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Experts Reveal Why Ted Bundy’s True Victim Count May Be Far Higher Than Feared

Published on: January 27, 2025 at 10:02 AM
By Vaishnavi Shetye
Ted Bundy
Ted Bundy (Image Source: Youtube/ @insideedition)

Trigger Warning: This article contains gruesome details of murder and violence, which could be triggering for some readers. This article includes references to sexual abuse.

Ted Bundy’s name has gone down in history as probably one of the most brutal and disturbing serial killers. The Vermont native has inspired multiple series and documentaries made about the heinous crimes he committed. Here’s everything to know about the serial killer.

Ted Bundy was born on November 24, 1946, in Vermont. He was raised by a single mother named Eleanor Louise Cowell. Eloise moved to Tacoma with Ted when she married John C. Bundy.

Ted went on to study at the University of Puget Sound and later transferred to the University of Washington in Seattle. He quit the college before he could graduate. He went back to the university and ended up graduating in 1972 with a degree in psychology. He was also on the path to getting a law degree. Bundy had enrolled in the University of Utah Law but ended up dropping out.

Bundy officially confessed to murdering 30 women over the span of 5 years. The first murder he committed was in 1974. Lynda Ann Healy was the first woman to fall victim to the murderer. Lynda was a student at the University of Washington who suddenly disappeared from the university.

Donna Gail Manson, Susan Elaine Rancourt, Roberta Kathleen Parks and Brenda Carroll Ball were some of Bundy’s other victims. Other victims that the criminal killed were Georgann Hawkins, Janice Ann Ott and Denise Marie Naslund.

When he moved to Salt Lake City, Ted Bundy targeted hitch-hikers. One of them remains unidentified to date and the other one was a 17-year-old named Laura Ann Aime. He also murdered Nancy Wilcox and Melissa Anne Smith during this time.

The exact number of women that Ted Bundy murdered brutally remains a mystery to date. Robert Keppel who was a detective who had interrogation the serial killer guessed the number of victims to be 50 to 75 in a TV special in 1989. Keppel also authored a book titled The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer.

According to a report by The Washington Post, Ted Bundy had confessed to the police that his number of victims could be in three digits. Matt DeLisi, a criminologist also estimated the number to be around 100 in his book Ted Bundy and the Unsolved Murder Epidemic.

According to a report from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bundy had an MO to lure his victims in. The serial killer would either fake an injury or impersonate a police officer in front of the young women. He would use this tactic to lead them towards his car.

He was known to bludgeon his victims to get them unconscious. He would also handcuff them and then drive them away from the location where he kidnapped them. Bundy would then brutally strangle them to death and sexually assault his victims after. FBI Special Agent Bill Hagmaier shared that the serial killer “practised necrophilia” on his victims.

Ted Bundy was finally arrested in 1975. The serial killer was brought in after a patrolman pulled him over. Bundy was caught speeding on the highway, the officer later found a ski mask and a crowbar in the killer’s car.

Carol DaRonch was a victim who survived the killer. In 1974, she escaped the serial killer after he tried to kidnap her. In 1976, Carol testified against Bundy in court with a sentence of 15 years in prison. The criminal escaped from jail twice after being sentenced. After he victimised several more women in Florida, he was arrested in 1978 for driving a stolen vehicle.

He was tried for several murders and found guilty. The serial killer was eventually executed by an electric chair in January 1989.

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