Ted Bundy and His Bloody Visit to Colorado

By Don Rainwater

If you ever looked at Ted Bundy, you would not see the serial killer that has haunted the dreams of the family members of his victims. Ted Bundy was a good looking man, athletic, and charming. His boyish looks do not show what was hidden deep in his troubled mind and the girls that were to become his victims did not know the evil that was in his heart or the deeds that he was capable of committing.

When looking at the murders by the hands of Ted Bundy, one seems to be drawn to the idea that the murders happened in waves. The first wave was located in Washington and Oregon, but the second wave did not begin until Bundy began attending the University of Utah Law School in Salt Lake City. He had barely begun the school year until his thirst for the flesh of young women had him on the hunt again. He resumed killing in October and it started with the disappearance of Nancy Wilcox.

Ms. Wilcox was just the beginning. Bundy murdered Melissa Smith. This was a brazen move for Bundy because Mellissa was the daughter of the Police Chief of Midvale, Utah. This fact being ignored, Bundy raped, sodomized and then strangled young Melissa and hid her body so well, it took nine days for the searchers to find it. Having a body count of two for October, Bundy ended the bloody month by killing Laura Aime, a seventeen year old woman from Lehi, Utah. She was found naked and beaten dead on the banks of a river in the American Fork Canyon. She was killed on Halloween and her body was not found until Thanksgiving Day.

A week later on November 8th, 1974 another Utah woman almost fell victim to Bundy. In Murray Utah, a young woman known as Carol DaRonch was led astray when Bundy pretended to be an office of the Murray Police department. He told the woman that someone had tried to break into her car and that he wanted her to go with him to the police department. Carol got into the car with Bundy but became resistant when Bundy demanded that she put her seat belt on. When she refused, Bundy slammed the car to the side of the road and tried to capture Ms. DaRonch with handcuffs. During the struggle, the girl fought so strongly that Bundy accidently put the handcuffs on the same wrist. He found this out as she was able to fend off a skull crushing swing from a crowbar and open the door to fall out on the road.

Bundy made a crucial mistake that night, one that would lead to him being captured and in jail for a short time in Colorado. Bundy went to Viewmont High School in Bountiful, Utah where a high school drama club was rehearsing at a play. Bundy approached both a teacher and a student to go with him outside to help identify a vehicle. Both refused but saw Bundy toward the end of the play breathing hard and his shirt was untucked from his pants. This was enough for the teacher to alert the authorities and after a search of the auditorium; the police found a small set of keys that unlocked the handcuffs that were around Carol DeRonch's wrist.

Colorado can in to the picture in 1975. Bundy started his Colorado crimes on January 12, while still attending the law school in Utah. His first victim was Caryn Campbell. In the sleepy little Colorado ski village of Snowmass, The young lady disappeared from the Wildwood Inn and police suspected that she was abducted within thirty yards of her hotel room door and the elevator. Her body was found until five days later. Strangled and beaten, Caryn Campbell became a notch on Bundy's crowbar as he waited for his next Colorado murder.

The next victim on March 15, 1975 was Julie Cunningham. Bundy was a ski instructor in Vail, Colorado and was known to be a helpful person and always trying to please. Bundy used this by walking across the ski slope parking lot on crutches. He appealed to this young woman by asking her to help him carry a pair of ski boots to his car. The young woman wanted to help him out and was rewarded by her charity with a crow bar to the head and handcuffs. Bundy slowly strangled the life out of her and moved on to his next victim.

Ski season over, Bundy did not go up the I-70 corridor to find his next victim. Instead he took a short trip over the Utah border and found his next victim, Denise Oliverson in Grand Junction, Colorado. On April 6th, 1975, the twenty five year old Denise had gone for a bike ride after having a fight with her husband. Her intended destination was her parent's house and after not returning home, her husband thought that she had stayed the night with her parents. Her bike and sandals were found the next day. Until this day, her body was not found, but Bundy during a court hearing claimed that he had killed her and had dumped her body in the Colorado River. The Colorado River is swollen and moves fast from the winter melt in April and the body could be washed down stream miles away.

Bundy's murder spree did not stop in Colorado. He jumped the state borders of Idaho, Utah, and finally Florida. There are no true estimates of how many people were killed by Ted Bundy. The general guess is around 39. On January 29th, 1989, Bundy was put to death by electric chair in a prison in Starke, Florida. His final words were, 'I'd like to give my love to my family and friends."

Though he died for his evil ways, the people of Colorado will never forget the evil that visited there west slope of the Rocky Mountains. Bundy soiled the ski towns of Aspen and Snowmass with the blood of his victims and took away daughters that had a full life ahead of them. Instead with crowbar, handcuffs, and his own hands he defiled their bodies and strangled them until they were dead. Though not a native of Colorado, Bundy is added to the list of evil people that have crossed state lines and destroyed the reputation of the state, the towns, and the people of Colorado, giving them one more reason to fear the night.

If you want to learn more about Ted Bundy or the numerous murders, massacres, and evil deeds commited in Colorado, visit http://www.coloradokillers.com

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