Susan Ann Wickersham was born on November 21, 1955 to Roy and Sharon Wickersham of 905 SE Roosevelt Ave in Bend, Oregon. “Susie” (as she was called by family and friends) was 5’3” tall, weighed 110 pounds, and had medium length blonde hair.One of three children, at the time she disappeared Susan was 17 years old and had just completed her junior year at Bend High School. Family and friends described her as “a likable young lady with a bubbly, outgoing personality.”
In 1973, Bend, Oregon had a population of approximately 37,000* people and contained only one high school, and (for the most part) its residents were trusting and everyone residing there felt safe. At that time in the 1970’s hitchhiking was common (and legal), as people believed in the goodness of others. At roughly 11:30 PM on Wednesday July 11th, 1973, Susan dropped the family car off at the Sage Room Restaurant where her mother was employed after joyriding around town with a girlfriend (some conflicting reports say she was at a party with friends). Sharon let Susan borrow the vehicle on the condition that she return it before her shift ended. The restaurant has since closed but was located at 855 NW Wall Street in Bend, OR. Mrs. Wickersham asked her daughter if she wanted to sit and wait with her until the restaurant closed and they could drive home together, but Susan said she was going to hitch a ride with friends across the street in front of the Owl Pharmacy. When they didn’t show up she decided to trek the two miles home. Susan was last seen walking away from the drug store toward the intersection of Wall and Franklin streets wearing a ‘brown car coat,’ white slacks, white shoes and a blue and white checkered shirt; she was carrying a brown handbag.
After Susan never came home that summer night, the Wickersham family became frantic with worry and traveled all over Bend in hopes to locate their daughter. They showed anyone willing to look her picture, begging for any information they may know about what may have happened the night she disappeared. Police said that disappearances among young people at the time were a “dime a dozen” and theorized that she took off but would “turn up soon.” Mr. and Mrs. Wickersham immediately suspected foul play and told law enforcement that Susan didn’t runaway and would never leave voluntarily: she had a steady job and no problems in her personal or family life. Unfortunately they didn’t agree and suspected the teen ran away from home. In the months following Wickersham’s disappearance, police received multiple reports of possible sightings of her: former Bend Police Chief Emil Moen said they received calls that she was seen in Vancouver, Klamath Falls, Portland, and Bend. Most of these reports were from people who had seen girls that they felt looked like Susan. Two of them said she was in Klamath Falls a few days after Wickersham disappeared; another report was given by a salesman who said he recognized her as a girl he saw eating breakfast at a restaurant in Klamath Falls after he saw a story about Susan on the news. A Bend woman said that she spoke with a girl fitting Wickersham’s description at a bus stop in Klamath Falls. All reports lead to nothing. Wickershams little sister Rhonda McMurran said that “the police tried to tell them she had run away. I just don’t think they took it real seriously at the time. We knew better.” … “I just knew she was gone, but you still have to hold hope.” The family knew deep down that something bad had happened to their Susan. Because at first they weren’t taken seriously, the Wickersham family feels that law enforcement lost valuable time and evidence in the first few years after she disappeared. The police however claim that’s not true at all, and they did follow up on multiple leads and claim they made a real effort to locate her.
Denice Blake was at the Sage Room Restaurant waitressing the night Susan disappeared in 1973 and told police she remembers seeing her childhood friend briefly when she stopped in to return her mothers car. In 2015, Denice told KTVZ: “It was just a sunny ordinary day. This was Bend, Oregon in 1973, stuff like that didn’t happen here. I worked at the Sage Room Restaurant with (Susan’s) mom. She came in that day and we said ‘hi’ and exchanged greetings. A couple minutes later, I was waiting on a table and I saw her standing across the street in front of what was then the Owl Pharmacy, and the next time I happened to look out the window, she was gone.” A different eyewitness claimed to have seen Wickersham near the Tower Theater a little later on in the night.
On January 20, 1976, Susans remains were discovered about three to five miles south of Bend in the Deschutes River Woods; I read conflicting reports that said a man scouring the area for firewood stumbled upon them and others that said “a logger near a truck weigh station close to Highway 97 found her remains near a cinder pit.” With the body were some “personal items” and scraps of clothing that helped identify her. Like most other cases involving a “dump site” in a remote location, forest creatures had scattered Wickersham’s bones all over the area. Her skull had a bullet hole behind the right ear with no exit wound, and because of this police feel that she most likely met her demise from a small caliber weapon (possibly a .22 pistol). Portland Deputy State Medical Examiner Larry Lewman determined that the bones were there for “probably two years or more” and were those of an individual in their late teens/early 20’s (but had no idea if the skeleton belonged to a male or female). Because Susan’s dental records couldn’t be located (for unknown reasons), Bend law enforcement had to mail the skull to her former dentist, Dr.David Mason (who moved to Stewart, British Columbia to treat Eskimos) in hopes he could ID his former patients teeth from memory. Dr. Lewman said that “we’re depending on memory. There are some distinctive dental characteristics (residual baby teeth, impacted wisdom teeth) which he (Mason) might remember.” Thankfully Dr. Davis did remember because he was able to confirm that the skull belonged to Wickersham as he “recognized the dental work as his own.” Former Deschutes County District Attorney Mike Dugan said that “there was no doubt that she was dead, there’s no question she met death by a homicidal act, so it became a whodunit.”
Unfortunately the amount of evidence found with Susans remains was next to nothing and the case once again went cold. To this day law enforcement has an unnamed person of interest in mind but unfortunately not enough evidence to prosecute them. In 2004 (one source said it was 2005), the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office assembled their ‘Cold Case Team,’ which consists of veteran law enforcement whose mission is to investigate cases that have long gone nowhere and still remain unsolved. According to a 2011 article published in the Bend Bulletin, “the squad consists of four retired law enforcement officials who volunteer about 20 hours each week poring over binders filled with information on unsolved crimes. And it’s Wickersham’s long-unsolved case that sparked the start of the cold case squad.” They are hoping for members of the public to come forward and help provide new information to help link the suspect to Susan’s murder. On September 12, 2006, the Cold Case Squad joined forces with a FBI crime scene processing team from Portland that included 15 volunteers from the sheriff’s office search and rescue unit. Together they searched an area near Knott and Scalehouse Roads in hopes to collect new evidence related to Wickersham’s case (however they didn’t come up with much).
In July 1973, Ted Bundy was in between jobs: from November 1972 to April 1973 he worked for the Seattle Crime PreventionAdvisory Commission helping draft the state’s new hitchhiking laws (ironically he also wrote a rape-prevention pamphlet). He remained unemployed until September 1973 when he was the assistant to the Washington State Republican chairman. The ‘FBI Multi-Agency Team Report 1992‘ has no record of Teds whereabouts on 7.11.1973 (although he was in Olympia the day before and after). Bundy was in between schooling at the time as well: later on in the year he enrolled in the of University of Puget Sound’s Law School in Tacoma (that endeavor didn’t last long). He was also in a long-term relationship with Liz Kloepfer at the time as well. The drive from the Rogers Rooming House in Seattle where Ted was residing at the time to the Sage Room Restaurant in Bend was a bit over six hours, one way (or roughly 330ish miles). Receipts put him in Seattle the day before and after but in my opinion, Ted definitely could have made that trip easily with no issues. and what if he bought gas in cash (so there was no real paper trail)? Now, I know I’m not a cop or criminologist. I know that none of Bundy’s victims suffered from gunshot wounds BUT (and I’m just throwing this out there): in a 2022 interview with People magazine, Carol DaRonch said Ted “brandished a gun” when he attempted to kidnap her in 1975 in Utah. Did Bundy experiment with alternative methods aside from a crowbar and strangulation? In my article about the homicides of Susan Davis and Elizabeth Perry (also known as the New Jersey Parkway Murders), I wrote about how the two girls were vacationing at the Jersey Shore Memorial Day weekend in 1969 and were stabbed to death shortly after they departed for home. Were these early murders ones Bundy committed before he honed and “perfected” his technique? The human body contains a shockingly large amount of blood; was stabbing and shooting too “messy” for Ted, which is why he never returned to these methods again (that we know of anyways)? We do know he carried an extra set of clothes in his car with him at all times in case of emergencies. Personally, I do think this case is a bit of a stretch and poor Miss. Wickersham was most likely murdered by someone else. I don’t think she is a victim of Ted Bundy.
On April 19, 2022 a Reddit user suggested that Wickersham may be the victim of John Arthur Ackroyd. Born on October 3, 1949, Ackroyd was raised in the small logging town of Sweet Home, Oregon (a little over 2 hours away from where Susan was last seen); in 1977 he started working for the Oregon state highway department along US Route 20. That same year, he sexually assaulted Marlene Gabrielson and in 1978 he abducted and murdered Kaye Turner (with the “help” of an accomplice, Roger Dale Beck). Ackroyd’s stepdaughter Rachanda Pickle went missing in 1990 and he was officially charged with her murder in 2013 (he pleaded no contest). He is also suspected of killing Sheila Swanson and Melissa Sanders in 1992 in Lincoln County, Oregon. ‘The Oregonian’ newspaper further alleges he was involved in the murders of several additional women. Despite Ackroyd’s shady history, it was determined that he was stationed oversees in the Army between 1969 and 1976 so he couldn’t have been responsible for Susan’s death. He died on December 30, 2016.
For former Deschutes County Sheriff’s Captain Marc Mills, Susan’s case was personal. The two were classmates at Bend High School, and said that “Susan was happy, free-spirited. We would occasionally be at the same lunch table. It was sad when Susan went missing, and a shock when the town learned how she died. It was disturbing for our Class of 1974.” … “It was one of the first things I wanted to do, was pick this file up as a young detective, the youngest detective at the time. This is one of the cases I really, truly wanted to have closure.” Mills said it was upsetting for everyone in the community when Wickersham went missing, and a horrible shock when everyone learned how she died: “it was disturbing for our Class of 1974. It’s disheartening. Of course, a lot of my classmates had hope, had hope in me.” He said that detectives are “only a clue or two away from cracking the case, but the clock is ticking.” The cold case team uses the 1974 Bend High School yearbook in their interviews to help “jog memories and spark conversation” when trying to obtain new information about Susan. In 2022 former Deschutes County District Attorney Mike Dugan told KTVZ news that “it’s more of a case of a lack of concrete proof than a lack of a theory,” and that “they absolutely believed they knew who did it. The cold case unit came and tried to get us to do a prosecution. My chief deputy district attorney and I reviewed what they had and said, ‘we still don’t have enough’.”
It’s speculated that Susan’s disappearance could be linked to Rita Jolly from West Linn, OR and Vicki Lynn Hollar from Eugene, OR. Jolly vanished on June 29, 1973 while out on a nightly walk and Hollar disappeared while leaving her job at Bon Marche (she was employed there as a seamstress) on August 20, 1973. Unlike Susan, both girls haven’t been recovered. As I said earlier, I don’t think Bundy killed Wickersham but I do think he murdered Jolly and Hollar.
Rhonda said that Susan is never far from her thoughts, “probably because we never had closure. I couldn’t even imagine then that it would take this long to solve.” She hopes that one day she will learn why Susan was taken from them, saying “someday, I’d like to look the guy in the eye and say, ‘Why’d you do this?’ She was just a nice person. You think of all those things that could have been, and all the people who loved her.”
Despite her case being cold for many years, Bend police as well as Susans loved ones still think they have a pretty good idea who is responsible for her murder; they hope one day they’ll come up with enough evidence to be able to make an arrest. Rhonda thinks that she has a good idea who the killer is, saying: “it’s probably going to surprise many of us, and it’s probably going to surprise how close in proximity they were to a number of us in Bend community.” In 2015, Captain Mills said he still holds onto hope that Wickersham’s killer will be caught, and has a message for anyone that knows something but is holding back: “you’re 42 years older. You’re probably near the end of your life. Put some things in motion… at least in the event of your death, so investigators at the sheriff’s office can put this case to rest, and give what family is left closure.” Sadly both of Susan’s parents died before police were able to solve their daughters murder: Mr. Wickersham passed away in 1993 and Mrs. Wickersham in 2006.
* I’ve had numerous residents of Bend reach out to tell me they feel this number is wrong. I would know nothing about that, I pulled that figure off the website ‘oregon.reaproject.org.’
Susan in her 1972 yearbook photo.Susan Wickersham.Susan Wickersham’s gravestone.The Owl Pharmacy in Bend, OR where Susan was last seen; it’s no longer open.An older shot of Bend, OR.An older shot of Bend, OR.An article on Susan Wickersham published by The Bulletin on July 17, 1973.An article on Susan Wickersham published by The Bend Bulletin on July 23, 1973.
An article on Susan Wickersham published by The Bulletin on September 19, 1973.
Article courtesy of ‘Ted Bundy: I was trying to Think like an Elk.Article courtesy of ‘Ted Bundy: I was trying to Think like an Elk.An article on the missing Oregon girls published by The Greater Oregon on December 21, 1973.An article on Susan Wickersham published by The Bulletin on January 17, 1975.An article on Susan Wickersham published by The Bulletin on January 21, 1976. An article about Susan after her remains were found published in The Capital Journal. I couldn’t find the publication date.An article on Susan Wickersham published by The Bulletin on January 26, 1976.An article on Susan Wickersham published by The The Bulletin on January 29, 1976. An article on Susan Wickersham published by The Eugene Register-Guard on February 11, 1976.A newspaper piece on the Deschutes County Cold Case Squad.Out of respect I left Susan’s SIL’s name off this Facebook post. When I see posts like this my heart drops to my feet. On occasion I need to ground myself and remember why I’m doing this: for the victims, not Ted Bundy. Monsters like him need to stop being glorified. Another post from Susans SIL. Ted’s whereabouts for July 11, 1973’s are unaccounted for in the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992.’Susan Ann Wickersham listed in the Oregon US, Death Index from 1898-2008.The house the Wickersham family was living in when Susan was murdered located at 905 Southeast Roosevelt Avenue in Bend, OR. The most logical route from the Rogers Rooming house where Ted was living at the time to the Sage Room Restaurant in Bend, OR.A Google Maps route of Susan Wickershams possible walk home from the Sage Room Restaurant.A Google Maps view of where Susan Wickersham was last seen compared to where her remains were discovered at the Deschutes River Woods.A Google Maps view of where a recent search for Susan Wickersham took place compared to where her body was found.Susan’s sisters Rhonda’s write up for her ten year high school reunion booklet, courtesy of bendhigh1969.com/clients/869621/File/10thReunionBookletPart3.pdf.John Arthur Ackroyd.Vicki Lynn Hollar.Rita Jolly around age 10-11.
Edit, November 2023: One thing I routinely try to do is go through my resources and update my articles when I find more information. When I was in Florida this past May I came across a 59 page document from the Trempealeau County Sheriff’s Department in Wisconsin regarding the case of Sandra Jean Weaver. At first, I thought about putting the new information in a simple addendum, but there’s so much that I’m just going to rewrite the entire piece. The report is broken down into four parts: the first is a write up (almost like a report) that Detective Daryl L. McBride had with Weaver’s friend, Joan Elkins at the LaCrosse Police station on January 11, 1975. The second is a verbatim interview between Glade Gamble and the Toole County Sheriff’s Department, Detective Jerry Thompson from the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s department, and Officer Milo Vig from the Mesa Co. Sheriff’s Department on January 22. The third is an interview between Ken Jones and the same members of LE as the Gamble interview that took place on January 22, 1975, and the last portion is an interview with the same officers and Phillip Quintana on January 21, 1975.
Sandra ‘Sandy’ Jean Weaver was born on August 5, 1955 to Bruno and Marlene of Arcadia, Wisconsin. She had two brothers (Randy and Billy) and two sisters (Nancy and Julie); the Weavers also had a son named Joseph who sadly passed away two days after he was born in 1961. Sandy had blue eyes, was 5’7” and weighed 120 pounds; she wore her brown hair long and parted down the middle. She attended Arcadia High School, and during her time there was on the drill team, participated in the Future Homemakers of America, Girls Athletic Association, worked PT as a librarian and was the junior editor of the newspaper. After graduating in 1973, she studied commercial art at Western Wisconsin Technical Institute in La Crosse, WI.
Sandra left home in the summer of 1974and moved to Salt Lake City, hitchhiking the entire way there with her two friends, Joan Elkins and Jeffrey L. Skarboszewski. According to an investigator for the Mesa County Sheriff’s office, after arriving in Utah the friends went to Toole, where they stayed in a canyon for a few days. It was there they met a guy named Ken Jones, who invited them to come stay in his trailer near Toole. Jeff got a job part time working with Jones father and both girls found employment full time for the Manpower program. Looking into it, Manpower appears to be sort of on the job training program based out of SLC. For their first week the girls took inventory of motion picture products, and the second week they were sent to the Wycoff warehouse (which was a trucking company); Weaver had been on the job for a little over a week when she was murdered. The position was roughly forty miles away from Jones’ trailer, and the friends hitchhiked back and forth everyday. In a conversation with her mother in June 1974, Sandra said she was planning on going home for her sister Nancy’s wedding on July 27th, but didn’t specify an exact date she planned on being back. It’s known that Weaver was a frequent, heavy drug user and had a tendency to ‘sleep around’ (oh good Lord, weren’t we all young once?). The guy she was with the night before her disappearance (a young man named Glade Gamble) said that they engaged in intercourse the night before she vanished (but more on him later)…
On Friday, June 28 Sandra and Joan bought some groceries in SLC then hitchhiked back to Jones’ trailer, arriving around 7 PM. At around 11:00 that evening a friend from their new job named Phillip Quintana (aka Phillip Martinez) showed up with the intention of spending the weekend with them (he arrived with a random friend). In addition, Jones had a friend that was staying with him that was between 18 to 20 years old and was an ‘athletic freak.’ That night, Sandra slept with Ken and Joan slept with Phill (his friend spent the night in a chair). The following day, Weaver left the residence and went to a friend named Jeanine’s trailer in Toole. There, Weaver met Glade Gamble and the two took a drive through the canyon in Jeanine’s blue VW Beetle.
At roughly 7 PM on June 29th, Weaver returned to Jones’ trailer and picked up Joan, Phillip, and his friend. From there, the group got dinner then went to a party at Jeanine’s trailer. At the gathering, Weaver introduced Elkins to a guy named Bruce Bolinder, who she had met that afternoon while driving around with Gamble. According to Weaver, Bolinder was supplying Gamble with THC. It is speculated Sandy snorted some THC and used some phenobarbital (and possibly Nembutal) at some point in the evening. There were roughly 25 people at the gathering and most of them were imbibing in some form of drug use. At some point early in the evening Phillip fell asleep on the floor of the trailer, and after a while Joan woke him up to go sleep outside in Gambles VW van. Around midnight she woke Phillip up for a second time to let him know they could catch a ride back to Jones’ trailer with Bolinder. Weaver stayed behind at Jeanine’s trailer. At some point in the conversation with law enforcement Elkins mentioned that when she left her friends trailer with Phillip, there were four vehicles in the driveway: Bruce Bolinders gold Cadillac, Glades red and white VW Bus, Jeanine’s VW Bug, and a fourth vehicle (she wasn’t sure of the make and model or its owner).
At some point during the day, Weaver purchased $15 worth of phenobarbital from Bolinder. Joan said Sandy used some the night of the party as well as on June 30 and July 1, and during this time she stayed at Jeanine’s trailer. At some point on Sunday, June 30 Elkins called Jeanine’s trailer and talked to Gamble, asking to speak to Sandy. He told her she was sleeping but that he would take them to work the next morning. On Monday, July 1, 1974 Sandra returned to Ken’s trailer to change her clothes and wake up Joan for work. Elkins told her she wasn’t feeling well and wasn’t going in that day. Weaver asked to borrow some cash, and she gave her $5 from her purse (which at some point during the day Elkins noticed was missing). Joan said Sandy was wearing blue corduroy shorts and a halter top, and this was the last time she saw her friend. The next day on July 2, she received a call from the secretary at Manpower asking why either of them hadn’t come into work. Joan told her that she was sick, to which the secretary replied, ‘yes I know, Sandy told me.’ She went on to tell her that Weaver had worked until 11:30 in the morning the day before then left and never returned.
The body of Sandra Weaver was discovered the next day on July 2, 1974 around 4:00 PM by tourists hiking in the area near DeBeque, CO by the Colorado River about sixteen to eighteen miles east of Grand Junction. Her naked body was beaten and strangled, found off a service road in the Palisades Canyon (some sources say it was DeBeque Canyon) in Colorado; the only item found on her body was ‘a tiny wooden cross on a gold chain around her neck’ (which she was most likely wearing when she was last seen). I know I’m jumping the gun a bit here but something odd is jumping out at me: two other Utah victims (Laura Ann Aime and Melissa Smith) were also both found the same way: naked only wearing a ‘small necklace.’ Additionally, both girls were strangled in the same fashion as Weaver. Sheriff Haywood has ‘no doubt’ that the killer of Aime and Smith killed Sandra as well. Additionally, Salt Lake City DetectiveJerry Thompson said that the facts in the Weaver case ‘are very similar’ to the ones surrounding those of the Smith and Aime murders. She had been sexually assaulted and died by suffocation due to strangulation; her fingernails were also freshly manicured shortly before her death. Because there were no footprints or drag marks found anywhere near Weaver’s remains it’s speculated she was killed somewhere else then dumped off at the top of the canyon, and she just sort of rolled down it. Unfortunately her body wasn’t identified until January 1975: according to an article titled ‘Services Pending for Murder Victim, Weaver was identified through a nationwide check of persons reported missing. Law enforcement also found a very particular type of contact lens on the victim, and using optometric tests forensic experts were able to determine that it belonged to Weaver; dental records were also used.
In a conversation with detectives on January 11, 1975, Elkins said that Sandra was ‘pretty doped up’ when she returned to Jones’ trailer on the morning of July 1, 1974. She suspects this may have been the reason that she showed up to work without shoes on. Later in the day on July 2nd, Bolinder came to Jones’ home and visited a bit with Joan. He came to see her a few more times in the next few days and eventually invited her to move in with him, which she did a little over two weeks later in the latter part of July 1974 (bringing Glade Gamble with her). Joan finally reported Weaver as missing to the SLC police around the 5th or 6th of July; they advised her to call the Toole County Sheriff’s as well. She also shared the news with Sandra’s mother in Wisconsin. She told LE that she asked Bolinder to help her locate Weaver, but he just pushed her request off. Elkins stayed with him for about three weeks then moved in with another friend named Danny Quinn. She eventually left SLC and returned home to LaCosse on August 15, 1974. She brought all of Sandra’s belongings back with her, returning them to her parents.
Seventeen year old Dick Pehrson was a former employee of the Wycoff warehouse and a friend of the girls. He told Joan that Phillip Quintana got dropped off with Sandra the morning she disappeared but he didn’t know who was driving. He also told her that Quintana told a secretary at Manpower that Weaver had been talking to a truck driver the morning she disappeared. Additionally, the same secretary told Marlene Weaver that Quintana told her that her daughter had been seen on a bus headed for Idaho.
Bruno Weaver traveled from Arcadia to Salt Lake and Toole in November 1974 and got in touch with a number of his daughter’s friends/acquaintances; he also spoke with Quintana on the phone around the same time. During that conversation, Phillip denied going to Jeanine’s party the night of July 29 but said that his friend ‘Martinez’ was there. Mr. Weaver also spoke with Bruce Bolinder, who shared with him that a friend named Steve Symonds gave Sandra and Phillip a ride to Salt Lake City the morning of July 1st. The police report stated that ‘all of the men seemed uncooperative and hesitant to talk to Mr. Weaver.’ Jones did tell Mr. Weaver that he had a pair of Sandra’s shoes at his trailer despite both Joan and Jeff telling him she only brought two pairs with her (which were already accounted for). Skarboszeski told LE that to the best of his memory he never saw Sandra go to work without shoes on and didn’t think she would ever go to her POE barefoot.
Elkins admitted to using some of the phenobarbital Weaver bought on June 30 and July 1, but couldn’t explain how the drugs got back to Jones residence because her friend hadn’t been back to his trailer at that point (she briefly came back the morning of July 1 to borrow money and change her clothes before leaving right away for work). Strangely enough, the blue corduroy shorts that Joan claims she last saw Sandy wearing were found amongst her belongings that were returned to the Weavers.
In the second portion of the document from the Trempealeau County Sheriff’s Department, Glade Gamble sat down with members of law enforcement (specifically, the Toole County Sheriff’s Department, Jerry Thompson, and Milo Vig). The interview began at 1:35 in the afternoon on January 22, 1975 and lasted for 45 minutes. In the beginning, Gamble is shown a picture of Weaver and was asked if it resembled the individual he spent time with in June of the previous year. He said yes it did and that she was ‘a good looking girl.’ I mean, most of the ‘interview’ is traditional back and forth between suspect and police, however one particularly interesting portion jumped out at me: investigators questioned, ‘within hours of leaving you, she was murdered brutally, and I am not kidding you when I say brutally. I probably shouldn’t do this but there is a little difference isn’t there? As you can see, I don’t think many human lives deserve that kind of treatment. So if you can help me for God’s sake, give me some information. I don’t care if any drugs were involved, cause we’re not here or have no interest at all in petty crimes or drugs at this time, I am interested in that.’ In response to that, Glade said that he told them everything he knew the first time they spoke except for dates, which he didn’t elaborate on so I don’t know if he meant he forgot them or was purposely withholding information. He said the only phone number Sandra probably had was Ken Jones’ at his trailer.
Some of the key points I took away from this interview are as follows: Mr. Weaver met with Gamble at his house sometime in November 1974. He said the majority of the time he saw the two friends they were wearing shorts, although he thinks he remembers Sandy wearing pants the last time he saw her (since she was on her way to work). He made it clear to the detectives that he didn’t remember if she was wearing shoes or not the last time he saw her and had to be told by a friend that she showed up at work barefoot later that morning. Gamble was able to tell LE that he remembered she normally wore a pair of slip-on clogs but she left them behind at Jeannine’s (if she’s anything like me she probably figured she’d be back there soon enough and it was no big deal). He also speculated that Elkins may have picked the clogs up with the rest of Sandra’s belongings before she returned home to WI. He left Jeanine’s trailer at around 6 AM and speculated that Weaver was stopping back at Jones’ residence before going into work and that she would just pick up another pair of shoes there. He did share that he remembers someone saying that Joan’s purse got stolen, and wondered if it happened at the party the Saturday before Sandy disappeared. He also said that he took off the Tuesday after she disappeared but couldn’t remember the reason why.
When LE asked Gamble how Elkins felt about Bruce Bolinder he replied that she may have been a bit afraid of him in the sense that she worried he might kick her out and send her home. Apparently, he had a bit of a reputation as a ‘ladies man’ and speculated that Joan was probably aware of this and was nervous that he might get sick of her and move on; he didn’t remember the two ever arguing or fighting in any way. Also on the topic of Bruce being a ladies man, Gamble said that he thought that girls in general seemed to like him but didn’t get close with him. He also said that he thought Sandra and Joan met him on June 29th (which was the night of the party) and that he asked Sandy out a time or two but nothing ever came of it. When asked if Bollinder had a violent temper, Gamble replied that he ‘heard of him fighting but had never been there.’ He also allegedly had deep contacts in the local drug world that neither girl was aware of. When Glade was questioned on whether or not he knew of anyone that would have a reason to kill Weaver, he said he had no idea why anyone would want to ‘brutally murder a girl like this.’ and that ‘nobody really argued with her that he knew about.’ He speculated that Joan probably left them to go back to Kenny’s trailer with Phillip because she most likely ‘just got tired of Bruce.’
The detective repeated the question: why would anyone want to brutally murder a girl like Sandra, asking: ‘you certainly couldn’t say it was a sexual act because she certainly would have given in (gross).’ Gamble told them that the only thing about Weaver that upset him was that she was kind of ‘slow mentally’ and wasn’t very quick to react to things, but that he would never act on his frustrations and didn’t know how anyone could do that. When questioned about when he became aware that Sandy may have either been abducted or murdered, he said that he quickly grew suspicions after no one heard from her and that both him and Joan almost immediately wondered if she was dead after she stopped coming around: ‘I didn’t know why anyone would kill her or how or anything else but I figured she would have gotten ahold of somebody sooner or later.’ He also told detectives that he was aware that Joan had some minor drug charges but nothing major and he had some minor charges as well as a drunk driving arrest. He told them that he had no contact with Elkins in any capacity after Sandy disappeared.
Per Gamble, Sandy had taken two downers he gave her on Friday night, and that he wasn’t sure if Joan ever reported her friend as missing as he never witnessed her make a call to Toole LE. He also said he wasn’t sure if he was there when she talked to Sandy’s parents on the phone but that he was there when she made some calls to Wisconsin regarding her friend. The last time he claimed to have sex with Weaver was sometime after midnight on Sunday night/early Monday morning, but wasn’t sure what the exact time was. When asked if they engaged in anal intercourse Gamble didn’t respond to the question. To the best of his knowledge he said that he wasn’t sure if Sandy had slept with anyone else in that Friday/Saturday/Sunday time frame other than him, and that he ‘wasn’t with her all the time,’ but did clarify that he spent two nights with her. The last time he saw her she was getting into a car with Steve Simons and Scott Williams to go to SLC for work around 6 AM on Monday, July 1. He said that he learned of Weaver’s death after seeing it on the news but didn’t know when she died. By the time of the interview in early 1975 Gamble sold his VW bus and purchased a 1972 Grand Prix. He shared that even though he didn’t know her very well he knew that Joan wasn’t overly fond of cops and wasn’t sure if she would hold anything back for that reason. The interview ended with Gamble agreeing to take a voluntary polygraph examination.
The third interview took place with the same members of law enforcement and Kenneth H. Jones on January 22, 1975. He told the detectives that he met all three friends when they were ‘up hitchhiking up in Settlement Canyon’ around June 10/11, 1974 and that somehow turned into them coming and staying with him. He further shared that Glade Gamble met the girls at his trailer and that he didn’t know Bruce Bolinder very well. In the beginning of the conversation LE told him that the reason they are speaking to him for a second time is because it was determined that Sandra had been murdered shortly after leaving his trailer. There’s a lot of back and forth between the officers and the suspect, with LE saying they ‘needed to get some answers if we can. I realize this was six months ago and it is hard to remember, and I don’t expect you to remember everything. We have had a chance to go over this and some other things that have come up that need to be answered, and I was hoping that you could help me or hide me to the right person. Now correct me if I’m wrong. I understand that Sandy left the trailer on Monday morning, July 1st to go to work with a Mexican kid by the name of Phillip Quintana, who had stayed at the trailer that night with Joan. Is that correct?’ To this, Jones simply answered, ‘ah huh.’ He said that he didn’t attend the party at Jeanine’s trailer the Saturday before Sandy disappeared and wasn’t home when Joan and Phillip got back early Sunday morning. He also shared that he wasn’t sure who was left behind at the trailer when Sandy and Quintana departed for Salt Lake around 7/7:30 AM the Monday morning she disappeared. He did say that when he came home from work around 4 PM Elkins was still there and ‘it wasn’t right away but she couldn’t figure out why she didn’t come back. You know she figured maybe she would come back later, and she never did. She was worried about her.’ … ‘Well right at first, you now she thought she might have had a pretty good excuse and then after she didn’t show up for a day or so, well then she was getting worried.’ When detectives inquired, ‘I don’t know how much attention you paid, but this is a really critical point in the line of clothing, I understand both these girls had very little clothing when they lived here, is that correct?’ .. ‘ As far as you seen, give me an idea, five or six changes, one of two? Can you give me an idea? Did they wear shorts much of the time, a lot?’ He replied, ‘yeah, they wore shorts,’ but did specify that Elkins had a home made dress made out of Levi’s jean material.
Like with the other interviews, the investigators were very focused on the girl’s footwear and asked Jones if Weaver had a lot of shoes, to which he replied she had a pair of sandals and some clogs and that Elkins took them with her when she went home to Colorado. About a week after Sandy disappeared Elkins left Ken’s trailer and moved in with a guy named Danny Quinn; she didn’t give an explanation as to why she left but it was on her own accord and he didn’t ask her to leave. Jones told LE that he was aware that the girls mainly hitch hiked to get around and frequently caught rides with both friends and strangers. He also shared that at no point after her friend disappeared did Elkins ever mention that she was going to go look for her, but that she ‘contacted Sandra’s parents and they decided to put it in the paper, her picture, and I think she turned it in, she said she turned it in.’ Jones said that when Joan finally got around to notifying the Toole County Sheriff’s department about Weaver’s disappearance they told her to also get in touch with SLC LE as well. When asked if he thought Sandy and Elkins were ‘close’ he replied, ‘yes, they were real close.’ He also commented that she seemed to be almost smitten with Bruce Bolinder and talked about him a lot. He said the weekend before Sandra disappeared she wasn’t at his trailer at all but that she most likely came back early Monday morning to get Joan and get ready to go to work. When asked if he knew of anyone that had ‘heard if Sandy came back into town that Monday morning after she left and went back to work that morning,’ Jones simply said ‘no.’
According to Ken, Sandy’s father came to see him about a month and a half before the interview (so November/December 1974). When asked what he thought happened to Weaver he replied that if she made it to work that day then it must have been someone from her POE that she ‘decided to go with.’ Ken said he felt it ‘must have been somebody she didn’t know or she just met that day or somebody she just went with. Maybe they told her they would give her a ride home or take her out somewhere else overnight or something.’ He also shared that Joan had no idea what happened to her friend and she thought that maybe she left with somebody from work or ‘something like that.’ When Ken was confronted with ‘well like I said, we realize the drug traffic. We are not here to bother anyone, that we are not trying to make a case. Did she know anything about any major drug deals and somebody thought she knew too much that you know of?;’ he again replied with a simple, ‘no.’ When the detectives inquired, ‘you wouldn’t have to kill her to rape her, correct?,’ Jones answered ‘uh huh’ and that she would probably just go along with it.
Ken said that when he returned home from work at 4:30 around that Monday, Joan was there (she was sick and didn’t go into work) and the last time he saw Sandy was on Friday the night before she left for the party. When the investigators commented that they understood he told Mr. Weaver that he had a pair of his daughter’s shoes, he clarified ‘after she had left and it was either that night or the next day she didn’t show up Joan said something about ‘that is the only pair of shoes or something.’ And she left them and she ain’t got no shoes or something. She couldn’t figure out why she would leave without shoes.’ There was a lot of back and forth about the missing footwear, with the investigators trying to make Jones admit that he had them (which he vehemently denied). When they asked if Weaver’s last paycheck ever got mailed to his trailer or if Joan ever mentioned what happened to it he said that Elkins had it but he wasn’t certain if she cashed it or not (but he strongly suspects that she did).Jeff Skarboszewski left SLC about a week before Sandra disappeared and went to Phoenix. About the trios mystery friend, Jones said that Jeff seemed to treat both girls real good and always wanted to do what was best for them. At the end of the interview he agreed to a voluntary polygraph examination.
In between the third and fourth parts is a photocopy of Bruce Bolinder’s drivers license.
The fourth part of the document is an interview between investigators and Phillip Quintana that took place on January 25, 1975 (this is where things get interesting). The conversation starts out strong right from the get go, with LE asking if he remembers telling a friend named Dirk that Sandra had gone to Idaho or someplace out of state, and where he got that information from. To this, Phillip said it was one of two hitchhiking incidents that took place in the second half of 1974 in which Weaver’s name came up: ‘this guy that picked her up hitchhiking, but I can’t remember his name. He said he saw her and she was supposed to be living with this guy that she was living with in Memory Grove she was supposed to leave with him to Idaho.’ … ‘I was just asking if he knew Joan and Sandy from Toole and he said yeah, that Sandy was supposed to be living in Memory Grove with some guy.’ Quintana said the man was driving a newer model white Ford and was around 21/22 years of age, between 6’2″/6’3” tall, and had shaggy brown hair. One of the detectives told him it was a man named Danny Brumfield that picked him up that day and the event took place sometime aroundAugust/September of 1974.
The second hitchhiking incident took place around Halloween 1974 and involved a 23/24 year old man driving an older model light red/dark orange GMC pickup truck. When asked by this mysterious stranger if he wanted to go to a party that both Joan and Sandy would be at, Phillip told him that he had just been to one and had no interest in attending another: ‘well, I was hitchhiking. He picked me up then asked if I wanted to go to a party, he said do you smoke dope, I said yeah, and he said do you want to go to a party, and I said no, and he lit up a joint, and he asked me if I wanted to go to a party out in Toole and said no, and he said, and then I said who is going to be out there, do you know a lot of people out there and he said, ‘I know a chick named Joan and one named Sandy and this dude named Glade, that Glade was supposed to be having it,’ and I told him no I was, and he just dropped me off.’ … ‘They said Sandy and Joan, I don’t know if they were the same chicks but he said Sandy and Joan. Might be two different chicks, I don’t know.’ When questioned about the day Sandra disappeared Phillip said that he ‘thought she was going back to work, she was going to work, and anyway they didn’t want me back over there and so I just went down to my moms’ and that he never saw either girl again after July 1st (I deduced that he was briefly employed with Manpower but was terminated). He acknowledged to LE that he was aware that Elkins was trying to get in contact with him around the 13th of July but wasn’t successful in her attempts. When asked if he knew that Weaver was missing at this point in time Phillip said no and that he didn’t know she was gone until the month before (which would have been December 1974).
Quintana said that he and Joan went back to Jones’ trailer at around 3 or 4 in the morning and crashed immediately; they woke up around 6 PM the following evening. He said Monday morning Sandy called Joan at Ken’s trailer and asked if she was going to go to work, and he told her that Joan wasn’t going to but he was getting a ride to SLC and could bring her along. He reported that Manpower attempted to get in touch with him about Sandra’s disappearance around the 1st or 2nd week of December but that he never talked to Bruno Weaver. In response to that, investigators said that ‘he claims he did, how about him calling you on the phone Phillip. I am going to try to refresh your memory. And you told him: ‘he asked you if you were at a party with his daughter in Toole, and you said no not me but my friend Martinez.’ Do you recall that?’ … ‘see, I talked to Mr. Weaver, Sandra’s Dad and he said he called you on the phone, I have the date written down and I will be getting it; him and his attorney was out here and he called you on the phone and he asked you, he talked to Phillip Quintana, he asked about the party, you said, or this Quintana said that he knew Sandra, that he didn’t attend the party in Toole but a friend Martinez did. You don’t recall him saying that to you?’ In response to the third degree, Phillip said, ‘I don’t even remember talking to him, I am pretty sure I didn’t.’
This is when he talked about his two last names, clarifying that his legal name is Quintana and it’s the one he always went by: ‘I guess you came out to my moms, she said that you were looking for me, she said that you asked for Phillip Martinez, or a Phillip Quintana, and she asked me if I was using another name and I told her no. Because I found well, when my Dad got married when he first married my mother I was on probation and I started using his last name and it took them six months to find me, and when they did they told me if I used it again they would stick me in state school because I was using an illegal name.’ When asked what theillegal name he used was he responded with ‘Gurule,’ but that he has used his real name ever since and that he now has a clean record. Later in the interview he repeated himself that he never spoke with Bruno Weaver and when asked if anyone at the party went by the last name of Martinez he said he wasn’t sure because people mostly only went by their first names.
When the investigators asked how the girls got to work everyday Phillip said that after the first day they all drove in together, and ‘when Manpower had a job for them they have them a call out in Toole and they hitchhiked to the job. The very first day they started Manpower called them about 8:00 I guess, they got there around 10:00 10:30.’ When asked if he recalled what time Sandra arrived back at the trailer the Monday morning she disappeared Phillip responded that ‘she had to be to work at 8:00 AM so it was around 7:00 AM;’ he also shared that after she left for the day he wasn’t sure who was left behind in the trailer. Also in the vehicle were two other guys, Steve Simons and Scott Williams; they dropped Weaver off near the Wyckoff building at 3rd West but that she wanted to stop at the store before her shift started to buy some cigarettes. The boys dropped Phillip off at his moms, which wasn’t far from Weaver’s POE. He commented that on their drive Williams and Simons mostly talked to each other and didn’t really seem interested in chatting with him or Sandy. When LE asked him if ‘Sandy gave him any indication when she got off that she was going to come back at noon, or that she didn’t feel well, or that she was going to go back and see Joan or anything like that,’ Quintana responded that ‘she said that cause she didn’t feel well that morning she was kind of burned she said that if she still felt that way at lunch she was just going to go back to Toole’ but didn’t elaborate on how she was going to get there. The detectives shared with him that they knew she took some speed that morning before she left for work and that he took some as well (she gave him five and a friend named Danny another five). To that Phillip responded that he thought she took downers and had a baggie of about 50 of them with her (apparently she purchased 100 of them at the beginning of the weekend but was going through them pretty quickly).
After Phillip mentioned that Joan wasn’t feeling well and had menstrual cramps the detectives asked if she started her period the day before. He replied that he thought ‘she started it that day because the night she was starting to get them bad’ and that she might have gotten her monthly on Sunday night (but he ‘didn’t check’). In response to this, the officers replied: ‘oh Jesus, you know you got me almost to think I am going to send you out to the nut farm and have you checked out there. Was she pretty well smashed out, Joan, that Monday morning or was it mainly from her cramps.’ (wow). To this, he responded it was ‘mainly from her cramps.’ When asked if Joan had a thing for Glade Gamble, Quintana replied that he wasn’t sure but it wouldn’t have surprised him because she ‘acted kind of funny towards him.’ When asked how she may have felt about Bruce Bolinder he said that it seemed as if she wanted nothing to do with him and when they all got in the car together she made a comment about Gamble sitting next to him, and seemed irritated when he refused. When the investigators asked him how the girls may have felt about Kenny Jones he said that ‘they said they liked him, he was a pretty nice guy, but they were just staying because of their relationship, just a place to stay I guess. I guess they were giving him something to say there, some money or something to stay with him but they never did say. He said that he showed up at the party but ‘came a little later.’ When the investigators asked Phillip if Elkins was afraid of any of the guys that they hung around with he answered ‘no, not that I know of, she didn’t tell me’ and when they asked the same question about Weaver he said ‘well they got along real good with everybody out there as far as I know.’
When asked if any of the guys Weaver hung out with ‘would kill that girl,’ Phillip’s initial answer was ‘I can’t really say… I don’t know them, but I know what kind of people they are.’ However he quickly changed his tune and said that the owner of the gold Cadillac (Bruce Bolinder) was the only person he could think of that ‘looked like he could do something like that.’ He elaborated that he didn’t talk much and was kind of mean; Bolinder was also where Gamble was getting his dope from. There’s something interesting that jumps out at me at the end of page 56: the detectives ask Phillip if he remembers telling anyone that ‘he saw Sandy talking to a Wycoff truck driver at about 11:30 on the 1st of July,’ to which there is no verbal (or written) answer. Quintana later stated that the last time he saw her was when she was dropped off at her POE and doesn’t remember ever seeing her talk to a truck driver. He also shared that he didn’t hear from Joan at all after she left for CO and that he knew she lived in WI but wasn’t exactly sure where. Just like with the other gentleman, LE asked if he was willing to undergo a polygraph examination, to which he responded sure and that he had nothing to hide.
As far as the confirmed victims go, Bundy killed 18 year-old Georgeann Hawkins on June 11, 1974 after abducting her from the University District in Seattle (just eleven days earlier he murdered Brenda Ball on June first). Almost two weeks after Weaver was abducted and killed on July 14, 1974 he abducted both Janice Ott and Denise Naslund from Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah. When it comes to the unconfirmed victims, Brenda Joy Baker disappeared on May 27, 1974 from Puyallup and on August 2, 1974 Carol Valenzuela was last seen hitchhiking near Vancouver, WA. At the time of Weavers murder Ted was living at the Rogers Rooming house on 12th Ave in Seattle and was employed with the Department of Emergency Services in Olympia (he was there from May 3, 1974 to August 28, 1974). Obviously the drive to SLC wasn’t exactly impossible, as he eventually moved there for law school, but it definitely wasn’t just a quick jaunt down the street. The route Ted would have driven to SLC from Seattle then to DeBeque, Colorado where her remains were found was roughly 1,150 miles ONE WAY (he obviously would have had to take the same trip BACK to Seattle). This is a lot of driving. He was in between schooling at the time, as he graduated from the University of Washington in 1972 and didn’t move to Salt Lake City for law school (part deux) until September 2, 1974. Did Bundy kill Weaver on a trip to Utah to do something for his upcoming education (maybe he had to fill out something at the bursar’s office or check out an apartment)? According to the ‘TB Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992,’ Ted went on leave (without pay) from the Department of Emergency Services in Seattle, WA on July 1, 1974 (the same day of Weavers abduction); additionally, gas receipts put him in Seattle the same day. Lets not also forget he was in a relationship at the time with Liz Kloepfer, which was just one more thing taking up his time.
This is a rare instance where the more I researched the more information I found, which I know sounds fairly obvious but I have run into countless dead ends writing about some of these girls. For example, I can’t even find Deborah Lee Tomlinson on Ancestry, so I tried to think outside the box and joined a few Facebook groups related to her hometown of Creswell OR, in hopes that maybe I would find a relative or an old friend of hers that could help fill in the gaps surrounding her background… but again, I got nothing. Right before I was about to re-publish this I found even more information about Weaver on cavdef.org… nothing huge or ground breaking, just a few small details. In a comment on the website ExecutedToday.com, an individual going by the name of Philip Conrad commented that he ‘knew Sandra Weaver, the Colorado detectives talked to me and my x wife in lacrosse wi because we thought the guy that left with her might have had something with her death. I do believe Ted Bundy killed her.’ Additionally I found Glade Gambles obituary (which I included below).
In an article written by a Salt Lake journalist after Bundy was executed, Pete Haywood said that authorities placed Bundy in Utah as early as 1970 when he was only 23, which ‘certainly widens the window of time we are looking at in terms of unsolved cases.’ There’s conflicting reports that say the serial killer mentioned Weavers during his death row confessions: some sources say he did, others say he didn’t. Former Mesa County Sheriff said two different television stations ran stories claiming that Bundy took responsibility for Weavers death, and the Salt Lake Tribune ran a story saying the same.
Weaver in her freshman year photo from the 1970 Arcadia High School yearbook. Weaver in a group picture for the drill team from the 1970 Arcadia High School yearbook. She’s the first girl in the first row. Sandra Weaver in a group picture for the Future Homemakers of America from the 1970 Arcadia High School yearbook. Sandra Jean Weaver’s sophomore year picture from the 1971 Arcadia High School yearbook.Sandra Jean Weaver in a group shot for the Future Homemakers of America from the 1971 Arcadia High School yearbook.Weaver in a group picture from the Drill Team from the 1971 Arcadia High School yearbook.Weaver in a group picture from the 1972 Arcadia High School yearbook. Weaver in a group picture for the newspaper from the 1972 Arcadia High School yearbook.Weaver in a group picture for the Girls Athletic Association from the 1972 Arcadia High School yearbook.Sandra Jean Weaver’s senior picture from the 1973 Arcadia High School yearbook.I pulled this from ‘Classmates.com;’ it looks like Weaver signed above her picture in the 1973 Arcadia High School yearbook.Weaver in a group picture for the school play from the 1973 Arcadia High School yearbook.Another shot of Weaver in a group picture for the school play from the 1973 Arcadia High School yearbook. It looks like she is in the middle row, second from the right.Weaver’s senior year activities from the from the 1973 Arcadia High School yearbook.Sandra Jean Weaver.Sandra Jean Weaver.A caricature of Sandra Weaver drawn by John Krupa (from the ‘Freedom to Draw Unsolved Mysteries’ YouTube page).An announcement that Bruno Weaver was going to serve in the Korean War, published by The Winona Daily News on February 29, 1952.Bruno and Marlene Weaver’s marriage announcement, published in The Winona Daily News on July 14, 1954.An article about Bruno and Marlene Weaver’s son, who was born in March 1961 but passed away shortly after; death notice published in The Winona Daily News on March 29, 1961.Nancy Weaver from the 1971 Arcadia High School yearbook. Cheryl Weaver’s freshman year picture from the 1972 Arcadia High School yearbook.Randall Weaver’s picture from the 1973 Arcadia High School yearbook.Bryan Weaver’s picture from the 1978 Arcadia High School yearbook.Marlene Weavers picture fro the 1974 Arcadia High School yearbook. It looks like she worked there as a cook.A more recent picture of Marlene Weaver, courtesy of Facebook.A more recent picture of Nancy Weaver, courtesy of Facebook.Bruno Weaver’s death notice from by The Winona Daily News published on June 17, 1996.Some notes about Sandra Weaver from a document titled ‘Bundy History’ on the Internet Archives (it’s a document from the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Department that was released on November 24, 1975).Page two of a document pertaining to Weavers murder from the SLC PD.Page three of a document pertaining to Weavers murder from the SLC PD.An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune on January 11, 1975. An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by The La Crosse Tribune on January 11, 1975. An article titled ‘Services Pending for Murder Victim’ about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by the Eau Claire Leader Telegram on January 11, 1975. An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by The Sheboygan Press on January 11, 1975. An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by The Daily Sentinel on January 11, 1975. An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by the Stevens Point Daily Journal on January 11, 1975. An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by The Ironwood Globe on January 11, 1975.An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by The Janesville Gazette on January 11, 1975. An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by the Racine Journal Times on January 11, 1975.An article titled ‘Murder Victim may be Arcadia Girl’ about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by the Winona Daily News on January 12, 1975. An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by The Daily Sentinel on January 13, 1975.An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by the Winona Daily News on January 13, 1975. An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by the Madison Capital Times on January 13, 1975.An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by the Winona Daily News on January 14, 1975.An article titled ‘Services Pending for Murder Victim’ about Sandra Weaver, published by the Winona Daily News on January 16, 1975. Part one of an article titled ‘Services Pending for Murder Victim’ about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by the Winona Daily News on January 16, 1975. An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by the Winona Daily News on January 17, 1975. An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by The Daily Sentinel News on January 17, 1975. An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by The Desert News on January 20, 1975.An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by The Daily Sentinel on January 21, 1975.An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by The Logan Herald Journal on January 21, 1975. An article about the murder of Sandra Jean Weaver published in The Daily Herald on January 21, 1975.An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by The Salt Lake Tribune on January 21, 1975.An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by The Ogden Standard-Examiner on January 21, 1975.An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by the La Crosse Tribune on July 2, 1975.An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by The Daily Sentinel on October 3, 1975.An article about Sandra Jean Weaver, published by The Daily Sentinel on October 13, 1975.An picture mentioning Sandra Jean Weaver, published by The Salt Lake Tribune on January 23, 1989 before Bundy was executed.An picture mentioning Sandra Jean Weaver, published by The Salt Lake Tribune on January 23, 1989 before Bundy was executed.An article about Sandra Weaver published by the La Crosse Tribune on January 24, 1989.An article about Bundy possibly being linked to the murder of Sandra Weaver published by The Winona Daily News on January 25, 1989.An article mentioning Sandra Weaver after Bundy was executed in 1989.An article mentioning Sandra Weaver after Bundy was executed in 1989.An article mentioning the possible discovery of the remains of Sandra Weaver published by The Salt Lake Tribune on November 9, 1996.Photo courtesy of journal6other.files.wordpress.com.A picture of Sandra’s friend Joan Elkins from the 1971 Logan High School yearbook.Another picture of Joan Elkins from the 1971 Logan High School yearbook.A picture of Sandra’s friend Jeff Skarboszewski from the 1970 Central High School yearbook.Bruce L. Bolinder from the 1965 Grantsville High School yearbook.Bruce L. Bolinder’s wedding announcement published in The Tooele Bulletin on April 11, 1967.Bruce Bolinder’s divorce announcement published in The Transcript-Bulletin on September 12, 1969.A photocopy of Bruce L. Bolinder’s ID pulled from the investigative documents regarding her murder from the Trempealeau County Sheriffs Department.Glade A. Gamble obituary published in The Tooele Transcript-Bulletin on January 21, 1997.A map of the (one way) route Ted would have had to drive to SLC from Seattle then to DeBeque,Colorado. He obviously would have had to take the same trip BACK to the Rogers Rooming house. This is a lot of driving. I tried finding a picture of the old Manpower building Sandra worked at but wasn’t successful. Weavers grave site. Notice her brother that passed away in March 1961 is buried next to her.
Nancy Perry-Baird was born on January 14, 1952 to Kenneth and Elna (nee Dee) Perry of Provo, Utah. On July 21, 1947 Kenneth and Elna wed and the couple eventually settled in Layton, Utah. They had five children: a son (Don) and four daughters, Norma (Pitt), Pat (Lindeman), Gail (Fleming), and Nancy. I couldn’t find what Mr. Perry did for a living but he was in the military at one point and was married twice (he got hitched to his first wife Wanda in 1939 but sadly she passed away in 1945). Elna was a graduate of Brigham Young University and earned degrees in both accounting and education; she retired from the IRS in Ogden after working there for 15 years. Nancy had fair skin with long strawberry blonde hair and hazel eyes; she stood 5’2”/5’3″tall and had scars on the inside of both wrists (interesting factoid: she had type O-positive blood). At the time of her disappearance she was living at 471 Wasatch Drive in Layton, Utah and was employed at the Triangle Oil Company’s Fina Gas Station at 1378 North Highway 89. I wasn’t able to find a lot about Nancy’s early life or family background, but everything I came across pointed towards her having a relatively normal childhood; she did however at one point attempt suicide. She went to Layton High School in Utah and got married to FloydD. (Dee) Baird in 1970 after she graduated (they were both 18). Floyd was employed as a master electrician and the couple had a son together in the Winter of 1971; they sadly got divorced in the Spring of 1975.
On July 4, 1975,23 year-old Nancy was working a 3-11 PM shift (some sources say it was until midnight) as an attendant at the Fina self-service gas station in East Layton, Utah. At the time of her disappearance she lived close to her job, her son lived with family, and her ex-husband lived in Wyoming state. A little after five o’clock OfficerDavidAnderson stopped and chatted with Nancy a little bit during her shift; he bought a soda water before leaving a few minutes later to investigate a potential alcohol violation at the Shamrock gas station on the other side of the highway. He returned to the Fina station shortly after at around 5:30, when he noticed a green van and a couple of lingering ‘hippie-types’ and wanted to assess the situation. When Perry-Baird’s manager Bonnie Peck popped in to pick up some soda water at around 5:30 she came into a line of customers and no cashier. After Officer Anderson returned he encountered Peck and quickly realized that sometime in the past 15-20 minutes Nancy Perry-Baird had vanished off the face of the earth. The only thing out of the ordinary was that there was $10 worth of gas on a pump that hadn’t been paid for (the average cost of a gallon of gas in 1975 was .57 cents so that was a good amount of fuel). Not only was Nancy’s locked car left behind but her handbag containing her cashed paycheck ($167), car/house keys, headache medications, and other personal belongings was left in the gas station as well. Former East Layton Police Chief Ray Adams said Baird’s purse was left inside the station and that she was checked on by an officer out on patrol no more than 15 minutes before she disappeared. She was last seen wearing a blue halter top with blue shorts, a gold pinky ring inlaid with a ruby in the center, with two smaller rubies on each side of the center stone. Over her street clothes was her work attire: a blue pinstriped smock-type shirt with the Fina Gas Station logo embroidered on it. At the time Nancy was working her son was with relatives.
By July 7 law enforcement exhausted their land and air searches and shifted their focus to talking to Nancy’s family, friends, acquaintances, and customers. Police were able to obtain receipts from the gas station for the hours she worked and were able to track down a good number of her customers. One by the name of Denzel G. Williams was contacted by law enforcement because a credit card receipt proved that he had purchased gasoline during the time Nancy was there. Mr. Williams told police that he was there to fill up the family car and a gas can before a trip to Park City the next morning, and was there with his son David and nine-year-old daughter, Jana; he estimated they were there between roughly 5:10 and 5:15 PM. He never entered the service station but his daughter went in to buy a bottle of raspberry soda (she only had 28 cents and the beverage cost 29 but Nancy let the penny slide and gave it to her anyways). The young girl said that two young white men, roughly in their early 20’s, were chatting with Nancy at the end of the counter, but didn’t appear to be buying anything. The Williams children were able to provide police with descriptions of the individuals they saw, which allowed them to use a tool called an ‘Identi-kit’ which helped build composite images of the suspects. Police labeled the men ‘subject #1’ and ‘subject #2,’ and both were determined to be ‘hippie type individuals.’ Subject #1 was described as ‘skinny, had shoulder-length hair, a beard and mustache and wore a denim jacket with frayed edges.’ Subject #2 also had a beard and mustache, however his hair only came to the bottom of his ears and he was wearing a yellow long-sleeve shirt.
Mr. Williams remembered seeing what he thought was a bright yellow 1973 four-door Ford Maverick with a white stripe along the side. He also reported seeing a third man outside the gas station, who he described as being between 55 to 60 years old and very slender, with a full head of gray hair and overly prominent veins on his arms. The man went into the exterior men’s restroom and came out while he was still pumping his gasoline. Williams said the gentleman never went inside the station and after he filled up his gas tank gave his credit card to his son, who went inside and paid. He said that it takes about four to five minutes to drive to his house from the Fina station and he very clearly remembered being home before 5:30, which was exactly when his brother came over for a visit.
Another important eyewitness is Mrs. Henry Heath, who reached out to the police because she had stopped by the gas station around 5:30 PM to buy film and witnessed several people milling around the counter waiting for assistance. She distinctly remembered a Caucasian man in his late 20’s with medium length brown hair styled neatly with a bit of facial stubble buying what appeared to be a canned beverage. Mrs. Heath further reported that she saw a Mexican man with two small boys that were also standing at the counter waiting to purchase some items. Lastly, there was a visibly irritated tall, thin, white male in his 50’s who (most likely upset by the lack of customer service) put a six pack of beer down and walked out. It was at this point that the older woman started poking around the store to see exactly what was going on. She checked the women’s restroom and noticed the door was open and there was no one inside; the man with the two boys looked in the office, which also was unoccupied. Mrs. Heath also reported seeing a yellow pickup truck hauling a shell camper with a young couple inside; they stopped to get gas and when they weren’t serviced right away blew their horn. Within about 5-7 minutes of waiting around for help Peck came in to purchase some soda water, and as she was in a hurry made a beeline to the counter. A male customer (obviously a regular that recognized her) made a joke asking if she stepped away for a moment to grab a beer, which is when she asked what was going on and where her cashier was. At this point three people in a van pulled up asking for directions to the Sheriff’s Office, announcing that one of their vehicles had been impounded. Peck quickly jumped into action and cashed out the waiting customers; Mrs. Heath paid for her film and remembers getting home roughly 10 minutes before 6:00.
What happened in the 15-20 minutes between Mr. Williams leaving the gas station and Mrs. Heath showing up? One of the stranger parts of this case is (to me) how she was abducted in the middle of the day on a holiday during peak business hours. Why abduct someone then? Why not wait until 9:00 or 10:00 at night when there’s fewer customers and you’re protected by darkness? The FBI briefly got involved because at first they felt maybe Nancy was kidnapped but after about six weeks and no leads they eventually left things in the hands of local law enforcement (as they were unable to prove anything and weren’t able to officially take on the case if she was abducted). Over the years hundreds of Nancy’s family, friends, and acquaintances were interviewed and polygraphed and everyone passed.
In a joint statement released by former Davis County Sheriff William J. ‘Dub’ Lawrence and Chief Adams, it was reported there were no signs of a struggle or theft from the Fina station (aside from the $10 worth of gas). Thankfully Nancy’s disappearance was taken seriously from the start. I mean, that makes sense when comparing this disappearance to the other missing girls in Utah at the time… after all, she had a son, a stable job, and was a bit older than most of the other victims (even though Caryn Campbell was also 23, Denise Oliverson was 24, and Julie Cunningham was 26). Family and friends told police there were no signs that Nancy had any intention of leaving or taking off. All of her personal belongings were left behind in her residence and no money was taken, which almost makes me think she was an intended target and the attack was not meant to be a robbery. Additionally, her manager said she was always on time to work and was a good employee, making me think she wouldn’t just walk off the job or just leave. Law enforcement interviewed Perry-Baird’s family the night she disappeared but they weren’t able to offer much help. They felt it especially odd that Nancy left behind $167 in cash… but what if she was possibly attempting to stage an abduction so she could disappear? Maybe then it might make sense? Law enforcement spoke with RichardMarinoka from the employment office in Ogden, UT on July 8, who said that Nancy had come in to speak with someone in March because she was apparently unhappy at her job and wanted to find a better one. Was she depressed about her current situation and trying to disappear?
When police searched Nancy’s bedroom they found a phone number scribbled on a pad of paper near the phone that belonged to a female relative in Lakewood, Colorado. When they called the family member she claimed she hadn’t had any contact with Perry-Baird for about two and a half years. Law enforcement also collected a sampling of her hair brushes from her home as well as her birth control pills, which showed that she hadn’t taken any since April 7. Now…. why does a woman stop taking her pill? She’s either not having any sex at all, she WANTS to get pregnant, or she already is. This (in my opinion) throws a wrench in things. Apparently (according to the police report) there were nine different men that Nancy had some sort of past or current romantic involvement with, so my educated assumption is she was having some sort of sex life.
Sheriff Lawrence brought 14 deputies to the area early on Saturday, July 5, and those deputies joined four East Layton officers in a ground search of the mountains and roads of North Davis County over the course of the day. Lawrence commented that: ‘we’re treating it as if it were the worst, but hoping she’ll come home.’ A SLC Police Department helicopter was brought in for about three hours to search both sides of the highway but with no success. The sheriff said that all leads were checked out; however the case quickly ran dry and eventually went cold. About two months after she vanished two residents in Castle Rock, Utah reported that they thought they saw Nancy shopping at a local food store (unfortunately nothing came from that sighting). It’s worth mentioning that Castle Rock is only a 30 minutes drive away from Lakewood, which is where that female relative of Nancy’s lives whose phone number was written down on the pad of paper next to her bed.
Floyd Baird was out of state when his ex-wife disappeared and was officially cleared by authorities in 1975. He had been working on an electrical job in Rexburg, Idaho that fourth of July holiday and spent the day in Jackson Hole with a friend (Rick Thomas) either river running or kayaking. Interestingly enough, he did tell police that despite being divorced he still went on the occasional date with his ex-wife.
According to neighbors, Monty Torres was a man who Nancy hired to mow her lawn the month before she disappeared. When law enforcement spoke with Torres, he seemed visibly nervous, however told them he was in Pocatello, ID the afternoon of July 4. He was able to provide them with alibis that confirmed they saw him at 1 PM and again at 7 PM. Torres told investigators the last time he saw Nancy was about a month before she disappeared (his mom volunteered that she hadn’t seen her son in about three months). When police showed Mr. Williams’ daughter some pictures from Nancy’s personal photo album, she positively identified Torres as being one of the two men she saw at the gas station the afternoon of July 4th. Additionally, two other male acquaintances of the young divorcee were questioned in relation to Nancy’s disappearance: Reed Miller and a man whose name was redacted. Deputy Ben Reichel interviewed Miller, who was also in the Jackson Hole area that holiday weekend. He shared that he knew Nancy for roughly two and a half years (since the winter of 1972) and at one point the two were pretty serious but after he told her that he didn’t have any interest in getting married things cooled down quick. The two saw each other for the last time on June 28 when they went out on a date. Miller, Torres, and Baird were polygraphed and all three men passed.
Only one of the men Nancy was involved with had their name redacted and all we know about him is that police tried to speakwith him multiple times but he dodged their every attempt. In a report completed by Officer Anderson dated July 8, Baird’s parents provided police with two pictures of a boyfriend whose name they have currently redacted due to the fact he is still under investigation for this abduction. According to reports, the ‘redacted’ man reportedly worked in a warehouse setting and his Foreman shared that he left for Phoenix to see his parents on July 2nd and wasn’t supposed to be back to work until either July 12/13. Because they couldn’t reach him, law enforcement tried to locate his family members and the closest ones they found were a cousin and an aunt. The cousin shared that despite ‘reacted’ getting divorced in June 1975 he was supposedly thinking about getting back together with his ex-wife. His Aunt, Mrs. Frank Olson stated she didn’t associate with her brother or his side of the family.
At the time Nancy was abducted in the summer of 1975, Sheriff Lawrence said the department was investigating quite a few high-profile cases and for about a month after she vanished they talked to multiple people of interest but were unable to pinpoint a suspect. He commented that: ‘when a police officer does this for years you develop a sixth sense. You feel it. (Bundy) was the worst of the worst criminals and it took its toll on most of us. We had five missing women at one time. Half we found part of the bodies, some of them.’
Enter Ted Bundy… in the summer of 1975, Ted was enrolled in classes at the University of Utah School of Law and was living at 565 1st Avenue in SLC (he was there from September of 1974 to September of 1975). He was briefly employed as the night manager in charge of Bailiff Hall from June to July 1975 (he was fired for showing up drunk) and from July to August 1975 he was a PT security guard at the University of Utah (his position was terminated due to budget cuts). His activity is unaccounted for on July 4, 1975 in theFBI Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992. It’s obvious by her physical description that Nancy fit Bundy’s typical victim profile, however the crime scene is outside of a school setting, and I never heard of Ted going after anyone in a retail/gas station setting before. Before Perry-Baird’s disappearance, Bundy’s last confirmed kill was Susan Curtis on June 28, 1975 out of Provo, Utah: the 12 year old girl vanished from Brigham Young University and Ted told law enforcement he buried her roughly 75 miles away. Now, if you’re considering the unconfirmed victims, on June 29, 1975, Shelley K. Robertson also vanished without a trace; her body was found in a mine shaft near Georgetown seven weeks later. Ted’s reign of terror didn’t last much longer after Nancy disappeared: early in the morning on August 16th, 1975 Utah State Trooper Sergeant Bob Hayward arrested him in Granger, Utah after leading him on a mile and a half long car chase.
Bundy living in the area is really the only thing police have linking him to Perry-Baird’s disappearance. No one at the Fina station reported seeing a man that fit his physical description or his VW nearby (lets face it, a Bug is a fairly memorable vehicle). Unlike Nancy Wilcox (for example), there was never any mention of a mysterious law student in Nancy’s life (it’s been speculated Ted went into the restaurant where Wilcox worked and flirted with her). When asked about Nancy Perry-Baird’s disappearance during his death row interviews, Bundy denied any responsibility. This obviously means he was either lying or telling the truth, and if he was telling the truth it means that someone else abducted her.
After Ted was arrested in SLC, Sheriff Lawrence’s team of detectives started looking into him in relation to Nancy’s abduction, saying ‘we had him in Rock Springs, Wyoming which put him on Interstate-80 coming back from Colorado.’ From Rock Springs, Lawrence said Bundy headed west into Utah and chose to return to Salt Lake using Interstate-84: ‘we don’t have any gas receipts that he stopped in the area.’ The Sheriff theorized that Bundy at one point headed south on Highway-89, the same roadway where the Fina gas station Nancy worked at was located, saying ‘there’s no women missing (along I-80). There was no abduction on 80-coming in.’ He strongly believes that the serial killer murdered Baird then disposed of her remains in Lambs Canyon, saying ‘Ted Bundy was tired, he had driven all day. I believe he went to somewhere that was close. It was handy it was safe, it was secure.’ Lawrence also said that Bundy was familiar with the area and that the body of Melissa Smith was found just about ten miles away in Parleys Canyon: ‘it’s what we call the law of probability. It’s not provable but if you work back by process of elimination you come up with the most logical scenario.’ In the pictures section I included a Websleuths comment saying that East Layton law enforcement said Bundy fueled up at the Fina station at least once in 1975.
According to researcher Tiffany Jean, records from the Carol DaRonch kidnapping case show that during the summer of 1975 Bundy briefly dated a woman from SLC named Leslie Knudson. Jean said that Knudson was able to provide law enforcement with an alibi for her beau on that fourth of July weekend in 1975: the pair had attended a family reunion at her family’s ranch. Her maternal grandfather was a sheep rancher and owned property in Fruitland, UT, which is more than 100 miles from the gas station where Nancy Perry-Baird disappeared from.
Sadly, at the end of the day Ted’s involvement with the disappearance of Nancy Perry-Baird is just a theory with nothing but weak, circumstantial evidence: there just wasn’t enough for prosecutors to bring him up on charges. Before he was put to death he was interviewed by a Salt Lake Sheriff, and told him that he didn’t kill Baird. According to the audio tapes, Bundy said: ‘Nancy Baird, who is that? I’m not sure who you are talking about. No. I didn’t have anything to do with that.’
Despite Ted denying any involvement with Baird’s death, Sheriff Lawrence doesn’t believe him: ‘he admitted that he had some of the heads of his victims in Utah at his apartment. He mentioned Lamb’s Canyon.’ Perry-Baird’s in-laws don’t believe Bundy either and also felt he was responsible for her murder: her FIL Wally Baird felt Ted’s denial could have possibly been a cover-up: ‘he may have been that way because he didn’t know at the time that she had kids, a child and had been married. That was something that was contrary to his MO.’
Law enforcement commented at the time that they found no evidence making them think Nancy’s disappearance had anything to do with the then nine month old disappearance of Debbie Kent from Bountiful, UT. Kent was abducted from the parking lot of Viewmont High School on November 8,1974; as of March 2023 only her patella has been found. For reference, the school was about a 45-minute drive away from the gas station. Here’s an interesting tidbit of information: according to a 1975 news story published by the Davis County Clipper, Kent’s father was an official of the Triangle Oil Company that owned the Fina gas station that Baird was employed at.
Recently a new theory on Perry-Baird’s strange disappearance has emerged: The Utah Cold Case Coalition noticed that the investigation pretty much stopped after Bundy came into the picture.One of the coalitions co-founders Karra Porter commented that ‘a lot of the investigation stopped there. So we talked to quite a few people that were never interviewed.’ Some of the people interviewed include former law enforcement that worked the case when Nancy first disappeared. The coalition has recently come across two possible persons of interest, the first was a young man that was trying to date Baird (the feeling wasn’t mutual) and that ‘one of the names we’ve been given by former law enforcement does have a subsequent history of sex offenses and a criminal record and so that at least adds to the red flag.’ (he even had a history that landed him in prison) … ‘What we’ve learned so far is that one of the two suspects would be consistent with potentially having a pickup like that.’ Porter elaborated that new witnesses that were never before interviewed reported seeing a pickup truck leaving the area at roughly the time Nancy was abducted, which jumps out at me because when Bundy moved from Seattle to SLC he did buy an old pickup truck. She also said that of the two potential suspects one stands out a touch more than the other. The Coalition is currently attempting to interview him, however as of March 2023 the Covid pandemic is still getting in the way.
It’s speculated that Nancy’s case may somehow be related to the disappearance of another young woman named Cheryl Scherer. Nineteen year-oldScherervanished out of thin air from Rhoades Pump-Ur-Own self service station in Scott City, Missouri sometime between 11:40 and 11:50 AM on April 17, 1979. The two women shared many similar characteristics (such as age, body type, and hairstyle) and disappeared under incredibly similar circumstances. Two hours before her shift ended, Cheryl called her mother who later told police nothing about the conversation was out of the ordinary and that her daughter seemed to be in a good mood. A coworker eventually came in to find the station deserted and ransacked. Just like Perry-Baird, Scherer’s car was left in the parking lot (with the keys inside) and her purse and checkbook were left inside her POE (however in this situation $480 was missing from the cash register). Police speculated the young girl was abducted after a robbery but there were no witnesses. The depraved serial killers OtisToole and Henry Lee Lucas admitted to an abduction during that time and it’s strongly suspected they are responsible for Scherers disappearance. Both men denied any involvement in either girls disappearance.
When Nancy vanished in July of 1975, a young reserve officer named Thomas Jackson was the newest member of the East Layton police force, and Nancy’s case file shows he didn’t play a huge role in her investigation. However he shared with the COLD podcast that he didn’t feel Ted Bundy was responsible for Perry-Baird’s disappearance. Instead, he speculated it was his colleague officer Dave Anderson that might have been responsible for the young mothers demise. At the time of her disappearance, he had only been a police officer for about ten months. A few former law enforcement-related sources familiar with East Layton police operations in the 1970’s shared with the podcast that most of Anderson’s time was spent patrolling US Highway 89, which is the same stretch of road that Nancy’s place of employment was located on. In former Officer Jackson’s opinion, ‘Anderson spent too much time looking at women.’ Anderson left his job with the East Layton PD almost right after Nancy vanished, and case records do not show that he was ever investigated or challenged in any way regarding his account of her disappearance.
After she disappeared, Perry-Baird’s young son was told that ‘his mother is vacationing’ and he was sent to live with relatives. Newer technology at a Texas University helped forensic experts create a DNA profile for Baird based on genetic samples provided by her family. Nancy Perry-Baird would be 71 years old as of March 2023. Her ex-husband passed away on March 17, 2018 after years of battling Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Despite her remains never being recovered, she has a memorial stone in a Provo City Cemetery. Her date of death is listed as the fourth of July, 1975.
***
Update, August 2023.
I’m always updating my articles as I come across new information, and recently I found the initial police report (thanks to the COLD podcast) as well as a newly published article by ksltv.com. After initially being denied a request for Nancy’s case file by Davis County Sheriff’s Office, the podcast filed an appeal, and the original determination was overturned and the request was granted (with portions redacted).
Perry-Baird’s name came to the attention of the podcast’s co-collaborators Dave Cawley and Keira Fairmont while conducting research on the Sheree Warren case. Apparently an informant named William Babbel began communicating with the FBI in February of 1989 while incarcerated at Florida State Prison. Babbel shared that he was at one point incarcerated with Warren’s ex-boyfriend Cary Hartmann, who at the time was serving a prison sentence of 15-years-to-life for an aggravated sexual assault in Ogden, Utah. Although she vanished years after Nancy in 1985, their cases had some eerie similarities: both women were recently divorced from (or were in the process of the act) their spouses and were primary caregivers for their young sons. They were about the same age at the time of their disappearances (Sheree was 25 and Nancy was 23) and both were last seen at their places of employment.
Babbel reportedly claimed that ‘Hartmann had been ‘openly talking about Warren’s disappearance,’ and the FBI states that he told one of their agents that ‘Hartmann questioned why Ted Bundy was blamed for the disappearance of Nancy Baird.’ … ‘on one occasion, Hartmann was looking at a newspaper article depicting Ted Bundy along with photos of many of his victims. Hartmann placed a X by the photos of five of Bundy’s alleged victims.’ FBI Special Agent Gregory Hall later commented that Babbel ‘learned that Cary Hartmann was an acquaintance of Nancy Baird. Baird’s disappearance allegedly occurred while Hartmann was experiencing a divorce.’ At the time Nancy disappeared in July 1975, Hartmann had been between his two marriages, so Babbel’s information seemed to have at least a glimmer of credibility. However the agency later dropped the inmate as an informant, claiming he was unreliable. In addition to Perry-Baird and Warren, he also attempted to tell the FBI about information related to the disappearance of Joyce Yost.
One new piece of information I gathered from the case file that I didn’t know beforehand was an account from a friend of Nancy’s named Deloris Drake. She told a detective that on the evening of July 2, 1975 the two girls went to a few bars together along Ogden’s Washington Boulevard, including Rigos and the Iron Horse. She drove the pair back to her house at around 2:30 AM early the morning of July 3, 1975 and from there Nancy left for her own home in East Layton. About 30 minutes after leaving, she returned to her friends home, and she ‘appeared to be quite shaken and frightened because a man named Tom in a yellow van had followed her home.’ Tom had apparently pursued Perry-Baird to Drake’s home and was making threatening comments toward her as she opened her door. Deloris told law enforcement that she had seen a second man with ‘Tom’ that was on a motorcycle.
A baby picture of Nancy from 1952.A baby picture of Nancy from 1952.Nancy Perry-Baird as a child, photo taken in 1960 when she was around 8 years old.Nancy Perry-Baird as a child, photo taken in 1960 when she was around 8 years old.Nancy Perry-Baird in her youth sitting at a piano.Nancy Perry-Baird as a child.Nancy with a cat.Nancy Perry-Baird in grade school.Nancy Perry as a sophomore in 1968; photo courtesy of Layton High School yearbook. Nancy Perry-Baird from the 1969 East Layton yearbook.Nancy Perry-Baird from the 1969 East Layton yearbook.A wedding invitation from Floyd and Nancy’s wedding.Nancy on her wedding day.Floyd and Nancy on their wedding day.Nancy with family on her wedding day.A photo from Nancy’s wedding day.Nancy and her son.Nancy on a motorcycle.Floyd and Nancy at her high school graduation.Nancy Perry-Baird compared to the Finley Creek Jane Doe.Another composite sketch of the Finley Creek Jane DoeFloyd Dee Baird.Floyd Dee Baird.Nancy’s Mother, Elna Lorraine Perry; she was born on September 11, 1924 and passed away on May 28, 2010. Nancy’s Father Kenneth Stewart Perry; he was born on October 19, 1917 and passed away on December 2, 1979.A birth announcement for Floyd and Nancy’s son published in The Ogden Standard-Examiner on October 14, 1970. Photo found by Teri Offield. An article about Nancy’s disappearance, published in The Salt Lake Tribune on July 6, 1975.An article about Nancy’s disappearance, published in The Salt Lake Tribune on July 7, 1975.An article about Nancy’s disappearance, published in The Ogden Standard-Examiner on July 7, 1975.An article about Nancy’s disappearance titled ‘Police Question Friends of Missing Woman, 23’ published by The Daily Herald on July 7, 1975.An article about Nancy’s disappearance, published in The Ogden Standard-Examiner on July 8, 1975.An article about Nancy’s disappearance, published in The Salt Lake Tribune on July 8, 1975.An article about Nancy’s disappearance published by The Ogden Standard-Examiner on July 9, 1975.An article about Nancy’s disappearance published by The Salt Lake Tribune on July 9, 1975.An article about Nancy’s disappearance published by The Ogden Standard-Examiner on July 10, 1975.An article about Nancy’s disappearance titled ‘Help Sought to Locate Woman, 23′ published by The Daily Herald on July 10, 1975.An article about Nancy’s disappearance published by The Logan Herald Journal on July 10, 1975. An article about Nancy’s disappearance published by The Salt Lake City Tribune on July 10, 1975. An article about Nancy’s disappearance published by The Deseret News on July 10, 1975. An article about Nancy’s disappearance published by The Utah Provo Daily Herald on July 10, 1975. An article about Nancy’s disappearance titled ‘Case of Missing Mother Baffles Officers in Davis’ published by The Ogden Standard-Examiner on July 15, 1975.An article about Nancy’s disappearance published by The Deseret News on July 28, 1975.An article about Nancy’s disappearance published by The Salt Lake City Tribune on August 25, 1975,An article about Nancy’s disappearance titled ”Authorities Still Baffled By Missing Woman, 23′ published by The Ogden Standard-Examiner on September 2, 1975.An article about Nancy’s disappearance titled ‘Missing Layton Woman Spotted? Story Checked’ published in The Ogden Standard-Examiner on September 5, 1975.An article about Nancy’s disappearance, published in The Ogden Standard-Examiner on November 19, 1975.An article about Nancy published by The Ogden Standard-Examiner on January 13, 1976.An article mentioning Nancy published by The Tampa Tribune on April 5, 1978.A 1976 article about the disappearance of Nancy Perry-Baird.An article mentioning Nancy’s disappearance published by The Deseret News on July 10, 1978. Photo found by Teri Offield.An article about Nancy’s disappearance published by The Walla Walla Union Bulletin on May 23, 1986.An article mentioning Nancy’s disappearance, published in The Texan Newspaper on March 2, 1988.An article mentioning Nancy among the list of Ted’s victims after his 1989 execution.Some articles about the disappearance of Nancy Perry-Baird.The FBI Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992; Bundy’s activity is unaccounted for on July 5 when Nancy disappeared.Courtesy of Websleuths.Courtesy of Websleuths. I think the most interesting part is “I have followed this case and know that Bundy used his credit card at that location, at least once (per the East Layton police).”Courtesy of Reddit.A ‘NamUs’ missing persons poster for Nancy.Nancy’s gravestone.Jana Williams Grow and David Williams as they look today from the article titled, ‘Blamed on Bundy: COLD Podcast Challenges Popular Theory in Nancy Baird Cold Case’ published on May 15, 2023 and written by Dave Cawley and Keira Fairmont. David and Jana Williams provided information to the Davis County Sheriff’s Office about two men they’d seen speaking to Nancy Baird minutes prior to her disappearance. A detective used that information to generate these two Identi-kit composites.What is an identi-kit, you may ask? (I did). It’s a 1970’s-era kit that helped law enforcement to generate composite facial sketches by stacking transparencies of individual features.The Identi-kit composite of ‘subject #1’ in the Nancy Perry-Baird case. Photo courtesy of thecoldpodcast. The Identi-kit composite of ‘subject #2’ in the Nancy Perry Baird case. Photo courtesy of thecoldpodcast. The Identi-kit composite of ‘subject #3’ in the Nancy Perry Baird case. Photo courtesy of thecoldpodcast.Nancy Perry-Baird went to this bar with a friend two days before she vanished. Photo courtesy of thecoldpodcast.A Google Earth view of the Fina station where Nancy worked.The Fina station where Nancy worked.A map from Layton to Rock Springs, CO where Nancy was reported being seen.A Google Maps view of 471 Wasatch, Layton UT.Google Maps view from the Fina gas station to Bundys boarding house.A yellow 1973 four-door Ford Maverick.Cheryl Scherer.Sheriff William “Dub” Lawrence.Bonnie Peck.Cheryl Scherer.A map of reference from East Layton, UT where Nancy Perry-Baird was possibly abducted from to Scott Hill, Missouri, where Cheryl Scherer was last seen alive.William Babbel, who briefly acted as an FBI informant in February of 1989. Photo courtesy of The Weber County Attorneys Office.
Laura ‘Laurie’ Lynn Partridge was born on May 31, 1957 to Ken and Mary Partridge of Santa Monica, California. The family relocated to Spokane from Fountain Valley, CA when Mr. Partridge was transferred by the outdoor advertising firm that he worked for in August of 1974. At first Laurie was incredibly upset about the move to Washington state and had hopes of going back as soon as possible but she quickly settled into her new life. She even broke up with her old boyfriend in California and started dating a new guy in Spokane (which made her parents incredibly happy as they strongly disliked the old bf and adored the new one). Mrs. Partridge said of her daughters new fiance: “we liked him the moment he first came to the house. He is also religious and they really hit it off.” The senior at Ferris High School had blonde hair, blue eyes, and a brown mole on her right cheek; at the time of her disappearance she was 17 years old, stood at 5’0” tall and weighed 110pounds. Laura (who only went by Laurie) was the oldest of five siblings: she had three younger sisters (Taryn, Cindy, and Kimberly) and a brother. A girl whose faith was incredibly important to her, she loved playing the guitar and even taught her sister Kim how to play. She also wrote for her new high schools newspaper and was on the drill team.
At roughly 12:30 PM on December 4, 1974 Laurie went to the administrative offices at her school after telling friends she was starting to experience menstrual cramps; she wanted to go home and lay down before her shift at work later. She didn’t have a car of her own so she called both of her parents for a ride, but they were working and told her to just hang out and wait for the bus (I read in a news article that it was rainy that day). Not willing to sit around and hoping the walk and some fresh air might help soothe her cramps, Laurie decided to trek the two miles home. Because she technically had enough credits to graduate early, per school policy she was allowed to end her day early and was able to just leave campus without notifying anyone at home. The only person who was aware that she left was her sister Cindy. When Mrs. Partridge picked the rest of the kids up later that day, Cindy told her Laurie left hours earlier. When they got home, she sent her husband and son out to talk to some of the neighbors who hadn’t seen her either.
Laurie never made it home and, andafter failing to make it into work later that same day at the Lincoln Heights Theater her parents knew something was wrong, and after contacting her fiance and some friends with no success, reported her to the police as missing. Per her niece’s blog ‘creativehomelife‘ (link posted below under works cited), “after she was reported missing Laurie’s father and second oldest child walked the route she would have walked to get home. They knocked on every neighbor’s door and spoke to anyone along the route that answered their door, or who they came across. They were able to build a timeline where Laurie was and the approx time she disappeared based on accounts of people who saw her walking by.” In an article from The Spokesman Review published on January 19, 1975, “school officials at Ferris High School where she was a senior tend to doubt she would run away based on her records and their personal acquaintance with her. The same holds true for her friends.”
Laurie was last seen at the intersection of 37th Street and Havana Street by a man shoveling snow from his driveway. She was wearing a long hooded navy blue wool coat similar to a monk’s robe, a tan sweater, burgundy and tan plaid pants and faded blue denim oxford shoes with crepe soles and had with her a brown leather handbag with a braided shoulder strap and blue flower on it. The neighborhood that Laurie was walking through was surrounded by sprawling fields and the houses were set far apart from one another. Law enforcement speculate that she most likely was abducted while crossing one of these barren stretches of land… with nothing but empty fields around her, it would have been easy for someone to grab her quickly without witnesses. A detective with the sheriff’s department said it was as if she “fell off the face of the earth.”
The Partridge family was very open with law enforcement about Laurie’s initial troubles fitting in with her new peers, but they also made them aware of all the new extracurricular activities she had become involved in as well as the exciting new relationship she was in. They made it crystal clear that she would never run away or leave on her own accord. Laurie may have missed California at first but was really settling into her new life in Spokane; she was even given the opportunity to go back to Fountain Valley to finish out her senior year. That offer was extended roughly around the time she met her new beau, became the advertising editor with the school newspaper and started the drill team so she turned it down. Her mother said that “when Fall arrived and the autumn leaves started to fall, she said she really loved it here. She also had started going to the schools games and was making friends.”
At first Spokane police thought Laurie left willingly on her own, however the Partridge family made it clear from the beginning that they strongly disagreed with this theory. It didn’t take long for law enforcement to change their opinion and it was quickly determined that she was taken by force (it’s worth noting the family feels that valuable time was wasted before that happened). Laurie’s loved ones were insistent that she would never leave on her own, largely because she had just gotten engaged to her 20 year-old boyfriend and the two had plans to go pick out an engagement ringthe day after she disappeared. The couple were planning on a summer wedding after she graduated from high school, and her dream was to move to his family farm, get married, have his babies, raise livestock and live happily ever after. Newspaper reports said the young woman was quickly adapting into her new life in Washington state and was excited about the future. In the days following Laurie’s disappearance, four Spokane sheriff units combed the area where she was last seen surrounding the city limits south going towards Tower Mountain while three other units patrolled the area around Ferris High School and the Lincoln Heights area. Immediately feeling foul play was involved, Mr. Partridge put out a $500 reward for information leading to his daughter’s safe return. A boy who lived in the Partridge’s Spokane neighborhood claims he somehow had firsthand knowledge that Laurie had run away, however his claim seems to hold no merit, as it is rarely mentioned and doesn’t really seem to factor into any of the pertinent information surrounding her case.
Before her disappearance, Mr. Partridge bought his daughter two general admission tickets to a Beach Boys concert later that month on December 9, 1974 at the Spokane Coliseum. Family members said Laurie was carrying them with her the afternoon she disappeared and they knew there was no way she would ever willingly miss that show. There’s conflicting reports that Laurie’s Mom either recalled by memory at least one of the ticket numbers or she had them both written down somewhere. The Partridge’s pleaded with law enforcement for permission to check the ticket numbers of people coming into the concert but denied their request, claiming it would hold people up that were trying to get into the show. After the concert was over, police went back and searched for her ticket numbers in the stubs and they realized that both of Laurie’s tickets had been redeemed. Unfortunately at this point it was too late and there was no way to figure out who had used them (they were general seating and obviously this was well before the days of cameras).
Around the time Laurie disappeared, her niece wrote that: “police and family also spoke to a witness who came forward in 1974. A teenage girl was riding her horse around 4:15 PM and spotted a man in his 40’s-50’s in a field holding a rifle standing with a girl who she thought looked like Laurie and she described the clothes as to what Laurie wore. They were standing in front of a vehicle described as a white truck with a van back end and a darker colored door. When the witness looked back the girl was no longer visible.This sighting was near the route Laurie last walked.” When she glanced back the young girl had disappeared but later that night saw the story of Laurie Partridge on the news and (after telling her mother) reported what she saw to law enforcement; nothing ever came of it (this was actually reported on in 2011, not 1974).
According to Laurie’s sister ‘Taryn‘ on the WebSlueths forum, “there was a sighting of Laurie in a field with a man with a truck and another sighting 2-3 days later in the back of a car with another man.The police did things a lot differently back then-and thought she ran away. Which we know she didn’t. There are a lot of things that haven’t been followed thru on and as more time passes it gets harder.Someone has to know something.” … “A few days later she was seen in in the back seat with a man- the car was green Vega or Pinto.” … “I think it was the parking lot of PAY N SAVE in SPOKANE.” …
Multiple reports said that a green Ford Pinto was in the area at the time of her abduction and may have been following her. Per Laurie’s niece, “police also received reports about a green Ford Pinto station wagon in the area possibly following Laurie and days later someone also contacted police and made a report that they believe they spotted the missing 17 year-old being held captive in the back of a pinto, these leads never went anywhere either. There were a couple other tips that Laurie’s Dad and Fiance followed up on, including them driving to Idaho. Again nothing viable was found.” Over the years law enforcement conducted hundreds of interviews and polygraphs with Laurie’s loved ones, friends, and acquaintancesin California and Spokane … all of them passed.
It seems there are varying reports out there on whether or not Laurie’s purse and its contents have been found in the general area where she was last seen two days after her disappearance. Some sources say yes, others swear it’s never been recovered but I’m going to go by her nieces blog, who said it has not been recovered and that “her family has verified this with detectives.” In a deleted Reddit account, a user comments on a post about Laurie that: “Holy &%$ — my Dad went to school with her and he used to tell me about this case when I was smaller to illustrate why he and Mom worried about us. He said it really rattled him — one day he and his friends were discussing who was going to ask out the new cute girl first (though I guess she was already engaged?), and the next…. they were told she was missing. He said though, that her purse HAD been found. I do wonder if someone found it but didn’t turn it in, instead keeping it as some sort of weird trophy.”
Over the years three suspects were questioned in relation to Laurie’s disappearance but no one has ever been formally charged. Her new fiance was questioned in depth but was never considered a suspect. In regards to who abducted her sister, Taryn Chambers said: “I’m not sure-maybe someone she knew. We thought maybe Ted Bundy, but he was in Utah at the time.” At the time Ted was living roughly 750 miles away from Ferris High School in Salt Lake City (even though we all know he had no problem driving long distances when hunting for prey). In December 1974 he was in between jobs: from May 3, 1974 to August 28, 1974 Bundy worked for the Department of Emergency Services in Olympia and remained unemployed until June 1975 when he briefly worked as the night manager in charge of Bailiff Hall at the University of Utah (he was fired the next month for showing up drunk). Ted was a law student at the University of Utah at the time and was living at 565 First Avenue (he was there from September 1974 to September 1975). We know Ms. Partridge fit the physical description of one of his victims: she was slim, a student and was in the right setting… However, gas related credit card receipts place Bundy in Utah at the time of Laurie’s disappearance. His last known murder before she was abducted was Debra Kent on November 8, 1975 out of Bountiful, Utah and he killed Caryn Campbell in Aspen, Colorado on (or around) January 12, 1975. The Partridge family doesn’t believe Ted had any involvement with Laurie’s disappearance and frankly, neither do I.
Another suspect that was investigated for Laurie’s disappearance is Stanley Marvin Bernson. Born in 1936, law enforcement suspect Bernson may have killed a total of 30 women around the Northwest and he was sentenced to life in prison for two of them, one in Oregon (1978) and another in Washington (1979). He was arrested in connection with the vicious stabbing death of Diane Remington and was later found guilty of killing 15 year old Sharon Weber, of Hermiston, OR. He at one point bragged to his cellmates as well as law enforcement that he traveled the country killing women with Ted Bundy but police were unable to ever place the two men together. According to the website ‘tapatalk,’ “the internet is strangely scrubbed of any Bernson references, but this snippet turns up in an Oregon criminal trial lawyer publication: ‘Bernson’s lawyer, the late Dennis Hachler, said that his client used to run with Ted Bundy and, he added that Bernson made Bundy look like a choir boy.” At the time of Laurie’s disappearance in 1974, Bernson was employed as a traveling produce salesman and lived in Spokane, WA. Coincidentally, he had a route nearby where she was abducted from. One of Laurie’s sisters asked law enforcement several times over the years to interview the convicted killer, and in July 2018 detectives working the case went to Walla Walla where he was incarcerated and questioned him; he denied having any involvement in her disappearance. No additional victims have been tied to Bernson after he was arrested, and he continues to serve his life term at the Washington State Penitentiary.
Per an article in The Spokesman Review published on January 19, 1975: “it isn’t that the family is just sitting back and waiting for something to happen. They have gone ‘deeply into debt,’ borrowing money to check out all of which have ended in “absolutely nothing.” The family even borrowed $5,000 to buy the help of famed psychic Peter Hurkos to help find Laurie. Hurkos gained international attention when he assisted Boston detectives in solving the Boston Strangler case and offered several possible leads that all lead to nothing (obviously). Not wanting to ruin her other kids’ childhood because of her own paranoia, Mary Partridge tried her hardest to not let the loss of Laurie affect her other children’s lives. However, none of them were ever really able to go back to “normal” and her disappearance caused such a deep seeded problem in the Partridge’s marriage that they ended up divorcing (although they reconciled and remarried over 10 years later). Of her big sisters disappearance, Kimberly Partridge-Carroll said, “Laurie was such a beautiful, beautiful person. Whoever took her changed the whole course of our lives.” Laurie’s mother passed away in 2004 but her father is still alive; her siblings are now dotted throughout the US. At this point, her family knows they are looking for a Jane Doe that would match Laurie’s physical description and they still are desperate for answers.
After Laurie disappeared the Partridge family moved out of Spokane, wanting to leave the trauma and bad memories behind. Kimsaid of her sisters disappearance: “it’s torture not knowing. It’s absolute torture.” Laurie’s niece wrote: “I never got to meet my Aunt Laurie, as my Mom was 10 years old when her sister went missing. Growing up, my mother would talk to my brothers and I about Laurie’s abduction, it was very difficult back then for Mom to talk about it, and it still is today. She still can’t talk about her without crying. It is difficult for all the surviving family members to talk about.”
DNA has been submitted by multiple family members in hopes to help build a genetic profile in case Laurie’s remains are ever found; her dental records are available for comparison as well. Ms. Partridge’s case remains unsolved as of March 2023; she would be 65 today and her social security number has never been used. Her case is featured in the ‘Ace of Diamonds playing cards’ used by prison inmates in Washington state; according to Laurie’s niece, “through research I found as of 2016, the cards have resulted in approx 600 tips, many have proved useless, but the program is indeed considered a success as the cards have resulted in 9 cold cases being solved.”
Laurie Lynn Partridge’s third grade picture, courtesy of lauriepartridgemissing.weebly.com.Laurie Lynn Partridge’s fifth grade picture, courtesy of lauriepartridgemissing.weebly.com.Laurie’s sixth grade picture, courtesy of lauriepartridgemissing.weebly.com.A childhood picture of Laurie Lynn Partridge with one of her sisters.An early picture of the Partridge family.An early picture of some of the Partridge family, courtesy of lauriepartridgemissing.weebly.com.An early picture of some of the Partridge family, courtesy of lauriepartridgemissing.weebly.com.An early picture of the Partridge family, courtesy of lauriepartridgemissing.weebly.com.An early picture of the Partridge family, courtesy of lauriepartridgemissing.weebly.com.An early picture of the Partridge family, courtesy of lauriepartridgemissing.weebly.com.An early picture of the Partridge family.An early picture of the Partridge family.An early picture of the Partridge family.A high school picture of Laurie Lynn Partridge.A high school picture of Laurie Lynn Partridge.A high school picture of Laurie Lynn Partridge.A high school picture of Laurie Lynn Partridge.A high school picture of Laurie Lynn Partridge.A B&W picture of Laurie Lynn Partridge.A picture of what Laurie Lynn Partridge might look like in 2011 using age progression technology.A picture of what Laurie Lynn Partridge might look like at 47 years old using age progression technology.A picture of what Laurie Lynn Partridge might look now using age progression technology.A screen grab from the web page dedicated to find Laurie: lauriepartridgemissing.weebly.com.Detective Mike Ricketts of the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, photo courtesy of The Spokesman Review.An article about Laurie from the Spokane Daily Chronicle published on December 5, 1974.Part one of an article from The Spokesman Review published on January 19, 1975.Part two of an article from The Spokesman Review published on January 19, 1975.An article from The Walla Walla Union Bulletin published on January 19, 1975. An article from The Centralia Daily Chronicle published on January 20, 1975. Part one of an article from The Spokesman Review published on April 7, 1976.Part two of an article from The Spokesman Review published on April 7, 1976.An article from the Spokane Daily Chronicle published on April 7, 1978. An article from the Spokane Daily Chronicle published on May 9, 1983.Part one of an article from The Spokesman Review published on May 9, 1983.Part two of an article from The Spokesman Review published on May 9, 1983.Part three of an article from The Spokesman Review published on May 9, 1983.Part four of an article from The Spokesman Review published on May 9, 1983.A picture from an article from The Spokesman Review published on May 9, 1983.A picture from an article from The Spokesman Review published on February 21, 2004.An article about Laurie by The Spokesman Review published on May 5, 2006.An picture related to the disappearance of Laurie Partridge.An picture related to the disappearance of Laurie Partridge.An picture related to the disappearance of Laurie Partridge.In December of 1974, Laurie Partridge left Ferris High School early, complaining about not feeling well walking at 37th & Havana Streets on Spokane’s South Hill.Captain Jim Goodwin of the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.A shot of the binder associated with Laurie Partridge’s case.An picture from the original police report related to the disappearance of Laurie Partridge.An picture from the original police report related to the disappearance of Laurie Partridge.TB’s whereabouts on December 4, 1974 when Laurie disappeared according to the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992.’Laurie’s sister, Kimberly Carroll. Laurie’s Dad, Ken Partridge.A missing post related to Laurie, photo courtesy of the ‘Laurie Partridge Missing from Spokane, WA’ Facebook page.A missing post related to Laurie, photo courtesy of the ‘Laurie Partridge Missing from Spokane, WA’ Facebook page.A missing post related to Laurie, photo courtesy of the ‘Laurie Partridge Missing from Spokane, WA’ Facebook page.A missing post related to Laurie, photo courtesy of the ‘Laurie Partridge Missing from Spokane, WA’ Facebook page.A missing post related to Laurie, photo courtesy of lauriepartridgemissing.weebly.com.Beach Boys tickets, the date of the concert Laurie was going to attend was December 9, 1974.A Beach Boys concert.The World’s Fair was taking place in Spokane in 1974.The World’s Fair was taking place in Spokane in 1974.A map from Ferris High School to the Partridge home.The route that Laurie would have took when walking home from Ferris High School the day she disappeared. She walked East along 37th, and then South on Havana and was last seen walking South on Havana Street between 43rd and 49th Avenues. This is a more recent map of the area and was slightly different in the 70’s, photo courtesy of the ‘Laurie Partridge Missing from Spokane, WA’ Facebook page.A photo of where the Partridge family lived, at S5405 Custer Road in Spokane, WA 99223.A purse similar to what Laurie was using the day she disappeared.Clothes similar to what Laurie was wearing the day she disappeared.Shoes similar to the ones Laurie’s was wearing the day she disappeared.The high school Laurie attended.Joel E. Ferris High school, where Laurie attended.The 1974 Ferris High School yearbook.A 1974 Chevy Vega.A green Ford Pinto station wagon.The Lincoln Heights Theater where Laurie worked.The Spokane Coliseum. Tower Mountain Lookout.Peter Hurkos.Stanley Bernson.A Websleuth’s post showing where Bundy was according to the FBI timeline.A Websleuth’s post about some recent activity about Laurie’s disappearance.
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 isa 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 Rollerwas 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 KappaKappa 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, ‘ReconstructingSara: The Lost Victim of Ted Bundy,‘ is (for the most part) a memoir that is currentlyout 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 ConfessionInterview.’ 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 timeTed 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 ‘TheDevils Defender‘ that Ted allegedly confessed to him (and conveniently onlyhim) 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 apologizedafter, 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 permanentpsychological 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 isinnocent‘ theories or that he was somehow involved with the ‘MKUltra’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 femalehitchhikers, 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 ‘fragmentedmemory’ 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 ‘TheRiverman,’ 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 investigatorsinSeattle 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 Taylor 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
Page 154 from the Downey High School 1969 yearbook.Susan’s education background, photo courtesy of classmates.A photo of Sara A. Survivor, photo courtesy of Erin Banks/CrimePiper.A photo of Sara A. Survivor.Page 44 from the Clover Park High School 1972 yearbook.Page 56 from the Clover Park High School 1972 yearbook.Page 78 from the Clover Park High School 1972 yearbook.Page 169 from the Clover Park High School 1972 yearbook, photo courtesy of classmates.com.Page 177 from the Clover Park High School 1972 yearbook, photo courtesy of classmates.com.Page 214 from the Clover Park High School 1972 yearbook, photo courtesy of classmates.com.Page 228 from the 1972 Clover Park High School yearbook.A write up from page 215 of the Clover Park High School 1972 yearbook, photo courtesy of classmates.com.Page 234 from the Clover Park High School 1972 yearbook, photo courtesy of classmates.com.Page 263 from the Clover Park High School 1972 yearbook, photo courtesy of classmates.com.Page 263 from the Clover Park High School 1972 yearbook, photo courtesy of classmates.com.A photo from the 1972 Daffodil Parade.Photo courtesy of classmates.com.Photo courtesy of Facebook.Sara A. Survivor.A photo of a 15 year old Sara A. Survivor, photo courtesy of Erin Banks/The CrimePiper.A photo of Sara A. Survivor while in nursing school at the University of Washington, photo courtesy of Erin Banks/The CrimePiper.A photo of Sara A. Survivor with some confirmed Bundy victims, photo courtesy of Erin Banks/The CrimePiper.An article about the Daffodil Princesses that mentions Susan Roller published in The News Tribune on December 26, 1971.Susan and some fellow Daffodil Princesses in an article published by The News Tribune on February 20, 1972.Susan and some fellow Daffodil Princesses in an article published by The News Tribune on March 26, 1972.Susan and some fellow Daffodil Princesses in an article published by The News Tribune on April 2, 1972.Susan and some fellow Daffodil Princesses in an article published by The News Tribune on April 9, 1972.A post card from Bundy to Detective Keppel. Per Maria Serban’s write up on ‘archives.org’ (I’ll leave the link in the works cited section): ‘Awhile ago I received from the King County archivists a .pdf file with Robert Keppel’s notes, related to Ted Bundy. The notes in this pdf file basically contain Keppel’s early 80’s correspondence from people about Bundy, also notes from experts who claimed they might help Keppel decipher Ted’s personality based on his handwriting (bogus claim, in my opinion), and also a postcard that was signed ‘Ted B’ (Bundy himself never signed his letters to Keppel ‘Ted B,’ but usually he would sign them ‘ted’ – lower case). The postcard also spelled ‘Raiford’ wrongly, and it had a taunting tone, very different from the tone Bundy was using with Keppel in the 80’s, and the handwriting wasn’t Bundy’s either. I dare say I’m 100% persuaded that the postcard was a phony one, not sent by Bundy himself. Almost all of Bundy’s letters to Keppel have been transcribed in the book ‘Reflections on Green River: The Letters of, and Conversations with, Ted Bundy’ by ‘Sara: A Survivor.’ The tone in those letters was professional, sober, never taunting, unlike the tone in the phony postcard included in Keppel’s files. Bundy’s correspondence with Keppel started when Bundy sent the Green River Task Force (Dave Reichert and Robert Keppel) a letter, on October 2, 1984, offering his help in solving the Green River serial murders. He signed that first letter ‘ted’ (lower case), and sent it via Tom Swayze, a Republican superior court judge in Tacoma whom Bundy knew from his campaigning days. 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.Part one of an article about Susan Roller published by The News Tribune on November 30, 1971.Part two of an article about Susan Roller published by The News Tribune on November 30, 1971.The cover of Sara’s first book.This is what you see when you try to read the majority of the articles on the ‘ReconstructingSara’ web page.Some of the articles on the ‘ReconstructingSara’ web page that have been pulled.Some of the articles on the ‘ReconstructingSara’ web page that have been pulled.A hand drawn map at the beginning of the only article remaining on Sara’s page, titled ‘Ted Bundy: WA Crime Sites Itemized.’ The second portion of the introduction for the only article remaining on Sara’s page, titled ‘Ted Bundy: WA Crime Sites Itemized.’ Page one of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page two of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page three of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page four of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page five of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.A letter from Susan Roller to the Seattle police chief on 7/18/2017 claiming that there was ‘a cover up of the Ted Bundy cases in general and in particular relative to the findings at Taylor Mountain,’ asserting that crime scenes were unprotected and evidence was ignored or destroyed while people ‘were allowed to profit from the case.’ Page six of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page seven of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page eight of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Communication between Survivor and Ann Rule. Page nine of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page ten of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Survivor discussing possible or imagined memories with a man using crutches. Page eleven of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page twelve of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page thirteen of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page fourteen of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page fifteen of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page sixteen of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page seventeen of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page eighteen of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page nineteen of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page twenty of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page twenty-one of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page twenty-two of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page twenty-three of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page twenty-four of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page twenty-five of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page twenty-six of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page twenty-seven of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page twenty-eight of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page twenty-nine of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page thirty of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page thirty-one of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page thirty-two of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.A drawing and recollection of Susans first hand testimony of what happened the night Georgann Hawkins was abducted. Page thirty-three of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Above is a drawing (from memory) of Sara’s recollection of where her dorm room was in comparison to Liz Kloepfer’s apartment. Page thirty-four of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page thirty-five of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page thirty-six of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page thirty-seven of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page thirty-eight of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page thirty-nine of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page forty of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page forty-one of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page forty-two of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page forty-three of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page forty-four of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page forty-five of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page forty-six of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page forty-seven of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page forty-eight of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page forty-nine of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page fifty of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page fifty-one of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page fifty-two of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page fifty-three of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page sixty-seven of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page seventy of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page seventy-one of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page seventy-two of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page seventy-three of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page seventy-four of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page seventy-five of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page seventy-six of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page seventy-seven of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page seventy-eight of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page seventy-nine of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page eighty of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page eighty-one of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page eighty-three of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page eighty-four of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page eighty-five of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page eighty-six of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page eighty-seven of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page eighty-eight of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Page eighty-nine of a document regarding Susan L. Roller from cavdef.org.Photo courtesy of ‘CrimePiper.’A photo of Georgann Hawkins at Pierce County’s 1973 Daffodil Festival.A photo of Georgann Hawkins from her Lakes High School yearbook in 1973.Friend of Georgann Hawkins, Phyllis Armstrong from her 1973 yearbook. Armstrong was also featured on Amazon’s ‘Falling for a Killer.’ Photo courtesy of ‘CrimePiper.’A picture of the where Georgann Hawkins was abducted.A map of the alley that Hawkins walked the night she disappeared. Photo courtesy of King County Archives.A Google Maps image of Georgann’s sorority house compared to where Rollers sorority house is.I took this picture of the alley where Georgann Hawkins was abducted in April 2022. The pathway above is where Georgann was walking when Bundy approached her. While she was leaving the Beta Theta Pi House, she stopped for a moment to talk to her boyfriends friend Duane Covey.The University of Washington Greek Row, also the alley where Georgann Hawkins disappeared on June 13, 1974. Photo courtesy of Greg Gilbert from ‘The Seattle Times.’Susan’s father, Gilbert John Roller.
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 locatedat 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 ‘unconfirmedvictims‘ 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 JulieCunningham). 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.
The only childhood picture I could find of Vicki, she is in the front row on the far left. Vicki Hollar.Vicki Lynn Hollar.Vicki Hollars 1964 Homewood-Flossmoor High School yearbook photo.Vicki Hollars 1965 Homewood-Flossmoor High School yearbook photo.Vicki Hollars 1966 Homewood-Flossmoor High School yearbook photo.Vicki Hollars 1967 Homewood-Flossmoor High School yearbook photo.Vicki Hollars 1967 Homewood-Flossmoor High School senior activities.An article mentioning Vicki published by The Daily Mail on January 30, 1967. A photo of Vicki from her 1968 Southern Illinois University yearbook, ‘The Obelisk.’A photo of ‘The Aquaettes’ including Vicki from the 1968 Southern Illinois University yearbook, ‘The Obelisk.’A photo of Vicki from the 1969 Southern Illinois University yearbook, ‘The Obelisk.’A photo of Vicki from the 1969 Southern Illinois University yearbook, ‘The Obelisk.’Vicki. Photo courtesy of the King County Sheriffs Department.Some artwork of Vicki created by Christina Marie Martinez.Some artwork of Vicki created by Christina Marie Martinez.A police memorandum about Hollar, courtesy of the King County Sheriffs Department.A newspaper blurb mentioning Hollar during her time as an Aquaette.A newspaper clipping mentioning Vicki seeking a job published in The Homewood Flossmoor Star in early May 27, 1971.Vicki is listed in the list of graduates from the commencement address at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.An article from a newspaper mentioning a speeding ticket Vicki got in early 1973, the same year she disappeared.The 1950 census mentioning one-year-old Vicki.A newspaper article about the disappearance of Vicki Lynn Hollar published in The Register-Guard on August 31, 1973.An article about the disappearance of Vicki Hollar published in The Sunday Oregon Journal on September 1, 1973.An article about the disappearance of Vicki Hollar published in The Sunday Oregonian on September 2, 1973.An article mentioning the disappearance of Vicki Hollar published in The Sunday Oregonian on December 9, 1973.An article about Hollar published by The Register-Guard on December 14, 1973.An article on the missing Oregon girls published by The Greater Oregon on December 21, 1973.The first part of an article mentioning Vicki’s disappearance published in The Eugene Register-Guard on April 16, 1978.The second part of an article mentioning Vicki’s disappearance published in The Eugene Register-Guard on April 16, 1978.An article mentioning Hollar published by The Statesman Journal on January 25, 1989.Vicki Hollar is mentioned above in an article published by The Hartford Courant on January 25, 1989.An article about Bundy’s execution mentioning Hollar published by The Columbian on January 27, 1989.An article mentioning Hollar published by The Statesman Journal on January 27, 1989.An article on Vicki Hollar.A screen shot of where Bundy was on August 20, 1973 according to the FBI’s ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992.’A picture of a 1965 black VW Beetle (although Vicki’s car had the running boards removed). Where Vicki walked with a coworker to get her Beetle.I couldn’t find an exact address for Ms. LeClair but I did search for the name of is in relation to Ms. Hollars residence. The route from the Rogers rooming house on 12th Ave to the area where Vicki was last seen getting into her Bug where it was parked at W 8th Ave in Eugene, OR.This is the image that came up when I searched Vicki’s address at the time of her murder, 683 West 27th Ave in Eugene, OR.An interesting theory surrounding the disappearance of Vicki Hollar from ‘Websleuths” user ‘Earth.’An interesting theory on the disappearance of Vicki Hollar from ‘Websleuths’ user ‘Fai’ written on July 21, 2019.An interesting theory on the disappearance of Vicki Hollar from ‘Websleuths’ user ‘Cait6’ written on July 22, 2019.An interesting theory on the disappearance of Vicki Hollar from ‘Websleuths’ user ‘Ski Killset’ written on July 13, 2022.An interesting theory on the disappearance of Vicki Hollar from ‘Websleuths’ user ‘Ski Killset’ written on August 18, 2022.An article on the murder of Gayle LeClair, published on August 30, 1973 by The Globe (Coos Bay, OR). The obituary of Gayle LeClair, published on August 27, 1973 by The Globe (Coos Bay, OR). A photo of the crime scene from the murder of Gayle LeClair from the Eugene Register-Guard, published on August 24, 1973.Ben Hollar’s draft card. A photo of Aida Hollar from the 1947 Fenger Academy yearbook.Benny and Aida Hollars marriage license announcement in the local newspaper.Vicki’s mother Aida.Vicki’s parents begging for help, published The Chicago Tribune on March 10, 1979.Vicki’s brother Kenneth from the 1969 Homewood-Flossmoor High School yearbook.
Robin Ann Graham was born on June 22, 1952 to Marvin and Beverly Graham. The family of eleven grew up at 2227 Lemoyne Street in the Silverlake-Los Feliz area of Los Angeles, California; Mr. Graham was employed with the Department of Water and Power. Described as having a big personality and an even bigger heart, at the time of her disappearance Robin stood 5’6” tall, weighed 125 pounds, and had dark brown eyes and long brown hair she wore parted down the middle. A naturally gifted student, Robin graduated from John Marshall High School in June 1970 and was attending Pierce College (a public community college in Woodland Hills, LA) as an art major; the ambitious young lady also workedPT at Pier 1 Imports in Hollywood. At the time of her disappearance Ms. Graham was in a healthy, long-term relationship and had a very busy social life.
The night before she disappeared on November 14th, 1970 (after dropping off a friend at home), Robin left her vehicle (a former black and white highway patrol car bought at auction) in the Pier 1 Imports parking lot (located at 5711 Hollywood Boulevard) and got a ride with her boyfriend for a night out partying and dancing with college friends. Robin was last seen carrying a leather handbag wearing a dark blue corduroy jacket (with gold buttons), a red jersey blouse, blue jeans and red clogs; she had a birthmark on her lower back and one of her front teeth was just a hair darker than the others. After dropping a friend off at home, I’m reading that Robin was either dropped off at her car by either her boyfriend or by a friend named Tom Palst (sp?), who very well may be her boyfriend, it’s unclear). I’m also coming across varying reports saying she was possibly driving her boyfriends car. Robin immediately set off down the Hollywood Freeway for home. Mere minutes into her journey (somewhere between 1:55-2 AM, accounts vary) the car stalled: she ran out of gas and was stranded on the Santa Monica Boulevard off ramp. Almost immediately after pulling over, California Highway Patrol pulled up beside her and asked if they could offer any assistance, or at the very least call her a tow-truck. At one point during the early morning, they helped push her car further onto the shoulder, as it was slightly sticking out in the Number four lane. Robin politely declined the tow but asked to be directed to the nearest ‘callbox,’ which she used to let her parents know she was experiencing car problems; records say the call was placed to the Graham home at 2:04 AM. The officers pulled up a second time when she informed them she did indeed call home and help was on the way: her little sister accepted the call and passed the information along to her parents (who were out at a party). Satisfied with the answer but still wanting to make sure the young lady was OK, they drove away but decided to loop around once again just to check on her and make sure help really was on the way. After they passed her the last timeno one knows exactly what happened to Robin: they saw her talking with a Caucasian man roughly around 25/26 years old with medium length brown hair standing at around 5’8.” I do want to point out there is a discrepancy in the hair color of the unidentified male: in one news report it’s said he had “blonde hair” instead of brown. He was wearing bell-bottom pants, a white turtleneck and was driving a 1957 – 1960 blue Corvette. The ‘Doe Network’ claims the car was a ‘hardtop’ which couldn’t be true, as apparently all Corvettes from that time period were convertibles. I found various reports stating that the man was either ‘leaning in her car window’ or was tinkering underneath the hood, inspecting something. CHP assumed it was the relative the young girl called for help so they just kept driving.
Unfortunately the CHP officers didn’t get close enough to the mystery man to get a good look at his face as they drove past him, and because of this there was never a composite sketch of the suspect done. They reported they saw the blue sports car initially pass Robin’s car, pull off the freeway at the next exit then circle around and come back, eventually parking behind her. The initial report stated that Robin left willingly with the young man, however when that officer was questioned for a second time he clarified he did not see the pair leave together. The last time Graham was seen by law enforcement officers was at roughly 2:00 AM. The call box operated called the Graham home but both parents were out: sixteen year old Bonnie Jean took the message that her sister was stranded and relayed it to her parents when they arrived home at 2:30. They both immediately went to their daughters aide, however when they arrived only her car was there and Robin was nowhere in sight. Additionally, there was no note left behind anywhere in or around her locked vehicle. Law enforcement even fingerprinted the car but were unable to get any viable prints off it and Sergeant Terry Pierce said they interviewed about 150 friends, family members, and acquaintances of Robins in an attempt to gain intel on the cause. Of her disappearance CHP Lieutenant Page said “we are seriously concerned for the girls safety. We fear she may have met with foul play.”
Handling of the incident by law enforcement prompted immediate criticism from LA County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, and because of the officers failing to stay with Robin and keep her safe the CHP faced immediate backlash: an investigation was launched looking into the conduct of the officers surrounding the night Robin disappeared. People were absolutely livid at the thought of trained police officers leaving a young, vulnerable teenage girl alone in the presence of a male stranger in the wee hours of the morning (which resulted in her abduction). Despite the public outcry, it was eventually determined that the patrolmen in question were acting in accordance with policy. Despite that ruling, California Highway Patrol policy was changed to ensure the safety of all stranded female motorists, stating that CHP officers were to remain with any female motorists that were left stranded on the side of the roads at night until their help arrived. Even though police took these extra precautions, women still continued to go missing under similar circumstances involving vehicles over the following years.
Ms. Grahams mysterious disappearance was first handled by the same detectives at the Rampart Division of the LAPD, who theorized it was linked to other eerily similar cases involving missing young women: in November 1967, law enforcement warned the public of an attacker who flagged down three women pretending to have car problems before he assaulted them; they felt the incidents seem to be linked. Eight months before Robin disappeared, Kathleen Johns was on her way to San Francisco with her infant when the car behind her started flashing its headlights at her. When she pulled over a man got out of the vehicle and said her back wheel was ‘wobbling furiously;’ he offered to fix it however instead of helping he loosened it so it completely fell off as she attempted to drive away. The man then backed up and offered to take her and the baby to a nearby service station, which she accepted. As he wordlessly passed the gas station Johns got nervous and asked where they were going. He kept quiet for a few minutes then said, “before I kill you, I’m going to throw your baby out the window.” They drove around like that for about 90 minutes; he taunted the young mother with similar comments like, “you know you’re going to die.” Johns eventually managed to escape the vehicle, hiding in a field with her baby as he frantically looked for her with a flashlight; he eventually left when a truck approached. She eventually was able to wave down another vehicle, which took her to a nearby police station. While she waited at the police station to make an official report, Johns saw a sketch on the wall of the same man that had spent the past hour terrorizing her: it was a wanted poster for the Zodiac Killer.
Ms. Graham was the fourth young woman to disappear under mysterious circumstances in the general Hollywood, CA area within a two year period, however, in most of those cases the victims’ remains were eventually found, unlike Graham (whose body has never been found). Most of Bundy’s victims were never discovered so we know he had a way of making bodies disappear (which also might explain why Grahams body was never found). On the evening of October 30,1966 Riverside College student Cheri Jo Bates went to her schools library to study for a few hours, and when she tried to leave for home her VW Bug wouldn’t start. Conveniently right at that very moment, an unidentified man offered her up his assistance, even going so far as to look under the hood of her VW Bug in an attempt to diagnose why it wouldn’t start. The man claimed he was unable to start it but offered her a ride, which she accepted. Her body was found the next day by a groundskeeper at the college: the young co-ed was brutally killed with a knife and was cut and slashed so aggressively that her head nearly came off. Elizabeth Habe was the daughter of author Hans Habe and b-actress Eloise Hardt. She was a student at the University of Hawaii and was home in LA on Christmas vacation when she was murdered on December 29, 1968 after returning home from a double date with John Hornburg (a family friend). She left Johns house at 3:15 AM in her sports car and was abducted when she got home to her Moms house on Cynthia Avenue in West Hollywood. Her body was discovered on New Years Day in 1969 in dense underbrush off Mulholland Drive; she was found fully clothed and her body was burned, with contusions in her eyes and slashes to her throat and heart; the medical examiner determined no sexual assault took place. There were a few rapes in the neighborhood in the weeks before Habe’s brutal death and it’s further speculated that the young student may have been killed by the Manson Family. A former Family associate said that “members of the Family knew her.” Robin’s case also shows some parallels with the May 1969 murder of Rose Tashman, a young woman who was found murdered just hours after her 1965 beige Mustang was discovered abandoned with a flat tire on the side of the Hollywood Freeway. At around 2 AM, the Valley Junior College student was driving home from a friend’s house in Van Nuys, CA after studying for an exam when she got a flat tire. She was stranded on the side of the Hollywood Freeway just a few miles away from where Graham’s car was found in late 1970. The next day, Tashmans Mustang was found abandoned near the Highway Avenue off-ramp on the Hollywood Freeway; road flares had been set up around the vehicle and her left tire was flat. There was also evidence that someone had stopped to “help” assist her with the flat tire. Only nine hours later, the young girls naked body was found in a brushy ravine off Mullholland Drive about a half mile away from where Habe’s body was found; she was strangled and raped. On January 20, 1970, Cindy Lee Mellin got a flat tire in the same general area as Tashman and Graham, and just like the others she vanished without a trace under mysterious conditions. Mellin was a student and employed at the Broadway Department Store in Ventura, California; she was 5’6″ tall, weighed 105 pounds and had brown hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a navy blue dress with red buttons matched with blue shoes with gold buckles (she had her brown corduroy coat with her as well); The Press Courier described the 19 years old as a “pretty Ventura coed.” After work that evening in January, Cindy walked to her car only to discover she had a flat tire. Two of Cindy’s coworkers (who had been picked up by their spouses after work) reported they saw the young girl talking to an unidentified man at about 10:30 PM but assumed it was her Dad so they left. They described te male as tall and slim, between 35 and 40 years old; he drove a light-colored car. Leonard Mellin said that his daughter most likely would not have been able to change the tire herself so the theory that an unidentified man approached Cindy under the guise of helping makes sense. That following morning, after realizing his daughter never came home from work the night before, Mr. Mellin drove to the shopping center where Cindy worked and found her car in the same spot as she’d left it but the spare tire was on the ground nearby; her doors, trunk, and glove box were open, and it appeared that one of the car tires had been purposefully slashed with a knife. Her body has never been recovered. On April 20, 1972 Ernestine Terello got a flat tire near the Ventura freeway in Agoura, CA and surprise surprise… her car was later found abandoned; a month later her body was found on the ‘Circle X Boy Scout Ranch’ in the Santa Monica mountains. Police theorized that a good Samaritan had offered her help fix her tire then abducted her. Strangely her body was found fully clothed, so its possible that sexual assault may not have been a motive. Additionally, she still had on valuable jewelry robbery was most likely also not a motive. This case did not get much press attention and no suspects have ever been mentioned nor have any arrests been made. Similarly, on June 19, 1975 nineteen year old Mona Jean Gallegos was driving home from a friend’s house in Alhambra, CA and at roughly 1 AM ran out of gas near Santa Anita Avenue on the San Bernardino Freeway in El Monte. Her skeletal remains were discovered about six months later in a Riverside ravine.
The media was incredibly inconsistent when reporting on Robins case, and law enforcement felt that the “free-spirited nature of the 70’s” made these young girls fairly easy, very trusting targets. Regarding her daughters disappearance, Beverly Graham said: “it’s strange, it happened right in the middle of the city, but there never really were any clues. Maybe it will turn something up. We still live with that hope.” For years after his daughter disappeared, Mr. Graham called LA homicide Sargent Donald Ham every few weeks to get a status update on the case; the two men eventually became friends and would on occasion grab lunch and catch up. In 1975 Sargent Ham thought that Robin “had been found in Pennsylvania [over a year ago], they came across a skeleton there. A bunch of pathologists put in together and even had a drawing made of what the woman would look like. It kind of looked like Robin.” However after a forensics expert investigated dental records it was obvious that the skeleton did not belong to Robin. Ham took over the case in 1976, and in his time investigating it checked out “millions of blue Corvettes.” … ” I was checking Corvettes until I was going nuts.” … “one traffic control officer used to come in every morning with a list of Corvettes he had spotted. It didn’t matter what color they were. He said it could have been painted.” As for Robins parents, he said “they won’t ever five up. They still feel she’s alive somewhere. They always want to have that feeling that she’s going to walk through that door someday… she was a beautiful girl.” After the LA Times ran a story on Robins disappearance a woman wrote to Mr. and Mrs. Graham claiming that she too, had stalled out on the Freeway earlier that same night and that a man driving a similar Corvette claiming to be an off-duty officer offered her a ride. She refused his offer; and it’s unknown if it was the same man who was last seen with Robin. There’s been no proof this is the same man last seen with Robin, but police felt this was a “solid theory. One thing that further confused law enforcement was why Robin left no note on her car for her family; was it for the simple reason she had no pen and/or paper with her? Sadly I never have pens in my car. They were also confused as to why she refused help from uniformed police officers in marked police cruisers just minutes earlier but accepted help from a non-uniformed man in a Corvette? Was she trying to avoid a tow fee from the police? Unfortunately this lead to nothing. The next month the woman identified this unknown man as Bruce Davis, who is one of the numerous people suspected of being the Zodiac Killer. Davis was a serial killer who operated in the California area in the late 1970’s. He is still suspected in many unsolved disappearances and murders in the area, including a couple found in an alley close to the Silver Lake area close to Los Angeles. They had each been stabbed over 40 times. Davis had been a high-profile member of the Charles Mansons ‘Family’ and, although he didn’t participate in the August 1969 murder of actress Sharon Tate he had turned himself into police just weeks after Graham disappeared. He was eventually convicted of two separate murder counts, including that of ranch hand Donald “Shorty” Shea, which is the only murder Manson technically had a direct hand in. After he was taken into custody on December 2, 1970, no further murders took place that were definitively linked to the Zodiac Killer. Davis was sentenced to life in prison, and despite keeping a clean record since 1980 and it being previously recommended he be granted parole seven times (those decisions were rejected by three different CA governors), in 2022 a California panel denied his parole, telling him to try again in three years saying he “lacks empathy.” Bruce Davis has denied being the Zodiac Killer.
It is worth noting that Robin disappeared on the night of a full moon, whichis when the Zodiac was known to operate. It was very challenging finding a lot of relevant information regarding the case, but one thing that surprised me was that it was speculated that she was possibly a victim of the Zodiac. I won’t lie, I don’t know a ton about that particular SK: I read Robert Graysmith’s famous book many years ago… But, when looking into it further I guess Graham did live in the right region of California during the right time frame to be a possible victim. He claimed to have killed 37 victims in northern California between 1968 and 1970 and sent letters with hand-drawn ciphers taunting San Francisco Bay Area press taking credit for these murders. It’s worth noting that of these 37 victims the Zodiac takes credit for, law enforcement can only agree on seven confirmed victims (two survived). The case remains unsolved despite a lot of recent activity in the past few years: Earl Van Best Jr. (he was the central figure on the FX show “The Most Dangerous Animal of All”), Arthur Leigh Allen (a former elementary school teacher as well as the only suspect authorities ever publicly named and convicted sex offender who died in 1992), and (this is almost brand new information) Garry F. Poste, a suspect named by a group called ‘The Case Breakers’ that said forensic experts now feel is “a very strong suspect” after a statewide examination recovered new Zodiac evidence. It’s pretty well known that any case from that time period with the weak ‘modus operandi’ involving victims in broken down vehicles was linked to the Zodiac, and unfortunately in recent years a slew of amateur sleuths invested in the case have helped spread much misinformation.
As I stated earlier, the man last seen with Robin that night in 1970 was described as being brunette, 5’8″ tall, and in his mid-20’s (specifically 25-26); at that time in November 1970 Bundy would have been 23, which is pretty consistent with that description. What’s really jumping out at me is the turtleneck part, as that piece of clothing seemed like a staple in Ted’s wardrobe (there’s numerous pictures with him wearing one). Now, Bundy was 5’10” where the man talking to Robin was described as being roughly 5’8” but keep in mind that’s just an estimation. Also at the time it’s thought that Bundy still owned his first VW Beetle, a light blue one he purchased in April 1966; he didn’t buy the infamous yellow one until spring of 1973… so if Bundy did abduct Robin, where did the blue Corvette come from… I probably don’t need to say that we know it didn’t belong to him. Did he borrow it? One thing we do know is that he is a competent car thief (but a bad driver) so is it really that off base for him to have stolen this car then ditched it when he was done with it? We know he was caught in Aspen and Florida after getting pulled over in stolen vehicles and he did it numerous times when he was an adolescent (his mother helped pay for him to have his record expunged when he became legal age so it wouldn’t affect his future career). Bundy did at one point tell law enforcement that he killed a victim somewhere unspecified in California during his reign of terror, and he’s further suspected of committing the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker murders that also took place in the 1970’s. Of the victims in the SRH case, three were raped and three others were too badly decomposed to tell. Detective Bob Keppel shared with ‘SeattlePI’ that “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.” … “one of the last times I talked to Bundy I mentioned California, and he looked at me like, ‘I can’t talk about that right now.’” … “I think he believed his execution would be stayed so he could talk for years about his crimes, but the governor had other ideas.”
In mid-November 1970 when Robin disappeared it looks like Bundy was employed as a delivery driver for Pedline Supply Company (a family owned medical supply company); he worked there from June 5, 1970 to December 31, 1971. In mid-1970, he also re-enrolled at the University of Washington and was living in the Rogers Rooming House on 12th Avenue in Seattle. Additionally he was in a committed relationship with Liz Kloepfer at this time as well, so he had a lot of established roots in the general area. It’s obvious in Robin Grahams description that she fit the profile of one of Teds typical victims: she was tall and slender, with long dark hair parted down the middle. She was even in the right age range and a college student (who we know Ted LOVED to target). When analyzing the logistics of Bundy killing Robin, the scene of the crime was almost 17 and a half hours away from where he lived in Seattle… but I mean, Bundy had a lot on his plate at the time Robin disappeared. Did he really have time to drive all the way to California to commit a murder? Playing devils advocate, we know he was an avid night person and had no problem prowling long distances when looking for prey. It was in early 1970 that Bundy rekindled his relationship with Stephanie Brooks, which helps place him in California; it also appears that he was in the Santa Rosa area of California at some point in that general time frame as well, which is just a hair over a 6 hour drive (with light traffic) to LA. This also helps put him much closer to the scene of the crime (as we know Bundy enjoyed traveling far distances to throw police off his trail). Was Robin Graham just another one of Teds ‘murders of opportunity?’ It’s worth noting that not only do we have confirmed kills from Washington, Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Florida, and Idaho, I’ve also written about numerous other states he could have been active in (Pennsylvania, Vermont, and New Jersey).
Websleuths user ‘Howard’ commented that they “have researched the Graham case. I know her parents. They are still waiting for a break in the case and have kept their same address and phone number since 1970!” On June 28, 2005, Websleuths user ‘Graham‘ commented back saying: “when you say that you have researched the case I was wondering if you have found anything that is not in the police reports? I just recently spoke with the police regarding the case. I’m Robin’s sister. I would like to hear what info you have found. Thanks.” Seventeen years after Robins strange disappearance in 1986, a mysterious ad caught the attention of a member of the Graham family when it appeared in the LA Times classifieds. Beverly Graham said of the event: “one of our daughters saw it. The funny thing is, she never looks at the personal ads. But this one day…” The ad read: “DEAREST ROBIN You ran out of gas on the Hollywood Frwy. A man in a Corvette pulled over to help. You’ve not been since of since. It’s been 17 years, but it’s always just yesterday. Still looking for you (signed) THE ECHO PARK DUCKS.” The message sounded innocent enough and almost romantic in a way, which made some people speculate it was a clue about the young girls disappearance. The ad was really put under a microscope after KFI disc jockey Geoff Edwards read it on the air, and the phone calls and letters quickly started coming in, which helped establish the link to the missing persons case from 17 years before. Edwards said, “it sounded so romantic. I wondered if anyone knew what it was all about, and I got all kinds of calls and mail. Someone even wondered if the message was a clue to the killing.” It turned out the mystery sender was an old friend of Robins named AlMedrano (who was still living in the neighborhood) just wanted to let the world know that his friend was still missing and that she had not been forgotten about. The Graham family, who also still live in Echo Park, remember Al as a neighborhood friend of their Robins. Why he chose then to put something in the paper, he said: “well, it occurred to me that Nov. 15 (the day of her disappearance) fell on the same day (Sunday) this year as it did in 1970, and I just wanted to show she wasn’t forgotten.” He said the last part about the “Echo Park Ducks” was what they used to call their friend group and he wanted the message to be off all of them.
On October 5, 2012, the blog missingrobinanngraham.blogspot.com, creator Michael Haddan commented: “Please note that there is NO TRUTH to the ‘Find A Grave’ post by someone anonymous claiming that Robin Ann Graham ‘died’ in 1970. This was posted by someone who apparently wants Robin to be dead, to settle the mystery of her disappearance with a completely unfounded and irresponsible statement that hurts both Robin and all who love her. This person wants everyone who has hope for Robin’s safe return to GIVE UP, and for all continuing investigations into her disappearance to end. LAPD Detectives John St. John and Detective Hamm both told me never to assume that she is dead just because I ‘want resolution’ to her case, and that to do so would be not only to give up on Robin, but to show a lack of love and respect for her. I’ve notified this person and asked how Robin ‘died’ and how this person knows this. Of course there is no answer. I thought that he/she would have taken the post down by now, but it still shows up in Google’s priority postings. This is an utter travesty. We’ve had many hoaxes regarding Robin’s disappearance over the decades, and unless this ‘mystery person’ actually knows something–and should therefore contact the LAPD–this is unquestionably just another HOAX.”
Regarding Robins disappearance, Sargent Ham said: “all we’ve got is a missing persons report. We’ve never found remains. She could be alive somewhere.” At this time, the surviving Graham family is trying to enter pieces of her hair into DNA databases that didn’t exist when she went missing in the early 1970’s; Both Mr. and Mrs. Graham have passed away and Robin would be 70 years old as of February 2023. One thing that is nearly certain about Robins mysterious disappearance is that she fell victim to the good Samaritan ruse.
Robin Ann Graham.
Robin Ann Graham.Robin Ann Graham.Robin Ann Graham.Robin Ann Graham.Robin Ann Graham.A still image of a scrapbook for Robin Ann Graham..Some of the Graham kids posing with their fish; Robin is on the left.Robin Ann Graham.Robin Ann Graham.Robin Ann Graham.Robin and a friend.A screen grab of some pictures of Robin.A screen grab of some pictures of Robin.A screen grab of some pictures of Robin.A screen grab of some pictures of Robin.The Graham family.The Graham family.What Robin might look like today using age progression technology. A sketch of Robin done by Michael Haddan.Beverly Graham, Robin’s Mother.Heather Graham, Robin’s Sister.zc Los Angeles Pierce College, (or simply Pierce College or simply Pierce), is a public community college in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California. It is part of the Los Angeles Community College District and is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. An advertisement for a news special about Robin Graham.An article about Robin Graham written by Bonnie Glassman.An article about the disappearance of Robin Graham.An article about the disappearance of Robin Graham.An article about Robin Graham published in The Oxnard Press Courier on November 17, 1970.Part one of an article about the disappearance of Robin Graham published in The Van Nuys Valley News on November 19, 1970.Part two of an article about the disappearance of Robin Graham published in The Van Nuys Valley News on November 19, 1970.An article about Robin Graham published in The Independent on November 20, 1970.A newspaper clipping about Robins disappearance from The Star News on November 26, 1970.An article about Robin Graham published in The Pomona Progress Bulletin on November 17, 1970.A newspaper clipping about Robins disappearance from in The Press Telegram on September 17, 1971.A newspaper clipping about Robins disappearance from in The Argus on November 18, 1970.A newspaper clipping about Robins disappearance from in The Independent on November 18, 1970.An article about Robin Graham published in The Van Nuys Valley News on November 27, 1970.A newspaper clipping about Robins disappearance from in The Marysville Appeal Democrat on September 17, 1971.A newspaper clipping about Robins disappearance from in The Press Telegram on November 18, 1970.A newspaper clipping about Robins disappearance from in The Modesto Bee and News Herald on November 19, 1970.A newspaper clipping about Robins disappearance from The Daily Review published on November 19, 1970.A newspaper clipping about Robins disappearance from in The Van Nuys Valley News on November 19, 1970.An article mentioning Robin Graham published by The Oxnard Press Courier on November 19, 1970.An article mentioning Robin Graham published by The Independent on November 19, 1970.A newspaper clipping about Robins disappearance from in The Van Nuys Valley News on November 24, 1970.A newspaper clipping about Robins disappearance from The Press Telegram published on November 26, 1970.An article mentioning Robin Graham published by the Van Nuys Valley News on December 3, 1970.A newspaper clipping about Robins disappearance from The Ontario Daily Report on December 12, 1970.A newspaper clipping about Robins disappearance from in The Van Nuys Valley News on December 17, 1970.A newspaper clipping about Robins disappearance called “Police Seek Leads about Missing Girl” published in The Van Nuys Valley News on September 17, 1971.A newspaper clipping about Robins disappearance from in The Star News on September 17, 1971.An article mentioning Robin Graham published by the Van Nuys Valley New on November 16, 1971.An article mentioning Robin Graham published by the Sarasota Herald Tribune on December 4, 1971.An article about Robin Graham published a year after she disappeared.-An article mentioning Robin Graham called “Ill Girl Vanished without a Trace” published by The Ontario Daily Report on July 3, 1972.A newspaper clipping about Robins disappearance from in The Oxnard Press Courier on July 16, 1972.A newspaper clipping about Robins disappearance from The Press Telegram on January 8, 1974.An article mentioning Robin Graham published by the Independent on January 8, 1974.An article about Robin Graham published six years after she disappeared.An article about Robin Graham published six years after she disappeared.An article about Robin Graham published six years after she disappeared.A blue Corvette much like the one referenced above.The general area where Robin was last seen alive.Local law enforcement on the roadway where Robin was last seen alive.The call box on the side of the California Highway Robin used before she was abducted.The route Robin would have took when she drove home the night she disappeared.A shot of the roadway where Robin was last seen alive.The roadway where Robin was last seen alive.A highway sign from around where Robin was last seen alive.A more current shot of the side of the road where Robin was abducted in California.A more current shot of the side of the road where Robin was abducted in California.A sample of Robin’s hair.Robin and some of the other missing girls. An article about Helen Maria Thomas who ran away that mentions Graham published in The Woodland Daily Democrat on September 18, 1971.An article about Helen Maria Thomas who ran away that mentions Graham at the bottom published in The Van Nuys Valley News on September 19, 1971.An article about Helen Maria Thomas who ran away that mentions Graham at the bottom.Kathleen Johns.An article about Kathleen Johns possible experience with ‘The Zodiac,’ published in The San Francisco Examiner on March 23, 1970.An article about Kathleen Johns possible experience with ‘The Zodiac.’Rose Tashman.An article about the murder of Ernestine Terello.An article about the murder of Ernestine Terello.An article about the murder of Ernestine Terello. Cindy Lee Mellin. A missing persons poster for Cindy Lee Mellin.Cheri Jo Bates. Cheri Jo Bates’s VW.Mona Jean Gallegos.An article about the disappearance of Mona Jean Gallegos that mentions Robin Graham.An article about the disappearance of Mona Jean Gallegos that mentions Robin Graham published in The Independent on June 23, 1975.An article about the disappearance of Mona Jean Gallegos that mentions Robin Graham. An article about the disappearance of Mona Jean Gallegos that mentions Robin Graham. An article about the disappearance of Mona Jean Gallegos that mentions Robin Graham. An article about the discovery of Mona Jean Gallegos remains that mentions Robin Graham. An article about the discovery of Mona Jean Gallegos remains that mentions Robin Graham. A young Bruce Davis.Bruce Davis.A wanted poster for the Bruce Davis/the Zodiac Killer.TB’s whereabouts in November 1970 according to the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992.’The Pier 1 Imports store where Robin was employed.
Joyce Margaret LePage was born to Walter and Florence (nee Ham) LePage on December 4, 1949 in Pullman, Washington. Mr. LePage was born on August 13, 1913 in Santa Ana, CA, and even though he dropped out of high school due to his family’s frequent moves, he enrolled in college in 1936 after seeing an ad that Brownsville Junior College accepted adult learners with no high school diploma as long as they were able to maintain a C average. About the experience, he said ‘That ad really excited me. I really worked to keep up that freshman year and was up until midnight studying a lot of nights … and, yes, did come through with the C average.’ In the summer months in between school, he hitchhiked and took odd jobs (like shoveling sand in Zapata, Mexico, for two weeks). Walter eventually went on to attend Central Missouri State Teachers College (where a full quarters tuition only cost $20) and graduated in 1940 with a dual BS in physics and chemistry (with minors in both education and math); his first teaching job was in a one-room schoolhouse in Missouri. Mrs. LePage (who preferred to go by her middle name of Ethelyn), grew up in Pullman where her father taught accounting at Washington State University.
In 1943 while working at Hanford Engineer Works as an instrument technician Walter met his future wife, who was a student and employed in their chemistry department; the couple were wed on October 5th, 1945. Before WWII, Mr. LePage learned how to fly airplanes and for most of the war training pilots near Cuero, TX; when the flight school closed in 1948 the couple purchased some undeveloped farmland just north of Pasco, WA and began the W.A. LePage Seed Company, which was family owned and operated for 46 years. Additionally, Mr. LePage helped found the Washington State Potato Commission.
Joyce was the second of five children, and had an older sister named Phyllis and three younger brothers: Bruce, Steven and David. She came from a highly driven, working class family that strongly valued education and spent a lot of time on the family farm on LaPorte Drive. Due to the long hours the LePage’s put in on the farm, the siblings didn’t partake in many after school activities, and because of this their bond was incredibly strong. When they were kids, Joyce loved bothering her younger brothers, and would often leave ‘scattered notes’ around the yard to keep them occupied and out of her hair when they were too loud or annoying. Of their childhood, Bruce said: ‘we never had to deal with financial stress. Just good family memories. My dad took a lot of photos and videos of us kids. We all have something to look back on.’
Joyce inherited her fathers love for flying and in the small amount of spare time she had earned her pilot’s license at only 18 years old. Some interesting facts about Ms. LePage: she was a phenomenal student throughout her entire academic career, and took grades very seriously. She got an 86/100 on her drivers test, and lost 6 points because ‘she slightly inched out of her lane six times.’ Joyce loved using vivid describing words when writing, and one time used the word ‘delicious’ to describe a tempting, beautifully wrapped gift she wanted to open. She enjoyed listening to rock bands like Steppenwolf, and particularly loved the Petula Clark classic ‘Downtown.’ Bruce said that his sister had a great passion for writing and ‘was going to go places in her life, and I think she could very well have ended up being an educator at some level, high school, junior high, middle school, or possible college level because she loved to write and was talented at it.’ … ‘Joyce had a great future ahead of her.’ Described by loved ones as vivacious, hardworking, and friendly, Joyce was the second of her siblings to attend WSU (her sister Phyllis earned a degree in business administration). As I said earlier, their maternal Grandfather was a professor of accounting at Wazzu so it seemed natural for the LePage children to continue their education at the institution (Bruce eventually enrolled there as well).
At the time of her murder in 1971, LePage was 21years old and a junior at WSU. Despite it being summertime, the young coed was still living near campus on Maiden Lane, taking accelerated courses so she could graduate on time. Described by loved ones as athletic, ambitious, and attractive, she was 5’9”, weighed 136 pounds, had brown eyes and medium length light brown hair. Despite having her own apartment, Joyce enjoyed spending time in Stevens Hall, a vacant, all-girls dormitory on the university’s campus, which was under construction at the time of her murder. She enjoyed the quiet atmosphere and would frequently hang out on the first floor and study, write letters to her long distance boyfriend, and play the baby grand piano when the stress from the semester became too much; she would also (on occasion), spend the night there. About his sister, Bruce commented that: ‘she would slip up there. She had a window she could slide open and slip inside. She would go in there and do her writing.’ Retired WSU Sergeant Don Maupin said of Joyce: ‘clearly she was entering the hall, going in and out of there. And it wouldn’t be hard for someone else to do the same thing, particularly if they’re observing her’ … ‘Some of her friends knew she was going into Stevens Hall. In fact, the people who dropped her off said, ‘You’ve got to quit doing that. It’s dangerous, and besides that you’re going to get in trouble.’’ In the early stages of the investigation, law enforcement wasn’t aware that LePage liked to spend her down time in the unoccupied dormitory.
Joyce disappeared under mysterious circumstances on Thursday, July 22, 1971; shehad been wearing cutoff jeans and a blue blouse late in the day when friends dropped her off at her apartment around 10 PM. Most likely because she lived away from home and took place before cell phones existed, it took ten days for Mr. LePage to report his daughter missing after she didn’t come home for a planned weekend visit. During their investigation, investigators found her car parked about 3-4 blocks away from her apartment on Oak Street; in it were her shoes and purse (sans her ID and keys). LePage had been taking skydiving lessons and her first parachute jump was scheduled for the following day (which she never showed up for). Regarding his sister as missing, Bruce said that ‘she had no reason to take off, and was planning to come down for the Water Follies (boat races) that coming weekend. She just never showed up.’ Joyce left behind all of her personal belongings and told none of her loved ones that she had any plans of taking off, and because of this, detectives immediately felt that some form of foul play was involved.
Oddly enough, a second crime took place on WSU’s campus on the evening LePage went missing: on July 23, 1971, a 5’x6’ chunk of green carpet was discovered to be missing from the lobby of Stevens Hall by school custodians. At first, campus police chalked it up to a random act of vandalism, but when they explored the residence hall further they stumbled upon blood splatter in the back corner of a room at the basement level of the hall.
It is strongly speculated that there was a party in Stevens Hall on the evening LePage disappeared: WSU custodian Rosy Lordsaid that on the morning of July 23, 1971 the cleaning crew came into a mess, and there were pizza boxes and ‘drug paraphernalia’ strewn all over the place. A friend of Joyce’s told law enforcement that she was planning on going to the residence hall the evening she disappeared, but no one could place her there. A neighbor told police that they saw her getting into a car with two unknown men early in the morning on the 23rd, but nothing ever came of this report. There were additional rumors being floated throughout the community: some suspected the attractive young woman ran off to join a commune, while others felt it was her that she stole the piece of carpet and took off with it (but why?). Additionally, a psychic came forward and told police he had a vision of the young girl getting on a plane for Argentina with a ‘Latin boyfriend.’
As time went by, the case created some jurisdictional complications: WSU investigated the missing patch of carpet, Pullman law enforcement was responsible for the missing persons case, and the Whitman County Sheriff’s Department was eventually put in charge of the murder investigation. This means that multiple police agencies were responsible for different parts of the case, and no one really knows how long it took them to connect Joyce’s remains to the missing carpet from Stevens Hall. The current (as of July 2024) Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers commented: ‘that makes it difficult to piece together (today) what WSU did, what Whitman County did.’ As we know from other Bundy cases, this really throws a wrench in things as investigating agencies from that time period weren’t overly interested in sharing information with one another.
The letters that Joyce wrote to her boyfriend were handed over to police and became part of her case file, and thanks to them detectives were able to verify that she often liked to sneak into the vacant dormitory. Sergeant Maupin commented: ‘there’s little doubt that (Stevens Hall) is where the stabbing took place because she was stabbed multiple times and she was removed from the hall later on.’ … ‘Clearly she was entering the hall, going in and out of there, and it wouldn’t be hard for someone else to do the same thing, particularly if they’re observing her.’
Roughly nine months after her mysterious disappearance, on April 16, 1972, a teenager scouring the area for gemstones with his mom (some reports say they were looking for opals, another says garnets) discovered the skeletal remains of LePage along a dry creek bed in a gully roughly 10-15 miles south of Pullman, just off Wawawai Road in Wawawai Canyon. Her remains were well hidden by dense brush at the bottom of a deep ravine that was only accessible by a narrow gravel road, and she was enveloped in her school’s missing carpet as well as two military-style blankets then bound with rope (she was wrapped in the blankets first and then the carpet). Sheriff Myers said: ‘it starts as a missing person’s case. It starts out also as a missing piece of carpet from a WSU building.’ … ‘We have a theft case and a missing person case, but it was not until April of 1972 that we discovered that her body was deliberately put somewhere in the carpet.’ A positive identification was made thanks to Joyce’s dental records as well as genetic testing that was conducted by the FBI. Former Whitman County Sheriff Mike Humhprey said: ‘there definitely was foul play, but the official and specific cause of death has not been determined.’
The FBI performed some forensic tests on Joyce’s remains and determined that her cause of death was most likely the result of multiple stab wounds, as they found three puncture wounds close to her rib cage (I do want to mention that in one article it was reported she had seven wounds, but three is the number that is most frequently reported). Police determined that she had most likely been killed in the front foyer of Stevens Hall, and afterwards her assailant wrapped her body up in the missing hunk of carpet then quickly snuck her out to his waiting vehicle, then transported it to the ravine, where he disposed of it.
After Joyces body was found in 1972, the LePage family didn’t want much to do with the investigation: her father seemed to keep up with it the most, and after he passed away Bruce stepped up and seemingly became the family spokesperson, saying: ‘there wasn’t anything we or the public could do, so we had to wait until her body was found. If her body had been found immediately, at the site she was murdered, we could have looked into closure. My family has come to terms with the case pretty well, myself included. But with the nine month time frame, and the lack of evidence where her body was disposed of, there was nothing to go on.’ He further elaborated that he knew his sister had a lot of male attention: ‘I just know there were a lot of guys who would have loved to have dated her.’ … ‘This could very well be a person she turned down.’
At the time of her disappearance, Joyce was seeing a guy that was living in South Africa; he was investigated and was quickly cleared. Another possible scenario could be that LePage did attend the party at Stevens Hall on the evening she was killed and perhaps turned down the advances of a young man… When you combine that with the drugparaphernalia (I’m assuming the kids drank as well) that was found in the Hall on the morning after LePage’s murder it makes me wonder if maybe her killer wasn’t in the most rational frame of mind when he took her life.
There’s a few things that jump out at me when it comes to Bundy’s possible involvement with LePage’s murder, the biggest is the timing. As I’ve said in every single other piece I’ve ever written about a pre-Karen Sparks (suspected) victim: we know that his murder ‘career’ didn’t officially begin until early 1974 when he brutally attacked the young coed in her basement apartment then left her for dead… but when it comes to Ted I don’t think very much is set in stone, as there is no concrete, set-in-stone date that he began murdering young women. It’s pretty obvious that Joyce fit his typical victim profile, and I’m not even referring to her brown hair parted down the middle: she was a beautiful, slim, well-educated woman that disappeared off a college campus. If that doesn’t scream Ted Bundy then I don’t know what does. Sergeant Maupin said of his possible involvement: ‘profile-wise, she did fit the description (of Bundy’s victims)’ … ‘there’s no real evidence he was involved or in the area and Bundy was probably only suggested as other leads went cold.’
I’ve read in multiple sources that a ‘yellow VW Bug’ was seen cruising around WSU’s campus at roughly the time of Joyce’s murder, and that an ‘unknown person matching Bundy’s description was seen at the time of the disappearance.’ I do want to point out that per the FBI’s ‘TB MultiAgency Investigative Team Report 1992,’ he didn’t purchase his infamous tan 1968 Beetle until the spring of 1973 (he owned it until October 3, 1975), and where he did have another one prior to that he didn’t own it in the summer of 1971.
The way Joyce was murdered is also a big variation from Bundy’s typical method: much like the NJ Turnpike victims Elizabeth Perry and Susan Davis (who were killed in May of 1969), Joyce was stabbed to death. Aside from his final victim (little Kimberly Dianne Leach), Bundy was never known to use a knife while committing his atrocities, and even then he didn’t stab her. Just as an interesting side note regarding Leach: some pathologists theorized that he may have used a blade to slit her throat, while others strongly felt that he used a ligature but cinched it so tightly that her throat appeared cut. Additionally, it ‘appeared’ that none of Ted’s other victims had any sort of stab wounds, and he never said a word about using a knife in any capacity during his death row confessions… I use the word ‘appear’ because we didn’t often see his victims immediately after they were attacked, and experts really aren’t 100% certain how he murdered them (aside from Karen Sparks). It really wasn’t until Florida at the end of his rampage that he began unraveling and began leaving remains in places where they’d almost immediately be seen (like Chi Oh). It’s also worth mentioning that LePage was found wrapped up in a piece of carpet and some old blankets, and that was something Bundy wasn’t known to do.
Based on the remains that were uncovered in Washington state it looks like Ted preferred to bludgeon his victims and/or strangling them. He admitted that fact to Bill Hagmaier during one of their numerous conversations in the mid to late 1980’s, when he shared thathe preferred strangling his victims so that he could watch them take their last breath. Bundy further elaborated that he choked his first victim to death with his bare hands at some point in May of 1973, butfound this method to be too difficult and began using a ligature.
Because of Joyce’s advanced level of decomposition it was impossible to determine if she had been sexually assaulted or not, and it’s important to remember that the sexual component was a big part of Bundy’s drive to kill. Regarding the level of breakdown present, Sheriff Myers commented that: ‘her body was badly decomposed. We don’t know exactly how she was killed.’ Additionally, little forest creatures and other scavengers had disturbed her remains and spread parts of her all over Wawawai Canyon.
1971 was a busy year for Ted: in January he enrolled as a psychology student at the University of Washington. Pullman is only about a five hour drive from Ernst and Freda Roger’s boarding house on 12th Ave, and we know he drove a little less than four and a half hours to the University of Oregon when he killed Kathy Parks. At the time of LePage’s murder Bundy was working at Pedline Medical Supply Company and was taking summer classes; he was also in a (mostly) committed relationship with Liz Kloepfer at this time as well. According to her book ‘The Phantom Prince: My Life With Ted Bundy,’ things between the two were still pretty steamy in 1971, and in March she began pushing for marriage (again, according to her). When he resisted she told him that there was another guy that was interested in her and that she was going to go out on a double date with him and her friend Angie (most likely Mary Lynn Chino) and her bf . In response to this threat Ted seemed to be mostly apatheticc but would later follow Kloepfer and the date to The Walrus Tavern; lots of drama ensued and Bundy wound up leaving alone. In July, Liz and Molly moved into a two story apartment in the University District (located at 5208 18th Ave NE) that was closer to the Rogers rooming house, which would make you think they would have started spending a good chunk of their time together but according to Liz he became distant and ‘out of sync, and started spending most of his nights away from her.
Ted enjoyed toying with his audience, and frequently told different stories to different people, and usually refused to discuss his earlier crimes. He told one of his attorneys (during his latter years) Polly Nelson that he attempted his first kidnapping in Ocean City, NJ in 1969 but didn’t commit murder until sometime in 1971 in Seattle. However at a different time he told psychologist Dr. Arthur Norman that he killed two women in 1969 near the Jersey Shore while living with his aunt in Philadelphia. According to Robert A. Dielenberg’s ‘TB: A Visual Timeline,’ Bundy told both Dr. Nelson and Dr. Dorothy Lewis that sometime in June/July 1971 he ‘follows a woman, picks up two-by-four in a lot, lays in wait, but the woman enters her house before she reaches his hiding spot. A few nights later he saw a woman park her car, walk up to her door, and fumble for her keys. He walked up behind her and struck her with a piece of wood he was carrying. She fell down screaming. He panicked and ran.’ In September of 1971, Bundy began working at the Seattle Crisis Clinic on Capitol Hill.
Ted also hinted to former King County Detective Dr. Robert Keppel that he committed a murder in Seattle in 1972 and another the following year that involved a hitchhiker near Tumwater, but he refused to elaborate on either. By his own admission, he had by then mastered the necessary skills (keep in mind, this was in the days before DNA became a thing) to leave minimal incriminating forensic evidence behind at crime scenes. Before Bundy was executed in Florida, the Whitman County Sheriff’s Department gave Dr. Keppel information related to the LePage case, and the following is an exchange between the two men in January 1989:
Robert Keppel: ‘I guess what I need then, I want to eliminate any suggestions of rather than me throwing out stuff for you to say, you know, this is what we need to talk about or not, like the August 2nd, if there’s only eleven, then that’s fine. I don’t want to do any guess work. I mean, I’ve got girls like in 1971 at WSU that’s been murdered that I’m curious about. Ted Bundy: ‘Yeah, I can tell you– I can tell you — yeah, we can do it that way if you’d like, too. And maybe in some ways that’s easier. I can tell you what, that’s, you know, what I’m not involved in. You know; if you have a list of that type in your head.’ RK: ‘There’s a gal in 1971, Thurston County.’ TB: ‘No.; RK: ‘Not that far back. Nothing that far back?’ TB: ‘1972.’ (…) TB: ‘I have no hesitation about talking about things that I have done… No hesitation about telling you about what I haven’t done. Ok. So if I tell you something, I may not tell you something. I might not tell you something right now or every single detail right now, but if I tell you something, you can rely on it. And when I say, yes, I did it or no, I didn’t do something, that’s the way it is.’
About LePage’s murder, ‘hi: I’m Ted’ researcher Tiffany Jean points out that ‘the location is also unusual for an early Bundy murder. Bundy’s earliest known attacks occurred quite close to his residence in Seattle’s University District, usually just blocks away. This way he was able to stalk his victims, probably peeping into their windows and learning their routines. This was easy for him to do, as he was essentially their neighbor, and felt comfortable roaming about the neighborhood.’ Redditor ‘janiceian1983’ also made a great point that: ‘this is a problem because the thing with Bundy is that he had a ‘generally unremarkable face’ which he CONSTANTLY changed the appearance of through different facial hair styles, that’s why it had been so hard to identify him for a while. People generally didn’t remember him because he was generic-looking.’
In 1989, former Whitman County Sheriff Steve Thomson said ‘there were certain similarities between this case and others that brought us to Bundy, and we later placed him in this area at about that time.’ Sergeant Maupin points out that: ‘profile-wise, she did fit the description (of Bundy’s victims). She had auburn hair. She was beautiful. She was tall, athletic and college-age.’ … ‘I don’t want to rule anybody completely out, but, my personal opinion is no. It wasn’t Ted Bundy. My gut feeling is this was someone she knew.’ Current Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers said that ‘there were certain things that kind of leaned toward Ted Bundy, and there were things that leaned away. There were reports of a person matching Bundy’s description being in the area.’ Myers followed every reported lead and spent nearly his entire 26-year career trying to solve LePage’s murder, even going so far as to try to interview Ted while on death row.Regarding Bundy as a suspect in his sister’s murder, Bruce said: ‘we have to broaden it (the case) out and take all the possibilities. Ted Bundy is one of them. But sometimes you get too broad and get distracted and the probability goes out.’
Law enforcement administered polygraph tests to not only suspects but also friends and acquaintances of Joyce to no avail: LieutenantDel Brannan of WSU campus police said that: ‘we have given tests to not only suspects but also associates of LePage’s who wanted to verify that they had nothing to do with it.’ … ‘we can have all the theories we want but we have to have proof.’ A (one time) major suspect was interviewed again in 2012 and passed a polygraph test, officially eliminating him from the suspect pool. About him, Sheriff Myers said: ‘he was interviewed immediately after Joyce disappeared and again after the body was found, but he’d never taken a polygraph. He hadn’t been contacted again since about 1972. We met with him and said here’s how he could help. He was very cooperative and passed a polygraph. I’m confident at this point that we can focus on other avenues. That’s a big change in the investigation in terms of our focus.’
Law enforcement administered polygraph tests to not only suspects but also friends and acquaintances of Joyce to no avail: LieutenantDel Brannan of WSU campus police commented: ‘we have given tests to not only suspects but also associates of LePage’s who wanted to verify that they had nothing to do with it.’ … ‘we can have all the theories we want but we have to have proof.’ A (one time) major suspect was interviewed again in 2012 and passed a polygraph test, officially eliminating him from the suspect pool. Sheriff Myers commented that: ‘he was interviewed immediately after Joyce disappeared and again after the body was found, but he’d never taken a polygraph. He hadn’t been contacted again since about 1972. We met with him and said here’s how he could help. He was very cooperative and passed a polygraph. I’m confident at this point that we can focus on other avenues. That’s a big change in the investigation in terms of our focus.’
In 2014 evidence related to LePage’s case was re-submitted to theWashington State Crime Lab for forensic analysis but with no luck; additionally, LE also attempted to track down people from her circle of friends in recent years but didn’t come up with anything helpful. WSU Police Officer Jeff Olmstead (who took over the case after Sargent Maupin retired) said: ‘It would be nice to bring this to a logical conclusion and hold someone responsible. I think that’s the ultimate goal for the LePage family and for all the officers who investigated this over the years. My worst fear is what if we were never even close? What if it was someone who slipped through the cracks, who was never identified or interviewed by the early investigators?’
When researching this case I found a comment from Bruce LePage on Tiffany Jean’sarticle on Joyce: ‘DNA testing and fingerprint testing have been unsuccessful. Please remember that Joyce’s body was found nine months after her murder. Until then, her’s was just a missing person case. Once her body was found my father had her remains cremated. The Washington State crime lab was not able to identify definitive DNA samples. The prime person of interest in this case knows he is being watched.’
I did look into a few additional serial killers when researching this case, the first being Gary Gene Grant, who was only eighteen when he raped and murdered four young women (three of which were minors) in Renton, WA between 1969 and 1971 (which is less than a five hour drive to WSU in Pullman). But he was quickly ruled out, as he was apprehended on April 30, 1971 and Joyce wasn’t murdered until late July. On August 25, 1971, Grant was convicted of murder and was sentenced to life in prison, and as of July 2024 he is serving his sentence at the Monroe Correctional Complex.
Ottis Toole immediately came to mind as well, as his activity (sort of) fits into the right time frame of LePage’s murder. But after looking into him he didn’t really begin his criminal career until 1976 when he met his lover and co-killer Henry Lee Lucas at a Jacksonville soup kitchen.Warren Leslie Forrest was another active serial killer in the state at roughly the same time LePage was killed, and although he was only charged with twomurders it is strongly suspected that he killed at least six women in Clark County between 1971 and 1974. In 1974, he was arrested for the kidnapping and attempted murder of a 15-year-old girl, who went to police after she escaped on July 17, 1974. She told them that she had been abducted by Forrest after he picked her up while she was attempting to hitchhike out of Ridgefield, and after they reached the slopes of Tukes Mountain he bound and gagged her then tied her to a tree; he then proceeded to rape and beat her. Thankfully she managed to escape by chewing through her gag and hiding in a nearby bush until the morning, when she emerged and looked for help.
On October 1, 1974 Forrest met a young woman in Portland and lured her into his van under the guise of a photo shoot for a modeling gig. But instead of take her picture, he drove the 20-year-old to a city park and repeatedly shot her with an air-powered dart gun and raped her. He then took her to Camas, where he stabbed her six times near Lacamas Lake then attempted to strangle her; she fell unconscious, and as her assailant most likely believed she was dead, he undressed her and left her remains in some nearby bushes. Thankfully, she woke up two hours later and was able to flag down some passers-by, who drove her to the hospital. She survived, and once she was in a stable condition, the young woman gave detectives a description of her attacker as well as the very particular features of his vehicle, which was a blue 1973 Ford van.
Forrest was identified the following day and was taken into custody; he was charged with the kidnapping and attempted murder of the 20-year-old woman. His legal team quickly filed a motion for a psychiatric evaluation, which determined he was legally insane, and because of this he was acquitted by reason of insanity and was ordered to undergo treatment at the Western State Hospital in Lakewood. He went on trial for the murder of another victim in 1979, then another in 2023 and was found guilty in both cases. I have found no evidence tying him to the murder of LePage, and it doesn’t sound like he would exactly fit in on a college campus. Just as a side note, policestrongly feel that Forrest is responsible for several more unsolved homicides in Washington, including two that were initially thought to be Bundy. He is currently being held at Airway Heights Corrections Center in Washington.
Robert Lee Yates is another active serial killer that operated in Washington state at roughly the same time LePage was killed, however after a bit of investigating the date of her murder actually falls a bit outside of when he was active. Also referred to as ‘The Grocery Bag Killer,’ in 1975 Yates got a job as a corrections officer at the Washington State Penitentiary, and in October 1977 he enlisted in the US Army. Between 1975 and 1998 Yates killed at least eleven women in Spokane, two in Walla Walla in 1975, and one in Skagit County in 1988; his total victim count is unknown but he confessed to murdering at least eighteen women. He mostly went after sex workers, and after having intercourse with them he would then shoot them in the head. He managed to evade capture until 2000 but was arrested after evidence found in his car tied him to one of the murders. Although he took a plea to avoid the death penalty, after evidence of two additional murders came to light he was given the charge anyway. In 2018 his guilty verdict was changed to life in prison after the capital punishment was abolished in Washington; he is currently being held at the same prison where he was once employed in Walla Walla.
It does go without saying that any average Joe could have killed Joyce, and she wasn’t killed by a serial killer. Was it a fellow student at WSU? An employee, possibly? Someone just passing through that happened to be there because of the party that may have taken place the night of the murder? With so much advancement in genomics over the past few years hopefully the police are able to do a bit more work on her case soon.
Stevens Hall is the second oldest building at WSU, and as of July 2024 LePage’s murder is the only homicide that took place on school grounds. Over the years many spooky stories have come out of the residence hall: girls that lived there have reported disembodied screams, strange noises, and doors opening and closing on their own. In the early 90’s some of its residents were telling ghost stories late one night, and the next morning woke up to a scribbled note on a message board that said, ‘I’ll be back. – Ted.’ More messages appeared, along with other strange notes and mysterious phone calls, however it was eventually determined to be a prank after a student came forward and confessed it was them the whole time.
As of January 2023, Joyce LePage’s murder is the oldest unsolved case in Whitman County, and because it is still considered an ‘ongoing, open investigation’ the sheriff’s office will not release her case file to the public. To this day, Bruce LePage still holds onto hope that his sisters murder will be solved, and is offering a $100,000 reward to anyone with information that helps lead to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible ($60,000 for an arrest and an additional $40,000 for a conviction): ‘in a way it sounds foolish to do a reward at this time. If there was going to be one it might have helped if it was done earlier on. But I guess I don’t care.’ … ‘I will remain involved and keep the reward up for $100,000 for as long as I am alive.’
Sheriff Myers said that: A unique set of hurdles have been placed for this case: She wasn’t reported missing for 10 days and DNA testing didn’t really hit the scene for another 20 years.’ … ‘it’s sad that it’s been 50 years since Joyce’s murder and we still don’t have resolution or a positively identified suspect. Maybe once or twice a year, we get new leads.’ Sadly Joyce’s parents both passed away before their daughters killer was caught: Mr. LePage passed away on January 13, 2011 at the age of 97 and Mrs. LePage on October 7, 2017 at 93.
Bundy was only recently ruled out of another unconfirmed victim from 1971 that I wrote about: Rita Patricia Curran. It was speculated that Ted was in Vermont looking into his roots when Curran was murdered on July 19, 1971, and it was determined in February 2023 that she was actually killed by her upstairs neighbor, William DeRoos. Curran was a second grade school teacher at Milton Elementary School when she was found lying naked on her bedroom floor on Brooks Avenue in Burlington. It’s a popular Bundy rumor that Rita lived next door to the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers, but it was actually a few streets over. Thanks to advanced DNA technology and a discarded cigarette butt found at the scene of the crime, genetic genealogist CeCe Moore was able to tie DeRoos to Curran’s murder and it was eventually determined that his wife that alibied him was lying.DeRoos died of a drug overdose in San Francisco in 1986.
Sadly both of Joyce’s parents passed away before their daughters killer was caught: Mrs. LePage died at the age of 93 on October 7, 2017; she was an active member of the Pasco Heights Community Club and taught Sunday school. Walter LePage died at the age of 97 on January 12, 2011. In the 1950’s, he helped establish the Franklin Fire District #3, and between 1957-67 he was a member of the county Parks and Recreation board, and helped develop Chiawana Park and the Sun Willows Golf Course. Joyce’s little brother David passed away at the age of 59 on Valentines Day in 2021. He enjoyed fireworks, garage sales, shopping at Costco, music, science, and conspiracy theories. He even created and published his own newspaper on conspiracy theories, and delivered it throughout the Northwest.
Sheriff Maupin commented that: ‘it’s sad that it’s been 50 years since Joyce’s murder and we still don’t have resolution or a positively identified suspect. Maybe once or twice a year, we get new leads. But we don’t get as much solid and credible information about the case. We will keep hoping for new information.’ Anyone with information on Joyce LePage’s disappearance and homicide should contact the Whitman County Sheriff’s Office at 509-397-6266.
The young LePage children, photo courtesy of Bruce LePage.Some of the young LePage children riding bikes, photo courtesy of Bruce LePage.The young LePage children, photo courtesy of Bruce LePage.The young LePage children, photo courtesy of Bruce LePage.Joyce and her sister Phyllis. Photo courtesy of Olivia Harnack.An early picture of the family. Photo courtesy of Bruce LePage.Somme of the LePage children having fun. Photo courtesy of Bruce LePage.The LePage family. Photo courtesy of Bruce LePage.The LePage family.The LePage family.Joyce and a friend (James Krumstick) at a school function around 1968. Photo courtesy of wcgazette.com. A photo of Joyce LePage around Christmas in 1969, photo courtesy of Bruce LePage.Joyce and a date, photo courtesy of Bruce LePage.Joyce LePage. Joyce LePage’s junior picture from the 1967 Pasco High School yearbook.Joyce’s senior picture from the 1968 Pasco High School yearbook.Joyce LePage from the 1970 Washington State University yearbook.Joyce LePage holding a cat.Joyce LePage. Joyce and her three brothers, Bruce, Steven, and David with the family dog Spot in 1966. Photo courtesy of Olivia Harnack.Joyce and Phyllis, in 1967. Photo courtesy of Olivia Harnack.Joyce and some other members of the LePage family standing in front of McCroskey Hall at WSU after Christmas break in January 1969. Photo courtesy of Olivia Harnack.A photo of the LePage’s taken in April 1971. Photo courtesy of Bruce LePage.Some of the LePage family (Joyce is on the far right) in the Summer of 1971. Photo courtesy of Bruce LePage.Joyce’s certificate of demonstrated ability for flying.Florence Ethelyn (need Ham) LePage.Phyllis LePage’s picture from the 1966 Washington State University yearbook.A picture of Phyllis LePage and her flight instructor. Bruce LePage from the 1971 Washington State University yearbook.David LePage from the 1980 Pasco High School yearbook.Ethelyn LePage, photo courtesy of Sunset Gardens.Walter Adam LePage, photo courtesy of Sunset Gardens. Of Mr. LePage, the executive director of the potato commission Chris Voigt said: ‘Walt was just a pioneer. He was a leader and a visionary. His leadership and his vision will be missed.’The LePage family homestead, photo courtesy of Google Earth.The LePage Seed Company, photo courtesy of Google Earth.The LePage Seed Company, photo courtesy of Google Earth.A photo of what law enforcement discovered Joyce LePage wrapped in. Courtesy of KHQ news out of Spokane, WA.A picture of the crime scene where a mother and son duo stumbled upon Joyce’s remains while gem hunting. Courtesy of KHQ News.A picture of the missing piece of carpet taken from Stevens Hall. Courtesy of KHQ News.A picture of the missing piece of carpet taken from Stevens Hall. Courtesy of KHQ News.A picture of the missing piece of carpet taken from Stevens Hall. Courtesy of KHQ News.The rug LePage was found in. Photo courtesy of Olivia Harnack.The rug LePage was found in. Photo courtesy of Olivia Harnack.The rug LePage was found in. Photo courtesy of Olivia Harnack.The rug LePage was found in. Photo courtesy of Olivia Harnack.The rug LePage was found in. Photo courtesy of Olivia Harnack.An older shot of Stevens Hall. An undated shot of Stevens Hall from around the time Joyce was murdered, photo courtesy of KHQ news. An undated shot of Stevens Hall from around the time Joyce was murdered, photo courtesy of KHQ news. Stevens Hall as it looks today.A newspaper clipping mentioning Joyce making the honor role in ninth grade published in The Tri City Herald, published on June 14, 1965.A newspaper clipping mentioning Joyce standing up on her sisters wedding published in The Tri-City Herald on February 12, 1967.An article about Joyce’s murder published in The Spokane Chronicle on August 4, 1971.An article about Joyce’s murder published in Tri-City Herald on August 9, 1971.An article about LePage published by The Tri-City Herald on August 9, 1971,An article about Joyce courtesy of The Lewiston Tribune on August 9, 1971.An article about Joyce published in The Tri-City Herald on August 13, 1971.An article about Joyce published in The Tri-City Herald on September 14, 1971.An article about Joyce published in The Spokesman-Review on September 17, 1971.An article about Joyce published in The Lewiston Tribune on August 6, 1971.An article about Joyce published in The Spokane Chronicle on August 7, 1971.An article about the discovery of the remains of Joyce LePage published by The Longview Daily News on May 4, 1972.An article about the discovery of Joyce LePage published by The News Tribune on May 4, 1972.An article about Joyce published in The Daily Record on May 5, 1972.An article about Joyce published in The Capital Journal on May 5, 1972.An article about Joyce published in The Spokesman Review on May 5, 1972.Joyce’s obituary published in The Tri-City Herald on May 8, 1972.An article about Joyce published in The Spokesman Review on May 9, 1972.An obituary for Joyce LePage. An article about Joyce published in The Evergreen on September 21, 1973.An article about Joyce right before Bundy was executed published in The Moscow-Pullman Daily News on January 23, 1989.Part one of an article about Joyce published in The Evergreen on January 24, 1989.Part two of an article about Joyce published in The Evergreen on January 24, 1989.An article about Joyce published in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News on January 24, 1989. An article mentioning Joyce published in The Gainesville Sun on January 25, 1989.An article about Joyce published in The Spokesman-Review on January 25, 1989.An article about Joyce published in The Tri-City Herald on January 25, 1989.An article about Joyce published in The Moscow-Pullman Daily News on June 5, 1990.An article about Joyce courtesy of The Lewiston Tribune on August 27, 1997.Part one of an article on LePage published in The Evergreen on November 1, 1999.Part two of an article on LePage published in The Evergreen, published on November 1, 1999.An article on the cold case of Joyce LePage published in The Lewiston Tribune on May 19, 2014.Bundys whereabouts in 1971 according to the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992.’This shot of Bundy was taken the same year that Joyce was killed; he was crabby, and per Liz had just woken up from a nap.A picture of Ted in Wyoming on the way to Flamingo Gorge, taken in 1971.A memorial plaque for Joyce, photo courtesy of FindaGrave.An article about Mr. LePage’s potato farming published by The Tri-City Herald on July 16, 1983.An article about Walter LePage published in The Tri-City Herald on January 25, 1976.Walter LePage’s obituary published by The Tri-City Herald on January 16, 2011.A plaque on a memorial bench in Pasco, Washington placed by the LePage family in Joyce’s honor, photo courtesy of ‘hi: I’m Ted.’Bruce LePage sitting on the swing dedicated to the memory of his sister. Sheriff Brett Myers.The cliffs on snake river in Wawawai Canyon.
Rita Lorraine Jolly was born on December 6, 1955 to Donald Clover and MaryJolly of West Linn, Oregon. Donald Clover Jolly was born on May 17, 1917 in Salem, MA and Mary Elizabeth Horner was born in Fargo, North Dakota on June 17,1919 and after graduating from high school she attended Macalester College then later went on to law school, and earned her JD from the University of Minnesota in 1943. During WWII Mr. Jolly was a Master Sergeant, and after the war he graduated from the U of Mwith a BA/LLB in Law. The couple met while attending law school, and were married on April 24, 1947 in Hennepin, Minnesota; they relocated to West Linn in 1949. After graduating, the couple opened a law office: Mr. Jolly worked as an attorney and Mary was his legal secretary. Rita was the youngest of four children, and Mrs. Jolly had two boys (Jeffrey and Bryan) and a two girls (Rita and Jill). Because Don and Mary were both survivors of the Great Depression, they were often considered to be ‘frugal and liberal for their time,’ and above all else, the family valued education, and pushed for their children to have strong critical thinking skills.
A tall girl, at the time of her disappearance, Rita stood between 5’5 and 5’6” tall, weighed around 130 pounds, had hazel eyes and medium length brown hair she wore parted down the middle. She had a small scar on her face just below her right eyebrow and her front teeth were slightly crooked and overlapped a little bit. She also had her wisdom teeth pulled and had small pit fillings in the buccal (cheek) side of her lower molars. In an interview with the website ‘Uncovered,’ Jill Jolly said that her sister enjoyed ‘nature, animals, and creativity’ and spent her time after school ‘immersed in books, writing poetry, and creating art.’ … ‘she had a real talent. I have folders filled with her writings. I am ashamed to admit that it’s very difficult for me to go through these writings. They are such intimate windows into her life, and often the anguish in them bleeds through. I feel a responsibility to preserve these writings. I have a good flatbed scanner now, and hope to be able to focus on making digital copies so that I may more easily share them.’
Per Uncovered: ‘growing up, Rita struggled with emotional regulation and sensitivity, which led her parents to seek help from a child psychologist.’ Jill said that she now believes her sister may have been on the autism spectrum, a concept not widely understood in the 1960’s and 70’s. Disillusioned by cliques and peer pressure, Rita faced bullying for being different, and in her junior year of high school was reprimanded for writing a derogatory statement on the school wall. Her parents defended her, challenging the school to ‘improve its culture.’
At around thirteen, the Jolly’s bought Rita a gelding quarter horse named Sugar that became her best friend. I read from multiple sources that she walked with an uneven stride due to an improperly knitted fracture of her lower left leg, however according to a comment Jill (username ‘JillElaine‘) left on the YouTube video ‘MysteryMurders: The 1973 Disappearance of Rita Jolly,’ (done by ‘Steve the Amateur Historian‘): ‘as for Rita’s ‘limp’, she was still in the process of healing from her broken leg (a horse she was riding fell over on a muddy trail and crushed it). But whatever limp she might have had was almost unnoticeable.’ … ‘she was healthy & strong, and a horse owner. She went for walks in the evening almost daily, often several miles in length.’ Rita’s front teeth were slightly crooked, and overlapped a little bit; she also had her wisdom teeth pulled and had small pit fillings in the buccal (cheek) side of her lower molars.
Mr. and Mrs. Jolly said their daughter was incredibly bright and mature for her age and took academics very seriously. A user going by the name of ‘Cheryl Klawitter’ commented on the ‘The Morbid Library’ article about Rita that she ‘was in a couple of classes with Rita at Clackamas Community College in Oregon City in 1973. I won’t claim we were friends, just casual acquaintances. But we talked some. She had told me she’d hitchhiked to a concert in Eugene, (sometime in the month prior to her disappearance). So the image of her being a naive high school girl, out for an evening walk is misleading. Of note: there was a full lunar eclipse Saturday the 30th, the night after she disappeared. From what I knew if her personality, that would have excited her. She could have been hitchhiking just about anywhere that Friday night (the 29th), looking to party. If she was on I-5 it is just not that unlikely she may have crossed paths with Bundy. Or for that matter some other predator. I knew the Chief of Police in West Linn at that time and he confided (later) they suspected Bundy. I assume that was after excluding people she knew.’* Per Jill Jolly, ‘As a senior, Rita attended full-time classes at Clackamas Community College through a special program for scholastically-advanced high school seniors. Excelling in Creative Writing and art programs, Rita thrived in this environment. Though she did not attend classes at West Linn High School during her senior year, she insisted on participating in the graduation ceremony in June 1973.’
At about 7:15-7:30 PM on June 29, 1973, Jolly left her family home to take a walk, something she did almost daily according to her sister. Jill said that she ‘left with a smile on her face’ and Mr. Jolly said ‘she smiled at us and went out the door. I went out to cut the grass. She never came back.’ Rita was last seen wearing a brown wool Pendleton shirt jacket, a red and blue cotton shirt, olive colored army fatigue pants (or blue jeans depending on the source), and low-cut blue tennis shoes with buckskin heels. She seemed okay and in decent spirits; her family said she didn’t have any known problems with anyone in her life and Jill commented that she ‘struggled with angst that affects so many young people, and it’s possible she initially ran away. But her social security number has never had any activity, as far as I know.’ Ms. Jolly was ‘in the Robinwood area and/or on Sunset Ave around 8:30 to 9:00 PM’ and was seen for the last time around 9:30 PM walking uphill on Sunset Avenue near the Oregon City Arch Bridge that crosses the Willamette River into West Linn. Shortly after she vanished two young men in Portland went to law enforcement claiming they saw her the night after she disappeared, but when approached she said her name was Mary. The men that reported the alleged sighting did not leave their contact information with police so no follow-up was made and their story was never confirmed. Regarding the incident, Jill said that: ‘the following night, two young men reported to the police that they tried to pick up a girl who looked like Rita, but this young lady was not her.’ Mr. Jolly told law enforcement that all of his daughters personal belongings were left behind and there was nothing missing from her bedroom. He said she that was an ‘independent thinker with few dates or close friends.’ Detective D. Calhoun (who worked the case and immediately had a gut feeling that Rita was murdered) commented that: ‘people don’t usually just disappear and have no contact.’
Almost from the beginning, information related to Jolly’s mysterious disappearance stopped trickling in and leads dried up almost immediately. By July 15, the idea of Rita having left home willingly had morphed into the possibility that she was most likely abducted under sinister circumstances. Mr. Jolly was crucial in keeping his daughters case in the news and relevant: not only did he hand deliver letters to local police precincts and news stations begging them to help find her, he also offered a $2,500 reward for any information leading to her whereabouts. Rita’s case was being investigated at the city, county, and state level, but despite all the help the investigation went nowhere. Apparently (per ‘The Morbid Library‘), her brother believed that the perpetrator was someone local who possibly knew her, and in an edit on their article about Ms. Jolly, author CJ Lynch said: ‘thanks to a comment on this post, we now know a bit more about Rita as a person. She is an adventurous person: at the time of her disappearance, she often hitchhiked to get where she was going, and she enjoyed concerts and parties. She is a free spirit, enjoying the freedom and independence that comes with being in college.’ (this edit was because of comments left by readers).
YouTuber ‘Whitney Dahlin‘ pointed out that a ‘hit and run is also possible. she was walking alone in the evening I feel like it’s entirely possible someone hit her and then hit her body or buried her body so they wouldn’t go to prison for it. I feel like a a lot of missing person cases where the missing person was last seen taking a walk in the evening are really hit by a car cases. Abductions are very rare compared with pedestrian car accidents.’
Within a six-month period in 1973 four young women went missing from the same general area in Oregon: first Rita in late June, then seventeen-year-old SusanWickersham from Bend just two weeks later on July 11 (her body was discovered in January 1976 just five miles south of her hometown). Ms. Wickersham is sadly yet another unconfirmed Bundy victim I never heard of, although realistically he most likely didn’t kill her, as she was found with a gunshot wound in her head which wasn’t his MO… Next to disappear was twenty-four-year-old Vicki Lynn Hollar, a petite girl (only 5’1” and 115 pounds) with dark eyes and brown hair. Ms. Hollar was last seen getting in her black 1965 Volkswagen Beetle with the running boards removed (Illinois plates GR 7738) on August 20, 1973. She was leaving her place of employment at the Bon Marché (now Macy’s), where she had been employed as a seamstress for about two weeks. It’s been theorized that Vicki was headed home to her apartment at 600 West 27th Avenue in Eugene with the intention of meeting up with a friend to attend a party in her neighborhood later that evening (but she never showed up). Friends shared with police that Hollar had a habit of picking up hitchhikers; her VW and personal belongings have also never been recovered. Lastly is Suzanne Rae Justis, who disappeared on November 5, 1973. Recently divorced, Justis was from Eugene and hitchhiked to Portland, and in a phone call to her mother from outside the Memorial Coliseum that day said she would return home the next day to pick up her son from school. Sue’s mom booked a room for her for the night at a nearby hotel, but it was never used. She never came home and has never been heard from again. For unclear reasons, a missing persons report wasn’t filed until 1989.
I’ve been finding most of the ‘unconfirmedvictims‘ have very weak commonalities without a lot of substance… Rita did look like one of Ted’s victims: she was attractive and slim, with long brown hair and dark features. Her abduction was most likely a crime of opportunity (like so many of the others), meaning the perpetrator took advantage of a particular situation most likely with no prior plans to go out and commit the atrocious act. Additionally, Jolly fit neatly into his preferred age range: she was seventeen, and he typically targeted younger females anywhere from twelve years old (possibly even as young as eight if you throw Ann Marie Burr into the mix) all the way up to twenty-six (Colorado ski instructor Julie Cunningham). But that’s about it. And it’s important to keep in mind how common the ‘long hair parted down the middle’ look was during that time period: even my own mother looked like she could have been one of Bundy’s victims.
During his death row confessions Ted admitted 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 her school and about 25 miles southeast of Seattle. Because Parks was found in Washington state she is typically not included in his Oregon victim count. In interviews, Bundy confessed to killing two additional women in Oregon but refused to elaborate on the details; according to most detectives, Rita Jolly and Vicki Hollar are the best candidates. Law enforcement tried but were unable to question Ted about Rita’s disappearance before his execution in 1989, eliminating the chance of possibly closing her case. Jill Jolly said of Bundy’s execution: ‘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.’’ Dubbed Ted’s ‘bones-for-time scheme,’ he withheld many secrets right up until the very end of his life in hopes to parlay the untold stories into yet another stay of execution. ‘There are other buried remains in Colorado…’ Bundy said, refusing to elaborate any further. He then took his secrets with him to the grave. Colorado Detective Matt Lindvall felt this was a direct conflict between his desire to postpone his execution by giving up information and his need to remain in ‘total possession: the only person who knew his victims’ true resting places.’
Regarding suspects, Ted is one of only two seriously considered individuals I could find that was investigated for the abduction of Rita Jolly; the other one is Warren Leslie Forest. Two additional names that are almost casually thrown around when ANY unclaimed victim is brought up from that time are Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole. The pair were lovers, united in their shared childhood traumas and together they terrorized the United States throughout the 1970’s and 80’s. Lucas falsely claimed he killed upwards of 600 people (Toole said he participated in 108 of them), however it was eventually determined he was responsible for two of them and was strongly suspected of only eight more. But, investigating both men a little further, at the time Rita disappeared in mid-1973 Lucas was serving a 5-year prison stint for attempting to kidnap three schoolgirls in 1971, and Toole’s history is a little fuzzy between 1966 and 1973, but his first strongly suspected kill was the 1974 murder of Patricia Webb. Oddly enough, Toole died at the same Florida State facility that executed Ted in 1989: he entered the Raiford prison in 1983 and died in 1996 from cirrhosis of the liver. Additionally, Ed Kemper and Gary Ridgway both popped in my head as possible suspects, but Kemper was apprehended on April 24, 1973 and operated more in the California area (Rita disappeared June 29 which is obviously after he was arrested) and Ridgway didn’t start his atrocities until 1982. In her interview with Uncovered, Jill said that: ‘there are five possible suspects that have been identified.’ I’m unsure who else it could have been (I’m sure police are playing close to the vest with what information they have). If I think of any additional potential suspects I will update my article.
Warren Leslie Forrest was convicted of abducting and stabbing to death nineteen-year-old Krista Kay Blake in 1974 then burying her remains near Battle Ground on Tukes Mountain. He’s been in prison since October 2, 1974 and for decades Clark County law enforcement tried (with no success) to link him to other murders in the area. On October 12, 1974, the human remains of two women were found in Dole Valley near Vancouver, Washington. One was immediately identified as Carol Platt-Valenzuela but the other individual remained unidentified for over 40 years. But, thanks to DNA profiling and some blood left behind on the dart gun Forrest used to subdue his victims, in 2015 those remains were finally determined to be those of Martha Morrison, who disappeared from the Portland area under mysterious circumstances in September 1974. Two of his suspected victims have never been found: Diane Gilcrist (14) and Jamie Grissim (16). Before Warren was identified as the killer, Bundy was considered a person of interest in Morrison’s death (he’s still a suspect in Valenzuela’s murder). In 2020, Forrest was charged with the murder of Martha Morrison.
‘Historywmystery.blogspot.com‘ said about the Jolly disappearance: ‘It’s also important to remember that this was the 1970’s and there were numerous women, especially young ones, hitchhiking along I-5 back in the 1970’s and some of them met with death at the hands of someone who couldn’t have been Ted Bundy. There was an extensive article I found in a 1975 paper discussing the perils of young women who were hitchhiking in Oregon, many of whom knew the danger and yet continued to hitchhike. There was Martha Morrison, who was a frequent runaway who vanished from Portland on September 1, 1974. Her remains were discovered a little over a month later and were not identified until 2017 using DNA testing. She, for a long time, was considered a possible Ted Bundy victim until her remains were identified and it was found she had been killed by William* Forrest, a serial killer working out of the Vancouver, Washington area. Interestingly enough, Forrest was someone that I considered as a possible culprit in the Rita Jolly case, something that’s still possible but definitely something I am calling more into question now.’ *they meant Warren Forrest.
Jill Jolly gave the following quote in her interview with ‘Uncovered:’ ‘…the truth is that we really don’t know what happened to her. We all have theories. Our dad thought she had called several times, mostly just silence on the phone but once he said that he heard her voice, ‘Mom? Mom?’, then ”Dad?’, then a click on the phone hanging up. Could she have gotten involved in a cult or some other situation where it was hard to leave? I find myself wondering how folks can help with solving the mystery of what happened to Rita. After 50 years, I don’t think it’s likely that we will have answers before all of us who knew her are gone from this earth. The advent of DNA gave us so much hope! But the number of unidentified bodies and the expense & difficulty of the tests has been discouraging. It’s not a quick fix. Nonetheless, perhaps someday she will be one of the humans who are ‘given their name back’.’
2022 marks the 49th anniversary of Rita Lorraine Jolly’s mysterious disappearance. Sadly, Mr. and Mrs. Jolly both passed away before learning what happened to their daughter: she passed away after a chronic lung illness and osteoporosis on March 23, 2005 at the age of eighty-five. According to her obituary, she worked mostly as a property custodi9al officer for the Lake Oswego PD until she retired in 1983. Her hobbies included archeology, birdwatching, and politics. Mr. Jolly died at the age of ninety-threeon July 2, 2010 of natural causes at home. After his daughter disappeared he always held onto hope that Rita was still alive. As of December 2022, all three of her siblings are alive and are still desperate for answers. Rita’s dental records are available and her DNA was entered into CODIS in 2000.
Bryan Jolly currently resides in Bend, OR and is the owner of ‘Bryan Jolly Construction.‘ Jeff Jolly lives in Depoe Bay, Oregon. Jill Jolly is active in her sisters disappearance, and is vocal on multiple social media platforms (like WebSleuth’s, and my own blog), and in recent years has also done interviews both in front of and behind the camera; she currently resides in Bend, OR.
* Jill Jolly researched the lunar calendar extensively and couldn’t find any record of there ever being an eclipse on the evening her sister disappeared.
The Jolly family. Photo courtesy of Jill Elaine Jolly & Uncovered.The Jolly family with a neighbor boy. Photo courtesy of Jill Elaine Jolly & Uncovered.Rita Jolly at age 10-11.Rita Jolly doing yard work. Photo courtesy of Jill Elaine Jolly & Uncovered.Rita Jolly freshman picture from the 1970 West Linn High School yearbook.Rita Lorraine Jolly.Rita Jolly.Rita Jolly. Photo courtesy of KGW News.Rita’s missing persons poster. Photo courtesy of KGW News.A missing person’s card for Rita Jolly. A missing person’s card for Rita Jolly.What Rita may look more recently like using age progression technology.Rita’s artwork. Photo courtesy of Jill Elaine Jolly & Uncovered.Rita’s artwork. Photo courtesy of Jill Elaine Jolly & Uncovered.The Jolly family doing a TV interview after Rita disappeared. Photo courtesy of KGW News.The Jolly family standing with a reporter during a TV interview after Rita disappeared. Photo courtesy of KGW News.A close up shot of Mr. Jolly during an interview. Photo courtesy of KGW News.A reporter in West Linn doing a news story about Rita. Photo courtesy of KGW News.Rita’s West Linn neighborhood. Photo courtesy of KGW News.An article about the disappearance of Rita Jolly published in The Oregonian on July 2, 1973.An article about the disappearance of Rita Jolly published in The Oregonian on July 12, 1973.An article about the disappearance of Rita Jolly published in The Oregon Journal on July 13, 1973.An article about Rita Jolly published in The Sunday Oregonian on July 15, 1973.An article about Ms. Jolly’s disappearance published by The Statesman Journal on July 15, 1973. An article about the disappearance of Rita Jolly published in The Sunday Oregonian on August 5, 1973.An article about the disappearance of Rita Jolly published in The Oregon Journal on August 9, 1973.An article about a reward related to the disappearance of Rita Jolly published in The Oregon Journal on September 1, 1973.An article about the disappearance of Rita Jolly published in The Sunday Oregonian on September 2, 1973.An article mentioning the disappearance of Rita Jolly published in The Sunday Oregonian on September 11, 1973.An article about the disappearance of Rita Jolly published in The Sunday Oregonian on December 9, 1973.An article on the missing Oregon girls that mentions Rita Jolly published by The Greater Oregon on December 21, 1973.An article about Patty Hearst that mentions the disappearance of Rita Jolly that was published in The Statesman Journal on October 17, 1974.Part one of an article on the missing/murders residents of Oregon that mentions Rita Jolly published in The Register-Guard on April 16, 1978.Part two of an article on the missing/murders residents of Oregon that mentions Rita Jolly published in The Register-Guard on April 16, 1978.An article mentioning Rita Jolly published by the Traverse City Record Eagle on January 23, 1989.An article mentioning Rita Jolly published by the Fairbanks Daily News Mine on January 23, 1989.An article mentioning Rita Jolly published by the Indiana Gazette on January 23, 1989.An article mentioning Jolly published by The Statesman Journal on January 25, 1989Jolly is mentioned above in an article published by The Hartford Courant on January 25, 1989.An article mentioning Rita Jolly published by the Elyria Chronicle Telegram on January 27, 1989.An article mentioning Rita Jolly published by The Mobile Press on January 27, 1989.An article mentioning Rita Jolly published by Paris News on January 28, 1989.An article mentioning Rita Jolly published by The Evening News on January 29, 1989.Part one of an article written by Don Jolly published by The Bulletin on February 28, 1994.Part two of an article written by Don Jolly published by The Bulletin on February 28, 1994.An article about Rita Jolly published by The Oregonian on February 28, 2008.Part one of an article about unsolved Oregon murders that mentions Rita Jolly published in The Oregonian on February 28, 2008.Part two of an article about unsolved Oregon murders that mentions Rita Jolly published in The Oregonian on February 28, 2008.Some information related to the disappearance of Rita Jolly published in The Oregonian on February 28, 2008.An article about playing cards related to Oregon cold cases that mentions Rita Jolly published in The Oregonian on July 31, 2013,A list of the missing girls from Oregon from 1969-78.Mr. Jolly’s WWII draft card.Mary Elizabeth Horner-Jolly.Donald Clover Jolly.Jill Jolly in an interview about her sister.Mr. Jolly.Don Jolly’s obituary write-up.Jeff Jolly’s senior picture from the 1966 West Linn High School yearbook.Jill Jolly’s sophomore picture from the 1968 West Linn High School yearbook.Bryan Jolly’s senior picture from the 1968 West Linn High School yearbook.An opinion piece Bryan Jolly submitted to The Register-Guard on September 13, 1974.A picture of Jeffrey Jolly in an article published in The Oregonian on September 25, 1987.Rita’s mother’s obituary published in The Bulletin on March 30, 2005.Rita’s mother’s obituary published in The Oregonian on Aapril 1, 2005.Mr. Jolly’s obituary, published in The Bulletin on July 15, 2010.Mr. Jolly’s funeral arrangements, published in The Bulletin on July 15, 2010.A newspaper clipping regarding some legal matters regarding their fathers death published in The Bulletin on September 7, 2010.TB’s whereabouts when Rita was last seen on June 29, 1973 according to the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992.’Ted’s Oregon Murders.The Google Maps route from the Rogers’ Rooming House in Seattle to the town where Rita Jolly lived in Oregon.Warren Leslie Forrest. It’s important to keep in mind at the time he committed murder he looked like THIS, not the troll directly below. A more recent picture of Warren Leslie Forrest.Warren Leslie Forrest’s blue murder van. Ever since I read an article my very wonderful friend Erin Banks (of ‘CrimePiper’) wrote about the different types of vehicles serial killers drove I am now curious about how they come into play in the role (or act) of murder. Bundy had his little VW, Kemper had his gigantic boat of a Ford Galaxie 500… this is exactly the vehicle I imagined Forrest driving. A creepy van. All that’s missing is the sign for free ice cream and naps. Henry Lee Lucas.Ottis Toole.Henry Lee Lucas and Otis Toole.Gary Leon Ridgway in this 1982 King County Sheriff’s booking photo. Fifty-two year old Ridgway was arrested on November 30, 2001 on the suspicion of being the so-called Riverman/Green River Killer. Edmund Emil Kemper III was on born December 18, 1948 and killed a total of 10 people, including his mother and her best friend. The 6’9″ giant was active from from May 1972 to April 1973 after his parole for murdering his paternal grandparents. Susan Wickersham.A photo of Vicki Lynn Hollar from the 1969 Southern Illinois University yearbook, ‘The Obelisk.’Martha Morrison was a 17 year old Portland girl who was murdered in 1974. Sadly her remains went unidentified for over 40 years after they were discovered. I’m only including this because I mentioned it in the picture above and I’m fascinated by Ed Kemper. It’s his used yellow 1969 Ford Galaxie 500.
Another Bundy Blog. 