How Ted Bundy Was Caught

Ted Bundy

In Burlington, Vermont, on November 24, 1946, Ted Bundy was born. He would murder at least 30 people before his death. Principal investigators think that number may be closer to 40.

At three in the morning on August 16, 1975, Utah highway patrolman Sergeant Bob Hayward spotted a tan 1968 Volkswagen Beetle parked in front of a house. The VW accelerated as Sergeant Hayward approached. After pursuing the automobile, Hayward was able to eventually stop it.

Bundy, who had just seen The Towering Inferno at a nearby drive-in theater, informed Sergeant Hayward that he was lost. If The Towering Inferno had been showing at the neighborhood drive-in, Hayward might have been able to release Bundy with just this justification.

Sergeant Hayward checked Bundy's automobile out of suspicion. Handcuffs, an ice pick, a ski mask, a torch, some garbage bags, rope, torn sheets, gloves, and pantyhose with holes cut out to make a mask were among the items he found during his search.

Bundy was arrested by Sergeant Hayward for eluding an officer, but Bundy was released on bond. Sergeant Hayward spoke with his brother, Sheriff Pete Hayward, unable to forget the incident. Two of Sheriff Hayward's detectives heard the tale and thought Bundy and the tan Volkswagen Beetle sounded uncannily familiar.

When detectives in Utah got in touch with those in Washington, they discovered that Bundy was one of their top-tier murder suspects. Murders that, coincidentally, halted when Bundy moved from Washington to Utah, and then the unexplained disappearances started in Utah.

However, Bundy had committed a key error by leaving a witness.

In an effort to secure her as his next victim, Bundy abducted 18-year-old Carol DaRonch from the Fashion Place Mall outside of Salt Lake City, Utah, on November 8, 1974. But unlike so many others before her, DaRonch managed to escape.

On October 2, 1975, Carol DaRonch selected Bundy from a lineup as the person who had abducted her nearly a year earlier. Bundy was found guilty of kidnapping on March 1, 1976, and might have received a 15-year sentence; however, the narrative doesn't end there.

Carol DaRonch

In June 1977, Bundy managed to escape from a second-story window after being briefly left alone after being extradited to Colorado for the murder of Caryn Campbell. A few days later, he was discovered in Aspen and returned to custody.

Only for him to break out of his jail cell at the Garfield County Jail in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, once more on December 31, 1977. Bundy managed to avoid capture this time, though, and the results were deadly.

Bundy would attack five people over the course of the following two months, murdering three of them.

Around 1:30 a.m. on February 15, 1978, Pensacola Police Officer David Lee stopped a man who was driving a stolen car. The man was taken into custody by Officer Lee. The individual refused to provide the officers with his real identity for nearly two days.

Detective Norman Chapman was then given the case.

"My name is Theodore Robert Bundy," the man finally admitted. Chapman didn't know who that was at the time. Bundy was quickly identified by the department as the man the FBI had just one week earlier placed on their list of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.

A Miami jury found Ted Bundy guilty of two counts of murder on July 24, 1979. A jury in Orlando found Ted Bundy guilty of one count of kidnapping and one count of murder on February 7, 1980.

Theodore Robert Bundy was put to death in the Florida State Prison on January 24, 1989, when he was 42 years old.

Detective Norman Chapman