When I went to Seattle my schedule was jam packed: I was there for EIGHT DAYS and barely had enough time to do everything (no wonder why I came home exhausted). I briefly considered taking a day trip to Oregon so I could retrace the last steps of Roberta Kathleen Parks and take some snapshots of Oregon State… but I couldn’t find the time. I’ll probably do a deep dive on her eventually and tie it into Taylor Mountain somehow but for now here’s a short piece from Kevin Sullivan about Ms. Parks along with some pictures.
“In 1974, Kathy Parks (1954-1974), originally from California, was a student at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. And it would be here, a little before 11:00 PM on May 6, 1974, that she would encounter Ted Bundy in the Memorial Union Commons cafeteria. And because it was closing at 11:00, besides a worker or two milling about, Bundy and Parks may have been the only two people still there. It seems certain no one noticed them. And her disappearance would remain a bit of a mystery for a number of years until Bundy conveyed to a writer in the third-person that Parks may have encountered her abductor in the cafeteria. He then spoke of convincing her to leave with him, and once the opportunity presented itself, he took control of her.
Later, investigators would interview Lorraine Fargo who stopped to speak with Kathy on the corner that is just across the narrow side street that runs beside the Memorial Union Commons. Lorraine was aware of the issues Kathy was having with her boyfriend (he wanted to settle down, she didn’t), and she asked her to come back to her room in Sackett Hall, but Kathy didn’t want to just yet. She wanted to walk around the campus, she told Lorraine, but promised to come over in a little while. As Lorraine watched Kathy cross the narrow street, she dropped a letter in the mailbox. That letter, postmarked May 7, 1974, was addressed to her boyfriend, Christy McPhee, telling him that she loved him and was looking forward to seeing him. She ended it by saying:
I’m feeling down right now, due to a combination of things, I suppose. To tell you the truth, I don’t even feel like finishing this letter. I think I’ll go for a walk outside a while. I’m sorry this is such a bum letter. I really am. But, after all, everyone has their ups and downs. This day has especially had its share of bad news. Well- I’m looking forward to seeing you – very much. When you come, please put your arms around me and make me feel like everything is OK. I really miss you. I’m needing the comfort of your presence now. I love you, Kathy
Bundy most likely kept Parks alive, tied up and gagged, for the 250-mile trip back to Washington State, where he soon killed her and dumped her remains on Taylor Mountain.”
An except from Kevin Sullivans, “The Encyclopedia of the Ted Bundy Murder” published in 2020.
Roberta is on second on the left, photo courtesy of ‘Ted Bundy: I was Trying to Think Like an Elk.’A picture of a young Kathy Parks, courtesy of ‘Ted Bundy: I was Trying to Think Like an Elk.’A picture of a young Kathy Parks.Kathy Parks in her school yearbook.Kathy Parks. Roberta Kathleen Parks. Kathy Parks. Kathy Parks yearbook.Another picture of Kathy showcasing her long, flowing locks. Kathy Parks. Kathy Parks. Kathy Parks. Kathy Parks and her boyfriend.Another picture of Kathy Parks and her boyfriend.Kathy holding a baby.A missing persons poster for Kathleen Parks.Kathy Parks father.A picture of Kathy’s Mom in her youth.Mrs. Parks before she passed away. An article about the disappearance of Kathy Parks.
He lives alone. Never married and failed in relationships with women.” – Theodore Robert Bundy regarding the identity of the Green River Killer, 1984.
Gary Leon Ridgway was born February 18, 1949 to Thomas and Mary (nee Steinman)ma Ridgway of Salt Lake City, Utah. The family eventually relocated to Washington state where Thomas got a job as a bus driver and would frequently complain about the presence of sex workers on his driving route. His mother was employed as a sales clerk at JCPenney’s and was frequently called domineering by the people around her. Gary was the middle child and had two brothers (Gregory Leon born in November 1947 and Thomas Edward) and it’s widely known that his older sibling Gregory was the family favorite. It’s often theorized that he felt inferior to him, who ran for student office while in high school and went on to major in physics at Studied Physics Major at the University of Washington. In comparison, Gary was diagnosed with dyslexia, was held back twice in school, and had an IQ in the low 80’s. An attorney for the prosecution, Patty Eakes was able to shed some insight into Ridgway’s state of mind, claiming the only time she ever saw him express any sort of real emotions was when talking about his own intelligence: ‘he was so obviously limited, intellectually. The one time he genuinely cried was when he talked about how afraid he was of being put on the ‘short bus.’ I suspect that having a brilliant brother was a big thing that shaped him. Gary’s the troubled one, not the smart one. I suspect that was a big issue for him throughout his life. Perhaps being a killer of women was something he could succeed at.’ … ‘He came from a very middle-class family. There was nothing really that remarkable about him.’
Aside from feeling inferior to his older brother, Ridgway’s home life was considered incredibly dysfunctional: he was a chronic bed-wetter until the age of 13, and after each episode Mrs. Ridgway would wash her sons’ genitals. He would later tell psychologists that he had both feelings of extreme rage and sexual attraction toward her, and often fantasized about killing her. Some behavioral scientists feel that his crimes may have been a case of ‘displaced matricide’ and he was unconsciously ‘killing his mother over and over again’ even though he didn’t actually take her life.
Gary graduated from Tyee High School in 1969 at twenty years old and the following year married Claudia Kraig, his longtime sweetheart. He then joined the Navy and served onboard a supply ship after being sent to Vietnam. During his time in the service Ridgway was frequently unfaithful to his new wife, often engaging in activities with sex workers. Despite becoming angry after contracting gonorrhea, he continued his risky behavior without using any sort of barrier protection; the couple divorced in 1972. Ridgway wasn’t single for long and married Martha Wilson in 1973. This relationship also ended in divorce because of his frequent infidelity. He encouraged Wilson to participate in risqué activities like sex in locations where he dumped some of his victims and she even accused him of putting her in a chokehold at some point during their marriage. Ridgway shared a son with her they named Matthew (b. 1975), and reportedly had him in his truck during some of the murders that took place on the weekends. He later admitted to detectives that if his son would have developed any sort of inkling as to what was going on he would have killed him immediately to silence him.
After returning from Vietnam, Ridgway got a job painting semis at the Kenworth Trucking Company, and in 1982 bought his house on 32nd Place South. The same year, teenage runaways and prostitutes began disappearing from major roadways throughout King County, Washington. Throughout the 1980’s and 90’s, Ridgway confessed to murdering at least 71 teenage girls and women in the Seattle/Tacoma area (although that number is speculated to be about 90 or more). In order to gain their trust and lower their defenses, on occasion Ridgway would show the women a picture of his son. After a few minutes of sexual intercourse from ‘behind,’ he would often strangle his victims by wrapping his forearm tightly around their necks, then use his other arm to pull back as tightly as he could. Ridgway killed the majority of his victims in his home then dumped their remains in wooded areas. Multiple bodies wound up making their way to the river and eventually washed up to shore, giving him the nickname ‘The Green River Killer.’ Ridgway would frequently contaminate the crime scenes with gum and cigarette butts (even though he wasn’t a smoker or a gum chewer) just to throw law enforcement off his trail. He would also dump his victims body in one place, leave it for a while, then return and transport it to a second location in order to create a false trail; at least two of his victims were transported as far away as Portland, Oregon.
In the early 1980’s, the King County Sheriff’s Office formed the ‘Green River Task Force.’ In November 1984, Ted Bundy contacted the department after seeing an article in a local newspaper about the Green River case. The doomed serial killer was on death row when the murders began in 1982, and a part of me thinks he was jealous of the attention that ‘the Riverman’ was receiving, as he was no longer in the spotlight. So, six years into his death sentence Bundy sent a 22-page letter to King County chief criminal investigators Robert Keppel and Dave Reichert asking if they’d like his assistance to help solve the Green River case. In the letter, Bundy said: ‘don’t ask me why I believe I’m an expert in this area, just accept that I am and we’ll start from there.’ Regarding being contacted by Bundy, Dr. Keppel said: ‘it was a letter from a ‘wanna-be’ consultant and the most unlikely person I ever expected to be of assistance in the Green River murders. The letter came from a cell on death row in Florida; the sender was Theodore Robert Bundy. I was stunned.’ Turns out I was right about my jealousy theory: Keppel and Reichert both stated that they sensed a bit of jealousy from Ted regarding the GRK stealing his thunder. At the time Bundy sent the letter to detectives he was still the primary suspect in many unsolved homicides across multiple states. Because of this, the two detectives accepted the serial killer’s ‘help’ when in actuality they were only interested in seeing if they could get any sort of information regarding their unsolved cases.
In 1972, Bundy graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, and around 1974 young girls and women in the general Seattle area started disappearing. There were rumblings of an attractive young man wearing an arm sling or using crutches as a ruse to help lure pretty young coeds into his car by asking for assistance. After he made a mistake at Lake Sammamish on July 14, 1974 by not only taking two victims on the same day (from the same place) AND using his real name, he quickly left the area and enrolled in law school at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. We all know he was eventually pulled over and arrested there on August 16, 1975. After Bundy escaped not once but twice, he fled to Florida where he was eventually caught after killing Chi Omega sisters Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman as well as sweet little 12-year-old Kimberly Leach.
Two years before Bundy ‘created’ his criminal profile of the GRK, in 1982 FBI Special Agent John E. Douglas had already come up with his own profile that was fairly accurate and mentioned a few key points: the unsub was a divorced, white male who drove an older model vehicle. He often visited with sex workers and was very familiar with the area where he disposed of the bodies. Douglas also felt the killer was somewhere between the ages of 25-35, and it just so happens that at the beginning of his rampage Gary Ridgway was 33-years-old. However, a profile is not considered to be evidence, simply a tool used to help narrow down a list of suspects. Despite Bundy’s impact on the Ridgway case being completely overblown, numerous movies, documentaries, and books have been made over the years simply for the sake of shock value. This is a great example as to how Ted’s capabilities and ‘intelligence’ is frequently exaggerated for the sake of a good story. For some, the idea of a serial killer helping track down another serial killer is straight out of a movie, and the fact that it may have sort-of happened is far too fascinating to be thwarted by facts.
Ted also theorized to Keppel and Reichert that the GRK was returning to his dump sites to have ‘intimate relations’ with his victims: ‘I think he might be … intending to return to the scene to either view his victim, or in fact, interact with the body in some way.’ He went on to tell the detectives that if they ever stumbled upon a ‘fresh grave’ they should stake it out and wait for him to come back. During his allocution, Ridgway admitted that he did indeed return to his victims’ remains and violated their corpses. Bundy also told the detectives that they could possibly catch the killer if they staked out his old dump sites, and Keppel admitted they did that but the media would often show up and blow their cover.
Reichert: ‘Do you think that he parks his vehicle?’ Bundy: ‘Oh sure and just watches. My feelings about the guy is he’s very low key and inoffensive.’ He went on to say: ‘I think there’s an excellent chance that he picked up a number of prostitutes that he has later released for any number of reasons. He knows what these girls are like and what they need. Employment, money, or drugs.’
Once again, Bundy got it right: after he was in custody, Ridgway did share with detectives that he not only would park his pickup truck and watch the prostitutes walk by, but he also promised some of them extra cash or a chance of ‘honest’ employment, even going so far as to staying in touch with few of them by the phone. They were all empty promises, and not a single one was fulfilled.
Bundy also advised Keppel and Reichert that the police department most likely already had contact with the perpetrator of these heinous crimes at some point in the past, saying: ‘there’s a chance this guy has already been reported. Field card here, arrested there, reported over here, license plate shows up over here.’ Again, Bundy got another trait correct: in the 1980’s, Ridgway came into contact with the police at least ten times. Some matters were routine but others involved some of his victims.
One victim did stand out to Ted as not being a victim of the GRK: Amina Agisheff, saying, ‘it seems to me those circumstances, but not necessarily, eliminates Agisheff as a victim of the Riverman. This is most likely because at 36 she was older than many of the other victims, and the minute amount of time between Agisheff’s disappearance and that of Wendy Coffield.’ When Ridgway was in custody, detectives inquired about an unsolved murder just to see if he would confess; he denied it saying, ‘why if it isn’t mine? Because I have pride ….. in what I do, I don’t wanna take it from anybody else.’
About the convicted serial killer, Keppel said ‘Bundy was right on the money all the way around. He knew what to expect out of this guy. That’s the experience of a real killer.’ Reichert commented that Bundy had several traits in common with Ridgway, especially regarding his mindset: ‘first off, there’s no remorse. He doesn’t have any feelings toward anybody, his family included. And that’s what I saw in Bundy and what I saw in Ridgway.’ In an interview with the New York Times, Reichert said: ‘like Mr. Bundy… Mr. Ridgway craved attention and control and was prideful when discussing his killings.’
In 1985, Ridgway started seeing Judith Mawson after they met at the White Shutters Tavern; he eventually made her his third wife in 1988. Mawson claimed in a 2010 TV interview that when she moved into his house the floors were bare and there was no carpet. Detectives told her that Ridgway most likely wrapped a body in the carpet and never bothered to replace it. He did in fact bring most of his victims back to his house before murdering them. In that same interview, Mawson mentioned that her husband would frequently leave for work very early in the morning on some days, telling her it was for ‘overtime.’ She theorized that Gary must have committed some of his atrocities while allegedly working this early morning OT. Judith went on to say that she had no knowledge of his activities until she was contacted by detectives in 1987, even claiming to have had no knowledge of the Green River Killer at all due to the fact that she did not watch the news or read the paper.
During an interview with writer Pennie Morehead in prison, Ridgway pointed out that while he was married to Mawson his kill rate greatly decreased due to the fact that he was happy and genuinely loved her. In fact, of the 49 women he slaughtered he only killed three while he was involved with Judith. In an interview with the same reporter, Mawson said: ‘I feel I have saved lives … by being his wife and making him happy.’ She at one time called Ridgway the ‘perfect husband’ and that despite being together for 17 years he always treated their relationship as if they were newlyweds. Ridgway did confess he was tempted to kill Mawson on multiple occasions, and the feeling only passed when he realized it would have increased the odds of him getting caught. Despite his psychopathic tendencies, Ridgway did admit that he loved his wife.
Gary Ridgway’s first attempt at murder wasn’t a very successful one: he was sixteen and went after a six-year-old boy in his neighborhood. The children weren’t fighting or disagreeing about anything in any capacity: they were just two kids from the same neighborhood that had just met moments earlier. The young boy was close to home when Ridgway asked if he wanted to go build a fort in the wooded area nearby. Moments later, he stabbed the child in his midsection, puncturing his liver. ‘Why did you kill me?’ the young child implored to Ridgway, who simply laughed and answered, ‘I always wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone.’ He served no jail time for this crime. About this, Ridgway told Bob Keppel, ‘a boy was playing and I stabbed him inside. Didn’t kill him…. I just took the knife outta my pocket and stabbed him in the ah, side…I wanted to see how to stab somebody.’
Many of Ridgway’s victims were known to be sex workers, teenage runaways, and women in other vulnerable circumstances. After the first five bodies were pulled out of the river the press granted him the nickname ‘The Green River Killer.’ Ridgway typically strangled his victims by hand but on occasion would use ligatures. After taking their lives, he would leave their bodies in overgrown, wooded areas in King County, often returning to the bodies to have sexual intercourse with them. As a side note, this sounds almost exactly like behavior Bundy participated in. Ridgway was originally convicted of 48 murders, however in 2011 one more conviction was added to the count, bringing the total number up to 49. This helped establish him as the second most prolific serial killer in United States history. The first is Samuel Little, who confessed to the murders of 93 women across multiple states between 1970 and 2005. He died in prison in 2020.
Ridgway was arrested in 1982 and 2001 on charges related to soliciting prostitution. He officially became a suspect in the Green River killings in April 1983 when 18-year-old Marie Malvar disappeared after being seen getting into a truck that looked exactly like Ridgways. Her pimp and boyfriend Robert Woods remembered the vehicle because of the way it ‘sped up:’ from his experience, Johns usually drove away much slower. The following day, Woods and Malvar’s father went looking for the mystery pickup and found it parked outside of Ridgway’s house in his SeaTac neighborhood. Unfortunately, there was not enough evidence for police to arrest him, and of course he denied any contact with the missing teenager. Even though police had no evidence to prove he was lying it did help put Ridgway on their radar.
It wasn’t until June 1983 when Keli Kay McGinness was last seen getting in a pickup truck that looked exactly like Ridgways that he was officially bumped up to a ‘top priority’ suspect. After the 18-year-old vanished without a trace, law enforcement immediately zeroed in on Ridgway and got a search warrant for his house, and despite searching the property with a fine-toothed comb there was not enough evidence found to incriminate him in any crimes. In 1984 Ridgway was administered a polygraph test and passed. On April 7, 1987, law enforcement obtained warrants for samples of his hair and saliva, which was used to successfully match him to semen left behind at the crime scenes.
Roughly 20 years after being identified as a potential suspect in the Green River murder case, on November 30, 2001 Gary Leon Ridgway was arrested as he was leaving his place of employment. He was officially charged for the brutal slayings of four women thanks to DNA evidence as well as paint flecks found at the crime scenes and at his job. A forensic scientist found microscopic particles that matched a specific brand and composition of spray paint he used at his job during the specific time period when these victims were killed.The four victims were Marcia Chapman, Opal Mills, Cynthia Hinds, and Carol Ann Christensen. This means it was actually science that led to Ridgway’s arrest, NOT Ted Bundy’s criminal profile. In March 2003 three more victims were added to the indictment: Wendy Coffield, Debra Bonner, and Debra Estes.
As part of his plea bargain arrangement, Ridgway was given a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He was spared the death penalty on the condition that he tell law enforcement where he left the bodies of his victims. He took law enforcement to the locations of where he dumped several of his victims, even sharing with them intimate details on how he killed each one. On December 18, 2003, Ridgway was sentenced to 48 consecutive life sentences at the Washington State Penitentiary; ten additional years were added to each sentence for the crime of tampering with evidence which increased his prison term by 480 years. In 2011, a 49th body was discovered and linked to the Green River killer, adding another life sentence to his already absurdly long term. Gary Ridgway took the lives of more people than Jeffrey Dahmer, Son of Sam, and BTK combined.
Keppel stated, “Our man Ridgway is as clever or maybe even cleverer than Bundy ever thought he was. Because this guy has a methodology to him that is unprecedented anywhere. Try and find a killer that’s gone on as long as he had, as intense as he did, with the apparent ability to turn the faucet on and off any length of time that he wants.”
Ted Bundy was put to death in Florida’s electric chair in January 1989 and wasn’t alive to see the capture of the Green River Killer; he’ll never know how accurate his profile of the serial killer was. Dr. Robert Keppel wrote the book “The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer” about his time spent with the serial killer, and where Bundy didn’t really aide law enforcement in solving the case of “the Riverman,” he was pretty spot on regarding his profile. Unlike Bundy, Gary Ridgway is alive today and is currently 72 years old. He will spend the rest of his life behind bars at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Washington. In Thomas Harris’s 1988 best selling novel “Silence of Lambs,” Bundy was used as inspiration for the villainous Buffalo Bill, who feigned injury when approaching women asking for help before knocking them out then abducting them. Like Buffalo Bill, one of Bundy’s primary methods of killing was strangling his victims. Although Harris has not publicly spoken about the similarities between his fictional killer and Ted Bundy, he did attended parts of Bundy’s Florida trial and even sent him a copy of Red Dragon, which introduced the character of Hannibal Lecter.
Ted Bundy was put to death in Florida’s electric chair in January 1989 and wasn’t alive to see the capture of the Green River Killer. Gary Ridgway is alive as of September 2023 and is currently 74 years old. He will spend the rest of his life behind bars at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Washington. Truthfully, before I started this article I didn’t know much about him; I knew he was married three times but I was shocked to learn he fathered a child. I dug a little deeper into Matthew Ridgway and was a little surprised to learn he wasn’t like Bundy’s daughter Rose/a, and has done some interviews with the media. I want to mention an article I found about Matthew, who remembers a very different version of his father than the one depicted on TV… To him, Gary Leon Ridgway was just ‘Dad’: a frugal, chill man who rarely yelled or raised his voice. That helped teach him how to play sports and never missed one of his baseball or soccer games. The day after his dad was arrested, Matthew told investigators: ‘even when I was in fourth grade, when I was with soccer, he’d always, you know, be there for me… I don’t think I ever remember him not being there.’ He told detectives that he had no idea who his father really was until he was 24 years old, after he was arrested. Gary Ridgway had given him a normal and happy childhood, something that he would always be thankful for. After high school Matthew joined the Marines, got married, and now works as a trained chef. Gary’s father Thomas passed away in 1998 at the age of 71 and his mother died on August 15, 2001.
A young Gary Ridgway strangling a cat. A pic of Ridgway as a child in coloreakes.Gary Ridgway’s freshman year picture from the 1966 Tyee High School yearbook.Gary Ridgway’s sophomore year picture from the 1967 Tyee High School yearbook.Gary Ridgway in (one of) his sophomore year pictures 1968 Tyee High School yearbook.Gary Ridgway’s senior year picture from the 1969 Tyee High School yearbook.Ridgway joined the Navy in 1969 after graduating from high school (he was 20-years-old). He was almost immediately sent to fight in the Vietnam War.A photo of Ridgway’s arrest from soliciting a prostitute on May 12, 1982. Ridgway was long suspected in the killings but not arrested until 2001.Ridgway’s first wife, Claudia L Kraig-Barrows. They were married from 1970-1972. Photo courtesy of the 1969 Lincoln High School yearbook.Ridgway’s second wife, Marcia Lorraine (Brown) Coldiron. They were married from 1973–1981.Gary and Marcia’s marriage certificate dated December 19, 1973.Washington, US, Divorce Index, June 23, 1991 for Gary L Ridgway.Judith Mawson.Gary and Judith Ridgway on their wedding day.Gary and Judith cutting the cake on their wedding day.Gary and Judith sharing a drink on their wedding day.Judith Mawson was Ridgway’s third wife, the pair met and danced at the White Shutters Tavern on Highway 99 in 1985 and were married three years later. Following their marriage, Ridgway’s murder rate dropped significantly: only about 6% of his 71 suspected murders took place between 1988 and 2001.Ridgway and Judith.Gary and Judith.Gary and Judith standing in front of one of the semi’s from the Kenworth Truck Factory.Gary and Judith with one of their pups standing in front of an RV.Judith and one of her dogs.A handwritten note from Gary to Judith from an old birthday card.A handwritten note from Gary to Judith from an old card.A handwritten note from Gary to Judith from an old card.Regarding his crimes, Ridgway said: ‘I have tried a long time to get these things out of my mind. I tried for a long time to keep from killing any more ladies.’Gary Ridgway’s mugshot from his 2001 arrest.Ridgway sat stoic throughout the entirety of his court appearances and broke down only once: when Robert Rule forgave him for killing his 16-year-old daughter (Linda) in September 1982: ‘There are people here that hate you. I’m not one of them. I pity you, sir. You won’t have a Christmas. You won’t have the love around you that everyone needs at Christmas time.’I looked everywhere to see if Ridgway suffers from trichotillomania, which is a compulsion to rip ones hair out due to underlying anxiety. I couldn’t find anything telling me he has this condition, so this must have been on a bad hair day.After listening for more than two hours as his victims’ loved ones told him how he’d devastated their lives, Ridgway apologized, saying: ‘I’m sorry for killing all those young ladies. I have tried to remember as much as I could to help the detectives find and recover the ladies. I’m sorry for the scare I put in the community.’A 2017 mugshot of Ridgway from Walla Walla, Washington.A side by side of the Green River Killer and Ted Bundy, ‘The Ladykiller.’Gary Ridgway’s dad, Thomas.Mr. Ridgway with Gregory in 1948.Mary Ridgway. Friends and family described her as someone who frequently would wear short skirts, low cut tops, lots of make-up and bigger hair, which was not the norm at the time. A friend of the family stating that she ‘always looked glamorous.’Thomas Jr. and Mary Ridgway in 1995. She died on August 15, 2001; the cause of her death is not public information. She was 73 years old is laid to rest in Federal Way, WA. Mary Ridgway.Mary Rita Ridgway was born on January 22, 1928 and died on August 15, 2001 at age 73. She was laid to rest in Gethsemane Cemetery in Federal Way, WA next to her husband Thomas Jr, who was 74 when he passed in early 1998.Gary’s older brother, Gregory Leon Ridgway.On December 1, 2001 Matthew Ridgway told investigators, ‘even when I was in fourth grade, when I was with soccer, he’d always, you know, be there for me.’ … ‘I don’t think I ever remember him not being there.’Gary Ridgway was married three times, and Matthew (b. 1975) is a product from his second marriage to Marcia Lorene Brown. They got married in 1973 and divorced in 1981. Because of the separation, Gary was not a constant presence in Matthew’s life, but he did have visitation rights for every other weekend.Gary Ridgway’s victims. As you can see, he did not discriminate by age or race, as some of his victims are as young as 14 years old.A picture of Ridgway in shackles at court.A photograph of detectives searching a shed in the back yard. Despite scouring the property from top to bottom, investigators were unable to find any evidence to incriminate him.Investigators move the body of a woman found slain on July 11, 1983. Photo courtesy of MOHAI.On November 22, 1983, Jenne Gibbs was one of about 36 people who demonstrated demanding that police crack down on prostitution along state Route 99 near Jackson International Airport in south King County. Police say victims of the Green River killer were linked to prostitution in the area. Photo courtesy of MOHAI.Bill Haglund, right of the King County Medical Examiner’s Office helps remove human remains found near a baseball field just north of Sea-Tac Airport in March 1984. Photo courtesy of MOHAI.On September 20, 1984 an elderly couple found the body of a young woman who apparently was killed within the prior few days and was found yards from the Green River. Photo courtesy of MOHAI.On June 20, 1985, Washington County, Oregon deputy sheriffs and explorer scouts search a heavily wooded area on for clues that may link the deaths of two women to Seattle’s Green River killer. Numerous bones were found at the site and were expected to be linked to an unidentified teenage girl. Another set of bones found last week were identified as the remains of Denise Darcel Bush, 23, who disappeared near Sea-Tac Airport in October 1982. Photo courtesy of MOHAI.On August 13, 1983 members of an Explorer Search & Rescue unit comb a field north of Sea-Tac Airport. Photo courtesy of MOHAI.On October 27, 1983, port police and investigators for the King County Medical Examiner’s Office comb the area where a full human skeleton was found. It was partially buried in a grave some 200 yards north of South 192nd Street. Photo courtesy of MOHAI.A photo of the Green River taken sometime in the 1980’s.Detectives Dave Reichert (center, green jacket) and Pat Ferguson gather evidence from sites where bodies were found south of Sea-Tac Airport in the fall of 1983. Photo courtesy of MOHAI.A photo of the Green River Task force.One of the members of the Greek River Task Force.Two members of the Green River Task Force.One of the victims of Ridgway.A victim of the Green River Killer being loaded into a transport vehicle.A dive team exploring the Green River.Members of the Green River Task Force.The Green River Task Force bringing a body to a transport vehicle.Law enforcement investigating the Green River.The Green River.This police sketch of the Green River Killer was drawn in 1986 from a description by Paige Miley.In response to the volatile fuel prices and shortages resulting from the oil embargo of the 1970’s, Kenworth engineers developed the industry’s first truly aerodynamic model, the Kenworth T600 with its sloped hood. In this pic, Kenworth employees look on as the first production model T600 rolls off the assembly line at the Seattle manufacturing plant in 1985. Photo courtesy of Kenworth Truck Co’s Facebook page.Ridgway’s pickup truck.Ridgway took his victims to his master bedroom at his first house to have sex. Ironically he choose a wall mural that resembled the lonely woods where he planned to leave their bodies.A letter from Gary to his lawyers Michelle Shaw and Mark Prothero.A Google Street View image from September, 2011. Photo courtesy of oddstops. An older photograph of the back yard. On the left, you can see two trailers. On the right, you can see a wooden shed. Photo courtesy of oddstops. A dead end sign at the beginning of Gary Ridgway’s former neighborhood on 32nd Pl South in SeaTac, Washington. Photo taken in April 2022.Gary Ridgways home. Photo taken in Aprl 2022.Ridgway sold the house on May 28th, 1999 for $112,950, two years before he was arrested as the Green River Killer. Photo taken in April 2022.In 2021, Zillow estimated that the 32nd Pl S address is worth $392,800. Photo taken in April 2022.The 3 bedroom/1 bath house is 1,150 square feet and it was built in 1970. Photo taken in April 2022.This guard pup reminded me of the Seattle PD car stationed near the scene where Georgann Hawkins was abducted. Photo taken in April 2022.Gary Ridgways former backyard at his first home. Photo taken in April 2022.The backyard of Ridgways first home. Photo from April 2022.A side view of Ridgways first home. Photo from April 2022.Ridgway got his nickname because of his habit of dumping his victim’s bodies near the Green River in Washington. Photo from April 2022.A satellite photograph of the Green River Killer’s house in SeaTac. Photo courtesy of oddstops.An aerial photograph showing the back of the property. Photo courtesy of oddstops. In September of 1997, Gary and Judith move to this home at 4633 South 348th St. in Auburn, WA.A cover of ‘The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer,’written by Robert D. Keppel and William J. Birnes. Robert D. Keppel was the chief consultant to the Green River Murders Task force who helped develop the strategy behind the arrest of current suspect Gary Ridgway. He has since retired as the chief criminal investigator for the Washington State Attorney General’s Office. He has received a number of grants from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Administration to aid local police agencies in tracking serial homicides.A poster for ‘The Riverman’, a made for TV movie made in 2004 starring Bruce Greenwood as Robert Keppel, Sam Jaeger as Dave Reichert, Cary Elwes as Ted Bundy and David Lawrence Brown as Gary Ridgway. This is the best movie adaptation of the story (in my opinion). It also has the highest IMDB score of the lot as well,with a whopping 5.9/10.A movie poster for ‘The Capture of the Green River Killer,’ a TV Mini Series made in 2008 that starred Tom Cavanaugh. The actor who plays Gary Ridgway, John Pielmeier, co-wrote the script.A poster for the 2005 straight to video film, ‘Green River Killer.’ This got the lowest IMDB score of the bunch, coming in at an impressive 1.8/10. The most interesting piece of trivia I could find regarding this was that it recycled the same sets from Zombie Nation (2004) and Cannibal (2006).A poster for ‘Bundy and the Green River Killer’ made in 2019. Most of the dialogue between Detective Richards and Gary Ridgway in the police interview scene is based on the real life taped interview between King County Sheriff David Reichert and Gary Ridgway that was recorded shortly after his arrest in 2001.A second movie poster for ‘Bundy and the Green River Killer’ made in 2019.
“Leaves and soil stuck to his tires helped send Ted Bundy to the electric chair. The monster kidnapped, raped and murdered at least 30 women across the US from 1974 to 1978. His last victim was Kimberly Leach, who was 12 when she was snatched from her Florida high school. Weeks later, traffic cops pulled him over for loitering and erratic driving. His tires had leaves and soil on them that was later linked to the wooded area where he dumped Kimberly’s body. Bundy, who kept the severed head of some of his victims, was executed in 1989, aged 42.”
– Nigel Bunyan & Rachel Howarth, July 16, 2022.
Kimberly Diane Leach.Kim Leach.Kim with friends.A news report discussing Bundy’s possible relation to the murder of Kim Leach, photo courtesy of Carol DaRonch YouTube.An aerial view of the search of Kim Leach, photo courtesy of Carol DaRonch YouTube. Kim was 12 when she disappeared on February. 9, 1978 from Lake City Junior High School. Her body was found in an abandoned pig shed 32 miles west of Lake City. in April 1978.An airplane aiding in the search of Kim Leach, photo courtesy of Carol DaRonch YouTube.A still of law enforcement recovering the body of Kim Leach. A still of law enforcement recovering the body of Kim Leach. The white van Bundy stole from FSU.The inside of the van Bundy stole from FSU.The hog shed Bundy used to dispose of Leach’s body.The courtroom at Kim Leach’s Florida trial.The set up of Kim Leach’s junior high school, courtesy of oddstops..This is the junior high school where Bundy abducted Kimberly Leach. It’s located at 372 West Duval Street in Lake City, Florida.The arrow indicates where Ted abducted Leach from, courtesy of oddstops.An aerial view of where law enforcement found Kim Leach’s body, courtesy of oddstops.A layout of Bundy’s actions surrounding Kim Leach’s abduction, courtesy of oddstops.A picture from Kim Leach’s funeral.Kim’s parents, Tom and Freida Leach.A Chi Omega student peers out the window after the murders in 1978…An article about the Chi Omega murders that took place before the murder of Leach.An article about the murder of Kim Leach.An article about Bundy’s credit card history.An article mentioning the murder of Kim Leach.An article about the murder of Kim Leach.An article about Bundys stays of execution.An article about Bundy’s execution.Kim’s gravestone.
So… a few people have inquired why this group is called ‘The Yellow Beetle,’ as Ted’s Beetle has been described as tan. Or gold. Or bronze. Or even light brown.
Well, personally I look at it and I see yellow. If I were to describe it, I would call it a yellow Bug. But I think that adds to the mystery.
I won’t lie, the two Washington victims I have left to write about (Denise Naslund and Brenda Ball) are also the ones I know the least about, and the thought of doing another deep dive is incredibly overwhelming to me and I’ve been putting it off. So, I’m going to do one more unconfirmed abduction that strangely enough wasn’t discussed for the first time until February 2018. To be honest, of ALL the unusual spots I made a point of seeing during my time in Seattle, perhaps the strangest and most boring one was the bus stop where Sotria Kritsonis was allegedly abducted from, located at the intersection of Rainier Ave South and South Orcas South. If you don’t recognize the name of this victim don’t worry: much like Rhonda Stapely, Ms. Kritsonis held onto her experience for a very large portion of her life. It wasn’t until 2018 when she finally opened up and walked KIRO-7 reporter Dave Wagner through what happened to her that snowy winter day in early 1972.
Finding this site in Seattle was a bit of a challenge for me. It took a fair amount of internet sleuthing to figure it out, but with some time and effort I pulled it off. I must have driven around for a solid two hours searching for it too… When I finally was able to find it, a very curious but polite gentleman watching me from across the street seemed genuinely baffled as to why I was so interested in taking pictures of an old, run down bus stop. He kept offering to give me directions to where I was trying to go and couldn’t quite seem to grasp that was my intended destination. And now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure this was my VERY last Bundy-location I visited and I doubt he would have been able to properly understand why I was so excited: I was DONE!
Sotria Linda Kritsonis was born on April 29, 1949 in Bellevue, WA. In early 1972, the twenty two year old student was waiting in the cold for a city bus to arrive and take her to school. After about an hour of waiting a VW Bug pulled up alongside of her, and the handsome young driver politely asked if she was waiting for a bus. After sharing that he didn’t see a bus coming for miles, he asked if she would like a ride to school. Sotria didn’t think for a second that this friendly stranger would do her any harm in the middle of the day so she happily accepted his offer to get out of the brutal Seattle cold and into a warm car: ‘he goes, ‘I’ve come down Rainier Avenue and that’s a long way and there’s no bus in sight. Would you like a ride?’’ The little tan Bug immediately started driving south on I-5 toward Tukwila, which was the opposite direction of where she told him her school was located (in Renton). Sotria became increasingly concerned when he began reaching under the seats: ‘he just started yelling at me, ‘why did you take this ride? Why did you even think about taking this ride? You’re never going to make it to school.’ It was then that Kritsonis considered jumping out of the vehicle but when she reached for where the door handle should have been she realized it was missing: ‘He said, ‘don’t even think about that. You’re not making it. I told you that before.’ Despite sobbing and pleading with him to let her go, her assailant continued to yell at her to shut up and stop screaming.
It was then that Sotria said Bundy made a strange request that made her realize he’d seen her before: ‘‘take your hat off.’ And I said, ‘what do you mean, take my hat off? What for?’’ … ‘I took my hat off and he saw that something was different about me.’ Just the week prior, she cut her once long brown hair up to her shoulders. Her abductor looked at her as though he was somehow aware of this change: ‘He goes, ‘Why did you cut your hair?’’ … ‘I keep thinking, did he stalk me? Did he see me somewhere?’ … ‘Was he waiting for me, or was he watching me?’ Kritsonis felt that he must have followed her previously, in a way marking her as his next victim. It’s widely speculated that Bundy had a preference for slim, long haired brunettes, and up until about a week before she would have been his ideal victim. After aimlessly driving around for about an hour, the man eventually dumped Sotria off in front of her college, saying she was ‘lucky’ as he threw her onto the sidewalk. She never filed a police report and only told her family about what happened: ‘I didn’t talk about it, because I was a little bit embarrassed.’ It wasn’t until about a year and a half later when she saw Bundy on the news that Kritsonis realized who exactly her abductor had been: ‘I knew 100 percent that was the guy.’ … ‘I’m more than lucky. I just thank God I’m alive, every day.’
Perhaps my biggest issue with Ms. Kritsonis’ story (aside from the part about Ted not liking her new hairdo) is her account of the missing door handle. Most Bundy scholars firmly believe that the passengers door in the serial killers car was completely intact and undisturbed, which is obvious when you study the story of an actual confirmed escapee like Carol DaRonch, who never once mentioned a missing handle (and she obviously was able to use it to get away from her attacker). It’s also worth mentioning that DaRonch was abducted on November 8, 1974, which is after Sotria claimed her abduction occurred. Now, let’s really think about this: I don’t think Bundy would have done something so outlandish like taken the door handle off his vehicle when he was trying to pass as a normal, everyday law student. Also, if Ted drove Liz or Molly around I’m sure they would have been alarmed if the car’s door handle mysteriously disappeared. Personally, I think she stole this detail from Rhonda Stapley, who most likely got her serial killers mixed up: it was Ed Kemper who jacked up the passengers side door handle, often shoving something inside it (usually a tube of chapstick), preventing it from opening on the inside, essentially trapping the victim inside his deathwagon.
I’m only briefly touching on Ms. Stapley as I haven’t been to Utah yet and am not super well versed with her story. I do want to mention how similar it is to what happened to Sotria: both started at a bus stop and were able to escape their attacker. In 2016, Ms. Stapley shared her story with KUTV-2 out of Salt Lake City, telling them: ‘I was waiting for a city bus downtown by Liberty Park. A tan Volkswagen came by and offered me a ride and I got in.’ … ‘Instead of taking me back up to campus where he told me he was going to take me, we ended up in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and I was assaulted. I didn’t tell anyone for 40 years. I felt shame.’ Stapley claimed that on October 11, 1974,Bundy noticed her waiting at a bus stop in Utah and asked if she’d like a ride to her college campus. Instead, he took her to a deserted canyon, where he brutally raped and assaulted her for hours. Additionally, he strangled her multiple times to the brink of death then revived her: ‘he did that several times.’ … ‘Revive me and choke me again.’ Rhonda made her escape when Bundy turned his back on her and she bolted: ‘I was able to run. And then I tripped and fell into a mountain river that swept me away from my attacker and saved my life.’ She then hiked 10 miles back to her dormitory at the University of Utah and kept the secret to herself until 2016, when she published her book, ‘I Survived Ted Bundy: The Attack, Escape & PTSD that Changed My Life.’ About the attack, she said: ‘I bathed and just decided never to tell anybody.’ … ‘I was afraid that people would treat me differently if they knew what happened. I wanted to put it behind me and get on with my life, pretend it never happened.’ Now, I do NOT want to victim doubt or shame, I don’t know what happened to Rhonda and there’s only two people (maybe three) in the entire world that do: Ted, Rhonda, and the potential assailant if it wasn’t Bundy. I feel one of the most important things worth mentioning is, like Kritsonis, Rhonda claimed the passengers side door of the VW Beetle had no inside handle, and that’s why she couldn’t escape.
While doing research for this article I stumbled upon a piece written by Shane Lambert titled, ‘Bundy, His Timeline, and Sotria Kritsonis: Filling in a Gap,’ published on January 6, 2021. In it, he dissects Sotria’s story and claims based largely on information found in the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Team Report 1992,’ which has been described as ‘exhaustive documentation of Bundy’s activities… in the hopes that his suspected participation in crimes other than those he confessed to can be clarified’ (from the report’s ‘Director’s Comments’). Not only does it contain important events related to Ted’s murders (for example the time and places of where he was when he killed his confirmed victims), but it also includes normal, everyday events, like what supermarket he did his grocery shopping at and where he bought gas. Lambert comments that the news piece done by KIRO-7 is not entirely accurate because it doesn’t give complete information; for example, the exact date of Kritsonis’ encounter isn’t given as well as the address where the abduction occurred. But, in a way I sort of get that: Bundy was a hot topic at the time the story was on the news and people were clamoring for any information related to him. Plus, in a way it was just a fluff piece for a local news station, not a scholarly journal article that required every single minute detail. I mean, let’s say the story is true. It doesn’t help that it happened over 45 years ago, and the memory doesn’t usually improve with time. However, the general time frame in question was given (winter of 1972) and the location can be found (obviously, as I was able to go there). Now, did it occur in early 1972 or late 1972? Living in Buffalo I am well aware you can have snow at two completely different times of the year: beginning (January, February, and March), and end (October, November, December). Lambert feels (and I agree) that the alleged abduction most likely occurred in early 1972 because Kritsonis says she was 22 at the time and at the end of the year she would have been 23. Thus, the time frame in question is January to March of 1972, and there’s no information provided during that time period in the ‘TB Multi agency Report 1992.’ It shows an entry for Bundy on New Year’s Eve in 1971 then nothing until April 15th, 1972. The encounter between Bundy and Kritsonis appears to be somewhere in that period of time and if we take her story to be true, then it shows that he was active during this period.
I’m not going to talk about everything Lambert discussed in his article (you can read it yourself, I’ll include the link at the end) but another important thing I want to touch on is that the news piece says that Kritsonis saw Bundy on television a year and a half after her botched kidnapping. If this is true, and she did in fact see him on the news in 1973, then what was it related to? Ted didn’t get arrested until August 1975, seeing him on TV before then makes absolutely no sense. I mean, we all know about how Bundy posed as a college student during 1972’s election and that he secretly traveled with Governor’s Dan Evans Democratic opponent monitoring their campaign activities. That did make the news in August of 1973 and could have been when Sotria claims she saw, but I doubt it.
Like Lambert, I don’t believe this woman’s story, however I disagree with his timeline on when Bundy started killing: he thinks it was in 1974, however I feel the murders started years earlier and Lynda Ann Healy wasn’t his first victim (although I think he thought he killed Karen Sparks). Just my personal opinion, I guess I’ll elaborate more at a different time. I also did not read the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992’ so I can’t comment much on that either (in fact I didn’t know it existed until now). Lambert also pointed out that it was a coincidence a good amount of the victims had long dark hair parted down the middle, as it was the style at the time (I can attest to this, in a picture from 1974 my Mom is a dead ringer for Kathy Parks). However, not all of his victims had brown hair:Lynette Culvers hair was light blonde, and little Kim Leach had dirty blonde locks (both girls were coincidentally only 12 years old by the way, and were also Bundy’s youngest confirmed victims). It’s also worth mentioning that the only victim Ted admitted to letting go was a woman in Seattle who claimed she had a child waiting for her at home.
I do want to touch on another unconfirmed escaped victim briefly, just because I want to ‘share the wealth of Bundy-knowledge,’ so to speak. When I was in Seattle I didn’t sleep very well being away from my new husband so I spent many late nights going down the true crime rabbit hole, so to speak. One of the WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIRDEST things I discovered was a book written by another supposed living victim named Sara A. Survivor. The review on Amazon says, ‘Reconstructing Sara is not a ‘story.’ It is testimony. Anyone thinking of buying the book and expecting some dramatic recounting of events that reads like a story is going to be disappointed. Sara does not have the ability to do that even though she writes for a living. Her mind simply can’t function that way due to the severe trauma she sustained while under the control of Ted Bundy.’ In a nutshell, this woman claims to have been repeatedly raped and assaulted by Ted Bundy; she also alleges that Bob Keppel mocked victims and destroyed important evidence related to the Bundy case. About the author, Amazon says, ‘Sara A Survivor is a pseudonym for the actual victim of Ted Bundy. She is writing the book under a pseudonym to protect her identity as she continues to move through the healing process as a survivor and tries to rebuild her life. The impact of the kidnappings and ‘relationship’ with Ted developed through intimidation, stalking, rape and coercion, lasted nearly a lifetime. The memory loss of the events of that time period for so many decades delayed the healing; but she was lucky in that she survived. What happened to Sara may help others in similar situations.’ I don’t want to get too off topic but this is something worth looking into (if just because she’s a wacko and this is entertaining) and there’s a wealth of information on her website despite the book being out of print. Per Amazon, ‘Reconstructing Sara is being taken out of circulation to be rewritten by a professional writer with new areas of information added. The original version will be available to professionals only upon request. Reconstructing Sara is not a story, it is a testimony.’ Maybe I’ll do a separate piece on this at a later point in time (after I do my research), but I do want to comment that I couldn’t find a copy of this book ANYWHERE and I tried looking in some pretty unconventional spots. I got nada. So, the search continues.
I am good friends with Erin Banks, and before I even went to Seattle I remember being surprised when I stumbled upon her write-up on this victim, because I never heard about her. At the end of Ms. Banks article on her wonderfully written blog ‘The Crimepiper” was a comment left by Ms. Kritsonis’s brother defending his sister, saying something along the lines of ‘you didn’t see the look on her face that day she saw him on the news…’ I don’t know. I guess a part of me kind of gets it: he believes her, and wants to defend his sister, who he loves and wants to protect.
Now, keep in mind this is my personal opinion. Take this information and please formulate your own thoughts. I feel perhaps Ms. Kritsonis was briefly kidnapped by a man in a VW Bug (it was after all a very popular car at the time), but I don’t think it was Ted Bundy who did it. It just makes no sense to me, especially when she claims she saw him on TV only a year and a half later in 1973. Also, I don’t think her new haircut would have stopped him either, not when she was already in his vehicle, unable to escape. And why would he randomly ask her to take her hat off? It’s almost as if Kritsonis was searching for excuses that Bundy didn’t assault and take her life. That paired with the obvious door handle lie just doesn’t add up.
Kritsonis’ sophomore year picture from the 1965 Franklin High School yearbook.A photo of Kritsonis in the 1970’s, courtesy of KIRO-7.A photo of Sotria Kritsonis with her brown hair cut short, courtesy of KIRO-7.A close-up of Kritsonis’ short haircut Sotria Kritsonis in 2018, walking the route of her abduction with KIRO-7 reporter Dave Wagner.A photo of Kritsonis as she give an interview to KIRO-7 reporter Dave Wagner, courtesy of KIRO-7.A more current photo of Sotria Kritsonis, courtesy of Facebook.A more current photo of Sotria Kritsonis, courtesy of Facebook.A more current photo of Sotria Kritsonis, courtesy of Facebook.TB’s whereabouts in early 1972 according to the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992.’An article mentioning Bundy before his 1975 arrest published by The Tri-City Herald on May 17, 1973.An article mentioning Bundy spying on Dan Evans Democratic opponent before his 1975 arrest published by The Olympian on August 29, 1973. An older shot of the bus stop where Sotria Kritsonis said she was kidnapped from by Ted Bundy in 1972.A current shot of the scene across the street from where Sotria Kritsonis claims she was abducted from, 2022.A current shot of the scene across the street from where Sotria Kritsonis claims she was abducted from, 2022.A current shot of the scene across the street from where Sotria Kritsonis claims she was abducted from, 2022.A current shot of the scene across the street from where Sotria Kritsonis claims she was abducted from, 2022.A current shot of the scene across the street from where Sotria Kritsonis claims she was abducted from, 2022.A current shot of the scene across the street from where Sotria Kritsonis claims she was abducted from, 2022.A current shot of the scene across the street from where Sotria Kritsonis claims she was abducted from, 2022.A current shot of the scene across the street from where Sotria Kritsonis claims she was abducted from, 2022.It’s worth noting that the water levels at the time Stapley claims she was assaulted in the canyon were checked by some dedicated Bundy researchers and they came to the conclusion that they weren’t high enough to have swept her away.‘I said, ‘My name is Rhonda, and I’m a first-year pharmacy student.’ And he said, ‘My name is Ted, and I’m a first-year law student. It didn’t seem scary or wrong. He just seemed like a fellow college student,” said Stapley. ‘There was nothing alarming at all about him.’A more current photo of Ms. Rhonda Stapley, who claims she was sexually assaulted by Bundy in 1975 but didn’t come forward with her story until 2016. ‘I thought he was going to kiss me & instead he said I’m going to kill you. And then he started strangling me.’‘She was an innocent Mormon girl. He was America’s most notorious serial killer. When their paths crossed on a quiet autumn afternoon, he planned to kill her. But this victim had an incredible will to survive and would live to tell her story nearly three decades after he met death in a Florida electric chair. Ted Bundy brutally attacked Rhonda Stapley in a secluded Utah canyon in 1974. She miraculously escaped and hid her dark secret until now. This compelling real story of triumph over tragedy is both shocking and inspiring and told with the true courage of a victim turned survivor (foreword by Ann Rule).’Sara A. Survivor, at the age of 17. Photo courtesy of reconstructingsara.com.Sara with the 1972 Daffodil Princesses, photo courtesy of Facebook.Here is a picture of the inside passengers side door of Bundy’s VW Beetle. You can clearly see the door handle is in perfect condition on the car. Today, Bundy’s tan 1968 VW Beetle is among the star attractions at the Alcatraz East Crime Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.Edmund Emil Kemper III is an American serial killer who murdered six college students before murdering his mother and her best friend from September 1972 to April 1973, following his parole for murdering his paternal grandparents.On the outside it seemed a harmless ride to the next destination, but inside was a murderous trap: Ed Kemper’s car was a used yellow 1969 Ford Galaxie 500 with a black interior and hardtop. He bought it with the money he received after suing a female driver after he broke his left arm in a motorcycle accident. Not long after he got the Ford Galaxie, he crashed it, causing some damage to the left rear fender. Kemper roughly patched the rear bumper and light himself and it was in this condition when he was arrested. While driving around, he noticed a large number of young women hitchhiking, and began storing plastic bags, knives, blankets, and handcuffs in his car. He then began picking up girls and peacefully letting them go, and according to Kemper, he picked up around 150 hitchhikers before he began acting on his homicidal sexual urges, which he called his ‘little zapples.’ As a side note, the first thing that popped in my head after reading about this was BTK’s ‘factor X,’ which he described as the internal, insatiable drive to kill that he does not comprehend.Heres an interesting tidbit: while in prison, Ed Kemper voiced many audio books, including Star Wars and Flowers in the Attic.Ed Kempers deathwagon. He often jammed a foreign object (usually a chapstick tube) in the passengers side door handle so his victim couldn’t escape. Rhonda Stapley most likely confused her serial killers when she concocted her story in 2016.A photo of Clarnell State after she was killed by her son, Edward Kemper on April 21, 1973.Aside from having to travel to court a few days here and there, after the attack DaRonch said, ‘My life continued normally.’ … ‘I was able to detach myself from an event that could have ruined my life.’ … ‘It may not be a reasonable solution for everyone, but it is how I have been able to move on.’ Aside from an incident right after the attempted kidnapping, when a magazine-seller approached her car in a grocery store parking lot, DaRonch has expressed that she’s experienced no fear regarding the attempted kidnapping has lingered in her. However, she grew ‘more cautious around strangers, more aware of my surroundings and less trusting,’ however she didn’t allow Bundy to take up space in her head. Bundy’s periodic trials were only pauses in her return to normalcy, including night classes and weekends away to the lake with her boyfriend. DaRonch went on to earn a degree in business management and has long worked in the telecommunications industry, where she met Michael, her current partner of over 15 years. They live together in a suburb of Salt Lake City, the same place she was living with her parents when Bundy first approached her. ‘Even reliving it now, I’m not entirely comfortable.’ … ‘I enjoy my anonymity, when I have it. I also realize that it is an important story to tell, and if someone can benefit in a positive way from it, then that’s what I want.’
I’m not going to be able to post a full article but I just wanted to stop and talk about one of the unconfirmed victims families:
In 1974, Brenda Joy Baker was 14 when she was found brutally murdered in Pierce County, WA. Her older brother Benjamin Lawrence “Larry” Baker. (below) was born December 4, 1956 and passed away at 25 in 1982. Brenda’s younger brother was born in 1960 and sadly only lived until he was 21.
I’m re-watching Primes ‘Falling for a Killer,’ and listening to Lynda Ann Healy’s sister speak about how Bundy’s actions had lifelong effects on her family made me think of the Baker family. On top of losing their daughter (murder is such a senseless act), they also experienced two other very early losses; no parent should have to bury their children, and they buried all three. Some people are just born with tragedy in their blood.
So, it’s common knowledge that everything Ted Bundy has been done before. Whether it be books. Movies. Documentaries. Podcasts. It’s mostly the same information over and over again. On one hand, we know next to nothing about his crimes but what we do know has been studied and analyzed TO. DEATH. Finding content that is still engaging, relevant, and ‘fresh’ has been a bit of a challenge. So, this article is going to be about a brick. Yes, that’s right: I am writing the equivalent of a 5-page paper around a brick I found on campus at the University of Puget Sound.
Unfortunately, I’m not finding my summer course as easy as I was hoping it would be, so I haven’t been able to write as much as I would like to. In April when I was in Washington, I spent over 24 hours in Tacoma (complete with missing my bus back to Seattle so I had to stay overnight at their lovely Comfort Inn & Suites). Most of my sightseeing involved many house-visits (I went to Ted’s Uncle Jack’s former residence, all three Bundy homes, and little Ann Marie Burrs old house), but what I found to be the most pleasant of my sightseeing was my visit to the University of Puget Sound. I know only my friends really care about ME, but I’m a fairly social person and not having very much human contact during my eight-day trip had a very negative affect on my mental health. I feel it was a combination of the loneliness mixed with the negativity that almost clung in the atmosphere around me that made me feel despondent. I noticed this feeling got exponentially worse when I rented a vehicle and started going to 8-9 places a day. I came home and was an absolute raging megabitch to my husband for a good 3-4 weeks and I have no explanation for it. A darkness crept into my head that I’ve never felt before. When I went to Philadelphia, I made sure it was just an overnight trip (even though I was tempted to stay a second night I went home immediately) and any Bundy related traveling in the future will be done with a girlfriend.
Anyways, the point of my rambling is, my visit to The University of Puget Sound stands out a bit in my mind because I was around other people and was able to interact a bit with some students and professionals. I feel SO bad because I never got their names but the girls at the university-run café were VERY sweet and patiently answered all of my questions and even pretended to be interested in my project. So, if any of you are reading this (I told them the name of the blog) thank you for your time and insights; I really enjoyed my cup of earl gray as well. I do want to mention, I drank a LOT of tea in Seattle: there were Starbucks and bubble tea shops EVERYWHERE. Seriously, every other storefront was a coffee shop. I know I’ve expressed in previous posts that I was hesitant to bring up the purpose of my visit during my time in Washington because I didn’t want to rub anyone the wrong way or seem disrespectful, but if I didn’t start talking to these lovely young women I would have missed out on a few REALLY cool Bundy-related things, one of which I’ve never seen before. I also learned that Mrs. Bundy worked at the university during the time of the murders and that she even has a memorial stone near their fountain on campus (I thought she worked in the office at her church until she retired). Louise worked as a secretary for the communications and theater departmentsinthe oldest building on campus, Jones Hall. The girls excitedly went on to tell me about how he lived on campus in either Schiff or Anderson/Langdon Hall but… unfortunately after some research I learned that information was incorrect: Ted lived at home with his family in Tacoma during his first stint at the university, and when he returned in 1973 for law school he resided at the Rogers rooming house on 12th Avenue in Seattle. So, logically I immediately ran over and got a few million photos of both buildings. They also told me that the law school used to be in Thompson Hall, which also unfortunately isn’t true: I asked a woman who appeared friendly where the former law school was located, and she informed me that it was completely off campus. She seemed to be around my mothers age and seemed only mildly interested in answering my question: when the friend she was waiting for arrived she stopped talking to me mid-sentence and went over to say hello. So, whatever…
So, to the girls at the cafe: one out of three ain’t bad… Interestingly, the law school eventually was moved from Tacoma to Seattle and now goes by a completely different name, the Seattle University School of Law. It is described as a ‘professional graduate school affiliated with Seattle University.’ So, perhaps Bundy wasn’t too off track when he said it was subpar, as it obviously needed some form of revamping. The brick was a neat find though, and the campus was really pretty. I also got some pictures of the communications/theater building where Mrs. Bundy worked. I read an article that in over that years ago, Tacoma librarians had to worry about yearbooks being destroyed because Bundyphiles would rip out entire pages that had Ted’s pictures on them (he attended Woodrow Wilson High School, now called the Dr. Dolores Silas HS). However, they said more recently people have stopped inquiring about the serial killer and his name has faded into nothingness… Perhaps this is because everything about Bundy is simply a Google search away? I don’t think it’s because interest in Ted has faded… in fact, I think it’s the complete opposite.
I am going to say that it was incredibly eerie being on the school grounds knowing there was a good chance that Ted *may* have disposed of little Ann Marie Burr’s body there, somewhere on campus. It’s a well-known theory that the young girl could have been Bundy’s first victim in late August of 1961 when he was 14 and she was just 8. Two of my favorite Bundy myths are associated with the Burr case, the first is that Bundy was the family’s paperboy at the time of Ann’s disappearance (he wasn’t). The Burrs lived 3.1 miles away from the Bundy’s (which is only a 20-minute bike ride), and only 0.1 miles away from the University of Puget Sound. My second favorite is that Ted’s Uncle Jack Cowell was Ann’s piano teacher; he wasn’t.
The school was in the middle of a large expansion project at the time in the summer of 1961, and was in the middle of constructing eight new buildings on campus. Donald Burr claimed that he saw a teenage boy that resembled Bundy digging a hole in a construction site and kicking dirt into it on the schools campus the morning his daughter disappeared. By the time law enforcement got around to investigating it was too late, and the project had advanced to the point of not being able to find any trace of the little girl. If Bundy did indeed dispose of Ann Marie’s body somewhere on the campus at the University of Puget Sound it must have been a real rush to attend classes there: every time he went to a function on campus, he would have revisited a victim, in a way. After just two semesters he left the school in 1966 and transferred to the University of Washington for a brief period to study Chinese. Shortly after he dropped out of school completely and worked an array of menial jobs across Seattle while also volunteering for Nelson Rockefeller’s presidential campaign.
Bundy eventually got his shit together enough (after screwing around at Temple University in Philadelphia for six months in early 1969) and went back to the University of Washington, earning a Bachelor’s degree ‘with distinction’ in psychology in 1972. The following year he went back to the University at Puget Sound, this time for law school. He eventually dropped out again (this is a pattern with Ted) and got a job as the assistant director of the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Commission. I don’t mean to get too off track, but I just wanted to point out something I learned just now… it’s widely known that Diane Edwards was Ted’s first real heartbreak, and after he made a name for himself in Washington politics he won her back, even going to far as to propose marriage, which she happily accepted. However, on January 3, 1974, Ted coldly ended things with her without reason, essentially getting his revenge for being dumped by her years prior. It was the very next day that he assaulted and left for dead Karen Sparks, his first (confirmed) victim. I suppose I never thought about the timing of that breakup and how it worked around the murders. Anyways, as everyone knows Bundy moved to Salt Lake City in fall of 1974 and went on to attend the University of Utah’s law school until he was arrested by Bob Hayworth on August 16, 1975. The rest, as they say, is history…
Bundy denied any involvement with Ann Marie Burr’s disappearance. Before his death, the killer was even in correspondence with Beverly Burr, who pleaded with Ted for information about her daughter: ‘I feel like YOUR FIRST MURDER WAS OUR ANN MARIE BURR. The bench from the back yard was used to climb into the living room; the orchard next door was a dark setting for murder. What did you do with her tiny body?’ He wrote back saying that he knew nothing about Ann’s death. Because no real evidence connected anyone else to the crime, little Ann Marie’s case remains open to this day.
South Tacoma Way location of the University of Puget Sound School of Law, Tacoma, Washington, 1973. Photo courtesy of the University of Puget Sound.An old picture of the Norton Clapp Law Center at the University of Puget Sound School of Law.A more current picture of what used to be the Norton Clapp Law Center at the University of Puget Sound School of Law.The view walking up to the University of Puget Sound, 2022.THIS was a neat find, it’s something I NEVER would have discovered if I didn’t chat up the girls from the university café.I didn’t know Mrs. Bundy worked at the university; I was under the impression she was the secretary at her church and that was the job she held her entire career. But, like so many other things, I was wrong. I didn’t know Mrs. Bundy worked at the university; I was under the impression she was the secretary at her church and that was the job she held her entire career. But, like so many other things, I was wrong.Jones Hall at the University at Puget Sound where Mrs. Bundy worked for many years until her retirement, April 2022.A side view of the Burr house, April 2022. Can’t you see an adolescent Ted prowling around these bushes at night, peeking into the windows and going through trash… freaking weirdo.
“When I first saw that window open, I knew I would never see her again. I knew I would never know what happened.” … “It came to me, just like that. It was a strong feeling. When they were searching, I thought, ‘What’s the point?’ I knew she was gone, and we would never see her again.” – Beverly Burr interviewed by Rebecca Morris A photo of the Burr’s former house, and it was absolutely lovely, especially with the tree blossoming in the front, April 2022.The only signs of an intruder was the open living room window (left of the front door) and the footprint of someone wearing a sneaker. This photo is from 1961, I would have used one of my more recent ones but at the time of my visit the window was partially covered with bushes.An older picture of the Burr’s house and Ann Marie. Photo courtesy of Kevin Sullivan.Beverly Burr and her four children (Ann on far right). Fox Island, Summer 1960.Beverly Burr pregnant with Ann.Ann Marie Burr missing flyer, 1961.Letter to Ted Bundy from Beverly Burr, written May 20, 1986. Photo courtesy of murderintherain.com.Letter to Beverly Burr from Ted Bundy, written June 8, 1986. Photo courtesy of murderintherain.com.Ted’s Uncle Jacks house, April 2022. It is only 1.3 miles away from the Burr’s house.Ted’s Uncle Jack and his wife, Eleanor. At the time of his death in 2007 they were married for 63 years. He left behind two children: his daughter, Edna Martin and son, John DeCoville.Diane Edwards senior photo. She didn’t end up too bad, she married a VP at a major financial company, Wells Fargo.A photo of the Bundy home, 2012.A photo of the Bundy’s second home, April 2022.Google maps directions to Ann Maries house from the Bundy’s. “I had a feeling right then that I’d never see her again,” said Beverly Burr, Ann Marie’s mother.The walk from little Ann Marie’s house to the University of Puget Sound was absurdly short, just a little over 0.1 miles.A map of the Burrs neighborhood and where it was located compared to Bundy’s home and the University of Puget Sound, courtesy of Rebecca Morris.The 1965/66 portion of the ‘The FBI Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992’ showing he was at the University of Puget Sound in 1965/66.
Donna Gail Manson was born on June 9, 1954 to Lyle Edward and Marie Elizabeth (nee Nilson) Manson in Olympia, WA. Mr. Manson was born on August 29, 1917 in Marion, Iowa and Mrs. Manson was born on May 9, 1923 in Auburn, WA. The couple were wed on December 4, 1952 and had two children together: Donna and her younger brother, James. An eagle scout and troop leader, Mr. Manson served in the Navy during World War II (he was a Pearl Harbor survivor), and upon returning home he continued with his education and graduated with his BA in music education from Coe College in June 1949; he went on to earn his Masters from Central Washington University in 1952 (which is the same college Susan Rancourt was abducted from), and after graduating he got a position as a music teacher for the Seattle school district. Marie Manson graduated from the University of Washington in 1949 with a BA in music education, and worked PT as a legal secretary; she was also the choir director at Auburn First United Methodist. Both Mr. and Mrs. Manson spent two years performing with the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra.
Donna Manson is Ted Bundy’s third (known) victim. It was said by those that knew her that at the time she disappeared Donna was going through a rough time and was struggling with depression, but she showed interest in overcoming these obstacles. Despite suffering from bouts of melancholy and anxiety, Donna’s loved ones called her a ‘free spirit’ and said that she was known to hitchhike and frequently ‘couch surfed’ among friends. She was an intelligent young woman and earned good grades over the course of her academic career, and was working towards a Bachelors degree in English. Much like her parents, she loved music and the arts and was an accomplished flutist.Manson graduated from Auburn Senior High School in 1972 and attended Green River Community College for a short period of timebeforetransferring toEvergreen State College. She had pale blue eyes and chocolate brown hair that she wore long and parted down the middle; she was small in stature and stood at only five feet tall, and weighed a mere 100 pounds.
The campus at Evergreen State College is less than ten miles east of Olympia and was built in an isolated, remote spot surrounded by a dense forest of evergreen trees. A small, liberal arts school, in the fall of 1974 its enrollment wasn’t even at 3,000, and some of the more conservative Washington state residents complained about its high per-student cost of operation and ‘hippie-like atmosphere.’ One lawmaker even complained during a speech about how the students’ dogs were peeing on the expensive carpets in the schools library (which was ironically named the Daniel J. Evans Library, after the state governor that Bundy worked for).
On the day of her abduction, Donna planned on going to a folk dancing class at her schools activities building, and later that same night, she made plans to go to a jazz concert at the Daniel J. Evans Library (which was also on school grounds), which was scheduled to start at 8 PM. She lived in room 206 of the C building on Evergreens campus, and according to her roommates earlier in the evening Donna played her flute a bit and ate some beef vegetable soup (she even left some of it out in a pot on the stove). They also noticed that she seemed unusually focused on her appearance that evening, going so far as to switch outfits several times before eventually settling on a red, orange, and green striped shirt, blue (or green) slacks, a fuzzy black full-length coat (that used to belong to her grandmother), an oval-shaped brown agate ring, and a Bulova Caravell wrist watch. Despite this detail, Manson did not share any details about a date or meet-up with her friends. The night prior to her disappearance Donna spoke with her mother on the phone, and the two discussed her idea of taking a trip to the ocean during her upcoming spring recess. Regarding this, Marie Manson said it sounded like a good idea that they get away for a few days, and despite the ongoing gas shortage of the 70’s said that the family would ‘find a way.’
Donna departed her dormitory shortly after 7 PM on March 12, 1974 and set out for the dance class, which should have been just a two minute walk across campus. However, despite how close the College Activities Building was to her dormitory no one recalled seeing her at either the class or the jazz recital, meaning it is highly unlikely that she ever made it that far. She left behind all of her personal effects, money, and clothing.
Perhaps it was because of her free spirit and habit of hitchhiking and leaving for days at a time, but when Manson didn’t return home that night no one seemed very alarmed: it took her roommates a full six days to report her missing to the authorities, which is why newspapers didn’t start reporting on her disappearance until March 22, 1974, a full ten days after she was last seen. Several days after her disappearance some local police officers went to the Manson family home in Auburn to tell them that Donna had run away from school, news that made her mother immediately feel uneasy, and she immediately knew that: ‘she hasn’t run away, something’s happened to her.’
Perhaps it was because of her free spirit, her habit to leave for days at a time, or her habit to hitchhike but when Manson didn’t come back that night no one was very alarmed. In fact, it took her roommates a full six days to report her missing to the authorities, which is why newspapers didn’t start reporting about her disappearance until March 22, a full ten days later. Following Donna’s disappearance, on four different occasions search teams of up to 200 people combed the 990 acre college campus with the assistance of tracking dogs. Despite their best efforts, investigators were unable to find not one single trace of the missing girl: she had literally vanished out of thin air.
After he got the news that his daughter was missing, Lyle Manson immediately drove to the Evergreen campus to see if he could find out more information about what may have happened to her. When he arrived, Thurston County Detective Paul Barclift tried to reassure him by saying: ‘maybe she just went off somewhere with some boyfriend. That’s the way these things usually turn out around here.’ Manson’s stern Scotsman’s face showed cold disagreement, and in response he said: ‘no, Donna had no need to run away. We’ve always given her freedom.’ He and the detective walked from the parking lot to her residence hall, and together they looked through the items in her bedroom: she had left behind all her clothes, toiletries, and other personal items one would need if leaving for any period of time, and amongst her belongings Mr. Manson found her camera and flute, and it was then that he knew that something was seriously wrong. Following Donna’s disappearance, search teams of up to 200 people combed the 990 acre college campus with the assistance of tracking dogs on four separate occasions, but despite their best efforts not one trace of her was ever recovered: she had literally vanished out of thin air.
The guard also told investigators that he remembered seeing Donna around campus prior to her disappearance and recalled that when he last saw her she was wearing a long fur coat, a fact that her roommates corroborated. This strongly hints that he wasn’t mistaken and did in fact see Manson on the night she was abducted, meaning that she either got sidetracked by something (or someone, like a man with his arm in a sling asking for help) on her way to the dance class, or she lied to her roommates about what her plans were. Many Bundy sleuths believe that Ted approached the 19-year-old asking for help as she was walking toward the library, where others strongly feel that the two may have been acquainted previously (somehow) and that they had made plans to meet up that night. He liked to frequent college campuses, did he go to Evergreen at an earlier time and run into Donna? Maybe the two planned a secret rendezvous and she told her roommates that she was going somewhere else in an attempt to get them off her back? Obviously they would have started asking questions had they known she was going out with a guy, and when they found out she had plans to meet up with a 27 year old that she barely knew, then surely they would have persuaded her to not go.
Donna was into many things that would typically be considered ‘mysterious and dark,’ and had an interest in topics like death, the occult, and alchemy; when investigators searched her room they found severalclass listings on positive thinking and mind discipline from a local Olympia business called ‘The Institute of Insight’ (casual Bundy acquaintance Ann Rule incorrectly referred to it as the ‘Institute of the ESP’ in her 1980 book ‘The Stranger Beside Me’). It was mostly because of Manson’s unconventional interests that detectives initially wondered if maybe she had killed herself, and it wasn’t until a psychiatrist read through her journals and said that it was in his professional opinion that she wasn’t suicidal and most likely did not take her own life that they changed their minds. Donna’s habit of hitchhiking put her in a higher risk pool compared to other coeds, and it was very concerning to detectives, who felt that there was a possibility that she was picked up by the individual that killed her. Because her roommates did not see her take a backpack or a change of clothes with her on the evening she disappeared, LE deduced that she was not planning on going anywhere that evening and had no plans on hitchhiking.
The most widely believed theory was that Bundy grabbed Donna in a Georgann Hawkins-esque grab as she was on her way to the dance class that evening in March 1974: the route that she most likely took from her dormitory to the folk dancing class was only 350 yards away, and should have only been about a two minute walk, and because of the short distance involved it has been theorized that Ted grabbed Manson almost immediately after she left. One possible scenario could be that he may have approached her (perhaps while using crutches or an arm sling) in a nearby parking lot (lot F) and asked her to assist him with carrying something to his car. Another idea is that Bundy parked his car on Hidden Springs Drive, which is close to the c-dormitory and connects the area around the library with Driftwood Road, and is incredibly close to the route that Donna would have walked to get to the folk dancing class. But because traffic on campus was unusually high that evening because of three different events taking place, it stands to reason that both areas would have been pretty busy at the time, and a careful Bundy wouldn’t have taken the chance of getting caught. But at the same time… he was a known risk taker, especially while under the influence of alcohol and marijuana, so we can’t completely rule it out (and keep in mind that it worked out for him).
Mostly because Olympia is over an hour away from where Bundy’s other Washington state victims were abducted from, Manson’s case was not immediately connected to the other Seattle disappearances, and it wasn’t until more women started to disappear that it became clear that her case was a part of a much bigger puzzle. There was a (brief) period where (former) Thurston County Sheriff Don Redmond wondered if maybe there was a slavery ring nabbing young women from the area, butthis was quickly ruled out. Unfortunately, we will never know exactly what happened to Donna on the evening she disappeared, as there are very few confirmed details regarding her disappearance. Due to the abduction taking place right before spring break detectives were not able to interview many of the eyewitnesses until weeks later, after their memories were dulled by time (maybe if her roommates reported her abduction earlier LE would have stood a chance of getting some worthwhile information).
In his previous two abductions/murders, Bundy broke into his victims’ houses and assaulted them while they were sleeping, but in the case of Donna Manson he completely switched up his MO and took her from a public place… I also wonder if perhaps this was the first time that he used the fake injury ruse? The dates of credit card receipts that were listed in the ‘TB Multiagency Report 1992’ prove that Bundy frequented the Olympia area at least 25 times in 1973 alone, so it would be reasonable to assume that he knew the area fairly well; this also falls in line with the theory that (most) serial killers prefer to operate in places that they are familiar with, and feel comfortable being in.
On August 29, 1978 two fishermen that were walking on Highway 7 southwest of Eatonville, WA discovered a human skull in the foothills of Mount Rainier; further searches by local investigators turned up additional bones, hair, and clothes that matched the description of the ones that Donna Manson was last seen wearing four years prior. Unfortunately, law enforcement lost everything before a positive ID could be made (although apparently color photographs were taken) and to this day she is classified as a missing person. Bundy confessed to her murder as a last ditch effort to avoid the electric chair in January 1989 and told investigators that he buried her remains at Taylor Mountain but burned her skull to ashes in his then-girlfriends Liz’s fireplace. He also told Robert Keppel that he didn’t remember much about the event because he was so drunk but did recall that it was ‘nightmarish, blurry, and incoherent.’
Retired Pierce County detective Roy Durham said that he felt the bones did not appear to go back as far as 1974 and did not appear to suffer from any blunt force trauma to the head (which is common in Bundy victims). Unfortunately, the skeletal remains were destroyed after being examined by a forensic dentist (who determined there was a strong possibility that the skeleton belonged to Manson) and most additional information (such as x-rays) related to the case were lost during a ‘routine purge’ of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. Personally, I wonder if the remains found in 1978 belonged to a different (unknown) Bundy victim. I know people will argue that he was in prison by that time and wouldn’t have been able to commit a murder in his home state, but even law enforcement admitted they weren’t sure when victim was killed, just that it probably wasn’t in 1974.
During Ted’s interview with Dr. Keppel he claimed that he left Manson’s body ‘up in the mountains,’ and although it was the same place where he disposed of Brenda Ball, Lynda Ann Healy, Susan Rancourt and Roberta Parks, he specified that he left her in a slightly different place than the others:
Keppel: ‘OK. How about Donna Manson? The girl from Thurston County, Olympia. Where is she?’ B: ‘Where is she? She should be… on Taylor Mountain.’ K: ‘Was she dumped out along the power line too or on a different road?’ B: ‘That was different. That was different.’ K: ‘What was different about it?’ B: ‘Well, where she was, relative to the power line road.’ K: ‘You told me before that Donna might be buried.’ B: ‘Yea. Do you have any pictures of the site?’
Bundy then pointed out a spot on a map where he thinks he left Donna’s remains, but clarified that search teams would never find her skull because it was ‘nowhere’ (Bundy’s words, not mine). When Keppel pressed Ted about that he claimed to have completely incinerated it then vacuumed up the ash that remained behind. Later searches of that area failed to find anything related to a human skeleton (keep in mind he admitted to being inebriated at the time of the abduction so he probably directed them to the wrong place). He explained: ‘it’s a lot of work and certainly very risky, under the circumstances. I mean, the kids come home from school and there’s a roaring fire in the fireplace and it’s warm outside.’
Now, there are holes in that story so big I can drive my VW Beetle through them: throughout the duration of his murder spree Bundy was (surprisingly) good about avoiding detection (although I firmly believe he may never have been caught if he wasn’t such a shitty driver), so I have a really hard time believing that he smuggled an entire HUMAN HEAD into his girlfriend’s apartment (which goes without saying is a huge risk). Additionally, burning a skull in a residential fireplace would not have been an easy feat: in order to transform human bone into ash, the fire would need to get to somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (which can be done with the use of an accelerant), and even if he was able to get it that hot, there would still be pieces of bone left behind.
What I think most likely happened: Ted attempted to burn Donna’s skull in Liz’s apartment but partway through realized how difficult of an ordeal it was (plus, burnt hair smells ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE, and at the time of her murder she had a lot of it) and took the pieces that didn’t turn to ash and disposed of them in a different way (as awful as this sounds, perhaps they were so small he was able to put them in the household garbage?). Another reason to doubt Bundy’s story is that he said it was ‘warm outside’ when be burned the skull, and according to records the temperature range during the week after Mansons disappearance in Seattle was between 49°F to 57°F, and it remained on the cooler side until March 26th. So, that makes me think Ted was either lying about the weather or he got his dates mixed up and the event took place roughly two weeks after the murder. It is often wondered if Bundy made up the incident entirely just to hurt Kloepfer, who had cut all ties with him by the time he shared that information… but, at the end of the day, he was a habitual liar that rarely told the truth. And let’s say this ONE TIME Ted wasn’t lying: he has evaded telling anyone what really happened for so long, why would anyone actually believe him (especially when he was trying to avoid the electric chair). Keep in mind that only minutes before he told Keppel about incinerating Manson’s skull, he cracked a ‘joke’ about how much press his confession would generate.
The following is a conversation between Bundy and Robert Keppel regarding Manson: Robert Keppel: ‘What about Donna Mason?’ Bundy: ‘I won’t beat around the bush with you anymore because I’m just tired and want to get back to sleep. So let me tell you, I know part of her is buried up there, the head however, wouldn’t be there.’ RK: ‘Where is it now?’ TB: ‘It’s nowhere. I’m not trying to be flippant. It’s in a category all by itself. It was incinerated. It was an exception, a strange exception.’ RK: ‘Where did you incinerate it?’ TB: ‘I promised myself I’d never tell this. In her fire place. That’s not really that humorous , but I mean , the fireplace at her house… that was the twist . It’s a lot of work and certainly very risky, under the circumstances. I mean, the kids come home from school, there’s a roaring fire in the fireplace, and it’s warm outside.’
On August 28th, 1978, two fishermen discovered the skeleton of a young female in the foothills of Mount Rainier near Eatonville, about 60 miles away from Bundy’s Taylor Mountain dump site. Despite multiple newspapers reporting that the missing skeleton belonged to Manson, the facts do not seem to line up: ‘The News Tribune’ reported that the skeleton Pierce County sheriffs discovered was 5’7”, and Donna was only 5 feet tall. Also, the remains were discovered wearing blue jeans, where Donna’s roommates said she was wearing a pair of green (or blue) pants the night she disappeared. Investigators also showed photographs of the clothing found on the skeleton to Manson’s parents and her mother was quick to say that she didn’t recognize the top as belonging to her daughter. The report also said the victim was somewhere between 12 and 17 years old where Donna was 19 at the time she disappeared.
Mr. Manson passed away on December 31, 2007; Donna’s mother died on May 26, 2014 in Auburn, WA. James Manson is still alive and currently lives in Seattle; he is the owner of ‘Axis Stainless Fabrication,’ and works with metal, and just by doing some quick research it appears that he is an expert in his field and has his work on display at the Seattle Art Museum. It doesn’t surprise me that Donna’s brother turned into a successful artist, it’s in his genes.
Donna Manson, clad in the long black coat that she was last seen wearing. Photo courtesy of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department.Donna Manson.Donna Manson’s student identification photo from 1973.Donna Manson.Donna Manson.A picture of Donna Manson. Photo courtesy of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department.Donna Manson.Donna Manson and an unknown male friend. Photo courtesy of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department.A picture of a friend that Donna Manson took. Photo courtesy of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department.Another picture of a friend that Donna Manson took. Photo courtesy of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department.Another picture that Manson took of a friend. Photo courtesy of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department.Some pictures Donna Manson took. Photo courtesy of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department..A hand-written note card from Donna Manson to her parents. Photo courtesy of Erin Banks/CrimePiper.A typed letter from Donna to a friend named Sally W. in Indonesia; it was found on her desk but never mailed. Photo courtesy of Erin Banks/CrimePiper.A letter to Marie Manson from Donna’s friend, Megan Ellis. Photo courtesy of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department/’hi: I’m Ted.’ A note found in Donna’s room. Photo courtesy of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department/’hi: Im Ted.’A newspaper clipping about Donna Manson’s disappearance.The front of an article published by the Cooper Point Journal on July 11, 1974; as you can see, Donna is featured on the front. Photo courtesy of the Evergreen State College Archives.A blurb on the jazz concert that Donna was planning on attending from the Evergreen State College newsletter published on March 8, 1974. Photo courtesy of OddStops.The Evergreen State College Newsletter from the week of March 11, 1974 mentioning the jazz concert Donna was planning on attending. Photo courtesy of the Evergreen State College Archives.An excerpt from Donna Manson’s police report. Photo courtesy of ThisInterestsMe.Thurston County Sheriff Don Redmond floated the theory that Donna’s disappearance was related to a white slavery ring. Photo courtesy of ThisInterestsMe.A page from Donna Manson’s missing persons report.A blurb from Donna’s missing persons report.A memo from Evergreen Campus Security Chief Rod Marrom to Thurston County Detective Paul Barclift. Photo courtesy of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department/’hi: I’m Ted.’A letter to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department related to the Manson case.A handwritten report about Donna’s disappearance from the Thurston County Sheriffs Department.An aerial view of the Evergreen State College campus from 1974. A: Residence halls. B: Library. C: C&N Road. Photo courtesy of the Evergreen State College Archives.An old 1970’s b&w picture of Evergreen State College.An old 1970’s b&w picture of Evergreen State College.A path to residence halls from the 1970’s. Photo courtesy of the Evergreen State College Archives.A more rural area of the Evergreen State campus. Photo courtesy of the Evergreen State College Archives.Evergreen State College. A security booth at Evergreen State College. One of the entrances to Evergreen State College.Evergreen State College. Evergreen State College. A sign for the Daniel J. Evans Library at Evergreen State College.The Daniel J. Evans Library at Evergreen State College.The Daniel J. Evans Library at Evergreen State College; the concert took place on the first floor.The entrance of the Daniel J. Evans Library at Evergreen State College.The Daniel J. Evans Library at Evergreen State College. The windows at the Daniel J. Evans Library at Evergreen State College.A student reading outside Dorm C from the 1970’s. Photo courtesy of the Evergreen State College Archives.The entrance to the dorms at Evergreen State College; Donna lived in the ‘C-building,’ and her exact mailing address was ‘4319 Indian Pipe Loop NW / ℅ Evergreen State College / Olympia WA, 98505.The dorms at Evergreen State CollegeThe dorms at Evergreen State College. The C-dorm at Evergreen State College where Donna Manson lived when she was murdered.A trail at Evergreen State College.A trail behind the dorms at Evergreen State College.A trail behind the dormitories at Evergreen State College.The bridge on Madrona Beach Road at Perry Creek from November 2018. Photo courtesy of Google Maps.A display of the trails available to walk on the Evergreen State College campus.A display at Evergreen State College.A display at Evergreen State College.A map of Evergreen State College.A map of Evergreen State College.A map of Evergreen State College.This old map of the Evergreen State College campus is from the 1975–1977 course catalog; the relevant locations are notated with red dots. Photo courtesy of OddStops.The News Tribune broke the story about the missing skeletons on December 2nd, 1996. Photo courtesy of ‘ThisInterestsMe.’At the time of her disappearance Donna lived in room 206 in the C building. Photo courtesy of ‘ThisInterestsMe.’This satellite map shows the most likely route that Donna Manson took while she was walking between her dorm room and the library area. Photo courtesy of OddStops.This aerial image shows the College Activities Building and the library. Photo courtesy of OddStops.Another theory surrounding Donna Manson’s abduction is that Bundy parked his car on Hidden Springs Drive, which connects the area around the library with Driftwood Road to the north. It is also very close to the route she would have taken the night she vanished. Photo courtesy of OddStops.This aerial image illustrates how close Manson’s dorm building was to Parking Lot F; its roughly a five minute walk. Photo courtesy of OddStops.This route is only 0.1 miles long: less than two minute walk. Photo courtesy of ‘ThisInterestsMe.’This aerial map shows Donna’s dorm, Parking Lot F, and the C&N road that she was seen walking along (the buildings above the C&N road were digitally removed because they did not exist at the time of Donna’s disappearance). Photo courtesy of OddStops.In police reports, the road is labelled as C&N Road and on Google Maps it is called Overhulse Place. Photo courtesy of ‘ThisInterestsMe.’This is a section of the pathway between Donna’s dorm and the library; the red arrow points in the direction she would have been walking in. Photo courtesy of OddStops.When she wasn’t staying at her college dorm Donna lived at this home at 124 O St NE in Auburn with her parents at the time of her disappearance.Taylor Mountain, April 2022.An article about Donna’s disappearance published in The News Tribune. It was published on March 22, 1974, ten days after she disappeared.An article on Donna from The Daily Olympian published on March 24, 1974.An article about the search for Donna Manson published in The Olympian on March 24, 1974.An article about Donna’s disappearance published in The Daily Herald on March 30, 1974.An article about Donna Manson published in The Daily Olympian on March 30, 1974.An article about Donna Manson published in The Daily Chronicle on March 30, 1974.An article on Donna Manson’s disappearance from The Daily Olympian published on April 2, 1974.A newspaper blurb about a reward for any information leading to the discovery of Donna Manson published in The Daily Chronicle on April 3, 1974.An article mentioning Donna’s disappearance published in The Daily Chronicle on April 6, 1974.The first part of an article about Donna Manson published by The Auburn Globe-News on April 17, 1974.The second part of an article about Donna Manson published by The Auburn Globe-News on April 17, 1974.An article about the missing Washington state coeds that mentions Donna published in The News Tribune on May 29, 1974.An article about Donna’s disappearance published in The Olympian on June 18, 1974.An article about mentioning Donna published in The Spokane Chronicle on June 19, 1974; the victim they’re referring to is actually Brenda Joy Baker.An article mentioning Donna’s disappearance published in The Olympian on July 2, 1974.An article about the missing Washington state coeds mentioning Donna published in The Columbian on July 3, 1974.An article mentioning Donna’s disappearance published in The News Tribune on July 5, 1974.An article mentioning Donna’s disappearance published in The News Tribune on July 28, 1974.The first part of an article published by the Cooper Point Journal on August 11, 1974. Photo courtesy of the Evergreen State College Archives.The second part of an article published by the Cooper Point Journal on August 11, 1974. Photo courtesy of the Evergreen State College Archives.An article about the missing Seattle woman published in The Longview Daily News on August 27, 1974.An article about the Issaquah dump site mentioning Donna Manson that was published in The News Tribune on September 13, 1974.An article mentioning the disappearance of Donna Manson published by The Kitsap Sun on September 14, 1974.An article about a murdered coed from Evergreen State that mentions Donna Manson published in The News Tribune on•October 4, 1974.An article about Donna’s disappearance in The Daily-Herald-Tribune on March 5, 1975.An article about Donna’s disappearance in The Spokesman-Review on March 8, 1975.An article about Donna’s disappearance in The Daily Chronicle on March 14, 1975.An article that mentions the disappearance of Donna Manson published in The News Tribune on March 18, 1975.An article mentioning Donna’s disappearance in The Spokesman-Review on October 16, 1975.An article about the remains that were found in the foothills of Mount Rainier in August 1978 that mentions Donna Manson.Seven of the eight Seattle Bundy victims… notice anyone missing? Detectives were hesitant to include Brenda Ball in with the other girls because she was a little older than them and not a college student (also she was away from a college setting and was a known hitchhiker). Ironically hers was the first skull found on Taylor Mountain.A map of where the missing Washington women went missing compared to one another. Picture courtesy of the King County Archives.An picture of the suspect from an article published by The Cooper Point Journal on August 8, 1974. Photo courtesy of the Evergreen State College Archives.A missing poster for Donna Manson. Photo courtesy of ‘hi: I’m Ted.’A missing poster for Donna Manson. photo courtesy of ‘Ted Bundy: I was Trying to Think like an Elk.’
A missing poster for Donna Manson. Photo courtesy of ‘hi: I’m Ted.’Photo courtesy of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department/’hi: I’m Ted.’A photo of Ted and Liz cuddling in front of the fireplace he may have used to incinerate Donna Manson’s skull. Photo courtesy of Liz Kloepfer.A graph of the temperature range in Seattle from March 1974. Photo courtesy of OddStops.Information about ‘The Institute of Insight,’ photo courtesy of Captain Borax.Information about classes offered at ‘The Institute of Insight,’ photo courtesy of Captain Borax.Information about classes offered at ‘The Institute of Insight,’ photo courtesy of Captain Borax.A World War II Bonus Case File related to Lyle Edward Manson.Donna’s parents marriage certificate from December 1952.A short newspaper blurb about Lyle Manson published in The Gazette on November 9, 1941.Mr. Manson from the 1953 Auburn High School yearbook.Donna Manson’s father Lyle in 1956, sadly he passed away in December of 2007 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Photo courtesy of Erin Banks.Donna Manson’s father Lyle. Photo courtesy of Erin Banks.A newspaper blurb from a Seattle fishing club mentioning Lyle Manson. The gravestone of Lyle Manson.Marie Manson’s junior year photo from the 1940 Auburn High School yearbook.Donna’s parents wedding announcement published in The Gazette on November 30, 1952.A picture of Donna Manson’s Mother, Marie Elizabeth (nee Nilson) Manson was born on May 9, 1923 and passed on May 6, 2014 at the age of 91. Photo courtesy of findagrave.Donna’s Mother, Marie Elizabeth (nee Nilson) Manson. Photo courtesy of FindaGrave.James Manson’s senior year picture from the 1978 Auburn High School yearbook.A more recent picture of James Manson. Photo courtesy of Facebook.Some of Jim Manson’s artwork. Photo courtesy of Facebook.Ted Bundy and a dog.A Google Maps view of how to get from the Rogers Rooming House to Evergreen State College. An article published by the Cooper Point Journal on October 16, 1975 after Bundy’s arrest. Photo courtesy of the Evergreen State College Archives.Bundy’s activities on March 12, 1974 according to the ‘TB Multiagency Investigative Team Report.’
Before I started this piece all I really knew about Brenda Ball was that she had recently dropped out of college and disappeared from a dive bar just outside of Seattle (which I went to during my visit in April 2022); she (obviously) also fit his typical victim profile: she was young, thin, and beautiful, with dark chocolate eyes and brown hair that she wore long and parted down the middle.
Brenda Carol Ball is Theodore Robert Bundy’s fifth (confirmed) murder victim. She was born on November 4, 1952, to Duane Kaye and Rosemary (nee Rupp) Ball; Mr. Ball was born on April 12, 1930 in Seattle, and Rosemary was born in September 1930; the couple were wed on March 31, 1953 and Brenda was their only child. They parted ways in November 1971 and the reason listed on their divorce certificate is ‘cruelty.’
Brenda was twenty-two years old, 5’3” tall, and weighed a mere 112 pounds at the time of her disappearance… just a short side note, most of Bundy’s victims were incredibly ‘dainty’ and petite women: both GeorgannHawkins (5’2”) and Lynda Ann Healy (5’6”) only weighed 115 pounds, Donna Gail Manson was 5’ even and 100 pounds, and Janice Ott was 5’1” and 105 pounds. I wonder if this was due to his sexual preference or because smaller women (in theory) would be easier to subdue.
In 1970 Ball graduated from Mount Rainier High School in Des Moines, WA and at the time she disappeared in 1974 was taking classes at Highline Community College but mysteriously dropped out roughly two weeks before she vanished. She lived with two roommates in a five-bedroom house in Normandy Park, and according to them, she was content and happy regarding her decision to leave school, but was beginning to ‘party a lot.’
In the early morning hours of June 1, 1974,Brenda Ball seemingly vanished into thin air after seeing a band play at The Flame Tavern in Burien, WA. The topless dive bar had a seedy reputation for being a bit rough back in the 1970’s (it definitely isn’t in the greatest of neighborhoods), and has changed hands/names a few times since that fateful night in 1974: at one point it was called ‘El Baron’ before most recently being named ‘Fiesta del Mar.’ As of April 2022 the building sits abandoned (complete with multiple mattresses conveniently located in the back parking lot, for relaxation purposes). The night Brenda disappeared she was wearing blue jeans, a turtleneck with long sleeves, a ‘shirt-style’ jacket, and brown clog-like wedge-heeled shoes; she arrived at the establishment alone to see the band play and stayed until last call.
Immediately following Ball’s disappearance no one seemed overly concerned: her roommates said that she was an adventurous person and would often disappear on trips for days at a time without telling anyone (this reminds me so much of Donna Manson). I further feel that the two young women were similar in the sense that their almost nomadic lifestyles, casual drug use, and frequent habit of hitchhiking put them both in a higher risk pool. However, as time passed by it was glaringly obvious that something very serious was wrong, as Brenda wouldn’t leave for weeks on end without reaching out to somebody. Only adding to the mystery: all of her clothes and personal belongings were left behind, and eventually her roommates decided to reach out to her bank to inquire if there had been any recent activity related to her account. When they learnedthat there was none, alarm bells started to go off, and it was at this point they called her parents in nearby Kent. They told them that they hadn’t heard from their daughter either, and upon hearing that no one had heard or seen from her daughter, Mrs. Ball immediately called the police. This is why she was not reported missing until June 17, 1974: two and a half weeks later.
According to police reports, the day before she disappeared at roughly 2 PM on Friday, May 31, 1974 Brenda did tell friends that she was thinking about catching a ride to go camp with some friends at Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park in the eastern part of the state the Memorial Day weekend after her night at The Flame. The park is located a little over two hundred miles away, and is roughly a four hour drive from Normandy Park.
At first, police didn’t link Balls disappearance to the other missing Seattle girls: by this time in mid-1974, Lynda Ann Healy, Donna Gail Manson, Susan Rancourt and Roberta Kathleen Parks were all abducted from places directly related to a college campus (except Healy who technically lived in an off-campus apartment, but I’m being nitpicky and I think you understand what I’m getting at). Brenda, on the other hand, was a bit older than the other victims (at a whopping 22 years old) and had disappeared from a seedy dive bar. She also had a well-established history of disappearing then reappearing, usually for days at a time.Former King County Detective Bob Keppel claimed that her disappearance didn’t have anything in common with the other missing women, and because of this law enforcement didn’t release any information about her case to the media until August 7, 1974. The police weren’t the only ones that were hesitant to publicly connect the dots between Brenda and the other missing girls: it was incredibly challenging to find newspaper articlesrelated to her, andmaybe if her disappearance was treated the same as Lynda Ann Healy’s or Georgann Hawkins they would have caught Bundy sooner.
Although not calling Brenda by name, Seattle based paper ‘The Sunday News’ published an article about her disappearance roughly one month after her case became public. She wasn’t brought up again until the gruesome discovery of her skull at Taylor Mountain in March of 1975 (I’ll talk more about that shortly).
Towards the end of the night after the band wrapped up their set, Ball asked one of its members that she knew for a ride home back to her shared house, but he told her that he was heading in the opposite direction and couldn’t. Now, there are two conflicting possibilities regarding how Ms. Ball possibly left the tavern on the night she disappeared: the first being that she left alone with plans of hitching a ride home, and the second one is that she left with an unidentified man wearing an arm sling.
It was reported by an employee at the Flame Tavern that Brenda was seen talking to a good-looking man that had his arm in a sling towards the end of the evening on May 31, 1974. It is worth mentioning that this statement was probably made at some point later in time (most likely after the initial police report was made in mid-June), because if the witness told law enforcement about the assailant using an arm sling at the beginning of the investigation, then it is highly likely that they would have immediately made the connection between Brenda’s disappearance and the other missing Seattle girls. By August of 1974, King County law enforcement knew that the man they were looking for was using a fake injury ruse, and because of this, it would make one think that any report of Brenda talking to a good-looking man with his arm in a sling would have been more important or prioritized.
On May 31, 1974 Ted was spending the evening with his girlfriend Liz Kloepfer, her daughter Molly, and her parents that were visiting Seattle from Utah. Kloepfer said that Bundy took everyone out for a pizza dinner but was reportedly in a hurry to leave and get out of there at the end of the night. The following is a transcript from one of her interviews: ‘it was a Saturday night, and my parents came out from Utah. The tradition in the Mormon faith is that when you’re eight years old, you get baptized. And so I was going to have my daughter Molly baptized, and my father was going to do the baptism. We went out to dinner the night before, and Ted treated us all to pizza. He was in a big hurry to go after we were done with pizza. The next day, he didn’t show up. He completely missed the baptism. He was probably two hours late. And after it was all done, he showed up at the church. I forget what he said was the excuse. Car trouble or something like that. I was mad because he was making me look bad in front of my parents. But, you know, never in our wildest dreams did we think he was out abducting people.’
Personally, I think Ted was practically giddy at the thought of committing another murder and wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. The last time that he killed was on May 6, whenhe drove almost four and a half hours to Oregon State College in Corvallis to abduct Kathy Parks. Furthermore, the fact that he was late for Molly’s baptism the following morning citing ‘car troubles’ almost makes one think he was held up trying to get rid of Ball’s body and clean up any lingering mess and simply lost track of time… or, maybe he went back to the body that morning for sexual reasons and his girlfriend was the absolute furthest thing from his mind. We’ll never know.
I think I own every single piece of literature ever written about Ted Bundy (I’m joking, but I do have quite a few and between two jobs, school, and my husband I may one day get through them all). In Michaud and Aynesworth book ‘Conversations with a Killer,’ Ted would frequently speculate about what ‘may have’ happened to the victims while talking in the third-person, and according to him ‘the killer’ may have intentionally changed his modus operandi slightly in Balls case by picking up a hitchhiker. Also, going after a victim that was in a slightly different population helped him fly under the radar a bit as missing young women on college campuses were getting a lot of attention at the time. He furthered that in his journey that night, the killer stumbled upon Brenda, who was looking for a ride home from a bar and after picking her up the two got friendly, and her assailant attempted small talk in an attempt to help keep her distracted and unafraid. When he learned that she didn’t have any plans for the rest of the night/early morning he asked if she wanted to go to a party back at his place, an invitation that she accepted. The drive back to his rooming house may have seemed casual on the outside but it was coldly calculated on the inside: her killer wanted to appear friendly and jovial so as not to alarm and frighten her, as he wanted to keep her relaxed and at ease. But of course, when they arrived there was no gathering, and he then concocted a story about why it was just the two of them. Bundy said that at first Ball seemed slightly hesitant on coming in, however the boredom and drunkenness eventually took over and she went inside. He went on to say that they continued drinking until she was ‘exceptionally intoxicated’ and apparently the two had a ‘consensual’ sexual encounter.
Unfortunately for Ms. Ball, a night of drinking and sex that was ‘more or less’ consensual was not enough to completely squash her killer’s dark desires, and because of this, he waited until she was asleep then strangled her to death. Many members of law enforcement and true crime scholars doubt this pseudo-confession (for obvious reasons): if we pretend Ted is telling the truth then it means that he brought Brenda back to his room at the Rogers Rooming House, and considering that he had lived there for quite a few years by then and was in a well-established relationship with Liz Kloepfer, this would have been an incredibly risky move on his part. What if he ran into another resident, or Ernst and Frieda? I mean… It was 2:00 AM, and Ted lived there for quite a few years by then so I’m sure he knew the nocturnal patterns of his fellow tenants (especially since he was such a night owl himself). But… When you think about the fact that Bundy was often drunk and/or high during his murders, it makes me lean towards him being an impulsive person that didn’t seem to think through his attacks very well. I’m sure for the most part Bundy scholars are overthinking things a bit: drunk Ted didn’t think, he acted… therefore, I think he most likely had a tough time keeping his shit together during the 15-minute drive back to his room from The Flame, and it would have made more sense that he drove Ball to a remote location then killed her.
The following is a quick but super interesting snippet from Michaud and Aynesworth’s book ‘Conversations with a Killer’ regarding Balls disappearance: Michaud: ‘He’d take her home?’ Bundy: ‘Sure.’ Michaud: ‘It would seem terribly risky.’ Bundy: ‘If you live with someone. But he had his own house.’
Obviously, we know part of this ‘confession’ isn’t true if Bundy is talking about himself: he obviously lived with the Rogers as well as MULTIPLE other people at the time of Brenda’s murder, not in a house, alone. Now what would have happened if he wasn’t perfect in his attempt to kill Ball and she put up a struggle, and let’s say (just a theoretical) she started kicking and screaming while trying to put up a fight? That would have drawn a LOT of attention to him and probably would have gotten him caught, and I think that was the very last thing that he wanted. During interviews while on death row, Bundy told investigators that he cut off the heads of twelve of his victims, and according to Dr. Robert Keppel, he told FBI Agent Bill Hagmaier once that he kept ‘as many as four heads’ in his room on 12th Avenue in Seattle. Was Brenda’s one of them?
I’m not exactly sure why but I absolutely adore Phyllis Armstrong from Netflix’s ‘Falling for a Killer.’ I found her very sweet and easy to like, and I could tell she genuinely loves Georgann, and misses her. In one of her segments during the documentary, Armstrong said that at around 11 PM on May 31, 1974 (roughly three hours before Ms. Ball disappeared) a man using crutches asked her for help carrying a can of gas to his VW Bug on the campus at the University of Washington. She said yes, and when they reached his vehicle he asked her to get inside and push a button located underneath the steering wheel, starting it. At this point Phyllis was starting to get the willies, and after making up an excuse and apologizing she quickly dropped the can got the heck out of there. That gut instinct probably saved her life.
Now think about it: this encounter took place just a few hours before Brenda Ball went missing, which means if the man Bundy was talking about was indeed himself, then his confession about ‘the killer’ changing up his MO to hunt an ‘older woman’ in order to avoid getting caught was just another lie. Meaning, he didn’t switch it up as part of a well thought out plan: he just bombed out with Phyllis and needed to find another girl to kill. I mean, look at what happened when he crapped-out with Carol DaRonach in SLC? He drove to a high school roughly twenty miles away and abducted Deb Kent. After Balls abduction Ted went back to taking his victims from a school setting: Georgann Hawkins was next, and her abduction took place not even two weeks later on June 11th, 1974. She was taken early in the morning on her way home from a party outside of her sorority house at the University of Washington.
It’s also worth bringing up that Ball’s skull had a large fracture in the back of it when it was found on Taylor Mountain, and the King County Medical Examiner determined that she was missing one of her temporal bones, suggesting that her assailant may have struck her in the head with a blunt object (like a crowbar, as TB was known to have used). Bundy never mentioned this during his ‘confession,’ so if he really strangled her to death, then why was a large part of the right side of her skull missing? This injury completely contradicts the statement he made that he strangled her until she expired.
However, thinking in an ‘outside the box’ sort of way, what about foraging animals? Could they have been responsible for the giant hole that was found in Brenda’s skull? The wildlife population in Washington state is pretty diverse… It’s home to bobcats, lynxes, multiple types of bears, wolverines, deer and many other large animals. Could a large outdoor creature have stepped on her skull after Bundy dumped her in the forest, causing the fracture, maybe a bear? The area is home to both grizzly and black bears: an average sized adult male grizzly weighs anywhere from 300-650 pounds, and a male black bear can exceed 600 pounds. Well, apparently I wasn’t the only person that thought of this: according to the King County ME, there is a zero chance that Ball’s skull fracture occurred because of local wildlife. This means that if Bundy was telling the truth about strangling the young woman to death, then it is difficult to see why he would have also needed to inflict such a traumatic injury upon her as well.
The following is a short excerpt regarding Brenda Ball from ‘The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer,’ written by Dr Robert Keppel: ‘The dentition of the skull contained a pattern of silver fillings that were familiar to me. I had memorized the dental work detailed on [victim’s dental] charts and easily recognized the jawless expression of Brenda Carol Ball. My crude on-site identification was to be confirmed by a forensic odontologist three days later. We photographed the cranium from all angles and measured its position to two temporary triangulation stakes. We carefully picked up the skull and preserved it in the position in which it was resting. Since dusk was setting in, we decided to wait until the next day to resume our search for the remainder of the skeleton.’
Despite the fact that LE was hesitant to link Ball to the other missing Washington state girls, ironically it was because of her that they were discovered in the first place: on Sunday, March 1st, 1975, two forestry students from a nearby community college were doing a project at Taylor Mountain when they spotted her skull lying among the damp, moss-covered trees. Shortly after, investigators unearthed the craniums of Lynda Ann Healy, Susan Elaine Rancourt, and Kathy Parks; in addition to skulls, search parties also found clumps of hair as well as an array of human bones, including a mandible and a femur that is strongly believed to have belonged to Georgann Hawkins (however they had nothing else to compare it to and it was eventually misplaced).
The following is an excerpt from the ‘SurivingSara’ GoodReads blogspot; I will include the direct link below if anyone is interested in reading all of it. Just as a side note, I wrote an article about ‘Sara A. Survivor,’ which is a pseudonym for her real name of Susan Roller. She reportedly is a surviving Bundy victim and claims that she suffered from long term abuse by him, and by this I mean she said they had a relationship (of sorts) and she sustained repeated physical and psychological abuse as a result, trauma that she alleges that she still suffers from today. I won’t go too far into her as there’s an entire separate article written about her, but she’s a real piece of work and REALLY has it out for the King County Sheriff’s, specifically Bob Keppel: ‘Skeletal remains at the scene, marked with evidence numbers, were sent to Superior Court, then returned back to the King County Sheriff Office and then sent to the ME: all the evidence numbers of the skeletal remains line up and those numbers verify they were found on site in March of 1975 at the time of the discovery of Taylor Mountain. Further, those remains were sent to Texas in 2005 and identified via DNA three of the four girls found on Taylor Mountain and another who could not be identified. In addition, records show that at least 1-2 individuals besides Ott and Naslund were found at Issaquah and at least 1 individual not matching the four girls found at Taylor Mountain was found at Taylor Mountain. Both crime scenes had girls’ clothing, jewelry, and other evidence. None of this appears to have been preserved.’
On Memorial Day weekend of 2022 I went on an overnight trip to explore Bundy’s former hood in Philadelphia, PA, and I made the drive from Attica, NY which was about a 6.5 hour drive, one way. Making that drive two days in a row was a bit nuts, but I absolutely LOVED it because I renewed my Audible subscription, put on ‘The Phantom Prince,’ and just drove… and I’m really glad I did that because it provided me with a lot of smaller details regarding Balls murder that I wasn’t aware of previously… Because Liz’s Mom kept a detailed journal, there is a detailed account as to exactly what happened on the evening of May 31, 1974:(as I said earlier), Ted treated everyone to dinner at Pizza & Pipes, however she mentioned that the meal seemed rushed and it only lasted for roughly an hour and a half. She went on to say that after everyone was finished eating, Bundy dropped them all off at Liz’s house and said that he was going home.
I am absolutely flabbergasted by how fearless Bundy was: for a good amount of his atrocities he operated VERY close to home, and when I was in Seattle I saw first hand just how close in proximity everything was to one another. When I went to the site of where Karen Sparks once lived (the residence was torn down to make room for apartment buildings) I literally looked up and there was The (former) Sandpiper! Also, The Flame Tavern is only 4.2 miles away from the Rogers Rooming House, which is less than a 15-minute drive. Plus he lived in the general Seattle area since he was a young boy: HOW DID HE NOT RUN INTO ANYONE HE KNEW??! I know if I was going to feign injury while committing multiple felonies I would at least do it in an area where I was positive that I wouldn’t be recognized. Piggybacking off that, the fact that he killed women from the same university that he attended further amazes me. He must have had gigantic stones.
As far as the truth goes… I really think Bundy liked screwing with his audience, whoever it was. Journalists. Members of law enforcement. Carole Ann Boone. He’d tell one person one thing then turn around and tell another something completely different. He would literally change his story for his audience, and lied so frequently about so much… Obviously, like so many other Ted related things, we’re going to have to take his pseudo-confession with a grain of salt, and unless someone discovers his long-lost diary, we’ll probably never know what happened to Brenda Ball. However, one thing is for certain: her life was cut short because of Ted Bundy.
Thanks to the website OddStops (which is amazing, and if you haven’t checked it out yet you totally should), I found some interesting facts about the former Flame Tavern, most recently called ‘El Baron Rojo:’ the building was built in 1928 and in 2007 it sold for $990,000. During the 1970’s, the tavern was known for its live music, anddrunken brawls would frequently break out in their parking lot. Denise Naslund (another confirmed victim of Ted’s that he would go on to abduct then kill exactly one month and two weeks later from Lake Sammamish)was a frequent patron of the bar. In addition to Brenda Ball’s abduction, in 1977 twenty-one year-old Rhonda Louise Burse was last seen getting into a car in the tavern’s parking lot and was never seen or heard from again. At one point the watering hole went by the name ‘MVP Sports Bar,’ and in 2008 a man was shot and killed somewhere on the premises with an AK-47 assault rifle, and in 2020, former owner Sonia Olvera Jimenez was arrested for the murder of a gentleman that was renting a room in her house.
Mr. Ball passed away on August 13, 1988 somewhere in Pierce County, WA. Brenda’s mother remarried a man named Donald Arnaud on March 9, 1974 and despite looking EVERYWHERE (Google, Ancestry, MyHeritage, etc…) I was unable to find any record of her passing away (even though she would currently be in her 100’s, but it’s not completely unheard of). According to an Associated News article regarding Bundy’s execution: ‘Rosemary Arnaud, mother of 22-year-old Brenda Ball, who disappeared outside a Burien, Wash., tavern in 1974, said Bundy’s death will be a relief only in the knowledge that he will never be able to kill again.’
Brenda Ball’s sophomore picture from the 1968 Mount Rainier High School yearbook.Brenda Ball’s junior picture from the 1969 Mount Rainier High School yearbook.Brenda Ball’s senior picture from the 1970 Mount Rainier High School yearbook.A grab from Ball’s 1970 Mount Rainier High School yearbook of her senior activities.A barefoot Brenda.Brenda Ball’s ID card.Brenda Ball.Brenda Carol Ball.A missing persons bulletin about the disappearance of Brenda Carol Ball.An article about the disappearance of Brenda Ball published by The Olympian on August 7, 1974.An article mentioning Brenda Ball published in The Daily Herald-Tribune on March 5, 1975.An article about the murder of Brenda Ball published in The Spokane Chronicle on March 5, 1975.An article about Brenda Ball published in The Sun Post News on March 5, 1975.An article about Brenda Ball published in The Corpus Christi Times on March 5, 1975.An article about Brenda Ball published in The Lewiston Tribute on March 5, 1975.An article about Brenda Ball published in The Spokesman-Review on March 6, 1975.An article about Brenda Ball published in The Daily Herald on March 6, 1975.An article about Brenda Ball published in The Middlesboro Daily News on March 7, 1975.An article about Brenda Ball published in The Corpus Christi Caller-Times on March 7, 1975.An article mentioning Brenda Ball published in The Minneapolis Star on March 8, 1975.An article mentioning Brenda Ball published in The Herald on March 8, 1975.An article mentioning Brenda Ball published in The Statesman Journal News on March 9, 1975.An article mentioning Brenda Ball published in The San Francisco Examiner on March 9, 1975.An article about Brenda Ball published in The Longview Daily News on March 11, 1975.An article about Brenda Ball published in The Statesman Journal on March 11, 1975.An article about Brenda Ball published in The Gazette on March 12, 1975.An article about Brenda Ball published in The Idaho State Journal on October 3, 1975.An article about Bundy that mentions Brenda Ball published in Florida Today on July 9, 1979.An article about Ann Rule’s true crime classic ‘The Stranger Beside Me’ that mentions Brenda Ball, published in The Miami News on October 22, 1980.In his statement to the media, Lt. Richard Kraske said that there seemed to be no link between Brenda’s case and the other women. Photo courtesy of ThisInterestsMe.In the days leading up to Bundy’s execution, Brenda’s mother Rosemary Arnaud said that his death will be a relief because it means that he will never be able to kill again. Photo courtesy of ThisInterestsMe.The Sunday News published this article one month after Brenda’s case became public; it did not mention her nor feature her picture among the missing. Photo courtesy of ThisInterestsMe.Brenda Ball’s death certificate.The prayer card for Brenda Balls funeral service.Brenda Balls grave. I apologize it’s not a better quality picture, it was the only l one could find. When I go back to Seattle next year I’ll get a better one.An older image of a sign for the tavern from the 1970’s. Photo courtesy of OddStops.The band ‘Child Jam’ performing at The Flame Tavern in the 1970’s.The former Flame Tavern as it looked in the 1970’s’; it’s located at 12803 Ambaum Boulevard in Burien, WA.An older image of the tavern from the 1970’s. Photo courtesy of OddStops.This Google Street View image of the bar was taken in 2011. Photo courtesy of OddStops.The former Flame Tavern as it looked in April 2022; it’s located at 12803 Ambaum Boulevard in Burien, WA. I stopped by as I was on my way to Gary Ridgway’s house (which is shockingly close to where Bundy operated).The front sign from former Flame Tavern as it looked in April 2022.The back parking lot of the former Flame Tavern as it looked in April 2022.The former Flame Tavern as it looked in April 2022.The former Flame Tavern as it looked in April 2022.Pizza and Pipes Restaurant, where Bundy took Liz and her family before he killed Brenda Ball.A Google map route from The Flame Tavern to Taylor Mountain.Google Maps directions route from The Flame Tavern to Taylor Mountain.The old Rogers Rooming House on 12th Ave in Seattle in April 2022.Highline Community College.Ted Bundy’s Taylor Mountain dump site.Ted Bundy’s Taylor Mountain dump site.Taylor Mountain, April 2022.Brenda Balls skull. Photo courtesy of Tiffany Jean.Brenda Balls skull. Photo courtesy of Tiffany Jean.Brenda Balls skull. Photo courtesy of Tiffany Jean.Brenda Balls skull. Photo courtesy of Tiffany Jean.Brenda Balls skull. Photo courtesy of Tiffany Jean.A grid of skulls testifies to the changing nature of the case police faced. Theirs was no longer a missing persons investigation. Photo courtesy of Tiffany Jean.A grid of skulls testifies to the changing nature of the case police faced. Theirs was no longer a missing persons investigation. Photo courtesy of Tiffany Jean.A Google Earth image of the layout of the Taylor Mountain site. Photo courtesy of OddStops.A map of the skulls found on Taylor Mountain. Photo courtesy of OddStops.Molly, Liz and her parents on the day of Molly’s Christening, the day after Ted abducted then killed Brenda Ball.Duane Ball’s senior year picture from the 1948 West Seattle High School yearbook.Brenda’s mother, Rosemary Arnaud.Rosemary Arnaud.Donald Arnaud’s WWII draft card.A newspaper blurb mentioning Brenda’s mother Rosemary joining the Spokane naval reserve published in The Spokesman-Review on October 21, 1949.Mr. and Mrs. Ball’s marriage certificate. Mr. and Mrs. Ball’s divorce certificate. Brenda’s mothers second marriage certificate.Rhonda Louise Burse, who was last seen at The Flame Tavern in Burien, Washington on August 8, 1977.
Another Bundy Blog. 