Was Ted Bundy Active in Arizona?, Part One. By Teri Phillips Offield.

Was it ever confirmed? No. Could he have killed in Arizona? Absolutely. I am here to convince you it could have happened. Keep your mind open, we are dealing with Bundy, after all. Anything is possible. I don’t have concrete proof, but no one will ever know how many more states he committed murder in. The times do line up and he killed girls in Colorado, Utah, Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and Florida. Utah is right above Arizona and Colorado is very close too, so why wouldn’t he also travel to Arizona?

A map of the US.

The second map is the US in the 1970s. Both maps show how easy it would
have been to come into Arizona from the other states he was active in. Arizona has
miles of desert, and he could have buried girls never to be found again.
Looking at the chart, in 1974, he was in four states: Utah, Washington, Oregon,
and Idaho. Arizona is right there.

Here is a video I found: This person is wondering the same thing: If Bundy
ever was in AZ. Here again, no real proof, only the suggestion of him being in
Arizona.
This video has the author raising the same questions as I had. It really could
have happened. As a reminder, it was hard to track someone in the 70s. He could
have easily paid cash for gas as a lot of us did at that time. I believe this was why
he got away with murdering so many girls because it was so hard to track
someone. The 70s was also a time when we were raised to help others, which was
the downfall of the victims.

YouTube Video, “Ted Bundy was Active in Arizona.”

Next is a video and I provided the transcript to read. Three women claimed to have been chased by a well-dressed man in a cream-colored VW bug. Listen and see.

BuzzFeed Video, “Was My Mom Followed By Ted Bundy?”

My mom was followed by a murderer, and this is that story.
All right so this story goes all the way back to the mid-1970s.
So, this is my mom’s junior year of high school.
Well it was the end of her junior year of high school, I guess I should say.
Actually, it was the start of her summer vacation.
It was a beautiful day so my mom, her sister, and her friend, decided to take a little day trip.
So, the three of them hop in the car and they’re off.
So, it takes them about two and a half hours to get there.
They’re listening to the radio, talking about things they wanna do for the summer, and eventually
they arrive at their destination, Oak Creek Canyon Park.
So, for context this trip and this entire story is all taking place in Northern Arizona.
The park they’re at sits in the middle of Coconino National Forest.
So, one of the main reasons they wanted to go to this park is because it’s absolutely gorgeous over there. There’s trees, mountains…
One of the things they notice when they get there is that it is very open.
Almost too open.  So, they park their car in a small parking lot and they start scoping out an area for them to hang out.  They end up plopping down at a small pond
by the park with plans to just hang out for a few hours.  They had bought some food, they were maybe gonna do a picnic.  They didn’t really know, other than the fact
that they were just enjoying, that summer had just begun.
I feel like it’s important to mention that my mom has been to this park before.
She’s been there a few times with some friends and what not.  But it was very empty that day.
Which was strange for such a nice day. Anyway, so there they are just hanging out,
when suddenly my mom notices a man across the pond. A couple minutes go by and my mom is sitting there trying to stay engaged in the conversation with her sister, when she stares back across the pond. The man is still standing there.
He’s staring at them, rubbing his chin thoughtfully like, I see you.
Obviously, my mom’s first thought is, “what they hell is this guy doing out here by himself?”
and “why is he staring at us like that?” Trying her best not to stare back she does a few quick glances at best and she notices his clothes. He’s really well dressed.
Which is just another weird detail that didn’t seem to add up to my mom.
“We should just move to another area. “I’m getting really creeped out”, she thought to herself.
After deciding that the situation isn’t normal, she gets the attention
of her sister and her friend, pointing at the man staring
at them across the pond. They tell her she’s overthinking it
and she’s just being crazy. He’s probably there just enjoying
the park like anyone else would. It is a public park after all.
And you know they were probably right. People are allowed to be outside.
People are allowed to go to public parks. Whatever. Still feeling uneasy, my mom tries her best
to go back to just enjoying her day. Out of the corner of her eye,
she notices a slight movement. Instantly her eyes dart back across the pond.
The man isn’t there anymore. Suddenly she catches sight of the man.
He’s walking along the edge of the pond, headed their direction.
The scariest part, he was walking with intention. He was walking toward them.
And to my mom, that was it. So as to not escalate the situation
any further, because my mom had no idea what was going to happen, my mom
softly but sternly pointed out the man walking across the pond.
Finally, they all agree that something wasn’t right about this situation,
and that they should move, now. As quickly and quietly as they could,
they gathered their things and headed back to the car.
All the while, my mom is sneaking glances at him. He was still there, walking with an even
quicker pace than he was before. Closing in on where they had just been seconds before.
My mom will say to this day, she had the worst feeling in the pit of her stomach.
She was practically hyperventilating. Out of fear, instinct, caution,
whatever you wanna call it, my mom picks up a rock on the way to the car.
They reach the car; they throw their stuff in the trunk and they pile in.
My mom is hunched over in the back seat clutching the rock for dear life.
She peaks out the back window as the car starts.
She doesn’t see him. Wherever he was, they needed to get outta there.
With the tires practically squealing out of the parking lot, they race
down the same road they drove in on. At this point, everyone’s eyes
are glued to the rearview mirror. “So that was weird,” my mom thought to herself.
Rock in hand, my mom was definitely shaken up.
My mom’s sister, the one who was driving the car, quickly looks in the rearview mirror,
and she says, “oh my god look.” The energy in the air, they felt cold.
They just felt wrong. Slowly my mom peers out the back window one more time.
To her horror, she sees a car emerging from the same parking lot, following them.
She’ll never forget the feeling of watching a yellowish, cream-colored, Volkswagen Beetle
slowly gaining ground on them.
Now, everyone was truly terrified. What did this person want?
Why was he following them? All my mom knew was this person is evil.
She could feel it. Her sister floors the gas peddle,
and luckily, they were able to maintain a distance between themselves and this man.
Eventually they get to a gas station, and they pull over to what they hope is safety.
To their surprise, and ultimately their relief, the man drives right by them.
My mom, my mom’s sister and her friend, they were all really unsettled by the whole thing.
Now, you’re probably wondering why I just told you that story, please don’t go anywhere.
I’m about to explain the craziest part. So about 15 years go by.
My mom’s just at home, minding her own business watching the news, when she sees
that convicted serial killer Ted Bundy is about to be sentenced to death.
She’s watching the news learning more about this man, and she learns that he was well dressed,
he drove a yellow, cream-colored Volkswagen Beetle, and he committed several murders in Colorado. Which is right about Arizona.
And as she’s watching the news, the phone rings. My mom’s sister, my aunt who was with her
when this happened all those years ago, is watching the same broadcast when she calls my mom.
And without even saying hello, the very first thing my aunt says is,
“Do you think it was him?” And without missing a beat, my mom slowly says,
“I know it was him.”

Now, I know you might be thinking that Ted didn’t chase his victims, but he
did chase Carol DaRonch after she got away so he could have done that. So, he
was not above chasing his victims.

There are many missing girls from Ted Bundy’s timeline, and we may never
know if he killed them or not. There are several missing girls from this timeline in
Arizona. The ones that stick out for me are 2 sisters that went missing in 1974. If
you check the timeline, you can see he was active in all states in 1974. He could
have easily come down to Arizona and tricked those girls in his car. He could have
had another car he was using too.
The first two are sisters who both went missing on July 31st, 1974. They
were 13 and 15 years old. Bundy was very active during 1974 and is confirmed to
have murdered two young women near Seattle. Two weeks later the two Arizona
girls go missing. Could he be responsible? And why would he have traveled that
far? Well, Bundy had moved to Utah for law school during this time, which is a
state above Arizona, why wouldn’t he also travel to Arizona?

The third unsolved Arizona missing female went missing on February 17, 1975. She was a beautiful 22-year-old woman, Bundy’s type. Bundy has a known murder in January of that year, and March, but February is missing. Again, the times line up. (I will find info on this third girl and hand it over to Jessica to cover.)

Here is the story of the missing sisters:

On July 31st, 1974, Cindy Leslie, 15 and Jackie Leslie, 13 disappeared from
Mesa, Arizona. They were both born to parents, Jack, and Erma Leslie. Cindy
Leslie was born on February 1st, 1959, and Jackie Leslie on February 15th, 1961.
Cindy was 5’6 and 109 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. Jackie had brown
hair and blue eyes and was 110 pounds at 5’4.

Their parents, Jack, and Erma Leslie had been at church and their
grandmother was home at the time the girls left. She later told police, Cynthia had
received a phone call just before leaving, wrote a note to her parents, and left with
Jackie. That warm July evening, the two girls were seen walking down Baseline
Road away from their home at the Desert Sands Mobile Home Park, near the
intersection at Sossaman Road. They had left a note for their parents saying they
were going to babysit at the “same place,” referencing a family’s home where they
had babysat before.

Erma later learned that the girls had planned on going to a party about three
blocks from their residence on Power Road. Cynthia wanted to see a boy that her
parents had forbidden her to see. It is not clear if they ever arrived at the party.
Some who attended said they never arrived; others who went said they did attend.
That evening when the girls didn’t arrive home. Erma worriedly slept on the
couch waiting for them.
Remember this was a time before cell phones, GPS, and the Internet. The
only means they had was to either leave a note or call on a landline. They lived at a

time when Phoenix and the surrounding areas were still quite rural. You could
smell the sweet orange blossoms drifting from the acres of orchards; families still
sat outside their homes chatting and backyard barbecues brought families together.
At that time Phoenix was still safe and no one worried about their daughters being
out.
The girls left a note that they were going to go babysit. The girls were seen
walking down Baseline Road away from their house. This was the last time they
would be seen. Back in 1974, it was a remote desert surrounded by cotton fields
and orange groves. Police searched the area, but no evidence of the girls was ever
found.
It was a time when kids could run around outside, and parents weren’t
concerned about murderers wandering the streets preying upon their children.

Or at least that was the perception.
At the time of the girl’s disappearance, the Leslie family was new to the
desert mobile home community. They had moved from Page, Arizona, about four
hours north. Jack Leslie, their father, had terminal lung cancer so they moved to be
closer to his doctors but sadly, Jack passed away seven months after his daughters
disappeared.

Erma says the girls would have never left during their father’s illness as they were
very close. Forty-four years later, the girls’ mother Erma Leslie, and their sister
continue the search despite the lack of evidence and the amount of time passed. “I
was sure that they would call me and tell me to come and get them,” Erma said.
“But it didn’t happen. It still hasn’t happened.”
As deputies ran out of theories and leads, Erma took charge. She brought fliers to
sheriff’s departments in Arizona and southern California.
Desperate for answers, she visited a psychic in the Los Angeles area who told her
at the time the girls were alive and near water, so she drove up the California coast
looking for them.
She received an anonymous phone call from Casa Grande from someone who said
Cindy and Jackie were on a train that was going to go through Douglas, Arizona.
Erma and Linda drove there and searched the train, but didn’t find anything.

A Report by Ted Bundy to King County, January 26, 1973.

A Preliminary Research Proposal written by Theodore R. Bundy (consultant to Department of Budget & Program Planning) for King County, ‘Misdemeanants who Recidivate,’ dated January 26, 1973. Document courtesy of the Internet Archives, user ‘Marionumber1.’ From February to the end of April in 1973 Bundy worked for King County Program Planning.

David Lee.

“I noticed a VW Bug coming out of the alleyway behind Oscar Woerners Restaurant (no headlights). I came up behind it and I activated my blue lights at the same time I was running the tag, and the tag came back as a stolen vehicle. I didn’t have a backup anywhere close by, there was only three of us working in the entire city of Pensacola that night. I got him out of the car, and had him lay on the pavement. He kept saying, ‘officer, what’s wrong? officer, what’s wrong?'” … “Initially when I was placing the handcuffs on him he kicked my feet out from under me and struck me with a handcuff that had been placed on one wrist. And it of course knocked me off my feet and that’s when it started.” … “I was chasing him hollering ‘halt’ and so forth, well he turned and all I’d seen was a nickle and thought it was a gun. So I leveled down and fired… so I said wow, my God. I killed him.” … “well I went and seen if he was shot. And I bent down and he grabbed my wrist and we had a struggle for my revolver. And it’s a heavy pistol and when I broke it away I swung and slapped him on the cheek. And if you see pictures right after the suspect was arrested there’s a big bruise on the side of his cheek, and thay was from my pistol barrel. There’s no doubt in my mind he would have killed me if he would have gotten my gun away from me.”
– David Lee.

Rick Garzaniti’s stolen VW.
Rick Garzaniti’s stolen VW.
The tags on Rick Garzaniti’s stolen VW.
Officer David Lee.
Ted’s bruise (circled in red), photo courtesy of OddStops.
Oscar Woerner’s Restaurant in Pensacola, Florida.

KCSO: Third Installment of Bundy investigation photos: Janice and Jim Ott color photos.

The third installment of Ted Bundy-related records released by the KCSO Public Disclosure Unit. On July 14, 1974 23 year-old Janice Ann Ott disappeared from Lake Sammamish State Park, after having been last seen leaving the area with a young man that called himself ‘Ted’. Her skeletal remains were found by  two grouse hunters four miles from the park on September 7, 1974.’ Photos courtesy of the ‘Internet Archives’/Maria Serban.

Photo 1/18. Courtesy of Maria Serban.
Photo 2/18. Courtesy of Maria Serban.
Photo 3/18. Courtesy of Maria Serban.
Photo 4/18. Courtesy of Maria Serban.
Photo 5/18. Courtesy of Maria Serban.
Photo 6/18. Courtesy of Maria Serban.
Photo 7/18. Courtesy of Maria Serban.
Photo 8/18. Courtesy of Maria Serban.
Photo 9/18. Courtesy of Maria Serban.
Photo 10/18. Courtesy of Maria Serban.
Photo 11/18. Courtesy of Maria Serban.
Photo 12/18. Courtesy of Maria Serban.
Photo 13/18. Courtesy of Maria Serban.
Photo 14/18. Courtesy of Maria Serban.
Photo 15/18. Courtesy of Maria Serban.
Photo 16/18. Courtesy of Maria Serban.
Photo 17/18. Courtesy of Maria Serban.
Photo 18/18. Courtesy of Maria Serban.

Bundy Vehicles.

  • Like I usually do, I’m relying on the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992‘ for my information on this article but I’m also heavily depending on a piece my friend Erin Banks wrote to help fill in the gaps and fix the inaccuracies (I posted the link to her article below).
  • The first time I remember Bundy commenting on a vehicle was when he was talking about his stepfather’s car: he said that he often felt humiliated being seen in Johnnie’s run-down old Rambler. Fun fact: Ted apparently learned how to drive at 15 (before he legally had his license).
  • Despite consistently owning cars Ted was known to borrow vehicles from loved ones and acquaintances:
  • Around 1969 he borrowed his cousins car for an entire summer after Diane Edwards ended their romance (I don’t know any other details).
  • He not only had Mrs. Ferris’ (from his days at the Seattle Yacht Club) drive him places he also borrowed her car on occasion. Despite scouring the internet I couldn’t find what the make and model of her vehicle was.
  • Bundy often “borrowed” his gf’s Liz Kloepfer’s 1973 light blue Beetle (on two occasions she thinks he took it without asking).
  • Ted was an accomplished car thief long before his jail breaks began in 1977: he had a lengthy juvenile record that Louise Bundy helped pay to have sealed when he turned eighteen (as to not potentially damper his “bright future”).
  • In September 1965, Bundy bought his first car: a 1933 Plymouth Coupe with money he earned working as a forklift operator working at ‘City Lights Tacoma’ (he was also a student at the time at the University of Puget Sound). 
  • In April 1966 he sold the Coupe to put money towards a pale blue 1958 VW Bug. It was smaller, more reliable and got better gas mileage than his clunky old car.
  • Bundy owned a white pickup truck at some point in time (I couldn’t find much information about that particular vehicle). I could have sworn I read somewhere that it was his brothers truck but when I looked into it I couldn’t find any information on it. According to the TB Multiagency Report he owned it until late 1975 (November/December). 
  • A blurb from the website ‘the outline’ mentions that Ted’s friend Marlin Vortman owned a VW Bug similar to the one he drove; I wonder if this is the ‘Washington TAG OYU-19 (7-18-1973) Owned by friend of Bundy, King County Washington,  Make/Model Unknown’ mentioned in the TB Multiagency Report.
  • At some time in the spring of 1973 Ted purchased his infamous tan 1968 VW Bug from a woman named Martha Helms. Countless murder victims (many of them unknown) across multiple states were inside of this car. On August 15, 1975, Bundy fled the scene in this vehicle when Utah Highway Patrol officer Bob Hayward tried to pull him over in Granger. When Officer Haywood eventually caught up to him and searched it he found: “a crowbar behind the driver’s seat, a box of large green plastic garbage bags, an ice pick, a flashlight, a pair of gloves, torn strips of sheeting, a knit ski mask, a pair of handcuffs, and a strange mask made from pantyhose.” Law enforcement also observed that the passengers seat had been removed and placed in the back seat. Bundy was arrested for evading an officer and was released the next day on bail (there was nothing found in the car at the time linking him to any additional crimes). When the Bug was impounded after Ted was arrested forensic experts found DNA in it that helped link him to the murders. In 1978, SLC Sheriff’s Deputy Lonnie Anderson bought the death wagon for $925 (US) and it sat for in storage for almost twenty years. Deputy Anderson put it up for sale for $25,000 in 1997 and it was purchased by a well-known Murderabilia collector named Arthur Nash. In 2010 Nash leased it to the ‘National Crime And Punishment Museum’ in Washington DC and when that museum closed in 2015 it was moved to the ‘East Alcatraz Crime Museum.’ At one point Nash said he had plans to have the vehicle swabbed for DNA however as of April 2023 this has not happened. Who even knows if there would be any usable genetic information remaining after so much time has passed? I think one of my favorite Bundy back-and-forth’s is whether or not he removed the VW’s door handle (I don’t think he did). Looking into the particular make and model of Beetle it doesn’t seem that it was as easy as just taking a few screws out of the mechanism and popping out the handle: you most likely needed to take the entire door panel off and it was a process. I know unconfirmed (and living) Bundy victims Sotria Kritsonis and Rhonda Stapley both claim that the man that lured them into his VW Bug removed the inside door handle, however no one else reported ever seeing this. Liz never commented that she was ever in his car without a passenger’s side handle on occasion, nor did any of his other friends.
  • Thanks to a lot of time spent digging I was finally able to come across a small snippet of information I’ve only seen in one source: On the afternoon of Saturday. February 10, 1978 Ted made his first attempt to depart Tallahassee, FL (he had killed Kim Leach the day before): sometime between 4 and 6 PM he started looking inside parked cars for keys left in the ignition. Within minutes he found a 1975 Toyota in the parking lot of an auto repair shop and was off. He took the car back to The Oak (where he watched TV with a friend for awhile, Frances Messier) then went out for the night. That same time Tallahassee Police Officer Roy Dickey was sitting in an unmarked patrol car trying to find information related to the Chi Omega case. He saw Bundy walking near his vehicle and said Bundy noticed him immediately. and made a quick getaway. When he arrived back at The Oak he immediately started packing the stolen Toyota. dickey he had parked it about a block away. Around 1 AM Deputy Keith Dawes was doing patrol and came across Bundy “locking or unlocking a car door.” The officer said that where the individual didn’t do anything in particular to warrant his attention he was still drawn to him for an unknown reason. Deputy Dawes got out of his patrol car and approached Bundy, immediately asking him for ID. Ted quickly said he didn’t have any on him but mentioned he’d just come out to grab something quick from his car. When the officer asked “where do you live” he answered almost without thinking, “College Avenue.” As they continued to chat a bit the officer started looking around the vehicle with his flashlight and spotted a single license plate in the backseat. When questioned about it Bundy said that he had found it laying around somewhere and wasn’t sure exactly what to do with it. It was then that he got spooked and quickly (and successfully) sprinted away. The car and property inside of it was immediately impounded (Sullivan, The Bundy Murders).
  • On February 12, 1978 at around 11 AM Bundy attempted to steal a white 1972 Mazda but didn’t make it very far: there was a sort of “shimmy” in the front end and it wasn’t safe to operate. He quickly ditched it for something else.
  • Immediately after Ted ditched the Mazda he found a VW Bug but realized almost right away it was somebody’s baby (just by the way it was souped up and decorated). He quickly got rid of it (he has a conscience about a car but not for human life?).
  • Bundy eventually came across an orangish-red 1972 Volkswagen Beetle owned by Rick Garzaniti, who had purchased the car in April 1974. The evening of February 12, 1978 Garzaniti went to a buddy’s house and left the keys in the car (he didn’t plan on staying long) but got distracted by a Burt Reynolds movie (haven’t we all?). He left it parked behind the friends residence in an alleyway. When Rick eventually went to leave he discovered his car had vanished; he immediately reported it as stolen. Three days later he got a call from law enforcement letting him know that his vehicle had been found however it was being held as evidence; it wasn’t released to him until almost two months later. When he finally got it back it was covered in dark black fingerprint powder, a sizable chunk was missing from the upholstery, and the backseat was gone. Additionally Garzaniti found some items in it that didn’t belong to him, including several license plates and some random bicycle parts.
Works Cited.
Ted’s vehicle history according to the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992.’
An interesting factoid I stumbled upon in my research thanks to Erin Banks/CrimePiper.
A blurb from the website ‘theoutline’ mentions the fact that Ted’s friend Marlon Vortman owned a VW Bug similar to the one he drove; I wonder if this is the ‘Washington TAG OYU-19 (7-18-1973) Owned by friend of Bundy, King County Washington, Make/Model Unknown” in the TB Multiagency Report.
A notation about Marlin Vortman from the ‘Ted Bundy and File 1004 documents from Seattle PD’ document, courtesy of the ‘Internet Archives’.
A 1965 “Rambler” style type car that Mr. Bundy drove (Ted hated it). Erin Banks commented that he “considered it to be a mediocre car for people of the lower middle class.”
A 1933 Plymouth Coupe. What a neat old car…
A car similar to Bundy’s first VW: a pale blue, 1958 Bug.
Bundy’s infamous tan VW. On September 19, 1975 he tried to get rid of it by selling it to Bryan Severson, an 18 year old high school senior for $800 (US) after giving it a very deep cleaning (obviously to remove any lingering forensic evidence).
The front of Bundys tan VW.
The inside passengers side door of Ted’s VW Bug. As you can see, the door handle is in tact.
An excerpt of Ann Rule’s “The Stranger Beside Me” mentioning how Liz (in this she’s called Meg) told police that Ted often borrowed her car.
Bryan Severson, photo courtesy of Chris Mortensen/Erin Banks.
Arthur Nash, current owner of Bundy’s tan VW Bug.
A ‘robin’s egg blue’ 1973 VW Beetle much like the one Liz drove. On two separate occasions she speculates Ted took her car without asking her permission. As Banks points out in her article, “there are certainly many who believe that Bundy began murdering prior to 1974 as well, and may have used Kloepfer’s car in the hope that should police become suspicious of him, they would not forensically examine her VW.”
The ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992’ mentioning Bundy stealing the white van from FSU on February 5, 1978.
The white FSU van Bundy stole and abducted Kim Leach in.
The inside of the van Bundy stole from FSU.
A record of Ted stealing the green 1975 Toyota on February 10, 1978 according to the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992.’
A white 1972 Mazda.
A rare act of abstaining for Bundy, excerpt from Kevin Sullivan’s ‘The Bundy Murders: A Comprehensive History Paperback.”
In 1978, Rick Garzaniti sold his reddish-orange VW Bundy stole earlier that same year for $1,300 (US) to a 16 year old girl (it was her first car, her Dad bought it for her).
The back of Rick Garzaniti’s VW.
According to the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992,’ Ted stole Garzaniti’s VW on February 12, 1978.
A 1966 brown VW Bug.
A 1966 blue Cadillac.
Some misc. car related information related to Bundy from the ‘Ted Bundy and File 1004 documents from Seattle PD’ document, courtesy of the ‘Internet Archives’.