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.”
Tag: Jerry Thompson
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…
Case File: Debra Jean Kent, 1974
The following are excerpts from the Bountiful Police Department’s file on the missing person case of seventeen year old Debra Jean Kent. Ted Bundy confessed to Debra’s murder two days before his…
Trial Transcript: Jerry Thompson, 1976
This is the witness testimony of Jerry Thompson, a Salt Lake County Deputy Sheriff. He personally searched Bundy’s Salt Lake City apartments and his VW, and showed Carol DaRonch his mugshot for…
Much Ado About Replevin: The ‘Murder Kit’ Fiasco from an Archivist’s Perspective
Recently TMZ broke the news that Zak Bagans, host of the of premium cable “reality” show Ghost Adventures, is in a “tug of war” over the Ted Bundy “murder kit,” as well…