Theodore "Ted" Bundy

At 3 AM, Nita Neary was dropped off at the sorority house by her boyfriend after attending a keg party on campus. Upon reaching the door to the house, she noticed it standing wide open. Soon after she had entered the building, she heard some movement, as if someone was running in the rooms above her. Suddenly, she heard the footsteps approaching the staircase near her and she hid in a doorway, out of view. She watched as a man with a knit blue cap pulled over his eyes, holding a log with cloth around it, ran down the stairs and out the door.

Nita's first thought was that the sorority house had been burglarized. She immediately ran up the stairs to wake her roommate, Nancy Dowdy. Nita told her of the strange man she saw leaving the building. Unsure of what to do, the girls made their way to the housemother's room. Yet, before they were able to make it to her room, they saw another roommate, Karen Chandler, staggering down the hall. Her entire head was soaked with blood. While Nancy tried to help Karen, Nita woke up the housemother and the two of them went to check on another roommate nearby. They found Kathy Klein in her room alive, but in a horrible state. She was also covered in blood that was seeping from open wounds on her head. Hysterical, Nancy ran to the phone and dialed the police.

Police later found two more girls dead in their rooms lying in their beds. Someone had attacked them while they slept. Lisa Levy was the first girl that officers found dead. Pathologists who later performed the autopsy on her found that she had been beaten on the head with a log, raped and strangled. Upon further examination, they discovered bite marks on her buttocks and on one of her nipples. In fact, Lisa's nipple had been so severely bitten that it was almost severed from the rest of her breast. She had also been sexually assaulted with a hair spray bottle.

Post mortem reports on Margaret Bowman showed that she suffered similar fatal injuries, although she had not been sexually assaulted and she showed no signs of bite marks. She had been strangled by a pair of panty hose that were later found at the scene of the crime. She had also been beaten on the head, yet so severely that her skull was splintered and a portion of her brain was exposed. Neither she nor Lisa Levy showed signs of a struggle.

Investigators who interviewed the survivors learned nothing. None of the girls had any memory of the events of that fatal night. Like Levy and Bowman, they too had been asleep when they were attacked. The only witness was Nita Neary who was able to catch a profile of the killer as he fled. However, the assailant would not travel far before claiming another victim that night.

Less than a mile from the Chi Omega House, Debbie Ciccarelli was awakened by loud banging noises coming from the apartment next to hers. She wondered what her friend in the adjoining apartment was doing to make so much noise at four in the morning. As the banging noises persisted, Debbie became suspicious and woke her roommate Nancy Young. As they listened, they heard Cheryl Thompson next door moaning. Frightened, they called over to her house to see if she was all right. When no one picked up the phone, they immediately called the police.

The police came quickly. After all, they were just blocks away at the Chi Omega House tending to the crime scene there. They entered Cheryl's apartment and walked to her bedroom, where they found her sitting on the bed. Her face was just beginning to swell from the bludgeoning to her head. She was still somewhat conscious and half nude, but lucky to be alive. Police discovered a mask at the foot of her bed. According to Anne Rule in The Stranger Beside Me the mask that was found "resembled almost exactly the mask taken from Ted Bundy's car when he'd been arrested in Utah in August of 1975."

Police investigators worked diligently on the evidence that was left behind. They were able to get a blood type from the assailant, sperm samples and fingerprint smudges. Unfortunately, most of the evidence that was tested proved to be inconclusive. The only firm evidence investigators were able to obtain were the hairs found in the mask, teeth impressions from the bite marks on the victims and an eyewitness account from Nita Neary. Investigators did not have a suspect and Ted Bundy was unknown to them.

The last victim. Kimberly Leach disappeared from Lake City, Florida on Februrary 9, 1978 - she was 12 years old

On February 9th, 1978, Lake City Police received a phone call from the distressed parents of twelve-year-old Kimberly Leach. They were hysterical and said that their daughter had disappeared that day. Police were to launch a massive search to find the missing girl, who disappeared from her school grounds. The person who last saw her was her friend Priscilla Blakney. In fact, she saw Kim get into the car of a stranger the day she disappeared. Unfortunately, she was unable to accurately remember the car or the driver. They found her body eight weeks later in a state park in Suwannee County, Florida. The young girl's body yielded little information due to advanced decomposition. However, police were to later find the evidence they needed in a van driven by Ted Bundy.

A few days before Kimberly Leach had disappeared, a strange man in a white van approached fourteen-year-old Leslie Parmenter as she waited for her brother to pick her up. The man had claimed he was from the fire department and asked her if she attended the school nearby. She found it strange that an on-duty fireman was wearing plaid pants and a navy jacket. Leslie began to feel uncomfortable. She had been warned on many occasions by her father, who was the Chief of Detectives for the Jacksonville Police Department, not to talk with strangers. She was relieved when her brother drove up. Suspicious of the man, Leslie's brother Danny ordered her into the car. Danny followed the man and wrote down his license plate, so he could later give it to his father.

Ted Bundy

Upon hearing of the stranger in the white van, Detective James Parmenter had the license plate checked out. He learned it belonged to a man named Randall Ragen, and he decided to pay him a visit. Ragen informed the detective that his plates had been stolen and he had already been issued new ones. The detective later found out that the van his children had seen was also stolen and he had an idea who it might have been.

He decided to take his children to the police station to show them a stack of mug shots, Bundy's picture being among them. He hadn't realized how close he had been to losing his own daughter. Both of his children recognized the man in the van to be Ted Bundy.

The van long since discarded, Bundy set out towards Pensacola, Florida, in a new stolen car. This time he managed to find a vehicle he was more comfortable driving, a VW bug. Officer David Lee was patrolling an area in West Pensacola when he saw an orange VW at 10 PM on February 15th. He knew the area well and most of the residents, yet he had never before seen the car. Officer Lee decided to run a check on the license plates and soon found out that they were stolen. Immediately, he turned on his lights and began to follow the VW.

Once again, as had happened in Utah several years earlier, Bundy gave chase. Suddenly, Bundy pulled over and stopped. Officer Lee ordered him out of his car and told Bundy to lay down with his hands in front. To Lee's surprise, as he had begun to handcuff Bundy, he rolled over and began to fight the officer. Bundy managed to fight his way free and run. Just as soon as he did, Lee fired his weapon at him. Bundy dropped to the ground, pretending to have been shot. As the officer approached him lying on the ground, he was again attacked by Bundy. However, the officer was able to overpower him. He was handcuffed and taken to the police station. Bundy had finally been caught.

Over the months following Bundy's arrest, investigators were able to compile critical evidence to be used against Bundy in the Leach case. The white van that had been stolen by Bundy was found and they had three eyewitnesses that had seen him driving it the afternoon Kimberly had disappeared. Forensic tests conducted on the van yielded fibers of material that had come from Bundy's clothes.

Tests also revealed Kimberly's blood type on the van's carpet and semen and Ted's blood type on her underwear found near the body. Further evidence discovered was Ted's shoe impressions in the soil located next to where Kimberly was found. Police felt confident with the information they had tying Bundy to the Leach case, and on July 31, 1978, Ted Bundy was charged with the girl's murder. Soon after, he would also be charged with the Chi Omega murders. Facing the death penalty, Ted would later plead in his own defense that he was not guilty of the murders.

Bundy meeting in court with his lawyers

Theodore Robert Bundy faced three trials, all spaced within three years. His first trial date for the Chi Omega murders was set for February 22, 1978, in Miami, Florida. Three months later, he would go on trial for the attacks on the Chi Omega sorority sisters. It would be more than a year later on January 7, 1980, that Bundy would face his final trial for the murder of Kimberly Leach. However, it would be the trial for the Chi Omega murders that would seal his fate forever.

During the Chi Omega murder trial, Ted acted as his own defense attorney. He was confident in his abilities and believed he would be given a fair trial. Twelve jurors, mostly African-American, looked on as he defended himself against the murder charges. Bundy was fighting a losing battle. There were two events in the trial that would sway the jury against Bundy. The first was Nita Neary's testimony of what she had seen the night of the murders. While on the stand, she pointed to Bundy as the man she had seen fleeing down the stairs and out the door of the Chi Omega House. The second event that swayed the jury during the trial was the testimony of odontologist, Dr. Richard Souviron.

While on the stand, Dr. Souviron described the bite mark injuries found on Lisa Levy's body. As he spoke, the jury was shown full-scale photographs of the bite marks that had been taken the night of the murder. The doctor pointed out the uniqueness of the indentations left behind on the victim and compared them with full-scale pictures of Bundy's teeth. They matched perfectly. There was no question that Bundy had made the bite marks on Lisa Levy's body. The photos would be the biggest piece of evidence the prosecution had linking Bundy to the crime.

On July 23rd, Bundy waited in his cell as the jurors deliberated over his guilt or innocence. After almost seven hours, they returned to the courtroom with a verdict. Showing no emotion, Bundy listened as one of the jurors read out GUILTY." On all counts of murder, Ted was found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Later, Ted would also be found guilty at his second trial for the attacks against Kathy Kleiner and Karen Chandler. On July 31st, Ted Bundy would be sentenced to die in the electric chair.

On January 7, 1980, Ted would go to trial for his last time for the murder of Kimberly Leach. With evidence stacked against him, he would once again be found guilty. It would be a month later, when Bundy would again be sentenced to death for the third time. He would eventually confess to the murders of 28 women. However, many believe the number of deaths to be much higher. No one will ever really know how many women fell victim to Ted Bundy; it would be a number he would take to his grave. After countless appeals, Ted was finally executed on January 24, 1989.

Bundy's reaction to the verdict