Ted Bundy’s Biography, Net Worth, Fact, Career, Awards and Life Story

Interested in Ted Bundy’s Biography, Net Worth, Fact, Career, Awards and Life Story, this article provides key summaries you shouldn't miss.

The night before his execution, Bundy confessed to 30 homicides, but the true total remains unknown. Published estimates have run as high as 100 or more, and Bundy occasionally made cryptic comments to encourage that speculation. He told Hugh Aynesworth in 1980 that for every murder “publicized”, there “could be one that was not.” When FBI agents proposed a total tally of 36, Bundy responded, “Add one digit to that, and you’ll have it.” Years later he told attorney Polly Nelson that the common estimate of 35 was accurate, but Robert Keppel wrote that “[Ted] and I both knew [the total] was much higher.” “I don’t think even he knew … how many he killed, or why he killed them”, said Rev. Fred Lawrence, the Methodist clergyman who administered Bundy’s last rites. “That was my impression, my strong impression.”

On the evening before his execution, Bundy reviewed his victim tally with Bill Hagmaier on a state-by-state basis for a total of 30 homicides:

• in Washington, 11 (including Parks, abducted in Oregon but killed in Washington; and including 3 unidentified)
• in Utah, 8 (3 unidentified)
• in Colorado, 3
• in Florida, 3
• in Oregon, 2 (both unidentified)
• in Idaho, 2 (1 unidentified)
• in California, 1 (unidentified)

The following is a chronological summary of the 20 identified victims and five identified survivors:

1974

Washington, Oregon

• January 4: Karen Sparks (often identified as Joni Lenz in Bundy literature) (age 18): Bludgeoned and sexually assaulted in her bed as she slept; survived
• February 1: Lynda Ann Healy (21): Bludgeoned while asleep and abducted; skull and mandible recovered at Taylor Mountain site
• March 12: Donna Gail Manson (19): Abducted while walking to a concert at The Evergreen State College; body left (according to Bundy) at Taylor Mountain site, but never found
• April 17: Susan Elaine Rancourt (18): Disappeared after attending an evening advisors’ meeting at Central Washington State College; skull and mandible recovered at Taylor Mountain site in 1975
• May 6: Roberta Kathleen Parks (22): Vanished from Oregon State University in Corvallis; skull and mandible recovered at Taylor Mountain site in 1975
• June 1: Brenda Carol Ball (22): Disappeared after leaving the Flame Tavern in Burien; skull and mandible recovered at Taylor Mountain site in 1975
• June 11: Georgann (often misspelled “Georgeann”) Hawkins (18): Abducted from an alley behind her sorority house, UW; skeletal remains identified by Bundy as those of Hawkins recovered at Issaquah site
• July 14: Janice Ann Ott (23): Abducted from Lake Sammamish State Park in broad daylight; skeletal remains recovered at Issaquah site in 1975
• July 14: Denise Marie Naslund (19): Abducted four hours after Ott from the same park; skeletal remains recovered at Issaquah site in 1975

Utah, Colorado, Idaho

• October 2: Nancy Wilcox (16): Ambushed, assaulted, and strangled in Holladay, Utah; body buried (according to Bundy) near Capitol Reef National Park, 200 miles (320 km) south of Salt Lake City, but never found
• October 18: Melissa Anne Smith (17): Vanished from Midvale, Utah; body found nine days later, in nearby mountainous area
• October 31: Laura Ann Aime (17): Disappeared from Lehi, Utah; bludgeoned and raped; body discovered by hikers in American Fork Canyon
• November 8: Carol DaRonch (18): Attempted abduction in Murray, Utah; escaped from Bundy’s car and survived
• November 8: Debra Jean Kent (17): Vanished after leaving a school play in Bountiful, Utah; body left (according to Bundy) near Fairview, Utah, 100 miles (160 km) south of Bountiful; minimal skeletal remains (one patella) found, were eventually in 2015 positively identified by DNA as Kent’s

1975

Utah, Colorado, Idaho

• January 12: Caryn Eileen Campbell (23): Disappeared from a hotel hallway in Snowmass, Colorado; body discovered 36 days later, on a dirt road near the hotel
• March 15: Julie Cunningham (26): Disappeared on the way to a tavern in Vail, Colorado; body buried (according to Bundy) near Rifle, 90 miles (140 km) west of Vail, but never found
• April 6: Denise Lynn Oliverson (25): Abducted while cycling to her parents’ house in Grand Junction, Colorado; body thrown (according to Bundy) into the Colorado River 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Grand Junction, but never found
• May 6: Lynette Dawn Culver (12): Abducted from Alameda Junior High School in Pocatello, Idaho; body thrown (according to Bundy) into what authorities believe to be the Snake River, but never found
• June 28: Susan Curtis (15): Disappeared during a youth conference at Brigham Young University; body buried (according to Bundy) near Price, Utah, 75 miles (121 km) southeast of Provo, but never found

1978

Florida

• January 15: Margaret Elizabeth Bowman (21): Bludgeoned and then strangled as she slept, Chi Omega sorority, FSU (no secondary crime scene)
• January 15: Lisa Levy (20): Bludgeoned, strangled and sexually assaulted as she slept, Chi Omega sorority, FSU (no secondary crime scene)
• January 15: Karen Chandler (21): Bludgeoned as she slept, Chi Omega sorority, FSU; survived
• January 15: Kathy Kleiner (21): Bludgeoned as she slept, Chi Omega sorority, FSU; survived
• January 15: Cheryl Thomas (21): Bludgeoned as she slept, eight blocks from Chi Omega; survived
• February 9: Kimberly Dianne Leach (12): Abducted from her junior high school in Lake City, Florida; mummified remains found near Suwannee River State Park, 43 miles (69 km) west of Lake City

Other possible victims

Bundy remains a suspect in several unsolved homicides, and is likely responsible for others that may never be identified; in 1987 he confided to Keppel that there were “some murders” that he would “never talk about”, because they were committed “too close to home”, “too close to family”, or involved “victims who were very young”.

• Ann Marie Burr, aged 8, vanished from her Tacoma home on August 31, 1961, when Bundy was 14. An unknown tennis shoe imprint was found by the overturned bench used to enter the house. Due to the small size of the shoe, police believed the perpetrator must be a teenager or youth. The Burr house was on Bundy’s newspaper delivery route. The victim’s father was certain that he saw Bundy in a ditch at a construction site on the nearby University of Puget Sound campus the morning his daughter disappeared. Other circumstantial evidence implicates him as well, but detectives familiar with the case have never agreed on the likelihood of his involvement. Bundy repeatedly denied culpability and wrote a letter of denial to the Burr family in 1986; but Keppel has observed that Burr fits all three of Bundy’s “no discussion” categories of “too close to home”, “too close to family”, and “very young”. Forensic testing of material evidence from the Burr crime scene, in 2011, yielded insufficient intact DNA sequences for comparison with Bundy’s.
• Flight attendants Lisa E. Wick and Lonnie Ree Trumbull, both 20, were bludgeoned with a piece of lumber as they slept in their basement apartment in Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill district on June 23, 1966 near the Safeway store where Bundy worked at the time, and where the women regularly shopped. Trumbull died. In retrospect, Keppel noted many similarities to the Chi Omega crime scene. Wick, who suffered permanent memory loss as a result of the attack, later contacted Ann Rule: “I know that it was Ted Bundy who did that to us,” she wrote, “but I can’t tell you how I know.” In the absence of incriminating evidence, Bundy’s involvement remains speculative.
• Vacationing college friends Susan Margarite Davis and Elizabeth Perry, both 19, were stabbed to death on May 30, 1969. Their car was found that day abandoned beside the Garden State Parkway outside Somers Point, New Jersey, near Atlantic City, 60 miles (97 km) southeast of Philadelphia; and their bodies—one nude, one fully clothed—were found in nearby woods three days later. Bundy attended Temple University from January through May 1969 and apparently did not move west until after Memorial Day weekend. While Bundy’s accounts of his earliest crimes varied considerably between interviews, he told forensic psychologist Art Norman that his first murder victims were two women in the Philadelphia area. Biographer Richard Larsen believed that Bundy committed the murders using his feigned-injury ruse, based on an investigator’s interview with Julia, Bundy’s aunt: Ted, she said, was wearing a leg cast due to an automobile accident on the weekend of the homicides, and therefore could not have traveled from Philadelphia to the Jersey Shore; there is no official record of any such accident. Bundy is considered a “strong suspect”, but the case remains open.
• Rita Patricia Curran, a 24-year-old elementary school teacher and part-time motel maid, was murdered in her basement apartment on July 19, 1971, in Burlington, Vermont; she had been strangled, bludgeoned and raped. The location of the motel where she worked (adjacent to Bundy’s birthplace, the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers) and similarities to known Bundy crime scenes led retired FBI agent John Bassett to propose him as a suspect. No evidence firmly places Bundy in Burlington on that date, but municipal records note that a person named “Bundy” was bitten by a dog that week, and long stretches of Bundy’s time—including the summer of 1971—remain unaccounted for. Curran’s murder officially remains unsolved. According to Keppel, Bundy told him he murdered a young woman in July 1971 in Burlington, Vt., who worked next door to a home for unwed mothers where Bundy was born. Bundy was there to obtain information about his birth.
• Joyce LePage, 21, was last seen on July 22, 1971, on the campus of Washington State University, where she was an undergraduate. Nine months later, her skeletal remains were found wrapped in carpeting and military blankets, bound with rope, in a deep ravine south of Pullman, Washington. Multiple suspects—including Bundy—have “never been cleared”, according to investigators. Whitman County authorities have said that Bundy remains a suspect.
• Rita Lorraine Jolly, 17, disappeared from West Linn, Oregon, on June 29, 1973; Vicki Lynn Hollar, 24, disappeared from Eugene, Oregon, on August 20, 1973. Bundy confessed to two homicides in Oregon without identifying the victims. Oregon detectives suspected that they were Jolly and Hollar, but were unable to obtain interview time with Bundy to confirm it. Both women remain classified as missing.
• Katherine Merry Devine, 14, was abducted on November 25, 1973, and her body was found the next month in the Capitol State Forest near Olympia, Washington. Brenda Joy Baker, 14, was seen hitchhiking near Puyallup, Washington, on May 27, 1974; her body was found in Millersylvania State Park a month later. Though Bundy was widely believed responsible for both murders, he told Keppel that he had no knowledge of either case. DNA analysis led to the arrest and conviction of William E. Cosden for Devine’s murder in 2002. The Baker homicide remains unsolved.
• Sandra Jean Weaver, 19, a Wisconsin native who had been living in Tooele, Utah, was last seen in Salt Lake City on July 1, 1974; her nude body was discovered the following day near Grand Junction, Colorado. Sources conflict on whether Bundy mentioned Weaver’s name during the death row interviews. Her murder remains unsolved.
• Melanie Suzanne “Suzy” Cooley, 18, disappeared on April 15, 1975, after leaving Nederland High School in Nederland, Colorado, 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Denver. Her bludgeoned and strangled corpse was discovered by road maintenance workers two weeks later in Coal Creek Canyon, 20 miles (32 km) away. Gasoline station receipts place Bundy in nearby Golden on the day Cooley disappeared. Cooley is included in some compilations of Bundy victims, but Jefferson County authorities say the evidence is inconclusive and continue to treat her homicide as a cold case.
• Shelley Kay Robertson, 24, failed to show up for work in Golden, Colorado, on July 1, 1975. Her nude, decomposed body was found in August, 500 feet (150 m) inside a mine on Berthoud Pass near Winter Park Resort by two mining students. Gas station receipts place Bundy in the area at the time, but there is no direct evidence of his involvement; the case remains open.
• Nancy Perry Baird, 23, disappeared from the service station where she worked in Layton, Utah, 25 miles (40 km) north of Salt Lake City, on July 4, 1975, and remains classified as a missing person. Bundy specifically denied involvement in this case during the death row interviews.
• Debbie Smith, 17, was last seen in Salt Lake City in early February 1976, shortly before the DaRonch trial began; her body was found near the Salt Lake City International Airport on April 1, 1976. Though listed as a Bundy victim by some sources, her murder remains officially unsolved.

Minutes before his execution, Hagmaier queried Bundy about unsolved homicides in New Jersey, Illinois, Vermont (the Curran case), Texas, and Miami, Florida. Bundy provided directions—later proven inaccurate—to Susan Curtis’ burial site in Utah, but denied involvement in any of the open cases.

In 2011, Bundy’s complete DNA profile, obtained from a vial of his blood found in an evidence vault, was added to the FBI’s DNA database for future reference in these and other unsolved murder cases.