Thank you to my wonderful friend Erin Banks and her blog CrimePiper for this document.
Salt Lake City
Ted Bundy, Gas Receipts.
I have been searching for Bundy’s gas receipts for YEARS. I’ve always struggled with insomnia, and last night at around 4 AM found a TB website I never came across before and read through EVERYTHING. Thank you to the ‘Ted Bundy Archives’ WordPress page and Kevin Sullivan for this information.
Rhonda Karol Stapley.
Rhonda Stapley was born on August 19, 1953 to Rulon and Vivian Stapley in Richfield, Utah. Rulon (who seemed to go by his middle name of Floyd) was born on July 22, 1928 in Joseph, UT and Vivian was born on October 19, 1933 in Austin, UT. The couple were wed on April 11, 1948, in Coconino, Arizona and eventually settled down in the Salt Lake City area. Together they had 4 children: two boys (Rulon Dale and Michael John) and two girls (Rhonda Karol and Bonita Rae). Mr. Stapley worked as an operator of a frozen food company but passed away in a plane crash on October 3, 1967 at the age of 39. Vivian had a variety of jobs in her life, and was employed as a school lunch lady, in fast food and retail stores. She remarried Stanley Redfern in 1978 and passed away at the age of 87 on October 7, 2021. The Stapley family apparently had a small-scale ‘claim to fame’ after developing a couple patents for some potato products. Rhonda graduated from Connell High school in 1971 and went on to attend the University of Utah. After completing her degree in pharmacy, the petite 4’11” brunette married Barry Robert Godding on (either) April 23/24, 1979 in SLC (according to Ancestry). In the acknowledgments portion of her book she mentions she has ‘daughters’ but doesn’t elaborate any further .
On an unusually warm and sunny day in October 1974 Rhonda Stapley was waiting for the bus to pick her up to take her back to her dormitory when a young man in a light colored VW Bug pulled up and asked if she’d like a ride: ‘just as it passed me, it stopped and he put it in reverse and backed up. He rolled down the passenger window and he says, ‘Hey where are you going?’’ When she replied ‘the University of Utah,’ he told her that’s where he was headed as well and asked if she’d like a ride, which she happily accepted. The shy young college student had been at the dentist and her mouth was still sore from the extensive work she had just had done. He introduced himself as Ted and told her he was a first year law student. Stapley immediately noticed his striking blue eyes and told him that she was close to being done with a degree in pharmacy. In an interview for the documentary ‘Ted Bundy: The Survivors,’ she shared that it ‘didn’t feel like hitchhiking, what I did. This felt like a friendly college student helping another college student, and that seemed normal and not out of place.’ But, it didn’t take long before Rhonda realized that the handsome stranger wasn’t taking the normal route back to school. When she asked him about it he politely inquired if it would be okay if he just ran a quick errand up by the zoo, to which she said no, she didn’t. But when the zoo came and went, Rhonda quickly became concerned again, to which the man simply told her that the errand wasn’t AT the zoo but near it. And that’s when things began to get extremely uncomfortable for her: ‘the ride started to become strained, he stopped talking to me altogether, he just had both hands on the steering wheel just driving.’ Desperate to escape, when Stapley reached for the door handle she realized it was missing, and that’s when she REALLY began to panic.
At around 3-3:30 PM, the young man eventually reached Big Cottonwood Canyon and ‘suddenly he pulled over. It seemed like he was looking for a place to park. At this point I did not expect a murder attempt, I was more anticipating an attempt at a romantic parking episode, and I wasn’t afraid of that either, just not interested, and wanting to get out of that potential situation without embarrassing either of us. I still thought he was a nice and somewhat charming guy right up to the moment.’ … ‘He turned a way that wasn’t the normal route to the university. You could get there that way, but it wasn’t the normal route and I questioned him about that. I said, ‘Where are we going?’And that was when the ride started to become strange. He just had both hands firmly on the steering wheel and was just driving.’
After finding a secluded spot off the beaten track, Stapley’s abductor stopped the car and turned to face her directly. The naive young Mormon woman was certain he was going to make a move on her and lean in for a kiss: ‘in my mind, I think he’s looking for a place to pull over and park and make out.’ The thought of such casual intimacy with a complete stranger was something she wasn’t comfortable with, not only because of her devout faith but also her sore mouth. However instead of a smooch he looked at her, his bright blue eyes now black, and said completely without emotion: ‘I am going to kill you.’ … ‘Then he puts his hands ’round my throat and starts squeezing and shaking me, and I’m thinking, ‘Why? Why does he want to kill someone and why is it me?’’ After dragging her out of his VW, Rhonda’s captor proceeded to physically and sexually assault her for hours in the public canyon near a picnic table. During the assault he choked her out, repeatedly taking her to the brink of consciousness then stopping; he even slapped her across the face to wake her up. Stapley also claims that he bit her on the right breast and would yell at her, ‘you should be thanking me that you are even still alive. I can kill you anytime I want.’ She said that: ‘he was angry, more angry than I’ve ever seen anybody. His fists were clenched and his veins were bulging on his forehead and his neck, and his face was bright red. His eyes were almost black.’ Interesting fact about the bite: Rhonda said the marking reappeared roughly forty years later (which immediately made me think of the stigmata markings on Christ during his crucifixion).
When his back was briefly turned and he was ‘distracted by something near his car,’ Stapley was able to escape her captor by jumping into a ‘fast moving mountain river’ and floating to safety: ‘As soon as I jumped up and started to run, I fell into a fast-moving mountain stream, which is probably what saved my life.’ When she got far enough away (I got the impression she was at one point unconscious while in the stream and woke up land), she managed to get herself out of the water then walked the roughly ten miles back to the University of Utah. She traveled mostly through the woods, petrified that her attacker would find her if she walked along the main roadway. She credited her new boots as one of the main reasons she was able to make the long walk back, and on the CrimePiper website, user ‘Fra La’ commented that ‘she has added yet another reason why she was on foot, she had new hiking boots to break in. New details cropping up all the time, lol. Too many details.’ To this, site creator (and good friend of mine) Erin Banks replied: ‘convenient plot twist to explain why she still had her pants on when she walked back home for 6-7 hours. The boots were a brilliant idea, I’ll give her that (when Stapley jumped in the running water she claimed that her pants were still around her ankles).’ After her long journey back to the University of Utah, Rhonda took a long, hot shower then assessed her injuries: she had bruising on her face, a large ‘goose-egg’ over her eye, bruises and markings all over her body (but especially around the neck), and a few broken ribs. Somehow, no one ever questioned her about any of it, including her friends, roommates, and professors, who all saw her routinely after the incident. Despite the headlines she saw that reported other women from the Salt Lake area were vanishing at an alarming rate, Stapley kept the incident to herself and didn’t come forward with her story until 2016.
Because Rhonda left some of her personal belongings (including her drivers license) behind in her abductor’s car, she was afraid that he would somehow eventually track her down. But, thankfully she never updated the DMV with her new mailing address after she moved so he couldn’t locate her through her ID. The identity of her attacker remained a mystery until roughly a year after her assault, when she saw his face in a newspaper in August 1975 when it was reported that a local law student was arrested for the unsuccessful kidnapping of Carol DaRonch. After Bundy (who she referred to as ‘her bad guy’) was finally caught, Stapley said that his arrest brought not only relief but also a ‘wave of guilt. It was another proof that it was him. ‘That’s the guy.’ Maybe I should have done something about it.’ She rationalized her decision of not going to LE because other women had since reported him and she felt that she had nothing else of value to add. She also feared unwanted attention from those who wondered why she didn’t report the incident to police earlier.
Fearing that if her mother found out she had been assaulted she’d make her dropout of school and return home, Stapley blamed herself for accepting a ride from a stranger. Also, at the time of her abduction she was a virgin as well as a devout Mormon, and didn’t want people to think poorly or less of her if they knew she was no longer pure: ‘the teachings in the LDS church at that time was that your virtue and your chastity were the most important thing a young woman could have, and if you come to a point giving up your chastity or your life, you’re better off eternally if you die.’ … ‘I felt ashamed and embarrassed and stupid; stupid for even getting into such a dangerous situation.’ … ‘I imagined people whispering, ‘that’s that girl who was raped.’ I didn’t want attention. I still don’t.’
When enough time passed and Stapley was finally ready to date again, she left little notes all over her (shared) apartment (including underneath garbage cans) sharing where she was and who she was with. She hoped that if she ever went missing again her roommates (or the police) would eventually find them and because of them they would be able to locate her. That I do think is a little weird: were they not friendly? I have friends who are devoutly religious and they still talk openly about dating and men. It’s not forbidden, why all the secrets and weird notes? And what if the garbage can got dirty and they needed to clean it? Ever have a bag of trash leak garbage juice all over the can? It’s not pretty… personally, I would have most likely hosed it off… So what’s to say the note would have even been found?
Could you imagine how many lives Stapley could have saved if she came forward immediately after she was attacked? I stopped commenting on Facebook posts of people talking about how it was her ‘faith that forced her to keep her mouth shut and she was embarrassed and ashamed.’ I’m sorry, I just don’t buy that. Being sexually assaulted was completely out of her control, and if she went to the police right after it happened maybe Bundy would have been caught sooner, which would have prevented some of his Utah and Colorado killings as well as everything in Florida. When asked why she didn’t go to police earlier she told People magazine: ‘I thought that I just needed to put it away and make life like it was before and just pretend it never happened.’
Rhonda kept the assault to herself until 2011, when a supervisor at her POE using the same type of threatening language as Bundy did put her in an uncomfortable situation, which forced the memories of her assault to immediately come rushing back to her. The nightmares and flashbacks finally forced her to seek help: ‘I couldn’t control my tears, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat. I thought I was going crazy. But I knew it had to be related to the Bundy stuff, because that’s what my dreams and my nightmares and my panic attacks were about.’ Stapley sought mental health therapy, and like many other Americans turned to the internet for help. After an anonymous online friend shared a run-in with the serial killer she was finally able to gather the strength and tell loved ones what happened to her after almost 37 years: ‘there’s no group of Ted Bundy survivors that I could sign up and join. But there are other people who have experienced trauma. They can understand not wanting to tell, and the shame and embarrassment and all those things that go along with rape. The main thing I wanted to tell people was that they’re not alone. Even though their traumatic experience may be different than my traumatic experience, at least there’s someone who can recognize those feelings and people who can understand.’ Looking into it, Rhonda publicly came forward with her story in the spring of 2016: I see she did an interview with Dr. Phil on April 26, 2016 and published her book ‘I Survived Ted Bundy: The Attack, Escape & PTSD that Changed My Life’ (complete with forward by Bundy bff Ann Rule) on May 5, 2016. She also did an interview with People magazine roughly a week later on May 13, 2016.
Rhonda kept the assault to herself until 2011, when a supervisor using the same type of threatening language that Bundy used put her in an uncomfortable situation, forcing her past to immediately come back to haunt her. The nightmares and flashbacks finally forced Stapley to seek help: ‘I couldn’t control my tears, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat. I thought I was going crazy. But I knew it had to be related to the Bundy stuff, because that’s what my dreams and my nightmares and my panic attacks were about.’ She sought mental health therapy, and like most other Americans, turned to the internet for help. After an anonymous friend shared a run-in with the serial killer, Stapley was finally able to tell loved ones her story after almost 37 years: ‘there’s no group of Ted Bundy survivors that I could sign up and join. But there are other people who have experienced trauma. They can understand not wanting to tell, and the shame and embarrassment and all those things that go along with rape. The main thing I wanted to tell people was that they’re not alone. Even though their traumatic experience may be different than my traumatic experience, at least there’s someone who can recognize those feelings and people who can understand.’ Looking into it, she publicly came forward with her story in the spring of 2016: I see she did an interview with Dr. Phil on April 26, 2016 and published her book ‘I Survived Ted Bundy: The Attack, Escape & PTSD that Changed My Life’ (complete with forward by Bundy bff Ann Rule) on May 5, 2016. She also did an interview with People magazine roughly a week later on May 13, 2016.
Stapley stated her assault took place in the ‘autumn of 1974,’ which does line up with when Bundy was living in Utah for his second (unsuccessful) attempt at law school (he moved there from Seattle on September 2, 1974). He was living at his first SLC apartment located at 565 1st Avenue North, and from what I understand he made a decent attempt his second time around and made a point of going to most of his classes. He was in between jobs at the time, but previously worked at the Department of Emergency Services in Olympia from May 3, 1974 to August 28, 1974. He remained unemployed until June 1975, when he briefly was employed as the night manager of Bailiff Hall at the University of Utah (he was fired the next month for coming in inebriated). Bundy was still in a long distance relationship with Liz Kloepfer, even though things seemed to be strained and sort of fizzling out at that point.
In my opinion, the most damning piece of evidence against Stapley’s claims is the missing VW handle. Like Sotria Kritsonis, Rhonda claims that the passenger’s side door handle was completely missing from the car, and I’m sorry… that’s never been brought up in any other CONFIRMED Bundy case (Kritsonis does not apply). I personally don’t believe it. As Erin Banks’ points out in her book, ‘Ted Bundy: Examining the Unconfirmed Survivor Stories:’ ‘the 1968 Beetle would not open if the outside door handle was still attached to the door while the inner door handle had been dismounted, Several researchers have credibly demonstrated that in the past. If the inner latch had been discounted, the integral part of the door handle, the cylinder pin latch assembly, and mounting screws holding inside and outside of the door handles together, and only separated by the door/panel itself, would sit loosely in the door. If one now tugged on the outer latch in an attempt to open the door, one would inevitably pull out the entire door handle from the outside.’ I don’t think I need to go on, as this right here proves there really was no way she would have been able to let herself in the vehicle if it had no inside handle. The only other thing I want to touch on regarding this topic is when I was in Seattle I listened to the Phantom Prince on Audible and I remember thinking to myself how often Ted drove around in his Beetle with Liz, Molly, and other friends… if he took the door handle off his vehicle he would have the run the risk of someone in his life seeing it, and no one in his inner circle ever reported seeing it missing. We also have to remember that he was drunk and/or high a good chunk of the time he was out ‘hunting’… he could have very easily forgotten that he took it off, running the risk of getting caught by Liz (or any other woman he was sleeping with). Lets also think back to Carol DaRonch, who had no problem exiting Bundy’s car on her own and never said anything about a missing door handle when she had her own experience with him a month later in early November, 1974.
Another thing about Stapley’s story that jumps out of me is her complete lack of any sort of substantial head wound. Most of Ted’s victims (if not all of them) suffered from some sort of skull injury in order to help incapacitate them, but Rhonda said her attacker didn’t go after her in any such way. He also didn’t use any sort of medium (like a cable or rope) in his strangulation technique aside from his hands, which is unusual for him (for example, with Cheryl Thomas he used a pair of pantyhose to choke her). Also, despite the fact that Stapley said it was an unseasonably warm fall day, the water she floated away in still would have been incredibly cold: according to my research, the waterways in and around SLC in October would have been in the high-50’s to low/ mid-60’s, and experts say that you should consider any water temperature below 70 degrees Fahrenheit with extreme caution. I guess I just find it hard to believe that she would have been able to gather the energy and strength to walk the TEN MILES back to her dormitory after being submerged in freezing cold water… Especially when you throw some (self-diagnosed) broken ribs, a painful dental surgery, and hours upon hours of being brutally sexually assaulted into the equation… I mean, the journey would have taken her hours, and since she traveled through the woods instead of the main roadway the conditions would have been a bit rough and less than ideal. In her book, Banks reports that when you take her height, weight, and normal everyday level of activity into account it would have taken her at least 15-20 minutes per mile of walking (and that was a healthy, uninjured individual). Also, when Stapley woke up after moving down the river she reported it was dark outside (meaning it was after 7 PM), which is the time of sunset in SLC in October. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure her adrenaline was really pumping, especially at first… but her walk back would have taken hours, it would have eventually worn off.
Additionally, Ms. Banks spoke with residents of SLC that lived near the area of Cottonwood Canyon where Stapley said she was assaulted. They reported that the level of water present at that time of year would have been minimal, and the depth of a puddle: ‘just a few short inches high during fall and winter.’ Banks also said there were lots of large boulders in the water which would have further prevented Stapley from ‘floating away from her abductor.’ Something interesting Erin points out in her book is that after the assault Stapley attempted suicide but half-way through had a change of heart. She called a suicide prevention hotline for help, and the man that answered her call (named Dave) immediately dropped the phone and rushed to her address in order to save her life. I mean… I work for a health insurance company, I have a pretty good understanding of HIPAA laws and how important it is to follow them. Even in a time as unregulated as the 1970’s, I never heard of a crisis hotline employee (or ANY other mental health professional) breaking every single rule put in place so they could go and help the person that called in. Stapley and ‘Dave’ somehow ran into each other again years later (he had since earned his doctorate), and after catching up a bit and telling him her story he told her that she was his hero and that he ‘put her on a pedestal right alongside my family members who work as first responders or who have been in military combat.’ I mean, what? Why would anyone say that to her?
Stapley is one of a few women that claimed to have been kidnapped and/or assaulted by Ted Bundy and lived to tell the tale. I know one individual from my Facebook group that said she was a victim of his but requested that I respect her privacy and not pry any further (she is working on a book from what I understand)… I know of a few others that have some pretty obvious mental health issues. Please keep in mind, when I say this I’m not talking about his confirmed victims, like Karen Sparks/Carol DaRonch/Kathy Kleiner/Karen Chandler/Cheryl Thomas. Just like Sotria Kritsonis (whose abduction site was my very last stop when I went to Seattle in April 2022), Rhonda came forward later in life to tell the tale of her run in with Ted. On February 9, 2018, Kritsonis did an interview with KIRO-TV where she discussed her 1972 alleged kidnapping attempt, which was very similar to Stapley’s: it also began at a bus stop on her way to college (just minus the dental surgery) and the car she got into was also missing its passengers side door handle. Just as a side note, one thing that does irritate me is how people say Rhonda isn’t ‘attractive enough to be a Bundy victim,’ which absolutely drives me nuts because first of all, attractiveness is subjective and (in my opinion), she was a pretty girl in her younger years. I mean, I personally think the serial killer was an opportunist that took advantage of whoever he happened to stumble across… Let’s look at his younger victims, like Kimberly Leach, or Lynette Culver. This is probably borderline inappropriate to say but I don’t think Bundy looked at these TWELVE YEAR OLD GIRLS and thought, ‘ they’re attractive and totally my type, they’re going to be my next victim.’ He simply took them because they were there.
The reviews for Stapley’s book on Amazon seem to be mostly good: as of December 2023, it had 677 reviews and a rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars. Some are overwhelmingly positive, for example one was written by a private investigator that said it ‘should be mandatory reading at all police academies’ Another that said: ‘the author’s story of survival, and struggle with PTSD is incredible. This is one person’s description of how trauma influenced her decision-making process. From an outsider’s point of view, it was enlightening, terrifying, awe-inspiring and educational. I encourage all law enforcement officers to read and study this book.’ However, others completely write off her story, and say that the entire scenario never happened and was made up for attention. This is just my personal observation, but most of the people that picked up her book and believed her story seem to be true crime novices, and didn’t have a very complete understanding of Bundy’s story, where the ones that were doubtful have a stronger background in true crime and have a deeper understanding of the case.
On June 22, 2016, Rhonda went on KATU’s morning show and told the host that her alleged encounter with Bundy was more serious and relevant than Carol DaRonch’s because she was sexually assaulted but DaRonch wasn’t, saying: ‘she actually escaped as soon as she got into the car so she wasn’t really assaulted.’ It’s absurd to think that because DaRonch wasn’t raped or brutally beaten that she wasn’t ‘really assaulted.’ The woman fought off a crowbar and escaped with a handcuff around her wrist. She clearly suffered horribly at the hands of her attacker. Of course she was assaulted.
I always wondered how Stapley’s family and other loved ones felt about her story, specifically if her husband and daughters believed her. Apparently, Barry Godding didn’t fully support his wife’s decision to publicly come forward after so many years and was even less enthused at the idea of her writing a book. She said that he liked to throw temper tantrums about her ‘quest to tell her truth and often insulted her with insensitive remarks about finally getting over that pesky rape all those years ago.’ I went through Rhonda’s FB page a few times in preparation for this article and interestingly enough, Erin Banks had the same mentality that I did about a heart attack Barry suffered the same year that she came forward about what happened to her, saying: ‘in a 2016 status update on one of her Facebook profiles Stapley speaks of how relieved she is that her husband is finally recovering after his heart attack, for she can now finally get back to promoting her and selling her book. I found this statement to be incredibly tone deaf and revealing as to her own level of empathy: ‘Barry seemed to think that I was dredging up ancient history for some devious purpose. I got the impression he thought that I was competing with him, that I had decided to become upset about a long ago trauma just as he was dealing with his own health crisis.’’
When I write an article, I have a set list of resources I go through, such as Reddit, YouTube, Ancestry, MyHeritage, and so on and so forth. One of my favorites is CrimePiper, which is run by Erin Banks, who is the author of the book I mentioned earlier. When I visited the sites files section something interesting caught my eye: a professor at the University of Utah and Rhonda’s one time mentor through the LDS church named Dr. Victor B. Cline published a paper on May 24, 2009 titled ‘Pornography’s Effects on Adults & Children,’ and on page nine he mentions Bundy. Rhonda said that Dr. Cline was ‘the first man to take a personal interest in her after the attack,’ and he requested to be assigned as her home teacher. Typically this is something the church does with all of the members of a family present, however in Stapley’s case he worked with her alone. The PhD told her he was famous and that people paid good money to receive his counseling services, but because they were meeting through the church he was providing her with those services for free. A great point that Ms. Banks brings up is that when Dr. Cline reached out to Rhonda, he had no idea that she had been assaulted by Bundy, and ‘she believed he, a virtual stranger, just ‘seemed to sense’ that something was wrong with her. To take such an extensive and personal interest in a female student, considering the obvious possible connotations of the nature of his interest, is astounding for someone who has much to lose as Cline did. It’s ‘not recommended’ by the LDS that a man and a woman who are not married or not otherwise related to one another interact without witnesses present or in great frequency. Still, Cline showered young Rhonda with attention. (Banks, 19).’ So, this man that apparently had a big impact on Stapley in her post sexually assaulted years wrote a paper that mentioned Bundy, and suddenly two years later she comes forward claiming that he assaulted her in October 1974? Come on.
Stapley still lives in SLC with her husband, and in a 2016 interview with People magazine she referred to herself as ‘an inventor’ as well as a pharmacist, wife, mother, and grandmother. In January 2003 Rhonda and her sister Bonita Hunt founded SnuggleHose, which is defined on her website as ‘warm, soft, cozy covers for CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machines for patients with sleep apnea) hoses and ventilator machines.’ Stapley came up with the idea after she was diagnosed with sleep apnea in June 2002 and started using a CPAP. She is active on multiple social media platforms and even participates in ‘Ted Bundy trivia’ on the Facebook group ‘TB: All Opinions Matter.’ About her experience of living through being raped by Bundy, she said: ‘I think my experience with Ted Bundy affected every aspect of my life. It changed my level of self-confidence, it changed my trust, even my trust in myself. I became more introverted, less outgoing.’
I want to end this article with a quote from Erin Banks’ book: ‘Mrs. Stapley’s worth as a human being is indisputable. Her story is not.’ Before I wrote this article, a (very small) part of me wondered if *maybe* the young college student was raped (even though I didn’t think it was by Bundy). But, then I remember when I had my wisdom teeth extracted: my mouth was incredibly sore and puffy, plus I was numb from the novocaine. Not to mention I was bloody and stuffed full of gauze. Was Bundy really so hell bent on sexually assaulting a woman that he did it to one in such an off putting situation? Stapley said that he even raped her orally, which surely would have not been ideal for him considering the condition of her mouth (she said he was so rough that he ripped out some of the stitches in her cheek, which would have only made her 10 mile walk home even more hellish). Oddly enough, much like the bite mark on her breast that reappeared forty years after it happened, on one occasion when Stapley was thinking about the assault and how her oral stitches were ripped out her gums began to bleed for no reason. I mean, if I were Rhonda and I had just endured hours upon hours of hell, I would have looked for the first person available for help, not wandered back to campus, probably unsure of where I was going, hoping and praying I’d make it back alive. There’s just so many parts of this story that don’t really make any sense. A small part of me does feel bad for doubting a potential rape victims story, but I can’t help it.
Johanna Tabitha Virginia Strong Leatherbury.
Johanna Tabitha Virginia Strong Leatherbury was born on May 17, 1953 to Jack and Gayle (nee Strong) in Cedar City, UT. Mr. Leatherbury was born on September 16, 1916 in Eureka, UT and her mother was born on July 21, 1920. The couple were wed on May 22, 1939 in Heber City and eventually settled down in Holladay outside of Salt Lake City. Jack was a graduate of Brigham Young University and worked for the Union Pacific railroad for 43 years. The couple had ten children: six boys (Jack, Charles, Paul, Christopher, Marshall, and Greg) and four girls (Roxanne, Johanna, Suzanne and Jacquine, who died the same day she was born on February 22, 1940).
Johanna stood at 5’3″ tall and weighed 135 pounds at the time of her murder. In 1971, she graduated from Olympus High School and was employed at Ballast Hall, a dormitory at the University of Utah. She was also a member of the Holladay Sixth Ward Chapel, a branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The evening of August 20, 1971 was no different than any other: before she left her family home to go hang out with her friends the 17 year-old said goodbye to her parents and siblings. It would be the last time the Leatherbury’s would see her alive. The night turned into morning, and she never came home. This wasn’t like Johanna at all and her family knew right away that something was wrong. Immediately they began to search the area in hopes of finding her.
Described by one of her brothers as ‘thoughtful and kind,’ Johanna was very well liked by her peers and was deeply loved by family and friends. She always made time to visit her grandfather at the VA, who was an injured World War II veteran and loved spending time with her nieces, who said their aunt would often take them out for coffee with her friends and never treated them like children. Like most teenagers on the cusp of adulthood, Leatherbury liked going out with friends and ‘hanging out:’ on the evening of Friday August 20th, she met up with friends at a popular hangout referred to as ‘The Complex,’ which is best described as a vacant field where kids from the areas high schools went to hang out. Leatherbury had just graduated and was moving on to college (most likely the University of Utah where she worked), and it’s important to keep in mind it was the end of August, which is right before school starts up again. Of the spot, Jack Leatherbury said that it was just a normal teenage haunt, and that the areas two schools (Skyline and Olympus High) were just a five minute, 1.7 mile drive apart so many of the students knew each other from growing up in the same area: ‘the kids from Skyline and Olympus High School all hung out at this area. They played games and did what teenagers do.’
I have two different reports as to where Johanna was last seen: in an article published by The Ogden Standard-Examiner on August 24, 1971, it stated that ‘Miss Leatherbury was last seen Friday night when she drove a friend home.’ However the more frequently given account is that she was last seen getting into a car with two unidentified gentlemen containing an unknown number of people by friends near The Complex (which was located at the intersection of State Street and 2100 South Street) at roughly 11:00 PM on August 20, 1971 (I read one source that said it was as late as 11:25 PM and listed the location at 2500 South State Street and West Temple). No one caught the type of car that Johanna got into, however the public was given a description of two different makes and models that were said to be in the area where she was last seen: on August 26th just days after Leatherbury was murdered LE issued an all points bulletin on two cars and their drivers that were reported to be near The Complex. One of them was a 1959/60 black (or dark green) Chevrolet Impala with an engine that ‘sounded like a washing machine’ that was driven by an approximately 24 year-old male with ‘hair down to his ears.’ The second vehicle in question was a 1970/71 Dodge Charger with white racing stripes painted on the sides and a black stripe on the rear that was driven by a person described as ‘young and blonde.’ Unfortunately, it seems that police were unsuccessful in their search efforts.
The day after Johanna was last seen her older brother Jack heard a report on the radio that immediately alarmed him: ‘it was a bulletin on the radio that said there had been a body discovered in the surplus canal out by the Great Salt Lake.’ … ‘Good Lord, I could tell you where we were about every hour from the day to the time they discovered her.’ Per KSL, her younger sister, Roxanne said that ‘when she didn’t show up, we all began to panic.’ The Leatherbury family’s search attempts didn’t yield any answers; however her body was quickly discovered the next day.
On August 21, sometime between 4 – 4:45 PM the naked remains of Johanna Leatherbury were discovered in a marshy area near the Great Salt Lake by David Russell and Neal Draper. The men happened to be fishing in the canal, which was located about a half mile west of the west stock bridge on the Goggin’s Drain by the Great Saltaire, an abandoned entertainment complex that had been destroyed in a fire in November 1970. Goggins Drain is a bypass canal that drains water from a surplus canal and helps transport water from 21st South to the Great Salt Lake. At first the two fishermen thought they found an old department store mannequin, however after they brought it to shore and further inspected it they quickly realized that wasn’t the case at all: it was the corpse of a young woman.
Because it was 1971 and not 2023 the men had no cell phones, so they drove to the closest town of Magna, UT to inform law enforcement about their discovery. Once detectives arrived on the scene and pulled the body out of the water it was obvious to them what happened to the young woman: she had been shot in the chest and head nine times and stabbed in the chest and stomach four times (I did see it reported she was stabbed five times and another that said was shot only three times). She had also been raped and pistol whipped. In the very beginning, responding officers thought the body may have belonged to 17-year-old Sheri Martin, who disappeared from her POE of Winchells Donut House on August 12, 1971. Martin’s body was eventually found by two hikers 15 miles south of Wendover on September 6; she also died from gunshot wounds.
Captain Pete ‘ND’ Haywood of the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Department told the public that they’re ‘looking into many leads in the killing of Leatherbury, but we have no suspects at this time.’ Strangely enough, a 20 year-old woman named Leeora Looney disappeared the same evening in August 1971 that Johanna was murdered after she was reported missing from her POE at a doughnut shop in Lakewood. According to court documents, her car and purse were also both left behind, completely untouched. Several witnesses reported seeing two men in the shop just before she disappeared that were later identified as serial killers Sherman Ramon McCrary and Carl Taylor. Three days after Looney disappeared her naked remains were found in a remote field; she had been strangled, raped, and shot in the head. It was later determined McCrary and Taylor were responsible for her death as well as Shari Martins. The McCrary family is suspected of at least 24-26 additional murders (I’ve read varying amounts) and all involved young women that were last seen alive at doughnut shops throughout Colorado, Texas, Florida, Kansas City and Utah between 1970 and 1971. In 1988, 62-year-old Sherman Ramon McCrary hung himself in his cell while serving time in prison; he would have been eligible for parole in 1997.
It wasn’t long before police identified the woman as Johanna Leatherberry. After she was found, SLC deputies thoroughly combed the marshes that bordered the Great Salt Lake for clues. Additionally, on August 22-23 two Utah National Guard helicopters helped in the search and they combed through the area where her remains were found; unfortunately, this failed to find anything of value. Detectives speculated that she was killed early in the morning after she disappeared then was transported to Goggins Drain. After arriving, her assailants dragged her body into the water, where it floated for roughly eight hours before it was discovered. Investigators found multiple tire tracks and footprints near where the remains were recovered as well. On August 26, 1971 detectives executed a search warrant to enter an undisclosed Salt Lake residence, where they confiscated a .22 caliber gun as well as a switchblade, which may have been connected with the crime. Ballistics tests were done on the weapon and comparisons were made with slugs taken from the girls remains. A total of three .22 caliber pistols as well as the knife were sent into the FBI crime lab in Washington DC; also sent in were the victim’s fingernail clippings, hair samples, her Chrysler car, and her purse as well as its contents. Captain Haywood told the media that all possible leads were being investigated and any pistol which deputies came across in their routine duties were being run through ballistics.
At first, the investigation was on a fast track and LE were certain an arrest would quickly be made, however all leads were deemed to be a ‘dead ends’ and fizzled out; the case quickly went cold. Weeks turned into months, which turned into years, then decades. Hopes for a quick arrest vanished after multiple persons of interest were questioned and cleared. In an article published on August 27, 1971, it’s reported that at one point five full time detectives were assigned to the Leatherbury case. They conducted interviews with hundreds of Johanna’s family members, friends, school/church mates, acquaintances, and coworkers, but no one could provide them with anything of value. One of Captain Haywood’s ‘hottest leads’ was a phone call from a man that wished to remain anonymous that claimed he had seen a girl abducted near the County Complex the same night Johanna was last seen. Officers asked the man to call them back and Haywood even offered to protect his identity.
Captain Haywood said that one of LE’s biggest handicaps regarding the investigation was that no one that was with the victim at The Complex the night she disappeared ever came forward to offer information. Because of this, investigators had to keep going back to find individuals to check out certain pieces of information, which took up a lot of valuable time and made their job much harder. Haywood speculated there were at least a dozen kids at The Complex the night Leatherbury disappeared (if not more), but nobody wanted to come forward and volunteer anything helpful. It also made him wonder if maybe there was some form of illegal activity going on that night that nobody wanted to get in trouble for.
According to KTSU, today the vacant lot where Leatherbury was last seen is now occupied by The Salt Lake County Clerk’s Office and an assisted living development. One odd fact about this case is that her wallet and checkbook were found on the roof of the World Motor Motel which was located at 1900 South and State Street in SLC. Eventually, two juveniles (one of them was an industrial school escapee) came forward that had items in their possession that belonged to Johanna; they were questioned, cleared, and released. The boys admitted to rifling through her Chrystler early on Saturday, August 21st and stealing her purse, which she left behind on the backseat. The two then went through the bag, throwing its contents on the roof of the motel; they threw the purse itself in some nearby bushes. LE found the belongings thanks to a breeze that blew several of Leatherbury’s papers off the roof of the motel, which alerted them to the location of the items as they combed the area for evidence. Detective Haywood said that Leatherbury’s vehicle was found a couple blocks away from The Complex parked on Westminster Avenue between State Street and 200 East near the Salt Lake County Complex in the early morning just hours after she disappeared.
A night watchman from the Morton Salt Company told LE that he saw a brown International Harvester Scout driving in the area where Johanna’s remains were recovered at around 5 AM on August 21; this is the same time that investigators suspect her remains were dumped. When detectives located the vehicle’s owner and spoke to him, he was cleared as well. Captain Haywood said of the killer, ‘there’s no doubt in the world that this is a crime committed by a local person.’ The SLC Chief of Detectives seemed to back him on his claim, saying that Leatherbury’s body was found in ‘practically an unknown spot’ and that the individual would have had to had to have known the area ‘intimately’ to find his way in and out on the three trails leading to the area. One of those three paths was useless and led directly to a muddy mess.
On September 5, 1971, Haywood announced that he saw links between Johanna’s case and the brutal murders of William Rulon Shaw and a young delivery driver named Mike Bown. Shaw was a 65 year old florist that was killed three days after Johanna on August 24, 1971 after he was shot during a robbery of his shop. Michael Preston ‘Mike’ Bown was a 23 year-old deliveryman in Provo and was shot in the back of the head on September 2, 1971 while dropping off bread at Natter’s Market on South 700 East Street. The bullet struck him in his left cheek and exited through his right eye, killing him instantly. Another employee, 33 year-old Carolyn Kingston was also shot in the head through her right temple but survived. The suspect got away with less than a hundred dollars. There was a second delivery man on the scene and I read conflicting reports that either the suspect’s gun jammed or that he ran out of ammo, but regardless as to what happened that person’s life was spared that day. According to him, the robber was between 18 to 20 years of age, had curly hair, was short and well groomed. Left behind at the crime scene was a gold Timex watch with a dark blue face and a blue and gray striped nylon band. The timepiece used Roman numerals rather than numbers and is strongly believed to have belonged to the suspect. Additionally, there were reports of a 1959 Black Chevrolet Impala four-door sedan at the scene with its engine running, much like the one seen the night Johanna disappeared. Haywood said that he saw similarities in the deaths of Bown, Leatherbury, and Shaw: they all involved a .22 caliber pistol and that the ‘mode of operation’ in the Bowe and Shaw homicides were similar.
At the time Johanna was murdered Bundy was living in Seattle at the Rogers Rooming house on 12th Avenue and was in a long term relationship with Elizabeth Kloepfer. He was also an undergraduate psychology student at the University of Washington (although he was in between semesters at the time, as it was the middle of August). At the time he was a delivery driver for Pedline Supply Company, which was a family-owned medical supply company (he was there from June 5, 1970 to December 31, 1971). One of the first things that jumped out at me regarding Johanna being a possible Bundy victim is the fact that she was shot multiple times. None of Ted’s victims were ever shot, and aside from Carol DaRonch’s claim that he pulled out a gun during her attempted kidnapping I never heard of him using such a weapon in any capacity. The only other unconfirmed victim I wrote about that suffered from gunshot wounds is Susan Wickersham. On July 11th, 1973 at 11:30 PM, the 17-year-old dropped the family car off at the restaurant her mother was working at in Bend, Oregon then left to wait across the street for some friends to pick her up. When they never showed up, she decided to walk home instead and was never seen alive again. Wickersham’s skeletal remains were found in the woods by a man collecting firewood on January 20, 1976. Examination of her skull by the state medical examiner’s office determined she had suffered from a gunshot wound to the head. Personally, I don’t think Bundy killed Susan and it seems like her family doesn’t either (I briefly spoke with one of her SIL’s on FB and she agrees with me).
Officials in charge of Leatherbury’s murder said that most of the files related to the case were damaged by flooding at the police station years ago. Despite going cold, her case is still considered ‘active’ and officials exhumed her body in 2017; the results of this examination have not been shared with the public or even her family, which deeply upsets them. Johanna’s niece Sandy said that they ‘weren’t privy to hardly anything. We appealed for the file, and we were denied.’ … ‘She deserved more. She deserved to have whoever did this to be caught.’ … ‘We just didn’t have any follow-through. There was no follow-through. It was just put up on the shelf and left.’ … ‘I am so angry and frustrated because there was a door being slammed in our face all of the time.’ However, a spokeswoman for the Unified Police Department named Melody Gray disagreed with that statement, explaining that the case is still active and that they ‘have a full-time cold case investigator and he has actively been working this case including right now.’
A newsletter for the police society VIDOCQ dated December 15, 2015 mentions a presentation the organization put on regarding the case of Johanna Leatherbury (looking through their website I couldn’t find any additional information on her). In the article, Deputy Police Commissioner Bill Gill reported that Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Todd Grey was able to secure a sample of Leatherbury’s DNA as well as her mandible for further testing. The same article mentioned that the group was going to speak with a serial killer named ‘Robert Lee Sales,’ who was serving time at the Utah State Prison for murders similar in nature to Leatherbury’s. Incarcerated since 1973, Sells raped and murdered multiple young woman around Johanna’s age in the early 1970’s. He was convicted of the murder of JoAnn Poulsen from Corinne, UT, who was recovered from the PineView Reservoir on September 26, 1971. Oddly enough she disappeared on August 21, 1971, which is the same day that the remains of Leatherbury’s were recovered.
About her sister, Roxanne Leatherby-Brough said that Johanna ‘was a good kid. She tried hard to please other people, help us all. I don’t know. I miss her a lot.’ The remaining members of the Leatherbury family haven’t gotten much information related to Johanna’s case over the years, and unfortunately both of her parents died before seeing their daughter’s killer brought to justice: Gayle passed away at the age of 64 on November 6, 1984 and Mr. Leatherbuty died at the age of 73 on May 6, 1990. Their son Jack said he watched as the gruesome details and gnawing unknown tore his parents apart, and because of the death of their daughter they both went to their graves completely changed people. A few of Johanna’s siblings have passed away as well: her brother Paul died at the age of 55 on November 23, 1997 in Murray, UT (which is coincidentally where the Fashion Place Mall is located, which is where Carol DaRonch’s attempted abduction took place). According to his obituary, he was a past President of the Utah Arabian Horse Association and he loved his horses, fishing, and traveling. He had a great zest for life and was known to those who loved him as ‘the world’s greatest salesman.’ On July 5, 2012 Greg Leatherbury died of complications from diabetes at the age of 61. He was known to loved ones as ‘the great organizer’ because he excelled at planning events and activities, including an annual Father’s Day Open Golf Tournament. Charles Leatherbury died at the age of 73 on December 27, 2018; he was in the US Army and fought in the Vietnam War.
Because of their extreme dissatisfaction with the way law enforcement handled the investigation, the Leatherbury family recently joined forces with the Utah Cold Case Coalition to help get answers in Johanna’s case. The coalition is a Utah based organization that helps to bridge the gap between police and the families of cold case murder victims. Two of Johanna’s nieces, sisters Sandy and Cindy, said they were told that information related to their aunt’s case could not be shared because it is still an open and active investigation. Cindy Leatherbury-Grange commented that: ‘we really have felt the case was solvable, but now it’s so many years past.’… ‘We’re wondering if these people are dead, what has happened. Thirty years ago, we might have had a chance.’ The coalition’s co-founder Jason Jensen is certain Johanna’s killer is local to Salt Lake City. In a post on their FB page about the Leatherbury case, the ‘Cold Case Coalition’ commented that: ‘it’s been exactly 48 years since Johanna Leatherbury was found dead in a drainage ditch near Saltair in Salt Lake County. She had been raped, shot, and stabbed. 48 YEARS. Yet Unified P.D. won’t release any records because it’s ‘still an open case’s This is the same response we get from Unified in every case. If you haven’t solved the case in nearly half a century, can someone else have a try?’
In an article published by ABC4, Johanna’s family got an email from a Salt Lake detective in mid-February 2022 with news they’ve been waiting many, many years to receive: ‘They have identified new DNA from the crime scene and he was securing funds to send it to their lab for testing and hopefully he’ll be able to use genetic genealogy.’ Jensen commented that this new evidence could be a variety of things: ‘if it was an article of clothing or something that was handled by an investigator 30 or 40 years ago chances are great that it’s an incidental from an investigator. But if it’s something concrete like semen, then it’s going to be the bad guy.’ This technique is quickly becoming very common with law enforcement and helps to identify familial DNA, and from there authorities are able to narrow down the search in hopes of finding a possible suspect. The article said it would be months before LE got the results of the DNA analysis and considering it’s now the end of 2023, I’m leaning towards them not finding anything of value from the sample. As a side note, in early 2023 Rita Curran’s killer was found in the same manner, and it was determined that her neighbor William DeRoos killed the pretty young teacher in her bed on July 19, 1971 in Burlington, VT.
Bundy’s Activities on November 8, 1974.
On November 8th, 1974, 27 year old Ted Bundy left his apartment on 1st Avenue North in Salt Lake City and drove to the Fashion Place Mall on South State Street in Murray. From there, he attempted to kidnap 18 year-old phone operator Carol DaRonch, who was there doing some shopping after parking her maroon 1974 Camaro on the southern side of the mall’s parking lot. At the time, the storefront was occupied by Sears but today is a Dillard’s.
That evening at around 7 PM, DaRonch was standing outside a WaldenBooks when a man approached her. He identified himself as ‘Officer Roseland’ and asked if she parked by the Sears entrance of the mall. She said the man was polite and sounded well-educated. After Carol confirmed that she did, the ‘policeman’ told her that he witnessed someone attempting to break into her vehicle and requested that she go with him to assess the damage and see if anything was taken. DaRonch agreed, thinking Bundy was a real officer of the law, but once they arrived immediately realized her car was untouched and nothing at all was missing.
Despite assuring ‘Officer Roselund’ that everything was fine, Bundy was able to convince Carol to go with him back inside the mall and file an official complaint. Once inside, he began poking around the hallways, almost as if he were searching for someone. He then told Carol that ‘they’ must have taken the suspect to the nearby ‘police substation,’ then proceeded to walk her across the street to a closed laundromat on East St. South. The building was in a small, nondescript retail space and once there Ted tried to open its side door, which was conveniently locked (as the laundromat was closed). It was at that moment that DaRonch became suspicious of the ‘officer,’ and asked him for some identification. Almost as if he was waiting for the request, Ted pulled out his wallet and quickly flashed her a silver police badge. Carol immediately felt reassured and agreed to go with him to the main police station. Bundy then walked her back across the street to his waiting VW, and despite thinking it was an odd choice of vehicle for a police officer, she wondered that maybe he was working undercover and just went with it.
Once in Bundy’s Bug, the ‘officer’ immediately began heading in the opposite direction of the station. About driving for about a half-mile, he abruptly pulled the car over and onto a curb in front of McMillan Elementary School. Quickly realizing that something was wrong, Carol began panicking and demanded to know where they were going. Her captor seemed completely removed from the situation and just stared at her, not saying a word. While she tried to open the door to escape, Ted suddenly sprang to life, grabbed her left arm and slapped a handcuff on her wrist. During the struggle, DaRonch clawed and hit Bundy with such force that it prevented him from being able to get the handcuff on her other wrist.
In an effort to scare Carol, Bundy pulled out a small black pistol and threatened her with it. But instead of submitting, she continued to scream and fight against him until she was finally able to escape out of the passengers side door. Ted also got out of the car and pursued her with a crowbar, but thankfully Carol was able to flag down a passing motorist and get away.
Bundy took advantage of a hysterical and preoccupied DaRonch to quickly flee, and jumped back into his Beetle and drove off, furious that he had just let a potential victim get away. He then drove twenty-one miles away to Bountiful, where Debra Jean Kent and her parents were attending a play at Viewmont High School. When the performance went longer than expected, Debra volunteered to take the family car and pick up her two younger brothers at a local skating rink. It was only three miles away, and if traffic was light it should have been only a twenty minute round trip. Eventually an hour passed and Deb never returned to the auditorium. As more and more time went by, Mr. and Mrs. Kent grew anxious and decided to go outside and find a payphone.
After exiting the school, they were met with a sight that filled them with pure terror: in the parking lot was the family car. The Kent’s quickly realized that not only was their daughter missing, but their sons were still at the roller rink. Later that same evening, a search of the schools grounds took place, and classrooms were opened to make sure that Deb hadn’t accidentally been locked inside somehow. The Kent family and friends also searched some of the hills and canyons around Bountiful, but unfortunately they found no trace of the missing teenager.
The police initially told Belva Kent that 24 hours needed to pass before they were able to organize a search for the missing girl. In the beginning of the investigation law enforcement strongly speculated that the seventeen year old was just another runaway, but they were soon pressured into taking action. The next day, police and forensic experts combed Viewmont High School’s parking lot, and despite not finding any signs of a struggle they did find a discarded handcuff key outside of the auditorium on the western part of the school grounds. It didn’t take long for experts to determine it was a perfect fit to the handcuffs that had been used during the attempted kidnapping of Carol DaRonch earlier that same day. It was now glaringly obvious that after DaRonch’s kidnapper fled the scene he quickly made the drive north to Bountiful, where he successfully abducted Debra Kent.
A man matching Bundy’s description was seen that evening lurking around the school, asking young women to help him ID a car in the parking lot. Raelynn Shepherd was a drama teacher at Viewmont High School who Ted repeatedly tried to lure outside. Shepherd said that he had a ‘nervousness’ about him that made her feel uncomfortable and didn’t care for the way he was looking at her. Because of that, she told him that she was too busy to help; when she saw him again at around 10:45 PM his hair was messed up and he was breathing heavily. This was about 20–30 minutes after Kent had left the school to pick up her brothers, which means Bundy returned to Viewmont after abducting her. His motivations for doing this are unclear: he may have been trying to establish an alibi by appearing in public immediately after the abduction. Or, perhaps he was looking for a second victim. We’ll never know. Additional eyewitnesses reported hearing a woman screaming in the parking lot at roughly the same time that Kent left the auditorium. Another individual came forward and reported that they saw a VW Beetle driving away from the high school.
Bundy became the prime suspect behind Deb’s disappearance after he was arrested for the attempted kidnapping of Carol DaRonch. However, law enforcement didn’t have enough evidence to charge him with the abduction. As the years passed by, it seemed less and less likely that Kents’ remains would ever be recovered. The family lived at 23 East 3500 Street South in Bountiful, and after she disappeared her mother left their porch light on for years in hopes that it would somehow bring her home. Right before he was put to death in January 1989, Bundy finally confessed to killing Deb Kent. He said that he brought her back to his apartment and after ‘keeping her for a while’ murdered her. He then put her body in his car and drove 105 miles away to Fairview Canyon, where he buried her remains about 3 feet deep, under some heavy rocks. After searching the Canyon, law enforcement found a patella (kneecap), and it is likely that her other bones were scavenged and spread around by wildlife over time. Although the ME’s office determined that the bone was human, they weren’t able to test it beyond that until 2015, when a cold-case detective stumbled across Kent’s DNA that had never been entered into the NamUs database. At that point, he reached out to Mrs. Kent, who held onto the only piece of her daughter she had left and asked if he could take the bone for genetic testing.
Although she gave the detective the patella, Mrs. Kent told him that she didn’t want to know the results. In her mind, it belonged to Debra and didn’t want to be told otherwise. Thankfully her fears were put to rest five months later, when the results came back that the bone belonged to Debra. Mrs. Kent said that her daughters murder destroyed her family: her younger son, Bill blamed himself for his sister’s death and died in an alcohol-related car accident on February 3rd, 1985. Shortly after Deb’s disappearance, Dean Kent quit his job as an oil executive, began drinking, walked out on his marriage, and fathered a child. He died from cancer at the age of 78 on January 2nd, 2016. In a 1989 interview, Belva Kent said that Ted Bundy was a ‘cancer’ that tore her family apart. She passed away on June 22, 2023.
Sandra Jean “Sandy” Weaver, investigative documents regarding her murder from the Trempealeau County Sheriffs Department in Wisconsin.
I am constantly updating my articles when I stumble across new information and boy did I find a great new source. Needless to say, I’m reading through this now and will be updating Sandra’s article shortly.
Bundy Residences, in full.
I listed the addresses in order of how they were on the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992’; for obvious reasons I left the Palo Alto address out, as there wasn’t anything to it (despite how much I looked into it).
- McMahon Hall, University of Washington. During his first year at the University of Washington in 1966 he lived on the 4th floor in the South Tower in McMahon Hall. He reportedly kept a key for the building after officially moving out and would return there on occasions to take naps.
- 658 North Skyline, Tacoma, Washington. In 1953 the growing Bundy family left their first home on South Sheridan Ave and moved into this house.
- Unknown Address, Palo Alto, California. Dates unknown.
- 5015 16th Street, Seattle, Washington. All the information in the ‘TB Multiagency Report 1992’ says Bundy lived here at some point in 1967. This was the same year he attended Stanford University in Palo Alto from June to August.
- 873 North 16th Street, Seattle, Washington, 1968. I couldn’t find much information about Bundy’s time at this address although according to the Multiagency Report he was traveling all over the Pacific Northwest at the time so maybe he lived here just briefly at one point. There doesn’t see to be a building at this address anymore (on Google Maps its a vacant lot).
- 3214 North 20th Street, Tacoma, Washington. This is the Bundy family’s third and final home. After selling their second house on North Skyline Drive in 1968, they moved to this house in the North End of Tacoma.
- 4039 South Warner, Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania. Ted lived here with his Aunt Julia (Cowell) while he attended Temple University (the general consensus is that he moved to Philadelphia at some point in December 1968). His time in the ‘City of Brotherly Love’ didn’t last long: in May of 1969 he dropped out of school after finishing a single semester and moved back to Tacoma.
- 1252 15th Ave, Marin County, California, 1970. I found no information about Ted at this address anywhere (although I’m fairly positive it’s in San Francisco). According to the Multiagency Report he was in Seattle for the entirety of 1970 when he was supposedly there (I posted the screen shot below). Strangely enough the same address only in Seattle, Washington is listed as the residence provided when Ted was given a ticket by Highway Patrolman for hitchhiking on August 8, 1970 in Marin County, WA.
- 4143 12th Northeast, Seattle, Washington. Ted lived at the Rogers Rooming House from September 1969 to September 2, 1975 (when he moved to Salt Lake City for law school). His room was on the second floor.
- 5015 16th Northeast, Seattle,WA. Dates unknown. A similar address is listed above just with Northeast added to it (both addresses are real). I couldn’t find any other details about Bundy residing here.
- 5208 18th Northeast, Seattle, Washington. This was one of Liz Kloepfer’s apartments. She lived on the first floor on the right side of the house. It was built in 1912 and contains eight bedrooms.
- 1252 15th Ave, Seattle, Washington. On August 8, 1970 Bundy was given a ticket by a Highway Patrolman for hitchhiking southbound on Highway 101 in Marin County, Washington. He told the officer that his address was 1252 15th Ave in Seattle, WA despite never living there (he resided at the Rogers Rooming House at the time).
- 3510 West Elmore, Seattle, Washington, sometime in late 1973. Per the ‘Ted Bundy and File 1004 documents from Seattle PD’ document, this is Ted’s friend Marlin S. Vortman’s residence.
- 565 1st Ave #2, Salt Lake City, Utah. Bundy lived here from September 2, 1974 to September of 1975 (he moved from Seattle for law school). At the time it was a boarding house and Ted rented room two. His former living space is on the second floor directly above the porch. To the right of the house is a fire escape which he used to come and go in the middle of the night as he pleased. On the left side there is an entrance to a basement, and according to one resident Bundy would occasionally go down into this basement late at night (however at the time they didn’t think it was weird because he was the property manager).
- 413 ‘B’ Street, Salt Lake City, Utah. According to the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992’ Ted lived in this house on B Street for a brief period in 1976 but he didn’t reside there very long: on March 1st, 1976 he was found guilty of kidnapping Carol DaRonch and was immediately remanded in custody.
- 364 Douglas Street, Salt Lake City, Utah. Bundy moved into an apartment on the top floor on September 26th, 1975. He claims he made the choice to move into this house because it was within walking distance to where he was attending law school (at the University of Utah). At the time he also worked on campus as a security guard.
- 409 West College Avenue, Tallahassee, Florida. Bundy rented a room on the second floor beginning on January 7th, 1978 after he escaped prison for the second time. He signed the lease under the name Chris Hagen. Ted left Tallahassee on February 12th, and was arrested for the final time three days later. At some point after 2016 the building was demolished and turned into a parking lot for the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house.*
* Some places where Bundy lived in his earlier days were left out of the report. I added the following:
- 1514 South Alder Street, Tacoma, WA. When Louise took three year old Ted and left Philadelphia for Tacoma in 1950 they lived at this address with her Uncle Jack Cowell, a professor of music at a private college that Ted greatly respected and admired. Cowell was well-educated, financially secure, and very well-respected in the community: all traits that Bundy wanted to possess.
- 1620 South Sheridan Avenue, Tacoma, WA. In May of 1951, Johnnie and Louise Bundy moved into this four bedroom house after they got married; it was the family’s first home. It was at this point that little ‘Teddy Nelson’ officially became known as ‘Ted Bundy.’ While they were living here Louise gave birth to Ted’s little sister, Linda.
- 7202 Ridge Avenue/499 Domino Lane, Philadelphia, PA, The Cowell family’s first home. Ted and Louise lived here with his Mother, Aunt, and Grandparents, Samuel and Eleanor Cowell until he was three. Its in the Roxborough neighborhood of Philadelphia. At the time the address was 7202 Ridge Avenue (it’s now 499 Domino Lane). The house was torn down at some point during the late 1960’s and the strip mall that is there today was built in 1970.
- 4617 Pulaski Avenue, Philadelphia PA. Samuel and Eleanor Cowell moved here after they sold their house in Roxborough, PA. It’s strongly speculated that Ted often visited this house on a number of occasions while he was staying at his Aunt Julia’s house in Lafayette Hill in 1969 while attending Temple University. Eleanor Cowell died at the age of 76 in April of 1971; she was a diabetic and suffered a stroke in the mid-1950’s. Additionally throughout her life she underwent electroconvulsive therapy for depression. She rarely left her house thanks to a bad case of agoraphobia, especially during her final years of life. Samuel passed away in December of 1983 at the age of 85.
FBI Records, The Vault: Ted Bundy Files.
A treasure trove of Bundy related information including documents related to his escape in Colorado then again in Florida as well as the strange case of Janla Carr.
Documents thanks to https://vault.fbi.gov/Ted%20Bundy%20/Ted%20Bundy%20Part%2001%20of%2003/view
Ted Bundy Murder Cellar.
My Salt Lake City trip was a bit of a disaster right from the start: my Mom passed away in July 2022 after a six year battle with Multiple Myeloma… then we got pregnant less than a month later after trying for over 2.5 years! Then as quickly as that happened, suddenly we weren’t anymore… despite not being in the best mindset mental health-wise, by Fall I was ready to get away. So, I planned a 4 day long trip to Salt Lake City in November 2022. Unfortunately I not only missed my flight there but I missed it home as well. I guess I just wasn’t at my best and it showed. I probably should have pushed the trip off but I did get through all the places I wanted to see.
We all know that Ted left Seattle and moved to Salt Lake City to attend the University of Utah Law School in early September 1974. He resided in a few different apartments while in SLC: he lived at 565 1st Ave N from September 1974 to September 1975 then moved to 364 Douglas Street on September 26th, 1975. His 1st Ave address is roughly 15 minutes away from the cellar where Douglas Street is just 10 minutes away. In 1976 he briefly lived at 413 B Street while on trial for the kidnapping of Carol DaRonch.
This site in Emigration Canyon is supposedly where Bundy killed up to 12 girls, although there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever proving he ever stepped foot in the area. Ted never mentioned taking his victims to a cave or cellar in any capacity. No longer a cave, it’s now just a weird old shack sitting right in between Donner Way and a condominium complex. In my opinion, it sounds like it’s all just a local urban legend. Watching videos about this place before I went to Salt Lake, it looks like it’s in a super sketchy area in the middle of the woods but it was right by the Donner Pass and strangely enough, the condominium nearby was built in 1966 (meaning it was there when Bundy was active in Utah). I put this off until last because I was pretty sure Ted never killed anyone here (meaning if I missed it I wouldn’t have been too upset). I’m shocked at how out in the open this place is. Once I knew where I was going it was easily accessible, with well worn pathways that have been used frequently.
Sandra Jean ‘Sandy’ Weaver.
Edit, November 2023: One thing I routinely try to do is go through my resources and update my articles when I find more information. When I was in Florida this past May I came across a 59 page document from the Trempealeau County Sheriff’s Department in Wisconsin regarding the case of Sandra Jean Weaver. At first, I thought about putting the new information in a simple addendum, but there’s so much that I’m just going to rewrite the entire piece. The report is broken down into four parts: the first is a write up (almost like a report) that Detective Daryl L. McBride had with Weaver’s friend, Joan Elkins at the LaCrosse Police station on January 11, 1975. The second is a verbatim interview between Glade Gamble and the Toole County Sheriff’s Department, Detective Jerry Thompson from the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s department, and Officer Milo Vig from the Mesa Co. Sheriff’s Department on January 22. The third is an interview between Ken Jones and the same members of LE as the Gamble interview that took place on January 22, 1975, and the last portion is an interview with the same officers and Phillip Quintana on January 21, 1975.
Sandra ‘Sandy’ Jean Weaver was born on August 5, 1955 to Bruno and Marlene of Arcadia, Wisconsin. She had two brothers (Randy and Billy) and two sisters (Nancy and Julie); the Weavers also had a son named Joseph who sadly passed away two days after he was born in 1961. Sandy had blue eyes, was 5’7” and weighed 120 pounds; she wore her brown hair long and parted down the middle. She attended Arcadia High School, and during her time there was on the drill team, participated in the Future Homemakers of America, Girls Athletic Association, worked PT as a librarian and was the junior editor of the newspaper. After graduating in 1973, she studied commercial art at Western Wisconsin Technical Institute in La Crosse, WI.
Sandra left home in the summer of 1974 and moved to Salt Lake City, hitchhiking the entire way there with her two friends, Joan Elkins and Jeffrey L. Skarboszewski. According to an investigator for the Mesa County Sheriff’s office, after arriving in Utah the friends went to Toole, where they stayed in a canyon for a few days. It was there they met a guy named Ken Jones, who invited them to come stay in his trailer near Toole. Jeff got a job part time working with Jones father and both girls found employment full time for the Manpower program. Looking into it, Manpower appears to be sort of on the job training program based out of SLC. For their first week the girls took inventory of motion picture products, and the second week they were sent to the Wycoff warehouse (which was a trucking company); Weaver had been on the job for a little over a week when she was murdered. The position was roughly forty miles away from Jones’ trailer, and the friends hitchhiked back and forth everyday. In a conversation with her mother in June 1974, Sandra said she was planning on going home for her sister Nancy’s wedding on July 27th, but didn’t specify an exact date she planned on being back. It’s known that Weaver was a frequent, heavy drug user and had a tendency to ‘sleep around’ (oh good Lord, weren’t we all young once?). The guy she was with the night before her disappearance (a young man named Glade Gamble) said that they engaged in intercourse the night before she vanished (but more on him later)…
On Friday, June 28 Sandra and Joan bought some groceries in SLC then hitchhiked back to Jones’ trailer, arriving around 7 PM. At around 11:00 that evening a friend from their new job named Phillip Quintana (aka Phillip Martinez) showed up with the intention of spending the weekend with them (he arrived with a random friend). In addition, Jones had a friend that was staying with him that was between 18 to 20 years old and was an ‘athletic freak.’ That night, Sandra slept with Ken and Joan slept with Phill (his friend spent the night in a chair). The following day, Weaver left the residence and went to a friend named Jeanine’s trailer in Toole. There, Weaver met Glade Gamble and the two took a drive through the canyon in Jeanine’s blue VW Beetle.
At roughly 7 PM on June 29th, Weaver returned to Jones’ trailer and picked up Joan, Phillip, and his friend. From there, the group got dinner then went to a party at Jeanine’s trailer. At the gathering, Weaver introduced Elkins to a guy named Bruce Bolinder, who she had met that afternoon while driving around with Gamble. According to Weaver, Bolinder was supplying Gamble with THC. It is speculated Sandy snorted some THC and used some phenobarbital (and possibly Nembutal) at some point in the evening. There were roughly 25 people at the gathering and most of them were imbibing in some form of drug use. At some point early in the evening Phillip fell asleep on the floor of the trailer, and after a while Joan woke him up to go sleep outside in Gambles VW van. Around midnight she woke Phillip up for a second time to let him know they could catch a ride back to Jones’ trailer with Bolinder. Weaver stayed behind at Jeanine’s trailer. At some point in the conversation with law enforcement Elkins mentioned that when she left her friends trailer with Phillip, there were four vehicles in the driveway: Bruce Bolinders gold Cadillac, Glades red and white VW Bus, Jeanine’s VW Bug, and a fourth vehicle (she wasn’t sure of the make and model or its owner).
At some point during the day, Weaver purchased $15 worth of phenobarbital from Bolinder. Joan said Sandy used some the night of the party as well as on June 30 and July 1, and during this time she stayed at Jeanine’s trailer. At some point on Sunday, June 30 Elkins called Jeanine’s trailer and talked to Gamble, asking to speak to Sandy. He told her she was sleeping but that he would take them to work the next morning. On Monday, July 1, 1974 Sandra returned to Ken’s trailer to change her clothes and wake up Joan for work. Elkins told her she wasn’t feeling well and wasn’t going in that day. Weaver asked to borrow some cash, and she gave her $5 from her purse (which at some point during the day Elkins noticed was missing). Joan said Sandy was wearing blue corduroy shorts and a halter top, and this was the last time she saw her friend. The next day on July 2, she received a call from the secretary at Manpower asking why either of them hadn’t come into work. Joan told her that she was sick, to which the secretary replied, ‘yes I know, Sandy told me.’ She went on to tell her that Weaver had worked until 11:30 in the morning the day before then left and never returned.
The body of Sandra Weaver was discovered the next day on July 2, 1974 around 4:00 PM by tourists hiking in the area near DeBeque, CO by the Colorado River about sixteen to eighteen miles east of Grand Junction. Her naked body was beaten and strangled, found off a service road in the Palisades Canyon (some sources say it was DeBeque Canyon) in Colorado; the only item found on her body was ‘a tiny wooden cross on a gold chain around her neck’ (which she was most likely wearing when she was last seen). I know I’m jumping the gun a bit here but something odd is jumping out at me: two other Utah victims (Laura Ann Aime and Melissa Smith) were also both found the same way: naked only wearing a ‘small necklace.’ Additionally, both girls were strangled in the same fashion as Weaver. Sheriff Haywood has ‘no doubt’ that the killer of Aime and Smith killed Sandra as well. Additionally, Salt Lake City Detective Jerry Thompson said that the facts in the Weaver case ‘are very similar’ to the ones surrounding those of the Smith and Aime murders. She had been sexually assaulted and died by suffocation due to strangulation; her fingernails were also freshly manicured shortly before her death. Because there were no footprints or drag marks found anywhere near Weaver’s remains it’s speculated she was killed somewhere else then dumped off at the top of the canyon, and she just sort of rolled down it. Unfortunately her body wasn’t identified until January 1975: according to an article titled ‘Services Pending for Murder Victim, Weaver was identified through a nationwide check of persons reported missing. Law enforcement also found a very particular type of contact lens on the victim, and using optometric tests forensic experts were able to determine that it belonged to Weaver; dental records were also used.
In a conversation with detectives on January 11, 1975, Elkins said that Sandra was ‘pretty doped up’ when she returned to Jones’ trailer on the morning of July 1, 1974. She suspects this may have been the reason that she showed up to work without shoes on. Later in the day on July 2nd, Bolinder came to Jones’ home and visited a bit with Joan. He came to see her a few more times in the next few days and eventually invited her to move in with him, which she did a little over two weeks later in the latter part of July 1974 (bringing Glade Gamble with her). Joan finally reported Weaver as missing to the SLC police around the 5th or 6th of July; they advised her to call the Toole County Sheriff’s as well. She also shared the news with Sandra’s mother in Wisconsin. She told LE that she asked Bolinder to help her locate Weaver, but he just pushed her request off. Elkins stayed with him for about three weeks then moved in with another friend named Danny Quinn. She eventually left SLC and returned home to LaCosse on August 15, 1974. She brought all of Sandra’s belongings back with her, returning them to her parents.
Seventeen year old Dick Pehrson was a former employee of the Wycoff warehouse and a friend of the girls. He told Joan that Phillip Quintana got dropped off with Sandra the morning she disappeared but he didn’t know who was driving. He also told her that Quintana told a secretary at Manpower that Weaver had been talking to a truck driver the morning she disappeared. Additionally, the same secretary told Marlene Weaver that Quintana told her that her daughter had been seen on a bus headed for Idaho.
Bruno Weaver traveled from Arcadia to Salt Lake and Toole in November 1974 and got in touch with a number of his daughter’s friends/acquaintances; he also spoke with Quintana on the phone around the same time. During that conversation, Phillip denied going to Jeanine’s party the night of July 29 but said that his friend ‘Martinez’ was there. Mr. Weaver also spoke with Bruce Bolinder, who shared with him that a friend named Steve Symonds gave Sandra and Phillip a ride to Salt Lake City the morning of July 1st. The police report stated that ‘all of the men seemed uncooperative and hesitant to talk to Mr. Weaver.’ Jones did tell Mr. Weaver that he had a pair of Sandra’s shoes at his trailer despite both Joan and Jeff telling him she only brought two pairs with her (which were already accounted for). Skarboszeski told LE that to the best of his memory he never saw Sandra go to work without shoes on and didn’t think she would ever go to her POE barefoot.
Elkins admitted to using some of the phenobarbital Weaver bought on June 30 and July 1, but couldn’t explain how the drugs got back to Jones residence because her friend hadn’t been back to his trailer at that point (she briefly came back the morning of July 1 to borrow money and change her clothes before leaving right away for work). Strangely enough, the blue corduroy shorts that Joan claims she last saw Sandy wearing were found amongst her belongings that were returned to the Weavers.
In the second portion of the document from the Trempealeau County Sheriff’s Department, Glade Gamble sat down with members of law enforcement (specifically, the Toole County Sheriff’s Department, Jerry Thompson, and Milo Vig). The interview began at 1:35 in the afternoon on January 22, 1975 and lasted for 45 minutes. In the beginning, Gamble is shown a picture of Weaver and was asked if it resembled the individual he spent time with in June of the previous year. He said yes it did and that she was ‘a good looking girl.’ I mean, most of the ‘interview’ is traditional back and forth between suspect and police, however one particularly interesting portion jumped out at me: investigators questioned, ‘within hours of leaving you, she was murdered brutally, and I am not kidding you when I say brutally. I probably shouldn’t do this but there is a little difference isn’t there? As you can see, I don’t think many human lives deserve that kind of treatment. So if you can help me for God’s sake, give me some information. I don’t care if any drugs were involved, cause we’re not here or have no interest at all in petty crimes or drugs at this time, I am interested in that.’ In response to that, Glade said that he told them everything he knew the first time they spoke except for dates, which he didn’t elaborate on so I don’t know if he meant he forgot them or was purposely withholding information. He said the only phone number Sandra probably had was Ken Jones’ at his trailer.
Some of the key points I took away from this interview are as follows: Mr. Weaver met with Gamble at his house sometime in November 1974. He said the majority of the time he saw the two friends they were wearing shorts, although he thinks he remembers Sandy wearing pants the last time he saw her (since she was on her way to work). He made it clear to the detectives that he didn’t remember if she was wearing shoes or not the last time he saw her and had to be told by a friend that she showed up at work barefoot later that morning. Gamble was able to tell LE that he remembered she normally wore a pair of slip-on clogs but she left them behind at Jeannine’s (if she’s anything like me she probably figured she’d be back there soon enough and it was no big deal). He also speculated that Elkins may have picked the clogs up with the rest of Sandra’s belongings before she returned home to WI. He left Jeanine’s trailer at around 6 AM and speculated that Weaver was stopping back at Jones’ residence before going into work and that she would just pick up another pair of shoes there. He did share that he remembers someone saying that Joan’s purse got stolen, and wondered if it happened at the party the Saturday before Sandy disappeared. He also said that he took off the Tuesday after she disappeared but couldn’t remember the reason why.
When LE asked Gamble how Elkins felt about Bruce Bolinder he replied that she may have been a bit afraid of him in the sense that she worried he might kick her out and send her home. Apparently, he had a bit of a reputation as a ‘ladies man’ and speculated that Joan was probably aware of this and was nervous that he might get sick of her and move on; he didn’t remember the two ever arguing or fighting in any way. Also on the topic of Bruce being a ladies man, Gamble said that he thought that girls in general seemed to like him but didn’t get close with him. He also said that he thought Sandra and Joan met him on June 29th (which was the night of the party) and that he asked Sandy out a time or two but nothing ever came of it. When asked if Bollinder had a violent temper, Gamble replied that he ‘heard of him fighting but had never been there.’ He also allegedly had deep contacts in the local drug world that neither girl was aware of. When Glade was questioned on whether or not he knew of anyone that would have a reason to kill Weaver, he said he had no idea why anyone would want to ‘brutally murder a girl like this.’ and that ‘nobody really argued with her that he knew about.’ He speculated that Joan probably left them to go back to Kenny’s trailer with Phillip because she most likely ‘just got tired of Bruce.’
The detective repeated the question: why would anyone want to brutally murder a girl like Sandra, asking: ‘you certainly couldn’t say it was a sexual act because she certainly would have given in (gross).’ Gamble told them that the only thing about Weaver that upset him was that she was kind of ‘slow mentally’ and wasn’t very quick to react to things, but that he would never act on his frustrations and didn’t know how anyone could do that. When questioned about when he became aware that Sandy may have either been abducted or murdered, he said that he quickly grew suspicions after no one heard from her and that both him and Joan almost immediately wondered if she was dead after she stopped coming around: ‘I didn’t know why anyone would kill her or how or anything else but I figured she would have gotten ahold of somebody sooner or later.’ He also told detectives that he was aware that Joan had some minor drug charges but nothing major and he had some minor charges as well as a drunk driving arrest. He told them that he had no contact with Elkins in any capacity after Sandy disappeared.
Per Gamble, Sandy had taken two downers he gave her on Friday night, and that he wasn’t sure if Joan ever reported her friend as missing as he never witnessed her make a call to Toole LE. He also said he wasn’t sure if he was there when she talked to Sandy’s parents on the phone but that he was there when she made some calls to Wisconsin regarding her friend. The last time he claimed to have sex with Weaver was sometime after midnight on Sunday night/early Monday morning, but wasn’t sure what the exact time was. When asked if they engaged in anal intercourse Gamble didn’t respond to the question. To the best of his knowledge he said that he wasn’t sure if Sandy had slept with anyone else in that Friday/Saturday/Sunday time frame other than him, and that he ‘wasn’t with her all the time,’ but did clarify that he spent two nights with her. The last time he saw her she was getting into a car with Steve Simons and Scott Williams to go to SLC for work around 6 AM on Monday, July 1. He said that he learned of Weaver’s death after seeing it on the news but didn’t know when she died. By the time of the interview in early 1975 Gamble sold his VW bus and purchased a 1972 Grand Prix. He shared that even though he didn’t know her very well he knew that Joan wasn’t overly fond of cops and wasn’t sure if she would hold anything back for that reason. The interview ended with Gamble agreeing to take a voluntary polygraph examination.
The third interview took place with the same members of law enforcement and Kenneth H. Jones on January 22, 1975. He told the detectives that he met all three friends when they were ‘up hitchhiking up in Settlement Canyon’ around June 10/11, 1974 and that somehow turned into them coming and staying with him. He further shared that Glade Gamble met the girls at his trailer and that he didn’t know Bruce Bolinder very well. In the beginning of the conversation LE told him that the reason they are speaking to him for a second time is because it was determined that Sandra had been murdered shortly after leaving his trailer. There’s a lot of back and forth between the officers and the suspect, with LE saying they ‘needed to get some answers if we can. I realize this was six months ago and it is hard to remember, and I don’t expect you to remember everything. We have had a chance to go over this and some other things that have come up that need to be answered, and I was hoping that you could help me or hide me to the right person. Now correct me if I’m wrong. I understand that Sandy left the trailer on Monday morning, July 1st to go to work with a Mexican kid by the name of Phillip Quintana, who had stayed at the trailer that night with Joan. Is that correct?’ To this, Jones simply answered, ‘ah huh.’ He said that he didn’t attend the party at Jeanine’s trailer the Saturday before Sandy disappeared and wasn’t home when Joan and Phillip got back early Sunday morning. He also shared that he wasn’t sure who was left behind at the trailer when Sandy and Quintana departed for Salt Lake around 7/7:30 AM the Monday morning she disappeared. He did say that when he came home from work around 4 PM Elkins was still there and ‘it wasn’t right away but she couldn’t figure out why she didn’t come back. You know she figured maybe she would come back later, and she never did. She was worried about her.’ … ‘Well right at first, you now she thought she might have had a pretty good excuse and then after she didn’t show up for a day or so, well then she was getting worried.’ When detectives inquired, ‘I don’t know how much attention you paid, but this is a really critical point in the line of clothing, I understand both these girls had very little clothing when they lived here, is that correct?’ .. ‘ As far as you seen, give me an idea, five or six changes, one of two? Can you give me an idea? Did they wear shorts much of the time, a lot?’ He replied, ‘yeah, they wore shorts,’ but did specify that Elkins had a home made dress made out of Levi’s jean material.
Like with the other interviews, the investigators were very focused on the girl’s footwear and asked Jones if Weaver had a lot of shoes, to which he replied she had a pair of sandals and some clogs and that Elkins took them with her when she went home to Colorado. About a week after Sandy disappeared Elkins left Ken’s trailer and moved in with a guy named Danny Quinn; she didn’t give an explanation as to why she left but it was on her own accord and he didn’t ask her to leave. Jones told LE that he was aware that the girls mainly hitch hiked to get around and frequently caught rides with both friends and strangers. He also shared that at no point after her friend disappeared did Elkins ever mention that she was going to go look for her, but that she ‘contacted Sandra’s parents and they decided to put it in the paper, her picture, and I think she turned it in, she said she turned it in.’ Jones said that when Joan finally got around to notifying the Toole County Sheriff’s department about Weaver’s disappearance they told her to also get in touch with SLC LE as well. When asked if he thought Sandy and Elkins were ‘close’ he replied, ‘yes, they were real close.’ He also commented that she seemed to be almost smitten with Bruce Bolinder and talked about him a lot. He said the weekend before Sandra disappeared she wasn’t at his trailer at all but that she most likely came back early Monday morning to get Joan and get ready to go to work. When asked if he knew of anyone that had ‘heard if Sandy came back into town that Monday morning after she left and went back to work that morning,’ Jones simply said ‘no.’
According to Ken, Sandy’s father came to see him about a month and a half before the interview (so November/December 1974). When asked what he thought happened to Weaver he replied that if she made it to work that day then it must have been someone from her POE that she ‘decided to go with.’ Ken said he felt it ‘must have been somebody she didn’t know or she just met that day or somebody she just went with. Maybe they told her they would give her a ride home or take her out somewhere else overnight or something.’ He also shared that Joan had no idea what happened to her friend and she thought that maybe she left with somebody from work or ‘something like that.’ When Ken was confronted with ‘well like I said, we realize the drug traffic. We are not here to bother anyone, that we are not trying to make a case. Did she know anything about any major drug deals and somebody thought she knew too much that you know of?;’ he again replied with a simple, ‘no.’ When the detectives inquired, ‘you wouldn’t have to kill her to rape her, correct?,’ Jones answered ‘uh huh’ and that she would probably just go along with it.
Ken said that when he returned home from work at 4:30 around that Monday, Joan was there (she was sick and didn’t go into work) and the last time he saw Sandy was on Friday the night before she left for the party. When the investigators commented that they understood he told Mr. Weaver that he had a pair of his daughter’s shoes, he clarified ‘after she had left and it was either that night or the next day she didn’t show up Joan said something about ‘that is the only pair of shoes or something.’ And she left them and she ain’t got no shoes or something. She couldn’t figure out why she would leave without shoes.’ There was a lot of back and forth about the missing footwear, with the investigators trying to make Jones admit that he had them (which he vehemently denied). When they asked if Weaver’s last paycheck ever got mailed to his trailer or if Joan ever mentioned what happened to it he said that Elkins had it but he wasn’t certain if she cashed it or not (but he strongly suspects that she did). Jeff Skarboszewski left SLC about a week before Sandra disappeared and went to Phoenix. About the trios mystery friend, Jones said that Jeff seemed to treat both girls real good and always wanted to do what was best for them. At the end of the interview he agreed to a voluntary polygraph examination.
In between the third and fourth parts is a photocopy of Bruce Bolinder’s drivers license.
The fourth part of the document is an interview between investigators and Phillip Quintana that took place on January 25, 1975 (this is where things get interesting). The conversation starts out strong right from the get go, with LE asking if he remembers telling a friend named Dirk that Sandra had gone to Idaho or someplace out of state, and where he got that information from. To this, Phillip said it was one of two hitchhiking incidents that took place in the second half of 1974 in which Weaver’s name came up: ‘this guy that picked her up hitchhiking, but I can’t remember his name. He said he saw her and she was supposed to be living with this guy that she was living with in Memory Grove she was supposed to leave with him to Idaho.’ … ‘I was just asking if he knew Joan and Sandy from Toole and he said yeah, that Sandy was supposed to be living in Memory Grove with some guy.’ Quintana said the man was driving a newer model white Ford and was around 21/22 years of age, between 6’2″/6’3” tall, and had shaggy brown hair. One of the detectives told him it was a man named Danny Brumfield that picked him up that day and the event took place sometime around August/September of 1974.
The second hitchhiking incident took place around Halloween 1974 and involved a 23/24 year old man driving an older model light red/dark orange GMC pickup truck. When asked by this mysterious stranger if he wanted to go to a party that both Joan and Sandy would be at, Phillip told him that he had just been to one and had no interest in attending another: ‘well, I was hitchhiking. He picked me up then asked if I wanted to go to a party, he said do you smoke dope, I said yeah, and he said do you want to go to a party, and I said no, and he lit up a joint, and he asked me if I wanted to go to a party out in Toole and said no, and he said, and then I said who is going to be out there, do you know a lot of people out there and he said, ‘I know a chick named Joan and one named Sandy and this dude named Glade, that Glade was supposed to be having it,’ and I told him no I was, and he just dropped me off.’ … ‘They said Sandy and Joan, I don’t know if they were the same chicks but he said Sandy and Joan. Might be two different chicks, I don’t know.’ When questioned about the day Sandra disappeared Phillip said that he ‘thought she was going back to work, she was going to work, and anyway they didn’t want me back over there and so I just went down to my moms’ and that he never saw either girl again after July 1st (I deduced that he was briefly employed with Manpower but was terminated). He acknowledged to LE that he was aware that Elkins was trying to get in contact with him around the 13th of July but wasn’t successful in her attempts. When asked if he knew that Weaver was missing at this point in time Phillip said no and that he didn’t know she was gone until the month before (which would have been December 1974).
Quintana said that he and Joan went back to Jones’ trailer at around 3 or 4 in the morning and crashed immediately; they woke up around 6 PM the following evening. He said Monday morning Sandy called Joan at Ken’s trailer and asked if she was going to go to work, and he told her that Joan wasn’t going to but he was getting a ride to SLC and could bring her along. He reported that Manpower attempted to get in touch with him about Sandra’s disappearance around the 1st or 2nd week of December but that he never talked to Bruno Weaver. In response to that, investigators said that ‘he claims he did, how about him calling you on the phone Phillip. I am going to try to refresh your memory. And you told him: ‘he asked you if you were at a party with his daughter in Toole, and you said no not me but my friend Martinez.’ Do you recall that?’ … ‘see, I talked to Mr. Weaver, Sandra’s Dad and he said he called you on the phone, I have the date written down and I will be getting it; him and his attorney was out here and he called you on the phone and he asked you, he talked to Phillip Quintana, he asked about the party, you said, or this Quintana said that he knew Sandra, that he didn’t attend the party in Toole but a friend Martinez did. You don’t recall him saying that to you?’ In response to the third degree, Phillip said, ‘I don’t even remember talking to him, I am pretty sure I didn’t.’
This is when he talked about his two last names, clarifying that his legal name is Quintana and it’s the one he always went by: ‘I guess you came out to my moms, she said that you were looking for me, she said that you asked for Phillip Martinez, or a Phillip Quintana, and she asked me if I was using another name and I told her no. Because I found well, when my Dad got married when he first married my mother I was on probation and I started using his last name and it took them six months to find me, and when they did they told me if I used it again they would stick me in state school because I was using an illegal name.’ When asked what the illegal name he used was he responded with ‘Gurule,’ but that he has used his real name ever since and that he now has a clean record. Later in the interview he repeated himself that he never spoke with Bruno Weaver and when asked if anyone at the party went by the last name of Martinez he said he wasn’t sure because people mostly only went by their first names.
When the investigators asked how the girls got to work everyday Phillip said that after the first day they all drove in together, and ‘when Manpower had a job for them they have them a call out in Toole and they hitchhiked to the job. The very first day they started Manpower called them about 8:00 I guess, they got there around 10:00 10:30.’ When asked if he recalled what time Sandra arrived back at the trailer the Monday morning she disappeared Phillip responded that ‘she had to be to work at 8:00 AM so it was around 7:00 AM;’ he also shared that after she left for the day he wasn’t sure who was left behind in the trailer. Also in the vehicle were two other guys, Steve Simons and Scott Williams; they dropped Weaver off near the Wyckoff building at 3rd West but that she wanted to stop at the store before her shift started to buy some cigarettes. The boys dropped Phillip off at his moms, which wasn’t far from Weaver’s POE. He commented that on their drive Williams and Simons mostly talked to each other and didn’t really seem interested in chatting with him or Sandy. When LE asked him if ‘Sandy gave him any indication when she got off that she was going to come back at noon, or that she didn’t feel well, or that she was going to go back and see Joan or anything like that,’ Quintana responded that ‘she said that cause she didn’t feel well that morning she was kind of burned she said that if she still felt that way at lunch she was just going to go back to Toole’ but didn’t elaborate on how she was going to get there. The detectives shared with him that they knew she took some speed that morning before she left for work and that he took some as well (she gave him five and a friend named Danny another five). To that Phillip responded that he thought she took downers and had a baggie of about 50 of them with her (apparently she purchased 100 of them at the beginning of the weekend but was going through them pretty quickly).
After Phillip mentioned that Joan wasn’t feeling well and had menstrual cramps the detectives asked if she started her period the day before. He replied that he thought ‘she started it that day because the night she was starting to get them bad’ and that she might have gotten her monthly on Sunday night (but he ‘didn’t check’). In response to this, the officers replied: ‘oh Jesus, you know you got me almost to think I am going to send you out to the nut farm and have you checked out there. Was she pretty well smashed out, Joan, that Monday morning or was it mainly from her cramps.’ (wow). To this, he responded it was ‘mainly from her cramps.’ When asked if Joan had a thing for Glade Gamble, Quintana replied that he wasn’t sure but it wouldn’t have surprised him because she ‘acted kind of funny towards him.’ When asked how she may have felt about Bruce Bolinder he said that it seemed as if she wanted nothing to do with him and when they all got in the car together she made a comment about Gamble sitting next to him, and seemed irritated when he refused. When the investigators asked him how the girls may have felt about Kenny Jones he said that ‘they said they liked him, he was a pretty nice guy, but they were just staying because of their relationship, just a place to stay I guess. I guess they were giving him something to say there, some money or something to stay with him but they never did say. He said that he showed up at the party but ‘came a little later.’ When the investigators asked Phillip if Elkins was afraid of any of the guys that they hung around with he answered ‘no, not that I know of, she didn’t tell me’ and when they asked the same question about Weaver he said ‘well they got along real good with everybody out there as far as I know.’
When asked if any of the guys Weaver hung out with ‘would kill that girl,’ Phillip’s initial answer was ‘I can’t really say… I don’t know them, but I know what kind of people they are.’ However he quickly changed his tune and said that the owner of the gold Cadillac (Bruce Bolinder) was the only person he could think of that ‘looked like he could do something like that.’ He elaborated that he didn’t talk much and was kind of mean; Bolinder was also where Gamble was getting his dope from. There’s something interesting that jumps out at me at the end of page 56: the detectives ask Phillip if he remembers telling anyone that ‘he saw Sandy talking to a Wycoff truck driver at about 11:30 on the 1st of July,’ to which there is no verbal (or written) answer. Quintana later stated that the last time he saw her was when she was dropped off at her POE and doesn’t remember ever seeing her talk to a truck driver. He also shared that he didn’t hear from Joan at all after she left for CO and that he knew she lived in WI but wasn’t exactly sure where. Just like with the other gentleman, LE asked if he was willing to undergo a polygraph examination, to which he responded sure and that he had nothing to hide.
As far as the confirmed victims go, Bundy killed 18 year-old Georgeann Hawkins on June 11, 1974 after abducting her from the University District in Seattle (just eleven days earlier he murdered Brenda Ball on June first). Almost two weeks after Weaver was abducted and killed on July 14, 1974 he abducted both Janice Ott and Denise Naslund from Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah. When it comes to the unconfirmed victims, Brenda Joy Baker disappeared on May 27, 1974 from Puyallup and on August 2, 1974 Carol Valenzuela was last seen hitchhiking near Vancouver, WA. At the time of Weavers murder Ted was living at the Rogers Rooming house on 12th Ave in Seattle and was employed with the Department of Emergency Services in Olympia (he was there from May 3, 1974 to August 28, 1974). Obviously the drive to SLC wasn’t exactly impossible, as he eventually moved there for law school, but it definitely wasn’t just a quick jaunt down the street. The route Ted would have driven to SLC from Seattle then to DeBeque, Colorado where her remains were found was roughly 1,150 miles ONE WAY (he obviously would have had to take the same trip BACK to Seattle). This is a lot of driving. He was in between schooling at the time, as he graduated from the University of Washington in 1972 and didn’t move to Salt Lake City for law school (part deux) until September 2, 1974. Did Bundy kill Weaver on a trip to Utah to do something for his upcoming education (maybe he had to fill out something at the bursar’s office or check out an apartment)? According to the ‘TB Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992,’ Ted went on leave (without pay) from the Department of Emergency Services in Seattle, WA on July 1, 1974 (the same day of Weavers abduction); additionally, gas receipts put him in Seattle the same day. Lets not also forget he was in a relationship at the time with Liz Kloepfer, which was just one more thing taking up his time.
This is a rare instance where the more I researched the more information I found, which I know sounds fairly obvious but I have run into countless dead ends writing about some of these girls. For example, I can’t even find Deborah Lee Tomlinson on Ancestry, so I tried to think outside the box and joined a few Facebook groups related to her hometown of Creswell OR, in hopes that maybe I would find a relative or an old friend of hers that could help fill in the gaps surrounding her background… but again, I got nothing. Right before I was about to re-publish this I found even more information about Weaver on cavdef.org… nothing huge or ground breaking, just a few small details. In a comment on the website ExecutedToday.com, an individual going by the name of Philip Conrad commented that he ‘knew Sandra Weaver, the Colorado detectives talked to me and my x wife in lacrosse wi because we thought the guy that left with her might have had something with her death. I do believe Ted Bundy killed her.’ Additionally I found Glade Gambles obituary (which I included below).
In an article written by a Salt Lake journalist after Bundy was executed, Pete Haywood said that authorities placed Bundy in Utah as early as 1970 when he was only 23, which ‘certainly widens the window of time we are looking at in terms of unsolved cases.’ There’s conflicting reports that say the serial killer mentioned Weavers during his death row confessions: some sources say he did, others say he didn’t. Former Mesa County Sheriff said two different television stations ran stories claiming that Bundy took responsibility for Weavers death, and the Salt Lake Tribune ran a story saying the same.
Another Bundy Blog. 