Kimberly Dianne Leach.
Nancy Perry-Baird, Case File.
This is the initial police report regarding Nancy’s disappearance completed by Officer D.R. Anderson on July 4, 1975. I already wrote about her but I’m going to go back and edit my piece; I am constantly updating my articles when I stumble across new information and boy did I find a great new source.
Bundy’s Confirmed Victims: A List.
I’ve been spending a good chunk of my time writing about the unconfirmed victims so in this installment of ‘All Things Bundy,’ I’m going over his confirmed kills.
Karen Sparks-Epley (18). January 4, 1974. Survived, Seattle, WA.
Also referred to as ‘Joni Lenz,’ Sparks was brutally assaulted by Ted Bundy while asleep in her basement apartment in the University District of Seattle. She was his first known victim. Thankfully Bundy didn’t kill her, however she was badly beaten with a metal rod, sexually assaulted, and left unconscious for hours before her roommates discovered her later that night. Ted left her with a number of serious long-term injuries she still struggles with to this day.
Lynda Ann Healy (21). February 1, 1974. Murdered, Seattle, WA.
On January 31st, 1974, Healy borrowed a friends car to go shopping for a family dinner she was preparing the next night and returned with her groceries at roughly 8:30 PM. Shortly after, Lynda and her roommates went drinking at a popular bar called Dante’s Tavern located at 5300 Roosevelt Way NE. The establishment was a five minute walk from her apartment but the friends didn’t stay out long because Lynda needed to be up at 5:30 AM to be at her job giving the ski report for a local radio station. A number of sources report that Bundy used to go to Dante’s often and it is hypothesized that he first saw Lynda there then followed her home. In the early morning hours of February 1, 1974, he broke into Healy’s basement room, beat her, took off her bloody nightgown (making sure to neatly hang it up in her closet), dressed her then carried her off into the night. It is theorized that Ted only took clothes to make it appear as if Lynda left on her own but obviously we’ll most likely never know the truth. Her body found in March 1975 on Taylor Mountain, near Issaquah outside of Seattle.
Donna Gail Manson (19). March 12, 1974. Murdered, Olympia, WA.
On the day of her abduction, Donna planned on going to a folk dancing class at the College Activities Building at Evergreen State College (where she attended). Later that same night, she made plans to go to a jazz concert at the Daniel J. Evans Library (also on campus), which was scheduled to start at 8 PM. Donna departed her dormitory just after 7 PM and set out for the dance class, which was just a two minute walk away. Despite how close the College Activities Building was to her dorm, no one recalls seeing her at either the dancing class or the jazz recital, making it highly unlikely that she ever made it that far. Manson was never seen alive again. After confessing to her murder, Bundy said he burned her skull in Liz Kendall’s fireplace.
Susan Elaine Rancourt (18). April 17, 1974. Murdered, Ellensburg, WA.
Shortly before 8 PM the evening she disappeared from her college campus at Central Washington University, Susan Rancourt put some clothes in a washing machine in Barto Hall (her dorm building). She then went to a meeting about becoming a Residential Advisor at Munson Hall. When it ended at 10 PM Sue left to walk back to her dorm to switch out her laundry but was never seen alive again. She had plans later that night to watch a movie with a friend but never showed up. Rancourts skull was later found near Taylor Mountain, where Bundy placed several bodies during his reign of terror.
Roberta Kathleen Parks (20). April 17, 1974. Corvallis, OR.
A student at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Parks was abducted from her college campus, which is over a four and a half hour drive for Bundy (who was living at the Rogers Rooming House on 12th Ave NE in Seattle at the time). Shortly before 11:00 PM the night she disappeared, Parks encountered Bundy in the Memorial Union Commons cafeteria at OSU. During Teds interviews with journalists Hugh Aynesworth and Stephen Michaud, he ‘confessed’ in the third-person that Kathy may have encountered her killer while in the cafeteria. Bundy then said he was able to convince her to leave with him and as soon as the opportunity presented itself he immediately overpowered her. He most likely bound and gagged Parks during the 250-mile trip back to Seattle, where then killed her and dumped her body on Taylor Mountain.
Brenda Carol Ball (22). June 1, 1974. Murdered, Burien, WA.
In the wee hours of June 1st, 1974, Brenda Ball seemingly vanished into thin air after seeing a band play at The Flame Tavern located at 12803 Ambaum Boulevard in Burien, WA. She arrived at the bar alone and stayed until closing. As the act was wrapping up their set at the end of the night Brenda asked one of the members she knew for a ride home back to her house but he was heading in the opposite direction so he couldn’t help out. There are two conflicting reports about how she could have left the bar that night: one is that she left by herself and was planning on hitchhiking home, and the other claims that she left with an unidentified man wearing an arm sling. Despite law enforcement being hesitant to officially say her disappearance was related to the other missing girls in Seattle, her skull was the first discovered on Taylor Mountain in March of 1975.
Georgeann Hawkins (18). June 11, 1974. Murdered, Seattle, WA.
A student at the University of Washington, Georgann Hawkins disappeared from an alley behind her sorority house in June 1974. The night before she vanished, Hawkins went to a party, where she had a few mixed cocktails. Because she had a Spanish final coming up that she needed to study she didn’t stay long; she did mention to a sorority sister that she was planning on swinging by the Beta Theta Pi House to pick up some Spanish notes from her boyfriend. Hawkins arrived at the frat at approximately 12:30 AM on June 11 and stayed for approximately thirty minutes. After getting the notes and saying goodnight to her beau, Georgann left the fraternity house for her sorority house, Kappa Alpha Theta. Before he was executed, Ted told law enforcement that he approached her in an alley on her way home, feigning injury with a hurt leg (using his crutches as a ruse) while dropping his briefcase. Bundy asked Hawkins for help carrying the prop to his VW Bug, which was waiting in a parking lot roughly 160 yards north of the alley. She agreed and as she bent over to put the briefcase in his vehicle, Ted grabbed a conveniently placed crowbar and knocked her out with a single blow to the head. He then pushed George into his car and drove off into the night. Bundy claimed that while driving she regained consciousness and started to incoherently babble about her upcoming final, thinking he was her Spanish tutor. He again knocked her out with his crowbar. Once at his intended location, Ted took her unconscious body out of his car and strangled her with an old piece of rope. According to him, the parts of Georgann’s body he had not buried were recovered in Issaquah with the bodies of Janice Ott and Denise Naslund. He confessed to murdering Hawkins shortly before his 1989 execution.
Janice Ann Blackburn-Ott (23). July 14, 1974. Murdered, Issaquah, WA.
At the time she was murdered, Janice Ott worked as a probation case worker at the King County Youth Service Center in Seattle, WA. In December of 1973, she married Jim Ott, who at the time of her death was in California for graduate school. After her car was broken into while living in Seattle, she moved in with a roommate to 75 Front Street in Issaquah (she felt the smaller community would be safer). The morning she disappeared, Janice spent a few hours at doing laundry and having a cup of coffee with a friend. After her errands and chores were completed, she rewarded herself with a trip to Lake Sammamish. Ott was abducted by Bundy at around 12.30 PM, and just a mere three and a half hours later he returned to the same park and abducted Denise Naslund.
Denise Marie Naslund (18). July 14, 1974. Murdered, Issaquah, WA.
On a beautiful, picture perfect sunny day, Naslund disappeared from a very busy Lake Samammish State Park (that day was Rainier Beer’s annual picnic, there were over 40,000 people there). She was there with her boyfriend and another couple, and after telling them she was going to the restroom Denise was never seen alive again. Naslund lived with her mother in Seattle and was studying to become a computer programmer. Eleanor Rose said her daughter had the kind of helpful nature that would easily place her in danger. Denise’s remains were found on a hillside near Issaquah roughly two months later in September 1974, only two miles away from Lake Samammish. Bundy confessed to her murder shortly before his execution.
Nancy Wilcox (16). October 2, 1974. Murdered, Holladay, UT.
The first of Teds confirmed Utah victims, Wilcox went missing after she went on a walk to buy a pack of gum (it’s also speculated that from there she was on her way to her high school to visit her boyfriend). She left the house in a huff after getting into a fight with her Dad about her bf’s pick-up truck leaking oil on the families driveway. Both Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox said that because of this law enforcement initially considered her to be a runaway even though they knew their daughter would never voluntarily leave home and had no troubles whatsoever in her personal life. Nancy left all of her personal belongings behind including some expensive jewelry that held deep sentimental value to her. Before he was executed Bundy confessed to sexually assaulting and strangling her, then burying her body about 200 miles away near Capitol Reef National Park. Sadly her body has never been found.
Melissa Smith (17). October 26, 1974. Murdered, Midvale, UT.
Bundy abducted Smith shortly after she left a pizza parlor on West Center Street in Midvale at around 9.30 PM on October 26, 1974. One unconfirmed report suggests that he may have been asking women in the area to help him with a car issue. Melissa was the daughter of Midvale Police Chief Louis Smith, and her murder took place just sixteen days after Nancy Wilcox vanished from the nearby city of Holladay (and five days before Laura Aime). On the night she disappeared, Smith was supposed to sleep over at a girlfriend’s house but those plans fell through after she didn’t answer the phone. After realizing she had been stood up, she decided to leave the pizzeria and walk back to her house on Fern Drive. At some point during her walk, its speculated that Bundy grabbed Melissa off the street and killed her. She never made it home.
Laura Aime (17). October 31, 1974. Murdered, Lehi, UT.
Shortly before she disappeared Aime dropped out of high school, left home (she frequently couch surfed at various friends’ homes), and worked a few menial part-time jobs. Surprisingly she still remained in contact with her family and according to her parents, they were just beginning to accept her ‘nomadic lifestyle.’ So, when she first disappeared no one really seemed overly concerned. Thanks to my newspapers.com subscription it didn’t take long for me to realize there were no news articles mentioning Laura Aime’s disappearance at first, and her name only began to appear in ink after two hikers discovered her remains in American Fork Canyon. Additionally, when her body was first discovered, law enforcement first speculated it belonged to Deborah Kent.
Carol DaRonch (18). November 8, 1974. Survived, Murray, UT.
The evening she was abducted Carol DaRonch parked her maroon 1974 Camaro on the southern side of The Fashion Place Mall in Murray, UT. As she was window shopping outside Walden Books, DaRonch was approached by Bundy, who was posing as a police officer. He said that her car had been broken into and asked her to drive down ‘to the station’ with him to file a report with him. However as they were on their way he attempted to subdue and handcuff her but was unsuccessful: she was able to fend him off and escape. Of the encounter, DaRonch said that she ‘thought he was kind of creepy … I thought he was a lot older than he was.’ She also commented that she could smell alcohol on his breath.
Debra Jean Kent (17). November 8, 1974. Murdered, Bountiful, UT.
After Bundy was unsuccessful in his attempts to kidnap Carol DaRonch he quickly realized he was going to need a new victim. So he made the twenty-two minute drive away to Viewmont High School, where he successfully abducted Debbie Kent. Kent was watching a play with her family but left the school at approximately 10:30 PM to pick up her brother from the nearby Rustic Roller Rink. She never made it to the rink and was most likely abducted in the parking lot. According to an eyewitnesses, there was loud screaming coming from the area at roughly the time that Debra was last seen, and another person saw a light-colored VW Beetle speeding away from the school. After the Kent’s realized their daughter hadn’t even made it out of the parking lot, they found a handcuff key on the ground by their car. Bundy confessed to killing Deb and burying her body in the same area as Nancy Wilcox.
Caryn Campbell (23). January 12, 1975. Murdered, Estes Park, CO.
Bundy abducted the 23-year-old nurse from the Wildwood Inn in Snowmass Village. While staying at the inn with her fiance and his children, Campbell went missing after going upstairs to her room to retrieve a magazine. Although we will never know for certain how exactly Ted managed to abduct the attractive young woman, it is highly likely he feigned an injury and asked her to help him carry something back to his vehicle. After he lured her away from the hotel to a darkened parking lot he hit her over the head then quickly snuck her into his Bug. Roughly five weeks after Campbell disappeared her body was found less than three miles away from the Wildwood Inn. Someone driving by her remains noticed a large amount of birds flying over the area. Using dental records, police determined that the remains belonged to Caryn. The postmortem examination revealed that her skull had sustained three heavy blows. Before Ted’s run in with Ol’ Sparky, he confessed to Campbells murder.
Julie Cunningham (26). March 15, 1975. Murdered, Vail, CO.
Cunningham disappeared early in the evening on March 15, 1975 after leaving her Apollo Park apartment in Vail to go a nearby bar to meet up with a friend. Bundy told law enforcement that he pretended to be an injured skier on crutches that needed help carrying a pair of ski boots to his car. According to Ted, the pair walked over half a mile together before they finally reached his vehicle. Once there, Bundy knocked her unconscious, put her in his car then drove to a remote area roughly eighty miles west of Vail and sexually assaulted her. When finished, he strangled her to death and dumped her remains in a shallow grave near Rifle, CO. Julie’s body has never been recovered.
Denise Oliverson (24). April 6, 1975. Murdered, Grand Junction, CO.
On April 6, 1975, Denise Oliverson set out on a bike ride to her parents house but was never seen alive again. The next day, a search party found her bicycle and shoes under the Fifth Street Bridge by some railroad tracks. Just days before he was executed in January 1989, Bundy told law enforcement he abducted Oliverson then disposed of her body in a river about five miles West of Grand Junction. Her remains have never been found.
Lynette Dawn Culver (12). May 6, 1975. Murdered, Pocatello, ID.
Although the details surrounding Culvers murder seem to vary between sources, it’s strongly speculated she was last seen at Alameda Junior High School. It’s worth mentioning, this was a two and a half hour drive from where Bundy was living at the time in Salt Lake City to Pocatello, Idaho. Some places say that she left campus during her lunch period, where others claim Lynette was last seen getting on a bus. When considering her healthy and happy relationship with family and friends as well as and her stellar academic performance, she most likely was taken against her will. In his death row interviews, Bundy confessed to killing Lynette then dumping her body in the Snake River. He also said he raped and drowned the 12 year old child in a hotel room after abducting her. Law enforcement didn’t fully accept his confession despite providing some convincing details.
Susan Curtis (15). June 27, 1975. Murdered, Provo, UT.
At the time she was murdered, Susan was a freshman at Woods Cross High School. She had a history of running away from home for days at a time but never was gone for very long. Susan was originally from Bountiful, Utah but at the time of her disappearance was attending a youth conference at Brigham Young University in Provo. A natural athlete, Curtis had ridden her bicycle 50 miles from Bountiful to Provo to attend the conference. She vanished on the first evening of the conference after a formal banquet: she left her friends to make the quarter mile walk back to her dormitory to brush her teeth but was never seen or heard from again. As Bundy walked down to the hall to be executed Curtis was his last death row confession. Since her body has not been recovered she is still regarded as a missing person.
Margaret Bowman (21). January 15, 1978. Murdered, Tallahassee, FL.
In the early morning hours of January 15, 1978, a group of young women residing at the Chi Omega house at Tallahassee’s Florida State University were asleep in their beds when evil crept in… Margaret Bowman was born in Honolulu and moved to Florida in 1973 after her father retired from the US Air Force. Bowman was one of four women Bundy attacked when he broke into the sorority house at around 3 AM on January 15, 1978. He beat her with a piece of firewood as well as a telescope and strangled her to death with her own tights. Despite the violent nature of the crime, the initial investigation failed to produce any evidence of sexual assault or struggle. The severity of the beating was so extreme that part of Bowman’s brain was visible.
Lisa Janet Levy (20). January 15, 1978. Murdered, Tallahassee, FL.
Lisa was born in St Petersburg, FL and attended Dixie Hollins High School, where she played flute in the band for two years. At FSU, she majored in fashion merchandising and worked at the Colony Shop near campus. When law enforcement got to the crime scene Levy’s was the first sister that officers found dead. Medical Pathologists discovered that she had been beaten on the head with a log, sexually assaulted with a hair spray bottle then strangled. Additionally, they found bite marks on her buttocks and one of her nipples had been so savagely bitten that it was almost completely severed from the rest of her breast.
Kathy Kleiner-Rubin (20). January 15, 1978. Survived, Tallahassee, FL.
Kathy Kleiner-Rubin and Karen Chandler shared a room at the Chi Omega sorority house. That night she was attacked Kathy went to bed first, with Chandler following shortly after. After Bundy attacked and murdered Lisa Levy, he went into the room next door and brutally assaulted Kleiner-Rubin and Chandler. In an interview, Kathy said that was awoken that morning by the sound of her bedroom door opening. The assailant then tripped over a chest that was in-between the girls twin beds. Ted then assaulted her with a piece of firewood, which left her with a broken jaw, concussion, skull fracture, broken arm and finger. Miraculously, she survived her injuries and testified against Bundy in his death penalty trial.
Karen Chandler (22). January 15, 1978. Survived, Tallahassee, FL.
As I said earlier, Karen Chandler was Kathy Kleiner-Rubin’s roommate in the Chi Omega house. After Bundy was done brutally assaulting Kathy he moved onto Chandler. Bundy knocked out four of her teeth and beat her so severely that he broke her jaw and right arm. Somehow Chandler survived. She took the rest of the academic quarter off, but later returned to the Chi Omega house at FSU.
Cheryl Thomas (21). January 15, 1978. Survived, Tallahassee, FL.
After Bundy was finished with his atrocities at the Chi Omega sorority house, he wandered a few blocks over and climbed into an open kitchen window in Cheryl Thomas’ apartment. He attacked her and Thomas barely escaped with her life: her jaw was broken in two places, her shoulder dislocated, and she had five skull fractures, which left her permanently deaf in her left ear. In 1978 Thomas was a student at FSU and a member of the schools dance team. The night she was attacked was alone in her apartment but thanks to some attentive neighbors who heard the assault her life was saved.
Kimberly Dianne Leach (12). February 9, 1978. Murdered, Lake City, FL.
In 1978, Kim Leach was a 12-year-old seventh-grader at Lake City Junior High School, where she was a straight-A student and the runner-up Valentine Queen. Leach was one of Bundy’s youngest and his last victim. On the morning of February 9, 1978, Kimberly arrived at Lake City Junior high School on time. Just before 9 AM, she left her first period class to go and pick up her purse that she had accidentally left behind in her homeroom. After she recovered the purse she headed back towards her classroom in the pouring rain but never arrived. That afternoon, Kimberly’s parents became concerned when their daughter didn’t come home after school. They called everybody they knew, but nobody could account for Kimberly. Their concern escalated to fear when they learned she had been at her first period class but then never returned. They immediately called law enforcement to report their daughter missing. A search party quickly formed and concentrated on Suwannee River State Park for weeks. Kims remains were eventually found on April 7, 1978 in an abandoned hog pen with a small metal lead-to. She was nude other than for a pullover jumper, her clothes were piled up beside her body. She was in an advanced state of decomposition, but she was identified thanks to dental records. Leach had suffered homicidal violence about the neck region.
Miscellaneous:
There is no consensus as to when or where Bundy began killing. He told different people varying stories to and refused to give the specifics of his earlier crimes, even as he shared in graphic detail to dozens of later murders in the days before he was his executed. He told one of his attorneys Polly Nelson that he attempted his first kidnapping in 1969 in Ocean City, NJ, however did not kill anyone until sometime in 1971 in Seattle. He told Portland forensic psychologist Dr. Art Norman that he murdered two women in Atlantic City while visiting family in Philadelphia in 1969. Bundy hinted to former homicide detective Dr. Robert Keppel that he committed a murder in Seattle in 1972 and another murder in 1973 that involved a hitchhiker near Tumwater, but he refused to elaborate. Rule and Keppel both believed that he might have started killing as a teenager. Bundy’s earliest documented homicides were committed in 1974, when he was 27 years old. By his own admission, he had by then mastered the necessary skills to leave minimal incriminating forensic evidence at crime scenes.
On September 2, 1974, Bundy drove through Boise while moving from Seattle to Salt Lake City and during that trip, he picked up a still unknown hitchhiker and killed her. Ted returned the next day to photograph and dismember the corpse then dumped her remains in the Snake River. Reports from Gonzaga University’s student newspaper ‘The Gonzaga Bulletin’ claim that Bundy stopped by a campus dorm for a party in the 1970’s and drove a female student to Pullman. She miraculously survived.
Bundy confessed to detectives from Idaho, Utah, and Colorado that he had committed numerous additional homicides, including several that were unknown to the police. He explained that when he was in Utah he could bring his victims back to his apartment, ‘where he could reenact scenarios depicted on the covers of detective magazines.’ A new ulterior strategy quickly became apparent: he withheld many details, hoping to parlay the incomplete information into yet another stay of execution. ‘There are other buried remains in Colorado,’ he admitted, but refused to elaborate. The new strategy (which was referred to as ‘Ted’s bones-for-time scheme’) served only to deepen the resolve of authorities to see Bundy executed on schedule, and yielded little new detailed information. In cases where he did give details, nothing was found. Colorado detective Matt Lindvall interpreted this as a conflict between his desire to postpone his execution by divulging information and his need to remain in ‘total possession, and the only person who knew his victims true resting places.’
- in Oregon, 2 (both unidentified)
- in Idaho, 2 (1 unidentified)
- in California, 1 (unidentified)
After being sentenced to death, Bundy spent 11 years on death row, before he was executed by electric chair on 24 January 1989.
Rex Heuermann’s Victims.
In 2010 and 2011 the bodies of eleven people were found throughout Long Island. The majority of the victims were young female sex workers; several of the bodies were found covered in burlap in thickets along a sandy stretch called Gilgo Beach.
It was the disappearance of Shannan Gilbert in 2010 that helped expose the larger mystery. A 24-year-old sex worker, Gilbert disappeared after leaving a ‘John’s’ house on foot in the seafront community of Oak Beach, vanishing into the marsh. At this time in early August 2023, Rex Heuermann is accused of murdering 11 people: nine females, one male, and a young toddler. This includes Melissa Barthelemy (24), Megan Waterman (22), and Amber Lynn Costello (27), and Maureen Brainard-Barnes (25).
Rex Heuermann.
Suffolk County’s Case Against Rex Heuermann.
Bundy Siblings.
Ted Bundy attended Woodrow Wilson High School when growing up at 658 North Skyline Drive in Tacoma, WA. Some of his younger brothers and sisters however, went to Stadium High School when the family moved across town to the North End of Tacoma in 1968. I was hesitant to post about the Bundy siblings at first but all of this information I found in the public domain (mostly classmates.com).
Carol Louise Platt-Valenzuela.*
Carol Louise was born on December 30, 1955 to William and Barbara (nee Johnson) Platt in Bemidji, Minnesota. The couple had five children: Carol, David, Gary, Robert, and Gail. After high school Bill Platt attended Bemidji State University and worked in general construction before entering the US Navy during World War II. He returned to the Turtle River area of Minnesota after he was discharged and married Barbara on April 10, 1950. After the couple got hitched, Mr. Platt worked in the local mines, on the iron range, and was self-employed in his later years; Mrs. Platt was a trained cook and worked various jobs including at the Lake Julia Nursing Home, Markham Hotel, Viking Supper Club, and the Turtle Club. Carol eventually relocated to Camas, Washington. Like so many of the other unconfirmed victims I wasn’t able to find much about her background.
Seventeen-year-old Carol married Robert Valenzuela on August 17, 1973 and shortly after the couple became the parents of twins (they were ten months old when she was murdered). The couple were only married for about a year when on August 2, 1974 Carol disappeared after hitchhiking from Camas to Vancouver: she apparently made it to her intended destination and was last seen at a welfare office in Vancouver. At 11:00 AM a case worker told her to come back later that same afternoon at 1 PM to receive food stamps, however she never returned to the office and was never seen from again. Robert reported her missing two days later on August 4; she was eighteen years old. Ms. Valenzuela was not known to be involved in prostitution and had no criminal record. The case quickly went dry.
On the morning of October 12, 1974 a deer hunter stumbled upon a mass of hair in a heavily wooded area roughly fourteen miles northeast of Vancouver not far from the Oregon border. He thought it was an unusual place to find a wig and after investigating the mass with the shank of his gun quickly realized it was attached to a skull and that it wasn’t a wig at all. After law enforcement arrived they quickly realized there wasa second victim and their skeletal remains were scattered throughout the area. According to lab reports, the bones had not completely oxidized and it was determined that their deaths most likely did not occur suddenly, and possibly took place as a result of suffocation. Thebodies were discovered within a mile or so of where 16-year-old Jamie Grissim’s ID was found (she vanished on December 7, 1971 and to this day her remains have never been recovered). It was determined that the second woman’s death took place roughly six weeks before Valenzuela’s. Former Clark County Sheriff Gene Cotton reported that Robert Valenzuela was initially held as a ‘material witness’ although no charges were ever filed against him.
Eventually it was determined that the physical characteristics of the first skeleton matched those of Valenzuela. Former Curator of the Physical Anthropology department at the Smithsonian J. Lawrence Angel said that the second victim was ‘white, between 17 and 23 years old, and was of slender build, weighing about 125 or 130 pounds.’ … he also said that ‘the woman probably had a small face and long, dark brown hair which was coarse, thick and probably with a natural curl.’ He also commented that her upper teeth were ‘noticeably decayed’ and she had a ‘splayed back, protruding buttocks and had apparently given birth.’ When the two bodies were initially found their dental charts were sent to Bemidji, Minnesota as part of a routine check of missing persons in the area, which resulted in the identification of Mrs. Valenzuela. The remains of the second victim were sent to the FBI laboratory in Washington, DC but went unidentified for many years.
Martha Morrison resided in Portland, Oregon and vanished without a trace on September 1, 1974. She grew up in foster care while living in Lane County, Oregon and had a history of substance abuse and running away from home (both her biological and foster families). Morrison was last seen leaving the apartment she rented with a boyfriend; they had reportedly gotten into an argument. DNA was obtained from Morrison’s sister and half-brother, which helped develop a genetic profile to compare to potential matches. After the testing was complete, it was compared to the currently unidentified remains, whose DNA profile was developed in 2012. Similarities in the genetic material were noted, however a definite match was not immediately established. It didn’t help that Morrison’s skull and some other bones were mislabeled as Valenzuela’s while they were sitting in storage (which was one of the reasons why the remains were unidentified for so long). The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children paid to have Morrison’s Fathers body exhumed so they could obtain his DNA to compare it to the unidentified remains, which resulted in a positive identification that the remains were those of Martha Morrison on July 17, 2015. After her body was successfully ID’d, police went to the public, encouraging them to submit tips to help solve the case. In August 2017, law enforcement matched her blood with remnants on a pistol owned by Warren Leslie Forrest, who was a longtime suspect. Before Forrest was named as their killer both Ted Bundy and Randall Woodfield (the I-5 Killer) were both considered as ‘people of interest’ in both women’s murders. Forrest was officially charged with Morrison’s homicide in 2020.
At the time Valenzuela disappeared in the summer of 1974 Bundy was still in a long term relationship with Liz Kloepfer and was residing in the Rogers Rooming House on 12th Avenue in Seattle. He was getting ready to move to Salt Lake City to begin his second attempt at law school and was employed with The Department of Emergency Services in Olympia (he worked there just for a few months from May 3, 1974 until August 28). Bundy told law enforcement that he wasn’t responsible for the death of Valenzuela, which is one of the only murders from the Pacific Northwest that he was suspected of that he denied. Most likely because Ted was a habitual liar he remained a suspect of Valenzuela’s murder for quite a few years, as he told investigators before he was executed he may or may not be responsible for additional murders other than the ones he was convicted of.
Enter Warren Leslie Forrest. Forrest apparently liked to pose as a Seattle University photography student and liked to approach women asking if they’d like to pose for pictures for a fee of thirty to forty dollars. The victims would leave with him in his blue murder van where he quickly subdued them and bound them with rope at the ankles and wrists. Forrest was a government employee with the Parks Department which gave him access to a lot of restricted areas in local recreation areas. One of his victims managed to escape after he kidnapped and brutally raped her, and thankfully she was able to get away and flag down a passing motorist who took her to the police. Forrest was eventually tracked down and although law enforcement couldn’t place him in the area at the time of Valenzuela’s disappearance detectives were intrigued by the recurring pattern of victims that were dumped in the woods. They were also struck by the testimony of Forrest’s friends, who were shocked at his actions and claimed he was just a normal, regular guy (which is similar to the way psychologists predicted Bundy acted with his friends).
Warren Leslie Forrest has been in prison on a single murder count since 1974, when he was charged with the murder of nineteen year old Krista Kay Blake. In 2014, detectives began taking another look at physical evidence related to Forrest’s criminal history to help link him to any possible unsolved crimes, but it wasn’t until 2019 that DNA evidence helped link him to the murder of Morrison. Forensic experts from the Washington State Police Crime Lab isolated a partial DNA profile from bloodstains found on Forrest’s dart gun and cross-referenced it with Morrison’s DNA, which led to the positive identification of her remains. As a result, Forrest was identified as her killer. In January 2020 Forrest was extradited to Clark County to await charges in Martha Morrison’s murder. For the first time in 40 years he appeared in court on February 7, 2020, pleading not guilty. The trial was originally scheduled to begin on April 6 2020, but was delayed several times due to the COVID pandemic. The trial finally resumed in early 2023 and on February 1, 2023 a jury found him guilty of the murder of Martha Morrison. Sixteen days later, Forrest was given another life sentence. During the proceedings, he was still apprehensive about admitting his guilt, but freely gave his opinion that ‘girls from socially disadvantaged environments should not hitchhike or get into cars with strangers due to their vulnerable disposition.’
Sadly, Carols father Bill and her brother David died on January 2, 1986 in a car accident north of Bemidji; Bill was 58 and David was 28. Barbara Platt passed away on February 9, 1993 at the age of 61 in Fargo, ND. It does seem that Robert Valenzuela did eventually remarry. I’m respecting Carols family and will not disclose anything about her twins.
* In October 2024 one of Carol’s grandchildren reached out to me to not only point out some things that were incorrect in my piece but to also voice concern that her grandmothers article didn’t belong on a website about Ted Bundy. After a bit of back and forth I told her I would not remove the article but would add a disclaimer that Carol was not a victim of the serial murderer and more likely was killed by the hands of Warren Leslie Forrest. This blog may have Ted Bundy in the title but it’s turned into so much more than that. And I also want to add that I didn’t pay someone to go find me secret files about Ms. Valenzuela: everything I found was in the public domain and was literally at my fingertips. Where I do understand that it must be incredibly invasive to do a Google search and find an entire article written about your grandmother that was murdered in an incredibly brutal way, but everything I found was either in a newspaper article or from some sort of historical website, like Ancestry/MyHeritage. Also, if something is misspelled (like a name), that is information I pulled from another source, so if it’s not correct in my article it’s also incorrect in the original. I didn’t pull it out of thin air, it came from somewhere. Instead of Googling someone and having to go through 7-8 websites to get everything you need, I’m trying my hardest to be a complete resource. All of this information was easily found, and was free.
Janla N. Carr.
So, most true crime fans are aware that Ted Bundy’s paternal lineage is unknown: Louise either had a completely anonymous one night stand, was with a man who lied to her about his real name/identity, or had a relationship with a guy who just up and left her and she took his identity with her to the grave (or a combination of these theories). There are multiple rumors surrounding the identity of Ted’s father: it’s been said he was a sailor that went by the name of Jack Worthington, an Air Force vet and salesman named Lloyd Marshall, and even Louise’s own father Samuel Cowell (even though DNA evidence proves he wasn’t). The name of Ted’s father was listed as Lloyd Marshall on his birth certificate (before Johnnie Bundy adopted him). Per ‘wikiwand,’ ‘census records reveal that several men by the name of ‘John Worthington’ and ‘Lloyd Marshall’ lived near Louise when Bundy was conceived.’ Mrs. Bundy told the FBI that Ted’s father was a man named Jack Worthington and that she only slept with him once (she also told Agent Bill Hagmaier that she was aware of the rumors and Samuel wasn’t Ted’s Dad).
I’m not sure of the year, but ‘vault.fbi.gov’ released three separate documents that contained an absolute gold mine of information about the Bundy case (I included the portions about the Carrs in full at the bottom, as I don’t like leaving my readers hunting for additional information). Part one begins with a document from Salt Lake City law enforcement going over the details of Teds first escape on June 7, 1977 (as we all know he was quickly recaptured but escaped again to Florida later that same year on December 30). The beginning of the third portion is about a Pennsylvania woman named Janla N. Carr, who claims her dad (Thomas Dowling Carr) is Ted Bundy’s real Father. For the tl;dr type of people: Janla Carr claims Ted Bundy is her half-brother, he apparently had a twin brother, and he committed additional murders during early childhood and adolescence (well before 1974).
Janla N. Carr was born on January 23, 1952 to Thomas Dowling Carr and Velma F. Priecko out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Mrs. Carr’s maiden name is occasionally incorrectly listed as Nriecko). Janla was 5’5″ tall, weighed 150 pounds and had brown hair and brown eyes. The son of an undertaker, Thomas was born on February 12, 1913 in Columbus, Ohio and bounced around the country quite a bit before the family eventually settled down in Pittsburgh, PA in 1937 (he went to grade school in Reading, PA and oddly enough lived in Spokane, WA while attending high school, which is only about 4.5 hours away from Bundy’s hometown of Tacoma). After successfully taking a civil service exam, Mr. Carr got a job with the Railroad Mail Service (he began work for them in 1936, at some point became a supervisor, and retired in 1975) and Velma was a Nurse at the Western State Psychiatric Institute & Clinic in Pittsburgh. Family and friends told police that Janla and Thomas had what they would consider a ‘love-hate’ relationship. Additionally, Janla would frequently tell her friends that her dad had abused her and her mother, who passed away from cancer in 1983.
In 1969 Janla graduated from Peabody High School in Pittsburgh and later that fall started college at the University of Pittsburgh (she attended for two semesters). Carr eventually started skipping class before dropping out completely, claiming she had some sort of thyroid condition (I’ll bring this up again later). At some point in her life she experimented with LSD, which can result in altered memories. The use of hallucinogens (even infrequently) can interfere with the action of Glutamate (which helps to regulate pain perception), responses to the environment, and memory. It’s also worth noting that people who use LSD often experience blackouts: even though they may appear to be awake and conscious the entire ‘trip’ in actuality they have no recollection of what happened for either a portion or the entire time they were under the influence. Some users of LSD find their short-term memory is permanently affected and even after they stop using the drug their memories never come back.
The first time Carr claims she met Ted was when she was two years-old: Mrs. Bundy brought her young son to meet up with Thomas and Janla at Mellon Park in Pittsburgh. Per the document released by the FBI, Janla told them that ‘a woman whom Carr called ‘the gray lady’ came looking for Carrs father. Carr had seen the gray lady, who she subsequently identified as Louise Bundy, a number of times at Mellon Park (although there isn’t a time or any other details of this introduction other than she remembers Louise as appearing gray in color). Thomas Carr denies ever knowing Louise Bundy. I don’t think I believe this story, as Louise moved Ted from Pennsylvania to Tacoma in 1950 and married Johnnie Bundy the next year. Teds half-sister Linda was born in 1952 and Louise had three more children after (Richie is the youngest Bundy-sibling and he was born in 1961)… why would Mrs. Bundy take her little boy ALL THE WAY across the country on multiple occasions and leave her new husband (who as we know stepped up and acted like a Father figure to Ted after he married his mom) and baby(ies) behind to go visit the Carrs? Janla told the FBI that on that occasion her ‘father acted in a rude and revolting manner towards Louise,’ and Teddy even asked Janla why her father was so mean to his mother. She also recalled that Louise said to Thomas Carr, ‘Your son. Your son.’
The next time Ms. Carr saw Ted was at West Park in Pittsburgh a couple years later in the mid-1950’s. On this occasion, Thomas instructed his daughter to call Louise ‘Aunt Eleanor’ and to tell her that ‘his name was Nelson. Janla asked him what first name she was to use for him, and he told her to refer to him as Lloyd. He told Janla she must obey him.’ When they met with Louise this time, Carr said she was dressed in gray, had ‘a big mole on her cheek,’ and drove a ‘big black car with fins.’ Like with so many of the other living unconfirmed victims, when writing this I relied heavily on Erin Banks book, ‘Ted Bundy: Examining the Unconfirmed Survivor Stories.’ In it, she discusses that during this second visit the two children wandered away from where the adults were sitting. ‘Janla and Ted went off together in the park. Teddy dropped a little boy over a wall in the park.The little boy crawled over to the railroad tracks. Teddy tried to pull the little boy was then hit by a train and killed.’the child’s mother allegedly witnessed the event. After the murder, Carr insisted that Bundy attempted to rape her and that he was ‘acting out what he had learned in pictures.’ I mean… where do I even start? Erin took all the work out of the equation for me (thanks friend), and pointed out that no police report exists regarding this alleged incident. If the mother witnessed another child murder her precious baby in such a horrifically gruesome way, where is the paper trail that would obviously exist? Or some form of proof of the repercussions of Teds actions? And why was it never discussed before in any Bundy related books or documentaries? It’s a pretty substantial event, much larger than something that could be expunged from a juveniles record at 18 (obviously something like that would make the papers, I would think). Also, Ted was born in 1946, which would have made him only 8 or 9 years-old when this event took place. Banks also points out that the average age that males in the 1950’s reached puberty remained as it was in decades prior at 12.5 years old. I mean, there’s always outliers to the average but how could it be possible that Ted rape Janla if he wasn’t physically able to? Janla discusses another time (there are no details given about when exactly it occurred) where Louise ‘burst in on [redacted] with the claim that Thomas Carr fathered her son. Carr recalled that her father acted abusive to her and [redacted] and said that the woman (Louise Bundy) was crazy. Carr indicated that since [redacted], she would not be able to recall this occurrence.’
Interestingly enough, Ms. Carrs run-ins with Ted didn’t end when they were children (it actually seems as if the encounters happened more frequently when the two were adults). Janla told the Pittsburgh branch of the FBI that the next time she saw her half-brother was while on vacation in Vermont in 1968: she ‘met a strange man at the railroad station’ in Old Bennington who introduced himself to her as Ted and that she was attracted to him. When she called her Dad and told him about her new friend he became very angry and started yelling at her. After that Carr claimed that she ran into Ted at a Rolling Stones concert in Philadelphia (sometime between 1968 and 1970) while he was attending Temple University and living at his Aunt Julia’s house in Lafayette Hill. It’s worth noting that Bundy did briefly live in Pennsylvania from December 1968 until May 1969 when he moved back to Tacoma (per the ‘TB FBI Multiagency Report 1992.’). Next up: at some point in November 1969 Carr said they ran into each other at a party shortly when she was a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh. She claimed that she didn’t recognize him because at some point in the past her father and Ted hypnotized and brainwashed her (I’ll elaborate more on that later). The two took LSD together while at the party and determined then that she was ‘in love with him’ despite him confessing to her that he was a ‘mass murderer.’ Bundy told Carr that she didn’t know what he was really like, and he talked about ‘the devil as if he were the devil.’ During that trip he started disclosing all of his deepest, darkest secrets to her, including the fact that he already committed several murders at that point in time (even though he told Bob Keppel that he started killing women in 1972) and that one time he incited a race riot after he shot a man in Jackson, Mississippi (you know, because he was known to do that), which ‘bears certain Manson-esque connotations’ (Banks, 54). Carr also claims that Ted confessed to being responsible for the 1969 slayings of Elizabeth Davis and Susan Curtis (also known as the Jersey Parkway Murders). I do want to note, the FBI file said that Ted shared with Janla that he was responsible for A murder on the Jersey Parkway (as in one).. and I don’t know if this is an error or intentional. In her book, Banks points out that ‘Bundy had allegedly intimated to Dr. Ron Holmes that he had killed the two women, yet no recording of it exists. It is noteworthy that Bundy was incarcerated with Gerald Stano at the time, who was a suspect in the case and may have filled Bundy in on several details of the double homicide.’ Carr claims that Ted confessed to a series of murders that was discussed in the book, ‘The Michigan Murders’ as well as some slayings in Ohio. Additionally (although he didn’t give the victims name), she claimed that Ted took responsibility for the disappearance of eight year old Ann Marie Burr from his hometown of Tacoma, WA. Carr claimed that Ted described pushing the little girl off a bridge which resulted in her neck breaking. After she was dead, the fifteen year old sexually assaulted her before he buried ‘her body near a river.’ After this encounter, Bundy hypnotized Janla so she would forget the encounter ever happened.
Thomas Carr first remembers his daughter talking about Bundy for the first time at some point in the late 1980’s: he told the FBI that she called someone in Washington about Ted and that he tried to discourage her from doing it again. Thanks to these documents released by the FBI, we know that Janla didn’t begin her delusions of Bundy being her half-brother until around 1990, and she first contacted Seattle law enforcement that September about her speculations (conveniently this was after he was executed in January 1989). Carr told them she wanted to help provide information about his involvement in ‘several homicides.’ At some point in 1991, Ms. Carr learned that Louise Bundy named Jack Worthington as Ted’s father, which per the document ‘relates Janla’s claim that her father told Louise his name was either Lloyd Nelson or Jack Worthington.’ Unfortunately the (handwritten) notes aren’t completely clear (to me, anyways) and it’s tough deciphering what is meant in some parts. It appears Janla attempted to contact the agency multiple times and they finally granted her an interview on October 26, 1990, when she shared with them her alleged past experiences with Ted Bundy (she even offered to undergo a polygraph examination proving she was being truthful). Carr claims Ted was given the surname Wolfe, Nelson, or Cowell at birth and that her Dad ‘thinks she’s nuts’ and that her ‘stories are fabrications.’ Thomas Carr commented that he ‘could not recall any other topic with which his daughter was so obsessed as with Ted Bundy.’ (Fun side note: she also claimed he had two toes that were stuck together).
Additionally she points out that she feels that older pictures of her father ‘bears a resemblance to published photographs of Ted Bundy.’ Carr included a picture of her father from 1946 in the handwritten letters she sent to the FBI, who she felt bore a ‘striking resemblance to Bundy.’ Janla shared that she wrote to Louise on several occasions and that she even wrote her back: in the response Ms. Carr said that Louise ‘discounted everything Carr had written and about.’ She termed Louise Bundy’s response as the ‘original poison pen letter;’ she also claimed that her father destroyed letters from Louise Bundy that were addressed to Jack Worthington as well as ‘an Army jacket with the name Nelson on it.’
Another thing I want to circle back on is the concept that Ted apparently had a twin brother: I’m including this snippet from Banks book because it gave me a good laugh but it also brings up a really good point: ‘Carr is adamant that Bundy had a twin brother. Those leaning towards believing Carr posit that Louise may have taken turns taking Bundy or his twin brother to these family reunion meetings with the Carrs. One person even suggested that it may have been Bundy’s twin who later sought Carr out in Pittsburgh. Obviously this logic is flawed. This isn’t ‘Breaking Bad’ and we’re not talking about the Salamanca twins in real life. The fact aside that the Lund Home did not record a twin birth in Louise’s case, why would Louise not have brought both boys to meet Mr. Thomas Dowling Carr and his daughter Janla? Where exactly was this twin brother when Bundy grew up in the Cowell and later Bundy household? Where is he on any family photos that found their way onto the internet over the decades? He should have been in at least one photo together with his twin. And where is he now? If he resembles Bundy, just imagine the terror and panic that would have followed, had he been spotted someplace after Bundy’s conviction, let alone after his execution. He would have been the most (wrongfully) arrested man in the history of the USA.’ I mean… yeah. This is written so perfectly I don’t need to elaborate further. The idea that Bundy had a twin no one knew about is absurd.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Janla had a long history of mental illness: her father claims that she never held a job and he paid the rent for her apartment (located in an old mansion at 5705 Fifth Avenue in the Oakland area of Pittsburgh). Even though Thomas said she didn’t work a company called ‘Telefundraiser / Public Interest Communications’ is listed in the FBI document as Janla’s place of employment with a notation of of April 1990 written by it (I don’t know if they meant that was her current POE and started that April or if it was the only place she’s ever worked, it’s not clear). She also had numerous inpatient stays at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh. Her father also shared with the FBI that his daughter also had some sort of ‘thyroid condition‘ and took ‘Synthroid,’ a Doctor prescribed thyroid medication that is used to treat a condition called hypothyroidism in adults and children. It is meant to replace a hormone that is usually made by an under-producing thyroid gland. Looking into the condition, it appears that individuals suffering with this thyroid disease often experience changes in mood, specifically anxiety and depression. It seems that the more advanced the thyroid condition, the more severe the mood shifts.
Janla said she saw Ted next in the spring of 1970: she was a student (and resident) at the University of Pittsburgh and ran into him on campus. Around the same time, a Pittsburgh coed (who wore her ‘hair parted in the center’) was strangled to death. She said that time he ‘told her he had killed people;’ she immediately took this information to the University of Pittsburgh Campus Police. Carr commented that she doesn’t know if they did anything with the information. There isn’t any additional information about this encounter but apparently after it took place Bundy ‘disappeared;’ she doesn’t know if the Campus Police ever checked him out. After that incident Bundy contacted Janla on the telephone at some time in the early 1970’s: he told her that a spirit gave him her unlisted phone number; it was at that time that she remembered meeting up with him while he was at Temple (vault.fbi.gov/TedBundy, page 40).
Janla told the Pittsburgh branch of the FBI that she didn’t begin to remember these events until several years before the interview took place because ‘both her father and Bundy had hypnotized her.’‘ She claims that the two men had hypnotized her in order to make her ‘forget about the family connection;’ per the FBI document, Carr broke free from this spell at some point in 1969. She also said that she did not always recognize Ted when she see him or remember that he was her half-brother. Janla also claimed that Bundy told her that he was psychic and one time predicted that ‘a woman named [redacted] was going to be stabbed.’ She went on to claim that the next day ‘a woman named [redacted] was stabbed at Penn State University.’ He also said that ‘he would have a career as a criminal, and that he would be killed for his crimes.’ Carr claims that at the end of this encounter Bundy hypnotized her so that she would forget everything he told her.
In 1983 Janla said Bundy called her from Florida State Prison and gave her the name of Angela Woods. ‘Also in 1983, Carr received a call from [redacted], who identified herself as [redacted]. She told Carr that Bundy had used [redacted] credit card to call Carr. Carr told [redacted] that she did not know Bundy was married’ (this makes me think redacted is Carole Ann Boone). About four years go by before Carr is contacted by Bundy again: in 1987 she received a phone call from Ted but she ‘didn’t recognize his voice.’ He told her he was ‘the most evil person in the world.’ Carr shared with the FBI that she was ‘half-asleep when he called’ and she didn’t realize until later that it was Ted who called her.
Thomas Carr denied that Ted Bundy is his son and is not sure why his daughter thinks this is true. In an interview with the FBI, he shared that Janla never talked about Ted until after he was executed and that he sought her out because she had ‘incriminating information about him.’ In order to find information that would help corroborate her stories, Thomas said that she would tirelessly research Bundy’s background, trying to find some random fact that would help prove her case. He also shared that Janla became practically obsessed with the serial killer, and would read anything she could get her hands on about him: magazines, newspapers, books. She also utilized computer databases at various libraries in the area (specifically the Carnegie Library as well as the libraries at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh). Carr claims that his daughter is ‘clever enough to appear convincing in relating her stories concerning Bundy.’
Eight days after her 45th birthday on January 31, 1997 Janla Carr was found dead in a subway tunnel near Central Catholic High School in the Oakland area of Pittsburgh following a stay at a psychiatric hospital. The area was a known hangout for people experiencing homelessness. Friends of Carr told law enforcement that she seemed happy before she died despite the fact that she stopped taking her medication. Pittsburgh Homicide Sergeant Paul Marraway described Janla as ‘eccentric,’ and that ‘she had been in the hospital for psychological problems.’ Because Janla wasn’t a victim of sexual assault and had no physical defensive wounds, investigating officers ruled her death as a suicide (the ME listed her death as ‘undetermined’). But her father knew differently: Thomas Carr went to Pittsburgh law enforcement multiple times over the following year regarding his daughters death. One time he gave homicide detectives a 19 year-old torn piece of newspaper that contained Janla’s handwriting all over it: she claimed that there was an unusual man in her apartment who stood up from the couch he was sitting on and looked at her in an ‘unsettling way’ (Banks, 57). The note was deemed mostly nonsense by the police, however Mr. Carr felt it proved his daughter had been murdered. Police said that it was as if he became obsessed with that piece of paper. Over and over again, detectives patiently told him that his daughters death was a suicide, and if it wasn’t, it was an accident. She wasn’t murdered.
The Pittsburgh branch of the FBI looked into Janla’s story and they eventually determined that it lacked credibility (obviously, as we are all aware Bundy’s paternal lineage remains unknown). Finally Thomas Carr’s delusions of his daughter being murdered by the FBI got the best of him and he had enough: on Wednesday, January 28, 1998 Carr went to the Walmart in Cranberry, PA multiple times. He spent a few hours wandering through the isles and sharing his story with Greg Hengelsberg, a cell phone salesman working at the store. Among the things he shared was that his neighbor broke into his house and stole his stamp collection and that his phone was being tapped by the FBI and whoever is doing that also killed his daughter. Regarding the conversation, Hengelsberg commented that ‘it sounded like something on ‘Miami Vice.’’ Per an article published by the North News Record on January 30, 1998: ‘he said the same people tapping phones were the ones who killed his daughter. He said he was wanted by the FBI and the state police.’ … ‘One minute it would be a normal conversation, and then he would get serious… that they had gotten to his daughter and now were after him and whoever was tapping his phones had played it for the woman he was in love with and and she had duped him and never spoke to him again.’ When he was finished walking the store, Carr took off the tasseled hat he was wearing, walked near the cash registers, pulled out a handgun, pointed it to his chest and pulled the trigger. Clearly hurt, he quickly fired two more shots into his chest; he died later that day. The day before he took his life, Thomas went to the Butler Eagle Newspaper offices and told a member of their staff that he wanted to talk about his daughter’s death. He said that he wanted to talk about his attempts to get the Pittsburgh Police interested in the case but he no longer felt he could trust them. He also said that he was ‘on the run from the law’ and that Janla’s murder involved a top political aide of a gubernatorial candidate. He was referred to Post-Gazette reporter Dennis B. Roddy. According to one-time Cranberry Police Corporal David Lewis, Carr showed no signs of having any psychological problems, and when his family was contacted they were surprised at the news. Lewis further commented that police didn’t know how Carr obtained the gun used to shoot himself and that it’s not registered.
I personally don’t think Janla was Ted’s half sister. I think she suffered from a terrible case of untreated mental illness and the only reason she knew so much about him was because she obsessively and tediously studied him. On the website ‘documentingreality,’ a user going by the name of ‘Susan’ said that Janla ‘knows far too much for her to have been dismissed the way she was later on.’ I mean… I wish Susan would have elaborated a bit on what information she thought was so unique, but there’s so much information out there about Bundy, even back then (as the places Carr utilized contained a lot of helpful sources). Janla easily could have learned a great deal of information about Bundy simply by reading books and newspaper articles.
Thomas Carr was 84 years old when he killed himself.
Sandra Jean “Sandy” Weaver, investigative documents regarding her murder from the Trempealeau County Sheriffs Department in Wisconsin.
I am constantly updating my articles when I stumble across new information and boy did I find a great new source. Needless to say, I’m reading through this now and will be updating Sandra’s article shortly.
Another Bundy Blog. 