On the first evening in October in 1974, Nancy Wilcox had the kind of typical teenage argument with her parents that countless families have experienced—this one about a boy. It was a…
Category: Utah
The First Arrest, 1975
At about 3 in the morning on Saturday, August 16, 1975, Utah Highway Patrol Sergeant Bob Hayward pulled over a young man in a tan VW after a short but high speed car chase. The trooper had apparently spooked his target, who would soon identify himself as Ted Bundy, while he’d been sitting in the dark outside a home in Hayward’s suburban Salt Lake City neighborhood. At the time, Bob Hayward had no idea who he’d collared, or the significance of his actions: “It would have been routine, except it happened to be the right guy.”
The Utah State Prison: Part II, 1976
This is the second installment of Ted Bundy’s Utah State Prison records, released to me after a year of denied appeals to the Utah Dept. of Corrections and a final, successful appeal to the Utah State Records Committee. This is the first time these records have ever been seen outside of the Utah Department of Corrections. Bundy’s rehabilitation plan, progress report, work assignment performance reviews, and answers to the treatment plan worksheet’s standardized questions show his ability to exhibit an outwardly polished demeanor while also maintaining a resentful, aggrieved state of mind.
The Utah State Prison: Part I, 1976
This is the first installment of Ted Bundy’s Utah State Prison records, released to me after a year of denied appeals to the Utah Dept. of Corrections and a final, successful appeal…
The Diagnostic Evaluation, 1976
While awaiting a sentencing decision after his conviction in the Carol DaRonch kidnapping trial on March 1, 1976, Ted Bundy underwent psychiatric evaluation at the Utah State Prison. The judge, Stewart Hansen…
The Presentence Investigation Report, 1976
In March 1976 Salt Lake City district court Judge Stewart Hanson ordered a presentence investigation report for Ted Bundy after his conviction in the Carol DaRonch kidnapping case. The judge wanted more information about Bundy’s life, as his clean-cut, law student exterior clashed with the violent crime he had been found guilty of committing. Don Hull with the Utah Department of Probation and Parole was assigned to investigate his background and reported the results to Judge Hanson before final sentencing.
Case File: Melissa Smith, 1974
Seventeen-year-old Melissa Smith disappeared the night of October 18, 1974 while walking home from a pizza restaurant in Midvale, a suburb of Salt Lake City. Her nude, beaten, and strangled body was discovered by hunters nine days later in a wooded area. While Ted Bundy never admitted to her murder, when directly asked during his final confessions he did not deny it either. This is her case file.
Salt Lake City Police Surveillance Logs, 1975
After Ted’s arrest on August 16, 1975, Salt Lake area police quickly put two and two together, tying him to the kidnapping of Carol DaRonch from nearly a year earlier. By early September, police from multiple jurisdictions were working together to follow the young law student and watch his campus-area home on the Avenues.
The Police Interviews, 1975-1978
In late summer of 1975, Salt Lake area police decided they needed to look into Ted Bundy’s associates: his neighbors, friends, girlfriends, and employers. This is what they had to say.
The Police Interviews: Liz Kloepfer, 1975
Elizabeth Kloepfer had been Ted Bundy’s girlfriend for nearly six years by the time he was arrested in Salt Lake City. After he became a suspect in the DaRonch kidnapping and Kent…