On September 6, 1974, two grouse hunters discovered the skeletal remains of Janice Ott and Denise Naslund near a service road in Issaquah, approximately 17 miles east of Seattle.
The two women were believed to have been abducted in broad daylight by the mysterious “Ted” at Lake Sammamish Park.
On the day of the abductions, five female witnesses reported meeting an attractive young man, wearing a white tennis outfit, with his left arm in a sling.
Introducing himself as “Ted,” the man asked for their help in unloading a sailboat from his tan-bronze-colored Volkswagen Beetle. Four women refused, but one accompanied him as far as his car, where she discovered there was no sailboat, and promptly fled.
The story took a dark turn when three witnesses reported seeing “Ted” approach Janice Ott, a probation case worker at the King County Juvenile Court, with the sailboat story. They watched her leave the beach in his company, never to return.
About four hours later, Denise Naslund, a 19-year-old student, left a picnic to go to the restroom and never came back.
The worst part? The deadly abductions had only just begun.
Six months later, forestry students from Green River Community College discovered the skulls and mandibles of four more women on Taylor Mountain.
With a total of six dead bodies found within less than a year, the police could only speculate who they were dealing with.
What they didn’t know was that they were dealing with a cold-blooded killer, capable of killing more than 30 women. A killer who revisited his crime scenes to violate their corpses until putrefaction forced him to stop.
They were dealing with Ted Bundy — a two-dimensional villain, a pop culture phenomenon, concealing himself behind the facade of a brilliant monster who seduced women and deceived investigators.
With the execution date nearing and the hopes of overturning it fading, Ted Bundy agreed to talk to the investigators about his murders.
“He described the Issaquah crime scene [where the bones of Ott, Naslund, and Hawkins were found], and it was almost like he was just there”, detective Bob Keppel said.
“Like he was seeing everything. He was infatuated with the idea because he spent so much time there. He is just totally consumed with murder all the time.”
