On November 24, 1946, Eleanor Louise Cowell gave birth to Theodore Robert Cowell in a home for unwed mothers in Burlington, Vermont. His illegitimacy led his mother to make the youngster believe he was actually her brother and that his grandparents were his actual birthparents. Some, perhaps searching for some cause to Bundy's future actions, feel that Bundy's grandfather, Sam, may actually have fathered Ted out of an incestuous relationship with Eleanor. The resulting confusion was the only known possible trauma in the young boy's life.

It was not to be the only change that the boy would endure, though. In 1950 his mother , still claiming to be nothing more than a sibling, moved herself and her son to the West Coast, settling in Tacoma, Washington. One there , she changed her boy's name from Cowell to Nelson for reasons that are unclear. When Eleanor married Johnnie Bundy on May 19, 1951, her son had finally had the name he would carry for life, Theodore Robert Bundy.

Though Bundy loved his grandfather, it is reported that the man had a volatile temper and a mild taste for pornography. Aside from that, no sign of serious instability seemed to exist in Bundy's childhood. His step-father and he were never particularly close but no abuse was ever evident and Eleanor was devoted to her son, though he remained confused about their relationship. Bundy reportedly alternately referred to her as his sister and his mother.

Bundy's teenage years went by quietly, save for a pair on incidents in which he was a suspect in burglaries. Escaping any charges bundy graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School with the class of 1965. On the outside all seemed normal in Ted Bundy's life. By this time however, Bundy had become stealing regularly and by his own admission had become socially retarded. After his high school graduation Bundy attended two semesters at the University of Puget Sound, apparently without incident or distinction. At the beginning of the 1966 school year he transferred to the University of Washington. There he met Stephanie Brooks, a beautiful young woman who wore her long, dark hair parted in the middle. Her resemblance to Bundy's later victims is striking. However, Bundy had already begun his killing.

Lonnie Trumbull-During the evening of June 23, 1966, roommates Lisa Wick and Lonnie Trumbull laid sleeping in their Seattle apartment. When a third roommate arrived the next morning Trumbull was dead, beaten with a blunt object in her sleep. Wick had barely survived a similar attack and lingered in a coma for some time. She remembered nothing. A blood-covered piece of wood was found in a nearby vacant lot. Bundy escaped and refused to later confess to this crime, but similarities to later attacks and the fact that he definitely lived in Seattle at the time make it more than likely that he was the attacker.

Bundy was enamored of Stephanie and grew to love her quickly, or what passed as love to somebody like him. She may not have felt as strongly about him but for the time being they seemed a happy couple. Soon his inadequacies, both mental and sexual, got the better of him and he couldn't shake the feeling that Stephanie was too good for him. The couple stayed together long enough for Bundy to transfer again, this time to Stanford University in the fall of 1968. Once there the relationship grew increasingly sour until Stephanie broke it off. Bundy's lack of confidence and tendency toward manipulation had ruined the relationship. Bundy soon dropped out of Stanford, reportedly devastated.

Bundy began drifting around and during this time he visited his birth town of Burlington, Vermont, in early 1969. Looking up the record of his birth he finally was convinced of what had always plagued him deep down, that his the woman who had attempted to raise him as her brother was his in fact birth mother. The name Lloyd Marshall was listed as his father but there is some doubt as to whether this particular man existed or was a fictitious name given by Bundy's mother.

Whatever effect this had on Bundy is not really know, but upon arriving back in Washington he attempted to briefly rekindle his romance with Stephanie Brooks, but was turned away. Bundy then waited until the fall and re-entered the University of Washington with a sense of purpose, turning form an average student into an honor student. He excelled at his studies and became increasingly involved in local politics, continuing to work on and off for political campaigns.

Around this time he met Liz X, who would be a part of his life until well after his final incarceration. A divorced mother, Liz supported Bundy in every way possible and the two seemed a close couple. He also me Ann Rule around this time while working the phones at the Seattle Crisis Clinic and the two became close friends. Rule would later write the definitive Bundy book, "The Stranger Beside Me".

Things seemed to stay relatively calm for the time being. Bundy graduated from Washington with a degree in psychology and in the summer of 1973 was accepted into the University of Utah Law School. Maybe because of his ongoing relationship with Liz, or his excellent job with the Washington State Republican Party, he chose not to attend until the following school year. He did take some night classes at Puget Sound but lost interest in the second-rate schooling and essentially flunked out. Still, it seemed as if Bundy was headed for great things.

 

Nobody will ever know what happened to set Ted Bundy off, but toward the end of 1973 he began murdering women at a frightening rate.

Joni Lenz-Found in the basement bedroom of a house she shared with other girls in Seattle on January 5, 1974, the eighteen-year-old Lenz survived a horrendous attack which included being beaten on the head and face with a bed frame rod and having a speculum, a medical vaginal probe, jammed viciously inside her. Lenz suffered brain damage and internal organ injuries. Bundy had apparently entered and exited via an unlocked basement window.

Lynda Ann Healy-On February 1, Less than a month after the Lenz attack, Healy was abducted from her basement bedroom without a sound. Bloodstains were found on her bed, the sheet and pillowcase were missing, and the nightgown she had been wearing was hung up in the closet. Bundy had dressed her in clothes before taking her from the house. A basement door leading directly outside was unlocked and no doubt the point of entry. Healy may have even willingly let Bundy in. Because authorities mistakenly believed at first that foul play may not be involved, her bedroom was never dusted for fingerprints and an apparent semen stain on her bed was never tested.

Eyebrows almost certainly raised in the ranks of police when the Lenz and Healy crimes resembled each other so closely. A later anonymous call also claimed a link between the two.

Donna Manson-This abduction occurred on the campus of Evergreen College when Manson, 19, disappeared while strolling to a concert on March 12. She was never seen again, dead or alive.

Susan Rancourt-Last seen at a meeting on the campus of Central Washington St. in Ellensburg on April 17. A man in a sling had been observed the same night attempting to obtain help getting a heavy load of books to his car.

Kathy Parks-Abducted from the Oregon St. campus on May 6 after leaving to walk to the student union. Not reported missing until the middle of the month.

Brenda Ball-Last seen in a tavern in Burien, Washington on June 1. A compulsive traveler, she was not reported missing for almost three weeks.

Georgean Hawkins-An 18-year-old University of Washington student, Hawkins was abducted from an alleyway after leaving her boyfriends frat for her own on June 11. The distance between the two fraternities was just 90 feet and she was observed at about the halfway point between the two buildings in the well-lit alley. A scream was heard by another person around the same time but other than that she basically vanished.

Brenda Baker-Only 6 days after Hawkins' disappearance, Baker was found dead in a state park. The fifteen-year-old runaway had been missing since she left home on May 25 and was a known hitchhiker. Her cause of death could not be determined from her decomposed remains.

Other than a strange rash of missing persons under mysterious circumstances, investigators were not inclined at this point to admit that a single killer was on the loose. That would soon begin to change.

Janice Ott-On July 14 at around 12:30 in the afternoon at Lake Sammamish State Park, Ott was overheard talking to a man in a white outfit and a cast on his arm who said his name was Ted and he needed help with his sailboat. Though she seemed annoyed at the request, she left with the man and was never seen alive again.

Denise Naslund-Around 4:30 the same afternoon Naslund left her boyfriend to use the bathroom. She was seen at the bathroom but never made it back to the beach where her boyfriend was waiting.

Police at least had something to go on in the Lake Sammamish cases, though they weren't linking them to any other disappearances or murders. Many people had seen the man with the cast approaching women and a composite sketch (pictured at left) was compiled from their descriptions. They also had a name to go with the face though it was unknown whether Ted was truly the suspect's real name. The combination was enough to elicit curiosity and jokes from some of Bundy's friends and co-workers.

It would not be long before the fate of Ott and Naslund was discovered. Forestry students found skeletal remains in dense woods about two miles from Lake Sammamish on September 7. After scouring the area investigators, including a young Bob Keppell, had collected the bones of Ott, Naslund, and the femur of an unknown person. Bundy later revealed that the extra bone belonged to previous victim Hawkins, the girl abducted from the alley behind her frat house over three months before.
 

By the time the remains had been discovered near Lake Sammamish, Bundy had already left for the University of Utah. It was not long before he began to kill young women there also.

Nancy Wilcox-The 16-year-old cheerleader disappeared on October 2, 1974. She was reportedly last seen riding in a VW similar to Bundy's. Her body was never found.

Melissa Smith-The 17-year-old vanished from Midvale, Utah, on her way home from a night out in Midvale, Utah, on October 18. She was last seen attempting to hitch a ride. Her body was found on the 27th in Summitt Park near Salt Lake City. She was nude and had been beaten, raped, sodomized, and strangled with her own stocking. Dirt and twigs had also been stuffed inside her vagina and it seemed as if her killer had touched up her make-up before dumping her body.

Laurie Aimee-Last seen on Halloween in Lehi, Utah. Aimee, 17, was not reported missing for four days and not found until Thanksgiving by a hiker in American Folk Canyon. Also found naked and had been raped, sodomized, and beaten beyond recognition. Died from strangulation and may have had her hair washed before her corpse was dumped.

Bundy was about to make his first big mistake, however. On November 8 he approached Carol DeRonch at the Fashion Place Mall in Murray, Utah.  Posing as a police officer, he claimed her car had been broken into. DeRonch got into Bundy's car the mistaken belief that she was going to a police station to file a report. After abruptly stopping the car he pulled a handgun and handcuffed her wrist. She struggled and broke away before Bundy could secure the other end of the handcuffs and DeRonch flagged down a passing motorist who took her to the police. A similarity to the Smith murder was noted but no prints could be lifted from the handcuffs that still clung to DeRonch's wrist. Though some blood that was probably from her potential abductor was found on the her coat, it was not sufficient for any testing.

Bundy was nothing if not determined though.

Debbie Kent-Only hours later and 17 miles from the botched DeRonch abduction, Kent, 17, disappeared after leaving a school play in Bountiful, Utah. The girl had left early and alone to pick her brother up, but her car never left the parking lot. Residents nearby heard screams from the area of the lot at around the same time. A handcuff key that fit the cuffs left on DeRonch's wrist was later found on the ground nearby.  Kent was never found alive or dead.

Bundy had taken huge risks in the Kent abduction though. He had been clearly seen lurking in the back of the auditorium where the play was healed and had boldly appeared backstage, confronting a teacher. Drama teacher Raelynn Shepard reported that a strange man had approached her several times during the play, once trying to convince her to come out to the parking lot with him to allegedly identify a vehicle, the same ruse Bundy had tried earlier in the day with DeRonch. Knowing this Bundy must have felt like a change of scenery and began taking trips north as the new year began, cooling down his Utah activities a bit.

Caryn Campbell-On January 12, 1975, the 23-year-old Campbell left her boyfriend in the lobby of the Wildwood Inn in Apsen, Colorado, to get something from the couple's room. She was seen walking down the second floor hallway towards the room but she never returned to the lobby. She was found dead on February 18 alongside a road a few miles from the motel. She had severe head injuries and deep cuts on her body.

Julie Cunningham-Disappeared from the streets of Vail, Colorado, while walking to a nearby tavern on March 15. Her body was never found.

Denise Oliverson-After leaving her home for her parents house on April 6 in Grand Junction, Colorado. Her bike and sandals were found under a nearby viaduct.

Melanie Cooley-The 18-year-old was last seen in Nederland, Colorado, on April 15. She was found eight days later and 20 miles away dead from head injuries, her hands bound and a pillowcase tied around her neck.

Lynette Culver-Only 13 years old, Culver was snatched from a school playground in Pocatello, Idaho on May 6. She would never be found.

Susan Curtis-The 15-year-old Curtis was abducted from the campus of Brigham young University while attending a youth conference on June 28. She left her friends to walk back to a dorm and was never seen again. Tragically, Curtis was from Bountiful, Utah, the same town from which previous victim Smith had been abducted from in November of the previous year.

Shelley Robertson-Last seen in Golden, Colorado, on July 1 talking to a man in a pick-up at a gas station. The 24-year-old was found nude and decomposed near Vail, Colorado, placed 500 feet inside an old mine entrance.

Nancy Baird-Disappeared from a service station where she worked only three days after Robertson. She was never found.

Debbie Smith-Found dead in February of 1976 at the Salt Lake City International Airport.

At this point Washington had realized they had a multiple killer on their hands and Utah authorities had a strong suspicion of the same, but because of Bundy's traveling it was difficult to say for sure and the killings between the separate states had not been linked at all. Bob Keppel started his investigation of a second major Washington dump site in the Taylor Mountain area. Before it was over searchers had discovered the skulls of Healy, Parks, Ball, and Rancourt. All the skulls had been crushed. Amazingly, Rancourt's skull had been transported over 260 miles from her abduction site at the Oregon St. campus. No other bones of the four girls were ever found.
 

The Washington task force was slowly making headroom in their unsolved cases. A computer program had been created to organize and determine a list of the most logical suspects based on the incredible amount of lists ant tips compiled. Cumbersome as it was, the computer had narrowed the suspects down to just 25. The investigators focused their attention on these 25, investigating them one-by-one. Ted Bundy was reportedly the next to be investigated when good fortune intervened on August 16, 1975.

Utah Highway Patrol Officer Bob Haywood, coincidentally the brother of Detective Pete Haywood of the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office, who was involved in the investigation of some of the Utah murders, noticed a light-colored VW in his neighborhood in Granger, Utah. Familiar with the people and vehicles around his home, Haywood turned his bright lights on the vehicle. It immediately sped away, running a pair of stop signs before pulling over. Officer Haywood asked for Identification and the driver produced the proper credentials in the name of Ted Bundy.

Haywood noticed that there was no passenger seat in Bundy's car and searched it, finding what he feels are burglary tools in a satchel. Among other things, the VW contained a mask made of panty hose, an icepack, and handcuffs. Bundy was arrested for evasion of a police officer and released on his own recognizance.

Soon after his release Salt Lake investigators began to link Bundy to the DeRonch attack. They arrested him for possession of burglary tools on August 21 and searched his apartment. The only thing of note found were maps of Colorado with Aspen marked. Bundy's mugs hot was shown to DeRonch, but she could not positively identify him as her attacker, though the teacher from Bountiful recognized Bundy as the man she saw backstage at the school play during which Kent was abducted.

It was enough to put Bundy under surveillance and investigated. Soon he was arrested and charged with the DeRonch assault. Bundy's girlfriend Liz X was interviewed by Utah detectives. she told them about his nocturnal sleeping habits, rough sexual practices, and odd possessions like crutches, plaster of paris, and a fake mustache. It was becoming obvious to all investigators involved that Bundy had something to do with the murders and disappearances in Utah, Washington, and Colorado. Bundy soon made bail and, incredibly, moved in with Kendall at her Seattle apartment until his Utah trial for kidnapping.

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