Valerie Ann Duke was born on July 27, 1956 to Thomas and Elizabeth Ann (nee Porter) Duke in Mathis, Texas. Mr. Duke was born on September 15, 1931 Archer City, Archer, TX and Elizabeth was born on August 9, 1933 in Mathis, TX. The couple were wed on November 6, 1954 and had two children together: Valerie and her younger brother Thomas Wade Duke II (b. 1957). An Eagle Scout, Tom went on to earn his PhD in Oceanography at Texas A&M after serving as a Lieutenant in the US Air Force. At some time the family relocated to Tucson, AZ and in 1968 they moved to Gulf Breeze, Florida. The Duke family was Methodist, and before her death Valerie was a member of the Gulf Breeze United Methodist Church.

Information about her background was hard to come by, but I do know she graduated from Woodham High School in Pensacola in 1974 then went on to attend Florida State University in Tallahassee. After enrolling she pledged the Gamma Chapter of the Chi Omega society, and eventually moved into their house on West Jefferson Street; in early 1978 she lived across the hall from Lisa Levy, and next to Kathy Kleiner and Karen Chandler. On January 14, 1978 (which was the night before Bundy’s Chi Omega attacks) Duke decided to go home to her parents house for the weekend in Gulf Breeze, and was not present for the murders that took place the following evening.

On the first anniversary of the murders Valerie Duke dropped out of school, which according to her mother was ‘completely out of character for Valerie. She had broken up with her boyfriend and couldn’t seem to decide whether to stay in Tallahassee or come here.’ Her sorority sisters also said that she was having an incredibly difficult time processing the murders, and to make matters worse, according to her parents Bundy’s fingerprints were found in her room (even though I came across a shred of evidence that confirmed that).

But, Valerie believed it and on May 1, 1979 while driving in between her home in Gulf Breeze and Tallahassee the twenty-two year old* pulled her car off to the side of the road near the East River in Holley and shot herself; she died as a result of her injuries. Her remains were discovered at 6 PM later the day, roughly ten hours after she killed herself . Former Lieutenant Ron Boswell of the Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Department said Duke parked her car near the river, locked the doors, then shot herself with a .38 caliber pistol that was found inside of the car. Also according to Boswell, ‘a suicide note was found inside of the car, at this point we have no reason to suspect foul play.’ It’s strongly speculated by those that knew her well that survivors’ guilt drove Duke to take her own life, and after a communion service she was laid to rest at the Cenizo Hill Cemetery in Mathis, TX. * For the record, I have seen her age listed at both 20 and 22, but simple math puts her at 22 years old.

Thomas Wade Duke I retired from the US Environmental Protection Agency as their Laboratory Director of Marine Biological Research in Gulf Breeze, FL, and went on to work as an environmental consultant for five years. In 2006 Tom and Elizabeth moved from Florida to Woodstock, Georgia to be close to their son and his family. Dr. Thomas Duke died at the age of 79 on March 10, 2011 in Woodstock, Georgia, and Mrs. Duke passed away at the age of 84 after a lengthy illness on December 1, 2017 in Pensacola.