On July 14th, 1974, Ted Bundy abducted two women from Lake Sammamish state park in Issaquah, Washington. That bright and cheerful afternoon, Bundy approached Janice Ann Ott and Denise Marie Naslund in broad daylight and asked them to assist him unload a sailboat at his parent’s house. Bundy donned a fake sling and explained that his arm was injured and that he was unable to unload it by himself. He also claimed that his parent’s house was ‘just up the hill.’
The abductions of Ott and Naslund occurred separately, just four hours apart. On both of these occasions, he convinced his victim to get into his Volkswagen Bug and accompany him to his sailboat, which in reality did not exist. Once his victims got into his car, it is likely that he immediately drove them to a secluded dump site in Issaquah known as Tiger Mountain and murdered them. This is the same site where Ott and Naslund’s skeletal remains were discovered roughly two months later.
Janice Ann Ott was abducted at around 12.30 PM; three and a half hours after her abduction Bundy returned to look for a second victim, Denise Naslund. At roughly 4:30 PM, he approached Denise Naslund by the restrooms and, using the same technique he used with Ott, was able to convince her to help him as well.
During the investigation into the disappearance of Ott and Naslund, it emerged that a man calling himself “Ted” had approached multiple women at Lake Sammamish that afternoon in 1974. Bundy’s decision to kidnap two women within four hours of each other was a brazen deviation from the norm. Because of this, many Bundy Scholars have speculated that he was attempting to “increase his high” by attacking two women at the same time. In other words, it is speculated that he may have incapacitated Janice Ott, gagged her (not killing her) and then returned to the park to search for a second victim. Although Bundy did insinuate that one had to watch the other die, this “confessin” was during one of his third-person pseudo-confessions to Stephen Michaud. We also know that Ted was a narcissist and a habitual liar who loved to paint himself as a bold and highly-intelligent serial killer. Therefore, we need to be extremely careful about taking his word as fact.
It has been hypothesized that Bundy tied Ott to a tree and then left her there. The area in question was pretty secluded and it is fairly unlikely that someone would have stumbled upon her, especially if she was gagged. Another plausible theory is that Bundy murdered Ott before he returned to Lake Sammamish with his second victim. There is a noticeable gap between the abduction of Ott at 12.30 PM and Bundy’s return to the park at around 4 PM and if we take into account the length of the journey between the park and the dump site, then it means that he was with Ott for 2-3 hours. That seems like a lot of time if the original plan was to kidnap two women and then attack them at the same time. His decision to hunt for a second victim may have also been driven by other factors. For example, an event may have occurred during the murder of Janice Ott which prevented Bundy from achieving sexual gratification. At this point in time we’ll most likely never really know.
Janice Blackburn-OttJanice Blackburn-OttJanice Ott and her husband Jim.1974 was an eventful time for 23 year old Janice: she not only graduated from Eastern Washington State College, but she also had to come to terms with her husband moving away to California for school. She remained in Issaquah and worked as a probation case worker at the King County Youth Service Center in Seattle.Denise Marie Naslund.An old, aerial photograph of Lake Sammamish State Park, photo courtesy of King County Archives.This aerial map of Lake Sammamish state park shows the exact locations where Bundy approached Janice Ott and Denise Naslund. It also pinpoints the general area where Bundy’s VW Beetle was parked. Bundy approached Ott at 12.30 PM while she was sunbathing on the beach. Then, four hours later, he lured Naslund away from the restrooms by the parking lot. In 2022, the restroom in question no longer exists, photo courtesy of oddstops.com.The afternoon of the abduction Bundy parked his VW Beetle in the middle of the car park, photo courtesy of thisinterestsme.com.This aerial image of Lake Sam shows where Denise and her friends were sitting. Additionally it highlights the location of the restrooms, photo courtesy of thisinterestsme.com.On July 14th, 1974, Ted Bundy abducted two women from Lake Sammamish state park in Issaquah, Washington, photo courtesy of oddstops.com.An aerial photograph of the park from 1977; not much about it has changed, photo courtesy of oddstops.com/USGS.This map from the King County Sheriff’s Office shows the exact locations where Bundy approached several women, photo courtesy of oddstops.com. A Google Maps Street View image of the parking lot at the park; during the abduction of Ott, Bundy’s VW was parked beyond the cars that are circled in red, photo courtesy of thisinterestsme.com.It would have taken roughly 10-15 minutes to drive between Lake Sam and the dump site at Issaquah. The route in question is about four miles long. Driving this exact same route yesterday it was eerily close, he truly was fearless.A newspaper article about the disappearance of Ott and Naslund.Following Ott and Naslund’s disappearance, the police released a composite sketch of the suspect. After Liz saw it in the newspaper along with the name “Ted” she immediately began to suspect that it was him, photo courtesy of oddstops.com.An off-duty DEA agent named Kelly Snyder was at Lake Samammish that day. He was close enough to witness Bundy approaching Janice Ott. “I noticed a guy that was walking down the beach. A young man. Probably in his mid-to-late twenties. He was wearing white shorts and they had a red stripe, which immediately caught my eye. When he got close, I noticed he had really curly hair and his left arm was in a sling. It piqued my interest because every time he approached a woman, or a group of two or three women, he was getting turned down. And I just kept watching him and he eventually ended up being right in front of me, where he approached a young girl. She was a young and attractive blonde girl. And he asked her… words to the effect of… ‘I need some help.’ She’s saying that she just got here… So obviously, going through her mind is ‘I’d like to help you out, but I’m here to relax.’ He kept on and on and on, and he talks her into whatever he talked her into. He said something about a catamaran. And ultimately, she gets up… reluctantly… because her head is down and she is like ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this.’ And then she started walking back past me. She had this frown on her face, like, ‘I’m helping this guy when I should be enjoying myself on the beach.’ And the end the result is she’s no longer with us because she was a nice person.” Photo courtesy of oddstops.com.A picture of a younger Eleanor Rose, Denise’s Mother.Mrs. Eleanor Rose, Mother of Denise Naslund taken on July 28, 1974. Denise was studying to become a computer programmer and worked part time to help pay her way through night school. Mrs. Rose said Denise had the kind of helpful nature that could place her in danger with the man who called himself “Ted.”This is Eleanor Rose, the mother of Denise Naslund. Ms. Rose left her daughters bedroom the same as it was in 1974 for many years after her abduction. Regarding her daughters abduction Ms. Rose has said, ‘I don’t think anything will ever been the same again or anywhere near it. Part of me is gone and I don’t know what I’m going to do.’ Denise was the last of the known eight ‘Ted’ victims in Washington state.Dr. DE Blackburn and his wife while in Seattle looking for their daughter, taken on July 28, 1974.James Ott is showed here on August 18, 1974 posting the first of hundreds of missing posters asking for information about Janice, who had been missing for five weeks at that point. He posted this it in front of the King County Juvenile Court, which had offered office space as well as the part time help of a probation officer, Carol Hasman, to the ‘Janice Ott Committee to find the Missing Woman.’Police arrive at Lake Sam, photo courtesy of oddstops.com.A still image from a video taken at Lake Sam the day Ott and Naslund were abducted from. Just about 40,000 people visited the state park the afternoon of Ott and Naslunds disappearance. It was sunny and the temperature ranged between 80 to 90 degrees, photo courtesy of oddstops.com.At around 4:30 PM, Denise Naslund went to the bathroom by the parking lot and never came back. It wasn’t long before her boyfriend and friends realized that something was wrong. Don’t forget that only four hours earlier Janice Ott went missing at the same park. Due to the fact that a few other women had recently gone missing in the Seattle area, everyone was well aware that a predator was on the loose, so the authorities immediately responded to the scene, photo courtesy of oddstops.com.A Picture of a VW parked in the front row of cars at Lake Sammamish on Sunday, July 14, 1974. Behind it is a line of police vehicles blocking it, as they dealt with a problem pertaining to a biker gang that was taking place close to where the car was parked. The photo appears to have been taken in the afternoon, obviously before Denise Naslund was led away by Bundy. Years later, when Bob Keppel questioned Bundy about the photo (Keppel believed it was Bundy’s Bug), Bundy recognized the scene and said “law-breakers,” insinuating that he knew what was happening there. What follows is from the record: Keppel: “Is that you? It’s Lake Sammamish State Park, 1974. The tree, cops roll in and take care of the …” Bundy: “Law breakers.” Keppel: “Ya?” Bundy: “Well, I mean, we’re in the ballpark.” By saying “law breakers” and telling Keppel he was in the ballpark, Bundy was admitting he had personal knowledge concerning what was taking place. When Keppel asked him about the car, believing it was his and wanting him to admit it, Bundy responded “Well, I—is it?” Bundy knew that wasn’t his car, but he was telling the investigator he was in the ballpark, meaning hid own Beetle was nearby. Photo courtesy of oddstops.com.One picture taken at the park that day Ott and Naslund vanished that shows a light colored VW Bug in the background, photo courtesy of oddstops.com.The police showed up at the park to deal with a group of bikers, photo courtesy of oddstops.com.A sign at the entrance of Lake Sammamish Park, April 2022.Beach at Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Beach at Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Beach at Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Beach at Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Concession stand at Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.A sign at Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Beach at Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Beach at Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.
So, it’s common knowledge that everything Ted Bundy has been done before. Whether it be books. Movies. Documentaries. Podcasts. It’s mostly the same information over and over again. On one hand, we know next to nothing about his crimes but what we do know has been studied and analyzed TO. DEATH. Finding content that is still engaging, relevant, and ‘fresh’ has been a bit of a challenge. So, this article is going to be about a brick. Yes, that’s right: I am writing the equivalent of a 5-page paper around a brick I found on campus at the University of Puget Sound.
Unfortunately, I’m not finding my summer course as easy as I was hoping it would be, so I haven’t been able to write as much as I would like to. In April when I was in Washington, I spent over 24 hours in Tacoma (complete with missing my bus back to Seattle so I had to stay overnight at their lovely Comfort Inn & Suites). Most of my sightseeing involved many house-visits (I went to Ted’s Uncle Jack’s former residence, all three Bundy homes, and little Ann Marie Burrs old house), but what I found to be the most pleasant of my sightseeing was my visit to the University of Puget Sound. I know only my friends really care about ME, but I’m a fairly social person and not having very much human contact during my eight-day trip had a very negative affect on my mental health. I feel it was a combination of the loneliness mixed with the negativity that almost clung in the atmosphere around me that made me feel despondent. I noticed this feeling got exponentially worse when I rented a vehicle and started going to 8-9 places a day. I came home and was an absolute raging megabitch to my husband for a good 3-4 weeks and I have no explanation for it. A darkness crept into my head that I’ve never felt before. When I went to Philadelphia, I made sure it was just an overnight trip (even though I was tempted to stay a second night I went home immediately) and any Bundy related traveling in the future will be done with a girlfriend.
Anyways, the point of my rambling is, my visit to The University of Puget Sound stands out a bit in my mind because I was around other people and was able to interact a bit with some students and professionals. I feel SO bad because I never got their names but the girls at the university-run café were VERY sweet and patiently answered all of my questions and even pretended to be interested in my project. So, if any of you are reading this (I told them the name of the blog) thank you for your time and insights; I really enjoyed my cup of earl gray as well. I do want to mention, I drank a LOT of tea in Seattle: there were Starbucks and bubble tea shops EVERYWHERE. Seriously, every other storefront was a coffee shop. I know I’ve expressed in previous posts that I was hesitant to bring up the purpose of my visit during my time in Washington because I didn’t want to rub anyone the wrong way or seem disrespectful, but if I didn’t start talking to these lovely young women I would have missed out on a few REALLY cool Bundy-related things, one of which I’ve never seen before. I also learned that Mrs. Bundy worked at the university during the time of the murders and that she even has a memorial stone near their fountain on campus (I thought she worked in the office at her church until she retired). Louise worked as a secretary for the communications and theater departmentsinthe oldest building on campus, Jones Hall. The girls excitedly went on to tell me about how he lived on campus in either Schiff or Anderson/Langdon Hall but… unfortunately after some research I learned that information was incorrect: Ted lived at home with his family in Tacoma during his first stint at the university, and when he returned in 1973 for law school he resided at the Rogers rooming house on 12th Avenue in Seattle. So, logically I immediately ran over and got a few million photos of both buildings. They also told me that the law school used to be in Thompson Hall, which also unfortunately isn’t true: I asked a woman who appeared friendly where the former law school was located, and she informed me that it was completely off campus. She seemed to be around my mothers age and seemed only mildly interested in answering my question: when the friend she was waiting for arrived she stopped talking to me mid-sentence and went over to say hello. So, whatever…
So, to the girls at the cafe: one out of three ain’t bad… Interestingly, the law school eventually was moved from Tacoma to Seattle and now goes by a completely different name, the Seattle University School of Law. It is described as a ‘professional graduate school affiliated with Seattle University.’ So, perhaps Bundy wasn’t too off track when he said it was subpar, as it obviously needed some form of revamping. The brick was a neat find though, and the campus was really pretty. I also got some pictures of the communications/theater building where Mrs. Bundy worked. I read an article that in over that years ago, Tacoma librarians had to worry about yearbooks being destroyed because Bundyphiles would rip out entire pages that had Ted’s pictures on them (he attended Woodrow Wilson High School, now called the Dr. Dolores Silas HS). However, they said more recently people have stopped inquiring about the serial killer and his name has faded into nothingness… Perhaps this is because everything about Bundy is simply a Google search away? I don’t think it’s because interest in Ted has faded… in fact, I think it’s the complete opposite.
I am going to say that it was incredibly eerie being on the school grounds knowing there was a good chance that Ted *may* have disposed of little Ann Marie Burr’s body there, somewhere on campus. It’s a well-known theory that the young girl could have been Bundy’s first victim in late August of 1961 when he was 14 and she was just 8. Two of my favorite Bundy myths are associated with the Burr case, the first is that Bundy was the family’s paperboy at the time of Ann’s disappearance (he wasn’t). The Burrs lived 3.1 miles away from the Bundy’s (which is only a 20-minute bike ride), and only 0.1 miles away from the University of Puget Sound. My second favorite is that Ted’s Uncle Jack Cowell was Ann’s piano teacher; he wasn’t.
The school was in the middle of a large expansion project at the time in the summer of 1961, and was in the middle of constructing eight new buildings on campus. Donald Burr claimed that he saw a teenage boy that resembled Bundy digging a hole in a construction site and kicking dirt into it on the schools campus the morning his daughter disappeared. By the time law enforcement got around to investigating it was too late, and the project had advanced to the point of not being able to find any trace of the little girl. If Bundy did indeed dispose of Ann Marie’s body somewhere on the campus at the University of Puget Sound it must have been a real rush to attend classes there: every time he went to a function on campus, he would have revisited a victim, in a way. After just two semesters he left the school in 1966 and transferred to the University of Washington for a brief period to study Chinese. Shortly after he dropped out of school completely and worked an array of menial jobs across Seattle while also volunteering for Nelson Rockefeller’s presidential campaign.
Bundy eventually got his shit together enough (after screwing around at Temple University in Philadelphia for six months in early 1969) and went back to the University of Washington, earning a Bachelor’s degree ‘with distinction’ in psychology in 1972. The following year he went back to the University at Puget Sound, this time for law school. He eventually dropped out again (this is a pattern with Ted) and got a job as the assistant director of the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Commission. I don’t mean to get too off track, but I just wanted to point out something I learned just now… it’s widely known that Diane Edwards was Ted’s first real heartbreak, and after he made a name for himself in Washington politics he won her back, even going to far as to propose marriage, which she happily accepted. However, on January 3, 1974, Ted coldly ended things with her without reason, essentially getting his revenge for being dumped by her years prior. It was the very next day that he assaulted and left for dead Karen Sparks, his first (confirmed) victim. I suppose I never thought about the timing of that breakup and how it worked around the murders. Anyways, as everyone knows Bundy moved to Salt Lake City in fall of 1974 and went on to attend the University of Utah’s law school until he was arrested by Bob Hayworth on August 16, 1975. The rest, as they say, is history…
Bundy denied any involvement with Ann Marie Burr’s disappearance. Before his death, the killer was even in correspondence with Beverly Burr, who pleaded with Ted for information about her daughter: ‘I feel like YOUR FIRST MURDER WAS OUR ANN MARIE BURR. The bench from the back yard was used to climb into the living room; the orchard next door was a dark setting for murder. What did you do with her tiny body?’ He wrote back saying that he knew nothing about Ann’s death. Because no real evidence connected anyone else to the crime, little Ann Marie’s case remains open to this day.
South Tacoma Way location of the University of Puget Sound School of Law, Tacoma, Washington, 1973. Photo courtesy of the University of Puget Sound.An old picture of the Norton Clapp Law Center at the University of Puget Sound School of Law.A more current picture of what used to be the Norton Clapp Law Center at the University of Puget Sound School of Law.The view walking up to the University of Puget Sound, 2022.THIS was a neat find, it’s something I NEVER would have discovered if I didn’t chat up the girls from the university café.I didn’t know Mrs. Bundy worked at the university; I was under the impression she was the secretary at her church and that was the job she held her entire career. But, like so many other things, I was wrong. I didn’t know Mrs. Bundy worked at the university; I was under the impression she was the secretary at her church and that was the job she held her entire career. But, like so many other things, I was wrong.Jones Hall at the University at Puget Sound where Mrs. Bundy worked for many years until her retirement, April 2022.A side view of the Burr house, April 2022. Can’t you see an adolescent Ted prowling around these bushes at night, peeking into the windows and going through trash… freaking weirdo.
“When I first saw that window open, I knew I would never see her again. I knew I would never know what happened.” … “It came to me, just like that. It was a strong feeling. When they were searching, I thought, ‘What’s the point?’ I knew she was gone, and we would never see her again.” – Beverly Burr interviewed by Rebecca Morris A photo of the Burr’s former house, and it was absolutely lovely, especially with the tree blossoming in the front, April 2022.The only signs of an intruder was the open living room window (left of the front door) and the footprint of someone wearing a sneaker. This photo is from 1961, I would have used one of my more recent ones but at the time of my visit the window was partially covered with bushes.An older picture of the Burr’s house and Ann Marie. Photo courtesy of Kevin Sullivan.Beverly Burr and her four children (Ann on far right). Fox Island, Summer 1960.Beverly Burr pregnant with Ann.Ann Marie Burr missing flyer, 1961.Letter to Ted Bundy from Beverly Burr, written May 20, 1986. Photo courtesy of murderintherain.com.Letter to Beverly Burr from Ted Bundy, written June 8, 1986. Photo courtesy of murderintherain.com.Ted’s Uncle Jacks house, April 2022. It is only 1.3 miles away from the Burr’s house.Ted’s Uncle Jack and his wife, Eleanor. At the time of his death in 2007 they were married for 63 years. He left behind two children: his daughter, Edna Martin and son, John DeCoville.Diane Edwards senior photo. She didn’t end up too bad, she married a VP at a major financial company, Wells Fargo.A photo of the Bundy home, 2012.A photo of the Bundy’s second home, April 2022.Google maps directions to Ann Maries house from the Bundy’s. “I had a feeling right then that I’d never see her again,” said Beverly Burr, Ann Marie’s mother.The walk from little Ann Marie’s house to the University of Puget Sound was absurdly short, just a little over 0.1 miles.A map of the Burrs neighborhood and where it was located compared to Bundy’s home and the University of Puget Sound, courtesy of Rebecca Morris.The 1965/66 portion of the ‘The FBI Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992’ showing he was at the University of Puget Sound in 1965/66.
Another Bundy Blog. 