27th Avenue. She was supposed to meet a friend at her place around 8:00 PM and from there the pair were going to go to a party somewhere in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, Vicki never made it home or to the gathering, and sadly was seen or heard from again. The friend she was supposed to meet up with hung around for a little bit then when she never showed up, left a note for Vicki and went to the party by herself. The next day however, when she still didn’t hear from Ms. Hollar the friend became even more concerned, and because Vicki was a bit older than the other missing girls vanishing around the region law enforcement immediately took her disappearance seriously: she was establishing roots in Eugene and didn’t seem to have any reason to just up and leave.
After Vicki disappeared, her parents came from Illinois to talk to law enforcement and get a feel for the investigation. They told police that all of their daughter’s clothes and personal belongings were left behind at her apartment. Additionally, she never picked up her last paycheck from Bon Marche and her purse and car have never been found to this day. Eugene Police followed every single lead they received for four full months after Vicki’s disappearance but came up with nothing.
Vicki’s family stated she was incredibly content with where she was in her life and was happy with the direction it was heading: she loved her new job, had a lot of friends and didn’t seem to have any reason to just up and leave. Like so many others in the 1970’s, she did have a habit of picking up hitchhikers on occasion. Described as ‘outgoing and friendly,’ the young woman was said to ‘have a mission in life to help the downtrodden,’ and an officer that worked the case said that loved ones described Vicki as a kind-hearted person who felt that ‘if a guy was down and out, it was her job to go out of her way to be friends with him. Obviously, it’s in the back of our minds that she did befriend the wrong person. On December 14, 1973 a story that ran in the Register-Guard said ‘unfortunately, Vicki’s humanitarian impulses, including a tendency to stop for every hitchhiker, may have lead to her disappearance but that so far the investigation had run into a brick wall.‘
I already briefly touched on Vicki’s case when I wrote about another young girl that Bundy suspected of murdering from Oregon, Rita Jolly. Seventeen-year-old Ms. Jolly also disappeared without a trace from West Linn on June 29, 1973. At the time of Vicki’s disappearance in August 1973, Bundy seemed to be in between jobs: from February to April of that year he worked for King County Program Planning then took a break from employment until September 1973, when he was the Assistant to the Washington State Republican chairman. At this time he was still in a relationship with Liz Kloepfer and he was also enrolled in law school at the University of Puget Sound. According to the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992,’ Ted was having the clutch repaired on his VW Bug in Seattle, although it’s argued he was ‘borrowing’ a car from someone (see Websleuths screen grabs below for clarification).
In his final death row interview with Bob Keppel, Bundy confessed to starting his murder spree in 1972, years before his official reign of terror started in 1974:
RK: There’s a gal in 1971, Thurston County.
TB: No.
RK: Not that far back. Nothing that far back?
TB: 1972.
I’ve been finding most of Bundy’s ‘unconfirmed victims‘ have very weak commonalities without a lot of substance… Vicki did look like one of Teds victims: she was beautiful and slim, with brown hair and dark features. Her abduction was most likely a crime of opportunity, like so many of the others. Additionally, she fit neatly into his age range, as he killed young females anywhere from 12 years old (possibly even as young as eight if you throw Ann Marie Burr into the mix) up to 26 years old (ski instructor Julie Cunningham). But that’s about it. Bundy confessed to two homicides in Oregon but never gave any information that would identify the victims. It’s highly considered that Hollar is one of those two girls. Ted confessed to abducting Roberta Kathleen Parks from Oregon State University on May 6, 1974; he claimed to have raped and killed her at Taylor Mountain, over 250 miles away from the school and about 25 miles southeast of Seattle. Because she was found in Washington, she is not included in his Oregon victim count. In interviews with law enforcement, Ted confessed to killing two additional women in Oregon but refused to elaborate on their details; Vicki Hollar and Rita Jolly are the best candidates according to most law enforcement. Oregon detectives tried but were unable to question Ted regarding Vicki’s disappearance before his execution in 1989, eliminating the chance of closing the case in relation to Bundy. I was not able to find anything from any of Ms. Hollar’s family in regards to Bundy as her killer, however I did find a quote by Jill Jolly that was of importance: ‘as I recall, my mother told me that the local detectives managed to get a direct question about Rita through to him before his execution, and his reply was ‘No. No more in Oregon.’ Bundy withheld many secrets hoping to parlay the untold stories into yet another stay of execution. ‘There are other buried remains in Colorado’ he said, refusing to elaborate any further. Dubbed Ted’s ‘bones-for-time scheme,’ this only frustrated detectives even more.
At this point in my writing I don’t need to point out that this attractive young woman fits the physical description of Teds other victims and he was known to have been in the general region at the time of her disappearance. At first I thought 24 was a little too old to make her one of Teds victims (as I previously stated, Julie Cunningham was 26 when she was killed)… then I remember this one time when I went back to school for my counseling degree (what a total waste of time that was): all the kids I was taking classes with were all in their very early 20’s and in between classes one day we were all sitting around talking and when I told them I was 30 they all seemed genuinely surprised that I wasn’t ‘their age’ (their words, not mine I swear). I mean, maybe they were being kind but I’ve been told my entire life I look younger than I am. Maybe not SUPER young but maybe Vicki looked younger than she was. Or maybe I’m overthinking this and 24 was a fine age for Bundy. Just my thoughts.
An interesting piece of this puzzle is Vicki’s little black bug has never been found. Now, obviously this means it’s most likely been stashed somewhere out of view (or broken down and sold for parts)… like, in a deserted barn, storage unit, or even a large body of water…My first instinct is a body of water. Websleuths user ‘Klimster’ points out that: ‘There are a LOT of bodies of water around Eugene. There’s the Willamette and McKenzie rivers and Fern Ridge, as you’ve mentioned. However, Fern Ridge has been emptied out at least one time that I know of in the ten years I’ve lived around here. There’s also a lot of lakes nearby and it doesn’t take long to get to the ocean either. The Willamette River is quite large. There are many areas where a car could have gone in unnoticed, IMO.’ According to Eugene Police Sergeant Ed Lowrey: ‘we are afraid she was abducted and murdered.’ … ‘its possible her abductor drove the car into a reservoir or off a mountain logging road. It’s also possible that Georgia police will stop a Volkswagen tomorrow for a traffic violation and we’ll have the car.’
An interesting factoid I figured out from mapping out lots of potential routes along Washington/Oregon/Utah/Idaho is that Vickie Hollar and Rita Jolly were both last seen in close vicinity of major roadways. Bundy loved to drive around late at night, just roaming the Pacific Northwest looking for prey… that makes me think that if Ted was going to destinations south of Seattle he would just hop on the I-5 (which goes right through Eugene), or possibly go down I-205 in the Portland area. The city of Eugene has four colleges in it (New Hope Christian College, Bushnell U, University of Oregon, and Lane CC) and is home to the school Roberta Parks attended (University of Oregon). It’s well known that Bundy loved to prowl areas around college campus’s, and where better to go than a medium-sized college town with four schools?
Looking through different true crime forums I was able to find some stories about Vicki from people that knew her: Websleuths user ‘Fal’ commented that: ‘Vicki was my grandmother’s goddaughter. My grandma tells a story of how when Vicki was coming from Illinois on her way to Oregon, she stopped in Denver to see her. My grandma told her that she should stay in Denver with her, because it was a nice place to live. Vicki said no, and that she had a job lined up for her in Oregon that she was excited to start (I’m assuming it was the seamstress job, which actually runs in my Gma’s family). That was the last time my grandma heard from her. Additionally, from the same forum user ‘Cait6’ commented that: Vicki stood up in my parents wedding just prior to leaving Illinois. She was good friends with my parents in college at SIU and at one point slept on their couch as college kids do when they are in between living situations. They had a tight knit group of friends and my dad told me stories of them all taking her beetle off roading down in Carbondale. One day off roading they accidentally knocked off one of the running boards on one side. When they got back to even it out, my dad and friends helped take off the other one which has always been a unique detail in her vehicle that remains missing. I wish I could provide you more information than that. My parents too have always wanted to know what happened to Vicki as they are now both close to their 70’s. I hope one day more information comes to light for you and her family.’
Another young woman was murdered from Eugene, OR just three days after Vicki disappeared: Gayle LeClair was just 22 years old when she was stabbed to death in her rented home. The young women who dreamed of one day becoming a teacher moved to Eugene in January 1972 and was found brutally killed in her apartment on Sylvan Street. I couldn’t find much on this case, but much like Vicki Hollar she seemed happy and very well liked by the people around her. Webslueths user ‘CherryValley’ commented that: ‘I knew Gayle in gold Beach in the 60’s. I have always wondered if they ever caught her murderer. Her murder was a shocking event in our circle of young friends. I wish someday soon this will be solved.’
What happened to Vicki in the 1.7 miles from where her car was parked to her apartment? Did she pick up a hitchhiker who took her hostage and killed her? Did she decide to leave it all behind and start a new life somewhere? As of February 2023, Vicki Hollar is still classified as missing. She would be 73 years old. Benny Hollar passed away in December 1991 and as of September 2023 Aida Hollar is still alive.
I’ll end this with a poem about Vicki from Aimée Bakers piece, ‘The Saints of the Last Days’ called ‘Patron Saint of Seamstresses:’
‘Pray that she is the kind of woman who knows
how to pull a thread through, stitch
a hem closed with straight lines, and cut
an end loose without shifting, so you can offer
your own thimbleful of blood
to place at the feet of our maternal
heroine, the only one who will know
if the dark man watches her as he does her blood
sisters. Know that you offer for her a relic,
a way to carry her through the passageway
to the dusky vein of a car lot. Pray
that her pink-blushed dress stays neat
and clean. That the latch on her car door
always bolts tight against wanderers. That the ivory dawn
awakens her every morning until she is a grandmother.
And know that your prayers will not be enough
for her to overstep this moment, so that she can darn
this evening closed with her sleep.’
Edit: As of March 2023 I found some interesting new information from a ‘Websleuths’ user trying to solve Vicki’s case. It would be wonderful if they were successful.
Some photos related to Ted’s execution:
Ted’s (first) Utah Apartment.
My friend Kyrie Allyson asked me to share the pictures of Ted’s apartment in SLC at 565 1st Ave. I didn’t get any sort of weird vibe from it, but I wasn’t in Utah for very long… I had limited time and needed to get through things FAST. Maybe if I had been able to walk around and linger a bit I would have been able to get a better feel for what may have happened here.
Ted Bundy lived at this house while attending law school in Salt Lake City between September 1974 and September 1975. Almost immediately after he moved in women started mysteriously disappearing from both Utah and Colorado. At the time, the residence was a boarding house meaning multiple tenants rented rooms and shared basic common areas. While living here Ted occupied room two, which (when looking at it from the street) is on the second floor right above the porch.
Located on the right side of the residence is a fire escape that was added some time in the 1960’s; Ted supposedly used it frequently to come and go as he pleased in the middle of the night. There is an entrance to a cellar in the back of the house on the left side, and according to one of his house mates (who didn’t find it suspicious at the time), Bundy would sometimes go down there late at night.
Before he was put to death, Bundy confessed to bringing two of his victims back to his room: Debra Kent and Nancy Wilcox. He claimed that he left Kent in his room ‘for a period of time’ before he killed her, and eventually dumped her body in a canyon around 100 miles away; he also claimed to have left Wilcox in his room as well before he took her life. Obviously there’s a lot of doubts with these claims: how could he keep girls there for days at a time against their will completely undetected? After leaving this residence in September 1975 he moved about a mile away to 364 Douglas Street.
Letter By Louise Bundy to Judge Stewart Hanson, March 10, 1976.
On March 10, 1976, Louise Bundy penned an emotional plea to Judge Stewart Hanson on Ted’s behalf.
Various Pictures of Serial Killers.
Another Bundy Blog. 