Here are the autopsy reports for Shanann, Bella, and CeCe Watts.
Watts Family Autopsies.
colorado
Ted Bundy’s First Escape: June 7, 1977 – June 13, 1977.
In the early morning hours on August 6, 1975 Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Bob Hayward pulled Bundy over in Granger, UT over after noticing his unfamiliar VW Beetle driving through his residential neighborhood. After the officer made his first attempt to pull him over, the man killed his front headlights and attempted to flee the scene (he also went through two stop signs). After Ted eventually did pull over Hayward noticed that his front passenger’s seat had been removed and was put in the backseat; when the tan Bug was searched officers found a crowbar, a ski mask, handcuffs, a pantyhose mask, an ice pick, garbage bags, rope, as well as additional items that are generally considered to be ‘burglary tools.’ Bundy told the officers that he found the handcuffs in a dumpster and that the mask was for skiing (I mean, of course it was); he tried to pass the rest of the things off as ‘common household items.’After a search of his apartment, it was determined that LE didn’t have enough evidence to detain Ted and he was charged for evading and the possession of burglary tools and was ROR’ed the following day. Ted later confessed that when they searched his residence, they missed a hidden collection of Polaroids of his victims, which he immediately destroyed when he was released
After being brought up to speed on Bundy’s arrest, (now retired) SLC Homicide Detective Jerry Thompson vaguely recalled that he matched the description of the suspect from the attempted kidnapping of Carol DaRonch that occurred the prior November; he also remembered Bundy’s name from a phone call he received from Liz Kloepfer roughly a month later in December. While going through Ted’s Salt Lake apartment on First Avenue, investigators found a playlet from Viewmont High Schools production of ‘The Redhead’ from the same night that Deb Kent disappeared, as well as a guide for ski resorts in Aspen with a checkmark next to the Wildwood Inn (which is where Dearborn, MI nurse Caryn Campbell was abducted from). LE compared the items found in his car to what DaRonch reportedly saw in her kidnappers VW, and it was eventually determined that the handcuffs that her abductor put on one of her wrists were the same type as the ones in his ‘kit.’ After she picked Bundy out of a line up, detectives said they had enough evidence to charge him with attempted kidnapping, and after being formally arrested Johnnie and Louise paid $15,000 to bond Ted out of jail.
In February 1976 Ted’s case went to trial: he was found guilty after waiving his right to a jury trial and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. By this time investigators were well into connecting the dots between the missing and murdered women across Utah, Colorado, and Washington. In October 1976 Bundy was charged with the murder of Caryn Campbell, and on January 28, 1977 he was extradited from SLC to Glenwood Springs, CO to stand trial for her murder. Upon arriving to Colorado, (now retired) Pitkin County Sheriff Dick Kienast commented that he felt the prisoner should be shackled at all times while in the courtroom, however Judge George Lohr disagreed. Partly due to the Sheriff’s fears about Bundy being supervised and watched, he was transferred to the Garfield County Jail in Glenwood Springs and was transported wearing handcuffs to hearings.
So, in a nutshell: because the one-time law student was acting as his own legal counsel he was allowed to appear in front of the judge while without leg shackles, which gave him the opportunity to walk without any physical restraints or limitations; this also granted him use of the courthouse’s second story law library. On the morning of June 7 after he was first escorted to the court room Bundy said that he almost made his attempt right away but was interrupted by Judge Lohr exiting his chambers. He said that a second attempt was foiled at recess when the courtroom cleared, and he was moved to the window that he would later jump from, but was interrupted by a reporter that came back to retrieve her purse. As she left Bundy decided to give her some time to exit the building and leave the area, saying he also wanted to avoid landing upon her as he fell. After quite a bit of waiting around, he felt that the conditions were finally satisfactory, and he finally was able to make his leap. leap from a more ‘modern’ building. After he escaped it took the deputy that oversaw guarding him several minutes to realize that he was no longer in their custody, which obviously helped give him a decent head start. Upon inspection, LE was able to find several footprint-shaped impressions that were deeply embedded in the earth where the now fugitive had jumped out of the window (there were also handprints, as Bundy fell to his hands after he jumped).
Upon inspection, LE found several foot and hand shaped impressions deeply embedded in the earth from where Ted had landed, and because of the building’s high ceilings it was much further down than if he made the leap from a more ‘modern’ building. After he escaped it took the deputy that oversaw guarding him several minutes to realize that he was no longer in his custody, which obviously helped give the now fugitive a decent head start.
It was Deputy David Westerlund’s practice to stand in the corridor and look into the courtroom while also keeping an eye on the door (that had a window) to make sure whoever he was guarding was still present and accounted for. Only about five minutes into recess a reporter returned to the courtroom and noticed that it was empty, and when Westerlund noticed her concern, he reassured her that ‘I think he’s in there,’ and it was only then that he poked his head into the courtroom and realized that it was completely empty. Immediately after everyone realized Ted had escaped an intensive manhunt began, which included helicopters with infrared scanners to detect body heat, tracking dogs, mountain rescue search squads, and hundreds of unpaid volunteers. Within a half hour of his escape police had roadblocks set up at every main road going out of Aspen, and members of law enforcement combed the city, going house by house looking for the fugitive.
While in court on the morning he jumped, Ted was wearing a ribbed brown turtleneck, a striped sweater and brown corduroy pants. After he escaped custody it was mentioned that he may have altered his appearance by taking off his sweater and turtleneck which revealed a blue and white striped shirt underneath. A courthouse secretary named Casey Armstrong saw Bundy land in front of her from where she was looking out a basement window, as he ran past the building’s northwest corner (where she was standing). An unnamed eyewitness told LE that at around 10:50 AM he saw Ted almost immediately after he escaped run by Freddie’s Restaurant, which was on Main Street just two blocks east of the courthouse. Members of LE that were combing the area also ran into a group of kids from The Riverside Trailer Park, who reported that they saw Bundy cross Aspens Roaring Fork River shortly after jumped. These are the only two confirmed sightings of the killer after his first escape. As the minutes turned into hours turned into days, Bundy’s escape and the way it was handled showed serious deficiencies in the capabilities of local Aspen LE (this will be discussed in length later on).
Between roughly 10:40/10:45 in the morning, an unidentified person walking by the courthouse noticed a man jump out of its second story window, and said that he landed hard but immediately got up and ran across the front lawn, past the bus depot, then out of view. The eyewitness then went into the Sheriff’s office and asked if it was ‘normal for people to jump out of second story windows around here?’ Standing at the front counter, Kralicek cursed when he heard and knew right away that it had to be Bundy. The officer and Coleen Curtis (who was another Pitkin County employee) raced up the stairs, and it was only when Deputy Westerlund saw Curtis that he acknowledged Bundy’s absence.
According to the dispatch office logs, at 10:48 AM on June 7, 1977 Westerlund put out a frantic call on his radio: ‘Bundy has escaped!’ Upon hearing the news the sheriff’s secretary Whitney Wulff immediately notified her boss, then ran out of the front doors of the courthouse and surveyed the scene: near the lilac bush at the building’s west corner she found some of Bundy’s foot/hand prints as well as some of his law papers. Curtis eventually located the sweater that he was seen wearing earlier in the day left behind in the courthouse, and it was later used as scent for the trained tracking dogs that were flown in to assist in the investigation.
By means of local radio stations, LE informed the residents of Aspen about Bundy’s escape, and warned them to stay inside and lock their doors and windows. In the early stages of the investigation, it was speculated that Bundy fled the state, and strangely enough, Sheriff Kienast had been anticipating the escape (or at least an attempted one) and said that he originally thought it would occur in the beginning of 1976 when he was first extradited to Colorado. The Sheriff went on to say, what better place to ‘make a break’ than Aspen?
After Ted’s escape Captain Pete Hayward out of SLC expressed concern that he could possibly be killed during the manhunt, and that he hoped that didn’t happen because he had ‘a lot of things I want to talk to him about.’
On the morning of Ted’s escape, the two sheriff’s deputies that transported him said that when they arrived he was dressed in street clothes and was ready to go. During the drive from the jail to the courthouse he sat in the front seat, and according to both officers he was silent for a good portion of the 40 minute drive. Sergeant Murphy sat directly behind him and while he was driving Sheriff Kralicek kept his left hand on the steering wheel and his right hand free, close to his service weapon. At that point in 1977 Kralicek had spent a large amount of time guarding Ted, and he later said that it wasn’t out of the norm and was typical behavior. On the opposite end of the spectrum Sergeant Murphy was more nervous.
When they reached their destination, Kralicek brought Ted into the courthouse by taking him firmly by the arm, while Murphy followed behind, keeping an eye on him and carrying his box of legal documents. As they walked into the courthouse a reporter from The Aspen Times named Mark Lewy took a picture of the three men (I‘ll include it in the bottom): initially, it was simply a picture for a routine assignment, a file shot to use when the trial began, but since the reporter was the only member of the press that was at the courthouse that day, his photo became the most recent and up-to-date shot that LE had of Bundy. After realizing this Lewy quickly rushed to make prints to take to the Sheriff’s department, who immediately put it on ‘wanted’ signs all over Aspen and used it for their roadblock search.
It should be noted that Ted frequently exercised in his cell and his guards reported that he was in excellent shape and physical condition, and on multiple occasions they observed him studying the Hunter Valley area as well as the slopes of Red and Smuggler Mountains. Members of Pitkin County LE strongly felt that if Bundy was on foot, he was probably headed towards Hunter Creek, a popular hiking trail that began just a short distance from downtown Aspen. Immediately after he escaped, off-duty officers from various branches of Aspen law enforcement began arriving at the sheriff’s office to volunteer their services, as well as the members of the reserve sheriff’s department. They were wearing civilian clothes and were all heavily armed.
After Ted jumped, officers were reasonably confident that he wouldn’t make it in the wilderness for very long. According to an article published by The Straight Creek Journal on June 9, 1977, after his escape (retired) Police Chief Art Hougland and City Attorney Dorothy Nuttall quickly decided to ‘go ahead and place a temporary ban on the sale of firearms and I’ll find some justification.‘ Additionally, immediately after Bundy’s jump people were asked to pick up their kids from school, to travel in pairs, and not to go camping alone. Long lines quickly formed at roadblocks, where officers searched every single car that passed through. At one of the checkpoints that was located near a small mom and pop shop called ‘Catherine’s Store,’ Garfield County PD made nine arrests that were unrelated to Bundy, and confiscated nearly 500 pounds of marijuana. Additionally, they arrested a federal fugitive on the run from California that had weapons in his vehicle.
Later the same day Bundy escaped, just before 3 PM investigators took a tracking dog to the area where he was last confirmed to have been seen. His shoes and sweater gave the canine his scent, and he was able to track him for roughly a quarter mile, but eventually lost his scent right after. It’s thought that perhaps that was where he may have stolen a vehicle, and because he got away so smoothly authorities briefly considered the possibility that he had an accomplice, and realized that his one time cellmate at the Pitkin County Jail Daniel Kellum happened to be absent without leave from his work release program. Kellum was briefly a suspect but was cleared. LE also put traces out on Bundy’s girlfriends, however they were all out of the general Aspen area at the time.
As the day progressed and it got later and later, the intensity of the search slowed down. Tired members of Aspen law enforcement were sent home to rest, but were told to report back for duty at 4:30 AM. Four roadblocks were maintained throughout all hours of the rainy night, and constant patrols were kept up on trails, highways, and most local roadways. On the morning of July 8th, Sheriff Kienast called for members of the community to volunteer and help them assist in a house to house search for the fugitive.
At 10:40 AM on June 10 Bob Keppel reached out to Liz Kloepfer at her POE at the University of Washington. She told the detective that she didn’t think he would come back to Seattle and that the last time she spoke with him was the previous Monday at 9:30 AM and that he was in a good mood and was optimistic about his upcoming trial. She further elaborated that she had not heard from Ted since he escaped but promised that if he did reach out to her that she would call them right away. Kloepfer also volunteered that she had no knowledge of any plan to escape but Bundy was making her life miserable, and she almost hoped that he would be found dead.
When he was recaptured and back in police custody investigators were able to piece together Ted’s activities and pin down exactly where he went: after he jumped out the courthouse window he said that he immediately got to his feet and ‘vaulted’ over both fences on the sides of the front walkway. He then ran down an alleyway and to the Roaring Fork River, then walked east along its bank until he got to the Neale Avenue Bridge. Bundy then returned to the road and walked half of a block to West End Street, which he followed to its southern terminus and climbed over 3,000 feet to the very top without taking a single break. He eventually found his journey obstructed by a ridge and had to replan his route, and while traveling upstream he noticed Fritz Kaeser’s cabin at the intersection of Castle Creek and Conundrum Creek Roads, and where he determined that it was most likely deserted he didn’t stop at that time. Ted continued exploring the area, and at around 5:00 PM he wandered into a residential area in Conundrum Creek, spending around four hours there looking for away out of the area.
At approximately 11:00 PM, Bundy continued with his hike along the Conundrum Trail. It had been raining since earlier in the evening, and he was still dressed as he had been right after he escaped. Soaked to the bone and suffering from exhaustion, he only was able to make it a total of two to three miles in the next three or four hours, as he kept getting lost and dozing off. At approximately 3:30 AM in the morning on the day after he escaped, Ted finally decided that he needed to get out of the rain and find a warm and dry place to rest and remembered the little hunting cabin and went back to it, arriving a half hour later.
Not wanting to risk getting caught, Bundy sat at a distance and watched the cabin until around 8:00 AM, where he then entered through the back after first trying to break a window in the front and realizing he couldn’t enter that way. After he finally made his way inside after successfully breaking a window he ate what little food he was able to find (including brown sugar, tomato sauce and tea) then slept for a few hours. Ted left the cabin shortly after midnight on June 9, bringing with him anything useful he found, including a .22 caliber high-powered deer rifle with no scope, two boxes of ammunition, a flashlight, a couple of extra shirts, a jacket, and a few items from a first aid kit. When Aspen Police Officer David Garms analyzed the fingerprints that were left behind on some dishes at the scene it was determined they belonged to Ted. Upon leaving, he left a note on the window in a poor attempt to conceal the break-in, that read, ‘TOM, sorry, broke this when putting in plywood. Will have another put in immediately. – AMY.’ When analyzed by experts, it was determined that the note had similar characteristics of Bundy’s handwriting. The cabin had previously been checked on June 4 by its caretaker Wayne Smuggler, who determined that the property appeared to be in order. He took care of the property and checked in on it from time to time when its owners couldn’t make it out there (they live in Arizona full time). When Smuggler returned to check the property on June 11 he found evidence of an attempted forced entry and immediately contacted the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Department.
After Bundy departed Kaeser’s cabin he hiked back up Conundrum Trail, stopping high up on the west side of the valley, where he slept in a secluded grove from mid-dawn until about 2:00 in the afternoon. When he woke up he started climbing the side of the valley, trekking across the ridge over the top of Keefe Peak before he dropped into the Maroon Creek Valley at about 9:30 PM, when he stopped to rest and build a fire; he stayed until 2:00 AM. Early on June 9 he continued his mission to the valley floor, only to discover he was on East Maroon Creek. Ted later recalled this as his ‘second emotional low,’ the first being when he had to return to the cabin.
A couple ‘behind the scenes, law enforcement related’ events also took place on June 9, 1977 as well: the Salt Lake City Attorney’s Office filed an escape warrant against Ted, with no bond. Additionally, Sheriff Kienast requested that reporting CBI agent Leo Konkel open up an internal investigation surrounding the circumstances of Bundy’s escape, asking that they be studied so that appropriate action could be taken against the county employees that were tasked that day to watch him.
At 6:30 PM on June 10, 1977 CBI Agent Leo Konkel interviewed the Pitkin County deputy that was in charge of watching Bundy on the morning he escaped, David Westerlund. He had been employed with the sheriff’s department in Minnesota for roughly 26 years and joined the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office after relocating to Colorado on July 1, 1976. Westerlund shared that the first time he had anything to do with Bundy was when he transported him (along with Deputy Carol Kempfert) from the Pitkin County Jail to the Garfield County Jail on April 11, 1977, which took place without incident; the day of his June 1977 escape was his second encounter with him. The following was taken verbatim from Agent Konkel’s Investigative Report regarding Bundy’s escape: ‘On June 7, 1977, he came on duty at approximately 7:00 AM. At the morning briefing, he was advised that he would probably aid in the security for the Bundy hearings. At approximately 9:00 a.m., Pitkin County Deputy Sgt. Kralicek and Deputy Murphy brought Bundy into the courtroom, directly to the counsel table. Deputy Murphy was off-duty and was discharged by Kralicek after Bundy was secured in the courtroom. He was not handcuffed nor restrained in any other manner. None of the deputies in the courtroom were armed, as is the understood policy of Judge Lohr’s courtroom (CBI).’
Judge Lohr called court to session at about 9:00 AM, and roughly 15 minutes later Sergeant Kralicek told Deputy Murphy that he was free to leave. Later that same morning at 9:10 AM Westerlund sat down next to Sheriff Kralicek, and Bundy was sitting in the railed-in section at the counsel table that is typically reserved for lawyers and their clients that are ‘parties to actions.’ Right before he went into the courtroom Kralicek had some things to take care of in the Sheriff’s Office downstairs and said that Westerlund was officially the deputy designated to be in charge of Bundy, but aside from that, he was not given any additional instructions.
When Judge Lohr called a recess at roughly 10:30 AM, everyone except Bundy and Westerlund left the courtroom. He began pacing in and about the enclosed railing area as well as around the clerk’s office, and the deputy also walked a few times along with him then remained stationary. At some time that morning Ted mailed some letters at the court clerk’s office, and on a separate occasion he approached Westerlund and told him that he needed to make some copies; the deputy showed no acknowledgement that he heard the request, so Bundy sat back down at the counsel table. Westerlund then just went and stood just outside of the courtroom door, where he could still keep eyes on the defendant, and at one point he saw Ted get up, walk around the room, then sit back down at the table. He said that the last time he saw Bundy he was standing by the counsel table before his attention was diverted for about 1.5 to two minutes because of some activity that was taking place downstairs.
When I said earlier that Ted escaped from the Pitkin County Courthouse’s ‘law library,’ your mind probably immediately went to a beautiful room with lots of leather bound books and the smell of rich mahogany… but in this case, it was just the back part of the second floor courtroom that contained a couple of six foot tall shelves filled with law books and is separated from the rest of the room by a five foot tall divider.
Deputy Westerlund reported that he was never given any additional instructions when it came to how prisoners like Ted Bundy were handled in the courtroom, and as far as he knew, the prisoner was not to be handcuffed or shackled; it was also his understanding that the presiding Judge didn’t allow deputies to wear guns in his courtroom. Westerlund acknowledged that he understood how serious Bundy’s charges were and that ‘he was responsible for his custody.’
Bundy discarded the hunting rifle somewhere ‘on the Eastern Slope of the Ridge,’ and began moving north to the junction of East and West Maroon Creeks. Sometime around 3 PM he began feeling pain in his right knee, so he stopped to rest it at the junction, where he stayed for the next six hours. After continuing with his travels, he moved steadily along the east side of the creek but his right knee locked-up as he made his way close to the vicinity of the T-Lazy-7 Ranch. According to their website, ‘the authentic T-Lazy-7 Ranch has been the jumping off point for a variety of adventure activities since 1938. T-Lazy-7 is the gateway to the world famous Maroon Bells, and has exquisite scenery for weddings, family fun, and outdoor enthusiasts.’ Despite not being able to bend his knee, he continued to cross the creek on the bridge at the ranch and onto the pavement of Maroon Creek Road.
Making sure to avoid major roadways and traffic routes at the first sign of daylight, Bundy continued his trek along Castle Creek Road and eventually made his way back to Kaeser’s cabin. Upon his arrival at roughly 4:30 AM on Sunday, June 12 he realized that police had been there, and because of this he was afraid to stay any longer, fearing they would return. Ted called this discovery his ‘third and worst emotional low.’
Upon this event, Bundy then made his way back to a parking lot on Conundrum Trail, and at roughly 8 AM one of the search helicopters landed roughly 200 yards from him as he laid resting in some tall grass, almost giving away his hiding place. This spooked him, and from there he made his way back to Aspen Mountain, which he had originally escaped down four days prior. Because he was so physically weak he started heading back towards Aspen, and it was during this ascent on Sunday morning that he ran into a local resident that called himself ‘Sinclair’ (most likely Bruce), who told him that he was ‘hunting for Ted Bundy.’ The fugitive told Sinclair that he was from Pennsylvania but he promised that he would ‘watch for Bundy.’
On Saturday, June 11, 1977 trained canines were flown into Aspen from Denver to help with the manhunt, which was moved from the eastern part of Aspen to the Castle Creek region after the discovery of the break-in at the cabin. The use of dogs had been previously suspended Wednesday, June 8 after rain showers caused the mutts to lose track of Bundy’s scent.
That Sunday, July 12 Ted made what he considered to be good progress in his journey: he kept walking north towards Aspen, passing the local sewage plant and meandering down the western side of the mountain. He then made his way back into the Castle Creek Canyon area, moving west and eventually crossing into a golf course at the Prince of Peace Chapel via Colorado Highway 82. While walking through the course he tripped and fell in a thick patch of brush, and because of his extreme state of distress he remained there, unable to get it together enough to keep going. After roughly an hour he was finally able to gather the strength to get up and keep going, and eventually entered a residential area in the Cemetery Lane area, where he wandered around for a few hours before deciding to steal a car and get out of the area once and for all.
On the law enforcement side of things, at around 1:00 PM on June 12, 1977 the FBI reached out to the Pitkin County Sheriff’s asking about some friends of Ted, and they officially became involved in the investigation due to the fact that he was being looked into for charges related to an unlawful flight to avoid imprisonment. Also on the 12th Bundy walked the five miles back to Aspen and stole a blue Cadillac from the Cemetery Lane area; it was unlocked and the keys were in it. As he was making his way through Independence Pass at around 2 AM on June 13, 1977 he came across a sign that read ‘CLOSED- ROCK SLIDE’ and pulled a u-turn, making the decision that he was going to attempt to bypass another checkpoint on his way out of Aspen; if successful, he had plans to barter the expensive camera that he found in the car for gas money. It was then that he ran into Officers Gene Flatt and Maureen Higgins in front of the Cresta Haus Lodge located on the outskirts of eastern Aspen not far from the Pitkin County Courthouse. In the very early stages of the investigation, the two simply pulled him over on the suspicion he was intoxicated, but that’s when he was apprehended (I will have more to say regarding this event later). For the entire six days Bundy was free he had only been about five to eight miles away from the Pitkin County Courthouse.
The usually clean cut Ted had grown a scraggly beard and he had scratches all over his body, and had lost anywhere from fifteen to twenty pounds; he was also suffering from extreme exhaustion and was incredibly confused and disoriented. After he was recaptured a Physician saw him in his cell, and reported that he had blistered feet, a knee strain, and scratches all over his body. There had been a road block fairly close to where he was driving right before he was apprehended, so there was a fair chance that he would have had no other choice than to have driven through it and would have wound up being taken into custody anyways. After the arrest was made someone from the Sheriff’s department came clean and said that the cruiser that pulled the fugitive over was in such bad shape that it only had a max speed of 30 miles per hour, and ‘it’s a good thing Bundy didn’t try to outrun them.’ In fact, all five of the patrol vehicles that were assisting in the manhunt were reportedly in poor working condition.
At around 7:15 AM the news broke that he was back in police custody. About Bundy’s capture, (now retired) deputy Gene Flatt said that ‘at first I didn’t recognize him..’ Gaunt and almost hollow-looking, Bundy had been wearing some sort of disguise, and was dressed in a plaid shirt (that he stole from the cabin), a yellow hat, and wire-rimmed glasses (which were swiped from the Caddy), as well as a Band-Aid on his nose. When he was brought in, Sheriff Kienast greeted him while smiling, and said ‘welcome home, Ted,’ to which Bundy replied, ‘thank you.’ In an interview with TV reporter Barbara Grossman, Officer Flatt said: ‘I noted a vehicle driving erratically about an eighth of a mile east of Aspen on Highway-82. We observed this vehicle for a matter of seconds and I turned around and pursued it and found Mr. Bundy driving.’ When asked if he immediately recognized the fugitive, Flatt said that ‘it took me about two glances, he was pretty… altered. His appearance had been altered by glasses and uh, a minor growth of beard.’ When asked if Ted mentioned where he was headed Officer Higgins replied ‘that he didn’t say,’ and Flatt said that he was ‘most likely going to leave the Valley, if possible.’ When asked in an interview if the height of the second story courtroom worried him as he was making the jump, Bundy replied, ‘it could have been six stories, I still would have done it.’
Under intense guard and a high level of security, Ted was brought back to the Pitkin County courthouse later the same morning he was recaptured; he was barefoot and wearing jail issued, dark green coveralls, and thanks to a new court order it was now mandatory that he wear leg shackles at all times while in court. As he was led inside, he engaged in a little bit of back and forth with reporters, and when a photographer tripped a bit while attempting to take his picture, Bundy joked: ‘don’t hurt yourself.’ His recapture caused elation amongst the Pitkin County Sheriff’s department, who had suffered a large amount of embarrassment thanks to his escape, and about it, (now retired) Undersheriff Ben Meyers said, ‘we’re very, very relieved, to say the least.’ Bundy was then given some new charges by Judge George Lohr: escape, second degree burglary, misdemeanor theft (for stealing a .22 caliber rifle), and felony theft (the Caddy). In response to this, Ted (in his exhausted and drained mental state), didn’t say much; if convicted of the new charges alone Ted could have faced up to ninety years in prison.
Oddly enough, it was an attempted rape not committed by Bundy that may have led to his recapture: at around 1:00 AM on June 13, 1977 a 17-year-old student suffered an attempted sexual assault as she was walking home along West Hopkins Street in Aspen. She went to police and told them that her assailant had followed her briefly then knocked her down and kicked her in an attempt to subdue her. He then tried to drag her by the hair, but she screamed and struggled until he got spooked and ran away. The young woman described him as between 19-28 years old, 5’10” tall, and 165 pounds; he was clean shaven with dark blonde, collar-length hair and was wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt, and after the altercation she told investigators that she remembered hearing a car pull away from the scene. Upon hearing that a then unidentified Bundy had been pulled over, Aspen Police officer Terry Quirk reached out to the Pitkin County Sheriff’s and asked if they needed assistance, and when he arrived on the scene he quickly realized that neither deputy (Higgins or Flatt) was in complete control of the situation nor did they immediately recognize who they were dealing with: but thankfully Quirk arrived and realized who they were dealing with and gained control over the arrest, taking the wanted man back into custody.
Long-time Bundy researcher and respected reporter Richard Larsen said that he often wondered if this escape may have been loosely premeditated, as he waived extradition to Colorado. I mean, he had nothing left to lose, why not take a chance and return to laid back and easy going Aspen, where the local keystone cops could possibly make a mistake? And I mean, he wasn’t wrong because that’s exactly what happened. And while on that topic, why was the security in the courtroom practically nonexistent? After he was rearrested in the early morning hours of Monday, June 13, 1977, Larson sat down with Bundy in Sheriff Kienast’s office for an interview surrounding his activities and whereabouts during his six day siesta. He shared that he thinks the last time he was in Aspen for a motion hearing was on May 23, and it was then that he made the decision that the next time he came there he was going to escape. He had been carefully and methodically getting ready for a jailbreak for months, but had not made concrete plans until then. Ted also said that although he had become more focused on his plan roughly 30 days before his escape it still took him a while to get over his worries on how it could possibly affect his upcoming murder trial.
As we all know, Bundy wasn’t in Colorado for long: later that same year on December 30 he escaped for a second time, this time getting all the way to Tallahassee in the ‘Sunshine State.’ He rented a room at ‘The Oakes’ Rooming House near Florida State University under the alias Chris Hagen (who was a real, one time student at the school)…. But I’m going to end this article at that, and leave the circumstances regarding this other escape for another time.
Interestingly enough, Bundy wasn’t the only dangerous convict that escaped from police custody in June 1977: On April 4, 1968, James Earl Ray killed Martin Luther King, Jr. with a single shot from his Remington rifle while the civil rights activist was standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. On June 10, 1977 Ray (along with six other prisoners) escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee, and remained at large for 54 hours before he was recaptured during a massive manhunt on June 13. He was charged for his prison break and an additional year was added to his existing sentence, officially making it a full century.
Melanie Suzanne Cooley.
Melanie Suzanne Cooley (also called Suzi by family and friends) was born on October 27, 1956 to Bob and Nina Cooley in Boulder, Colorado. The middle child in a family of six, Ms. Cooley was 18 years old when she disappeared close to the high school she attended in Nederland (which is about 50 miles away from Denver) on April 15, 1975. She was a petite girl with dark eyes and long brown hair she wore parted down the middle. Melanie had a younger adopted sister named Michelle that was six when she disappeared, a younger brother named Cris that was about 18 months younger than her, and an older brother named Bob Jr. that was a sophomore at the University of Colorado. She lived with her family in the foothills west of Boulder on Magnolia Drive, her Father Bob was an airline pilot and her Mother Nina was a student at the nearby University of Colorado, studying both English and Anthropology. Interestingly enough, this is the first time I’ve come across any sort of political notation on any possible Bundy victims: in my research I learned that the Cooley family leaned very much to the left and was very politically active, participating in Vietnam War protests as well as civil rights demonstrations and peace marches. Nina Cooley said Melanie loved animals, even saving the life of a tiny kitten that was so small it needed to be fed with an eyedropper. Like most 18 year olds, Melanie had a strained relationship with her parents, and in her later years had an especially tough time getting along with her Mom. Of this time in their lives, Nina Cooley said: “as she grew older it often seemed I could do nothing right for Suzi, as though that girl-child had found me inadequate. I took it personally and how it hurt, lost as I was in my own neediness to be loved, I could not see her great need for separation-from-mother and independence of her unique self, and her need for the love and guidance of a mature mother.” Melanie had big dreams and aspirations and didn’t want to be tied down to her small town roots and was skeptical of the more traditional family values in which she was raised. Despite this, Nina Cooley adored her daughter, saying that: “she learned fast, was bright and quick, when she wasn’t somewhere faraway. When she was three years old her favorite book was about a baby rabbit eager to be big and wise enough to leave the nest.” It was reported to law enforcement that the young girl reportedly experimented with drugs on occasion (including marijuana and some “harder substances”) and frequently hitchhiked. Friends said she had no qualms with accepting rides from complete strangers and would often hitchhike home from school with other neighborhood kids largely because she didn’t like taking the bus. Mrs. Cooley said that Melanie was “somewhat of a wilful girl.” … ” she wanted what she wanted right then.” and that ” for us, a stranger was a friend we hadn’t met yet.” Melanie either was sexually active at the time of her death or was planning on engaging in sexual activity shortly before she died (Nina said she bought birth control pills in hopes to soon have a boyfriend).
Described as a good student by her teachers, Suzi was a lover of the arts, and was a gifted artist that loved reading, macrame, painting, journaling, creative writing, and poetry; she was also a talented musician that loved playing the guitar. Melanie also had a deep love for photography and even helped take pictures for her high school yearbook; she stayed active by hiking and skiing. She didn’t play any sports but did help keep score for the basketball team. In addition to being active in academics and after school activities, Melanie was employed as a valet driver at the nearby Eldora Ski Resort. Only six weeks away from graduation, she planned on either attending the University of Colorado (which is where her Mother and Brother attended college as well) or traveling. Her Mom said she would say, “I want to get a jeep and just drive!” and that “freedom was her watchword, and had been always.” … “she was desperate to learn. But she wanted to learn about life, and so little in school seemed relevant. She saw the absurdity, the burning irony, of being imprisoned
in an institution of learning while life was going on all around her out there! Her impatience and frustration knew no bounds. So much to learn and so little time,
speak the words of her journal, over and again.” She had a deep appreciation for nature and was fascinated with learning about Native American heritage and culture. One time Suzi went tent camping alone for three days in the mountains and while she was away from her site hiking a bear came by and raided her camp. She was so excited over the situation she immediately went home, got her mother and brought her back to show her what happened. The bear destroyed her set up and left behind giant footprints, even shredding a container filled with beef jerky. Nina Cooley said that her daughter didn’t always like to follow the rules and that teachers and fellow students either “loved her or had a tough time getting along with her.” … “She drew people to her or she repelled them. Her first grade teacher feared and disliked her openly, overtly. The teacher of her second grade class adored her, took her to lunch and on special trips, gave her books of poetry. The pattern continued into high school.” Nina also said that Melanie had no problems speaking her mind and that on occasion it got her in trouble.
After classes were over on Tuesday, April 15, 1975, Melanie left the high school she attended in Nederland, Colorado where she was a senior and was never seen or heard from again. She was last seen by friends hitchhiking nearby campus, and it’s unclear where or when exactly she got picked up; no one saw the vehicle the young girl climbed into that day. She was last seen wearing blue jeans, a blue denim jacket with an embroidered eagle on the back (that she designed herself), a soft peachy-tan blouse with a background made up of small orange flowers and different colored geometric figures, and knee high tan leather boots. On the day of Melanie’s disappearance, Nina Cooley told law enforcement that she was wearing her hair pinned up “in a kind of french roll” and that “she looked very pretty.” When she didn’t come home that afternoon on the bus with her brother or even call her parents tried to report her missing the very next morning. When Nina voiced her concern to her husband he said, “oh, you know how she is, all drama!
We’ll hear from her.
” The parents were met with push back from the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department that told them there was nothing they could do until she was missing for at least 48 hours. From there she called Melanie’s two best friends, but neither one of them knew where she was. One girl shared that recently Suzi mentioned a Pink Floyd concert she really wanted to go to but that was the extent of her knowledge.
Two days later on Thursday, April 17 the Cooley’s received a call from the Nederland High School Principal with news that a man came in with a wallet containing Melanie’s’
The Principal called the Cooley’s as a formality to let them know the wallet had been found and let them know he turned it into the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department. Later that day a Boulder County Detective came to speak with the family to get more information and a picture of Melanie to begin search efforts. A few days following that her parents and four sheriff’s deputies combed the area where the wallet had been found, which had previously been a hippie commune and had “sheds and outbuildings, piles of old lumber, barrels of trash and rusted auto bodies” scattered all over it. Mrs. Cooley discovered her daughter’s prescription birth control pills, in a personalized pink case with “Suzi” written on it, discarded in the dirt a few feet away from the side of the road; that wasn’t something Melanie would have been irresponsible or careless about. Something was very wrong. driver’s license and other personal information in it
. He found it near his property and brought it straight to the school, figuring it must have belonged to a student.
On Friday, May 2, 1975 the body of Melanie Suzanne Cooley was discovered fully clothed and frozen by a maintenance worker on Twin Spruce Road near Coal Creek Canyon about 20 miles away from where she was last seen. Of the discovery, Jefferson County Sheriff Brad Leach said: “she had been bludgeoned, perhaps with a stone. Her hands were tied in front with a yellow nylon cord; many, many feet of it, wrapped around and around. She died from a blow to the head and strangulation. Her face had been beaten repeatedly with a rock … One contact lens was missing. The body was in pretty bad shape. What with freezing and thawing, and the wild things, two weeks lying there.” … “Her body, fully clothed, was found by the driver of a bulldozer on a little mountain track up Coal Creek called Twin Spruce Road, a few miles from where the billfold and pill case were recovered. The body was frozen.
” It was far worse than anything the Cooley family could have dreamed of. Of her big sisters death, little Michelle said: “Suzi always said she wanted to be free. And now she’s free!”
Despite that innocent statement the young child quickly developed nightmares about her siblings death and struggled with them for many years.
Author Ann Rule briefly discussed Melanie in her true crime bestseller ‘The Stranger Beside Me’: “a filthy pillow case, perhaps used as a garrote, perhaps as a blindfold, was still twisted around her neck,” which I think suggests the killer was some sort of transient or camping enthusiast (why else use something as obscure as a pillow case?). Cooley’s remains were identified by a report card law enforcement found in her pocket as well as through dental records and a small (less than a quarter inch long), very particular brown birthmark in the shape of a shoe found on her thigh. Mr. and Mrs. Cooley also positively identified her based on the clothing she was wearing. The young girl was believed to have been deceased anywhere from ten days to two weeks before her body was discovered. Because her remains were at an advanced level of decomposition after being exposed to the elements for so long it was impossible to tell if she had been sexually assaulted. In my research on this case I couldn’t find evidence or mention of it anywhere.
It’s suspected Melanie may have been a victim of Ted Bundy’s, however the only real, semi-compelling evidence is gas receipts that put him close to the scene in Golden, Colorado at some point in the month before Melanie vanished (about 50 minutes away). After killing women in Utah during October and November of 1974, Bundy migrated east in early 1975 to Colorado, killing nurse Caryn Eileen Campbell in January, the first of three confirmed women he killed there. Cooley possessed a lot of the same physical traits that Ted’s other victims did: she was attractive and slim, with long brown hair she wore parted down the middle. Like other Bundy killings surrounding an academic setting (Debbie Kent, Lynette Culver, and Kim Leach), it’s strongly speculated that the killer may have abducted Melanie as she was leaving school, as Ted moved around comfortably in a both high school and college settings (Florida State University, Evergreen State College, Central Washington, Oregon State and Brigham Young University). I do want to point out that Cooley was found fully clothed where Bundy typically left his victims in either a nude or semi-nude state.
Melanie was murdered 9 days after Denise Lynne Oliverson, who was abducted and killed on April 6, 1975 from nearby Grand Junction. Only a few months after Cooley was murdered twenty four year old Shelley Kay Robertson from Golden, Colorado was reported missing after she didn’t show up to work. Robertson was last seen alive in the company of a “wild haired man driving an old pickup truck” by a police officer on July 1, 1975. Seven weeks after she disappeared, Shelley’s body was found in a mine shaft near Georgetown. Ted did drive a VW Beetle as we all know but his brother did have a pick up truck (who I know lived in Tacoma which is a 20 hour drive away but still).
Regarding what Bundy was doing in April of 1975 I can’t find any record of him working anywhere. In August 1974, Ted was accepted to law school for a second time at the University of Utah and moved to Salt Lake City on September 2nd, 1974; he was a student there in April 1975 when Cooley was murdered. Shortly after Melanie’s remains were found in June 1975 he was employed as a night manager in charge of Bailiff Hall at The University of Utah (he was fired for showing up drunk) and in July and August of 1975 he worked as a part-time security guard at the school; his position was terminated due to budget cuts.
Another serial killer investigated (but eventually cleared) of Melanie Cooley’s death was Vincent Groves, who was convicted of strangling at least seven women in Denver, Colorado between March 1979 and July 1988. On July 25, 1988 an investigation into the murder of an Aurora prostitute helped link Vincent Groves to the deaths of 17 sex workers metro-wide; he was arrested on September 1, 1988. He was convicted of the strangulation death of Diane Mancera, whose body was found dumped at the Surrey Ridge exit off of I-25 in July 1988. Groves began to have health problems in the early 90’s and he was eventually diagnosed with Hepatitis C and liver failure. He died on October 31, 1996 in a prison hospital near Denver. Shortly before his death, Groves was asked about other murders but he refused to discuss anything. Sixteen years after his death in 2012 his guilt was conclusively proven in four murders (Emma Jenefort, Peggy Cuff, Pamela Montgomery, and Joyce Ramey) with the help of DNA profiling. According to the Denver Police Department based on circumstantial evidence and a number of testimonies, Groves could have been responsible for more than 20 murders (however at this time his total victim count remains unknown).
Like confirmed Colorado victims Melissa Smith and Laura Aime, Cooley was a small-town girl taken close to her hometown community. Also like both girls, Melanie’s remains were found largely intact in an open, remote area. About the region of Colorado where Melanie lived and was abducted from, Redditor ‘annaflixion’ said: “I lived in Rollinsville and went to school in Nederland in the 80’s. It was a . . . weird place. Like all of Colorado, it’s a place where stark opposites live together in uneasy harmony. There are indeed a lot of hippies and granola types, people who collect crystals and want to live in harmony with nature. Then there are the right-wingers whose homes are almost compounds, where they are suspicious of strangers and that sort of thing. A lot of people just wanted to live kind of “off the grid.” Everyone smokes marijuana. No one ever, ever tells the police anything. You could beat your kids or your wife; no one would dream of telling the police. That was the down side of the “live and let live” style up there. I don’t know, it’s been a long, long time since I was there, but honestly I found it insular, though there were nice people, too. I think it would be surprising if she happened to run into Ted Bundy, but it’s possible. Girls especially tended to be very trusting, as I recall. They were pretty sheltered. And holy shit, getting anywhere was impossible, so yeah, hitchhiking would have been the thing. Even my schoolbus didn’t actually drop me off anywhere near my house. I had like a three mile hike home every day.” (I just wanted to add, Rollinsville is about 5 or so miles away from Nederland High School). I do want to point out that there are two glaring differences between Smith/Aime’s murders compared to Cooley’s: both girls were sexually assaulted and Bundy accepted responsibility for killing them.
Redditor ‘DepartmentWide419’ commented: “I live here and this case fascinates me.” … “Nederland high school is near eldora. There is essentially a single highway that runs through Ned, the 119. It runs from Boulder (and beyond, but for our purposes, Boulder canyon) to black hawk. It runs through downtown Nederland. The high school is off of another road, Eldora ave, that heads to a very remote town, Eldora. The only reason a non-local would go down this road is to go to the ski resort, Eldora. In the off season, a non-local would have no reason to go down this road. It contains the high school about .6 miles down the road, a dozen or so houses, and the 4th of July trail, which is fairly popular but could be inaccessible due to snow in April. She may have walked out to the 119 to hitch a ride. But I doubt Ted Bundy would be down Eldora ave.” … “The 119 is very popular with sightseers and tourists. Bikers, bicyclists and RV-ers are common. But April is a little early. A roving serial killer may have simply heard it is a nice joy ride and been passing through.” … “In terms of small town values, small town values here are smoking marijuana, being sexually active and “getting in a jeep to just drive.” Those are pretty much the pastimes here. Others include skiing, drinking, shooting guns and foraging. We have a couple nice music venues and a pretty famous recording studio. The dead and a bunch of other bands recorded albums just out of town here, so it is remote, but it’s not like her interests were in some way rebellious for the culture here.” … “I’m unsure where is meant by the “foothills west of Boulder” but twin spruce is not exactly in that direction. So she would have been hitching a ride in the wrong direction on the 119 to be brought to twin spruce if she in fact lived west of Boulder, and was trying to go home. Or someone turned around or lied to her about where they were going. Maybe something like, “oh yeah I can bring you down to Boulder on magnolia Road” but they cut down to coal creek instead. Either way, she would have known she wasn’t going home within 15 minutes. These are also windy roads. Turns are taken at 20 mph in many places. So it seems like a difficult place to kidnap someone from unless you had doors that didn’t open from the inside. Because your captive could literally just jump out of the car. A smaller sedan needs to take roads like magnolia at 15 mph in many places. I have to take those roads at 10 mph in an AWD SUV with studded tires in a lot of places. It’s just too bumpy and curvy. Especially in April before the roads have been resurfaced, they are a mess. A country girl who is familiar with the area could easily pop out and run into the forest and find their way to a trail from magnolia to Nederland. Unless the doors were locked from the inside or there were two people.” … “I think it’s most likely it was a local or a transient with enough time on their hands to learn the back roads and how they all connect. You can take magnolia for instance, cut over to coal creek and then turn on to twin spruce. But it would be a difficult sequence for a non-local to know. Probably more than one person, and someone who lives here.” … “Bikers have a strong hold here and have since the 60’s. Lots of outlaw types and lots of speed. Pretty much anything could have happened to her, but I find Ted Bundy less likely than creepy yokels hopped up on speed or other drugs. LSD is easy to find. All drugs are. A couple of weirdos on a bender seem way more likely. They would have had a reason to be in Ned, maybe leaving a local establishment and heading home to Gilpin/coal creek area. They could see her, find her attractive. They could name nearby places to make her comfortable, maybe offer to smoke a joint over by twin sisters, or the reservoir or other beauty spot on her way home. She says yes. It gets weird. They don’t let her leave. They panic, realize they can’t let her go. Rope could easily already be in the car. A lot of people carry it here. Either kill her on the spot, or bring her home to kill her. (Who has a pillowcase in their car, unless they are homeless? Why would a young girl get in a car with a homeless dude?).”
When digging for information on the unconfirmed victims I sometimes have to get creative in my attempts to find interesting and engaging information. In a YouTube comment on the only (very short) video I found on Melanie Cooley, a childhood friend named Renee Wilson said: “I knew her. She was my neighbor, babysitter and friend. I loved her. I was so heartbroken when it all happened and didn’t know who Ted Bundy was. I was 8 at the time and I still feel the emotions.” … “She was very beautiful inside and out. She was kind, giving and fun to be around. I idolized her. I was and still am heartbroken.” … “I am always amazed by the interest in Melanie. She deserves to be remembered. Yes, I do believe Bundy did it. There are things that I know that others do not. She was so sweet and fun.”
There’s another very obvious part of this story that is very frequent in Bundy victims: the hitchhiking aspect. Brenda Ball, the unknown Idaho hitchhiker, Laura Aime… just like Melanie these girls were frequently known to hitchhike (well, I’m assuming the frequent part about the poor Idaho victim). Melanie’s cause of death was a combination of strangulation and blunt force trauma, which is a very frequent Bundy method of murder. Now, when she was found her hands were bound together with a nylon rope, and I feel it’s important that while none of Bundy’s other (confirmed) victims were left this way we do know that he sometimes did use handcuffs to help subdue his victims. He may never have used a nylon in a binding sense however Ted did confess to using one to strangle at least one of his victims.
Bob Cooley passed away on March 31, 2011 in Boulder. On November 20, 2012, Melanie’s Mother Nina published a memoir titled “Dream Path: Search for Meaning, Search for Truth.” It’s description reads: “Cooley, now retired and widowed, lived in Texas and Colorado before moving to California with her husband. Desperate for answers to Life’s mysteries following the violent death of her teenaged daughter, she began recording dreams, became a psychotherapist using dreamwork where appropriate. She currently facilitates a small circle of devoted dreamers.” Regarding Bundy as a suspect of her daughters murder, she said: “Ted Bundy, the notorious serial killer, was to be executed in Florida. At least two books and countless brief accounts of Bundy’s biographical information and his trail of terror have been published. As Bundy had been a suspect in my daughter’s murder, it was known that he was in the vicinity when she disappeared, a reporter from the local newspaper came up to my house for an interview. A reporter with a Seattle newspaper called, “People Magazine” too, wanting to do a story. I declined, seeing no need of that kind of publicity. Because Bundy was a suspect in numerous crimes in many places, a large group of journalists, detectives, and other law enforcement personnel traveled to Florida and waited in line to interview him before his execution. By the time the Boulder representative, number thirteen, gained access, Bundy was ready to admit anything and everything, and did so with abandon. They learned nothing of value.” Law enforcement eventually came forward saying the evidence against Ted was inconclusive and Melanie’s case is considered cold to this day; Bundy denied any involvement with her murder. Personally… I’m not sure about this one. If Ted really did go after “slim, long haired brunettes that wore their hair long and parted down the middle” and Melanie was wearing her hair up in a “french roll” the day she was abducted it would have made her look drastically different from one of his typical victims. But, if he stalked her before abducting her (as he was known to do) then he would have known her hair was indeed not short. This particular ‘what if’ situation reminds me of yet another unconfirmed Bundy victim Sotria Kritsonis, who got her long, dark hair cut short right before supposedly accepting a ride to school from him (he allegedly let her go after realizing she had gotten her hair cut off). I think there’s a semi-decent chance that Cooley was a victim of Ted, however without DNA or any other forensic confirmation we will probably never know for sure.
Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to please contact the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office at 303.271.0211.
Another Bundy Blog. 