Ted Bundy escaped from custody (for the second time) on December 30, 1977: he was being housed in the Garfield County Jail in Glenwood Springs, CO and intentionally lost around thirty pounds over several weeks so he could squeeze through a one-foot-square opening in the ceiling of his that was meant for a light fixture. The jail was aware of it but had put off getting it fixed.

On the evening he escaped, Bundy stacked blankets and books on his mattress in an attempt to create a decoy that appeared to be sleeping. From there, he climbed through the hole in the ceiling, crawled through the plumbing and wiring, then dropped into the chief jailer’s apartment while he was out to a movie with his wife. After he helped himself to some of the jailers clothes from his closet, Ted simply walked out the front door and into the night, and the rest is history. His disappearance wasn’t discovered until the next afternoon, roughly seventeen hours later.