April 18, 2026 • 18 mins
New DNA technology has allowed police to finally link notorious serial killer Ted Bundy to the brutal rape and murder of 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime. The teenager was found a month after she went missing from a Halloween party in 1974, her body naked, bound and badly beaten. DNA sitting in an evidence locker for more than 50 years was finally able to be recognized and matched to Bundy’s, creating a DNA profile that investigators say can now be used to provide answers in other unsolved cases where Bundy was a suspect.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Heks he hasn't killed anybody since the seventies, but they
are still solving Ted Bundy's murders. And with that, welcome
to this episode of Amy and TJ Presents and Road.
We are presenting now is an unbelievable story of them
now confirming that Ted Bundy did in fact kill a
(00:25):
woman in nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
So, yes, this month, the Utah Sheriff's Office was able
to proudly say this case is officially closed. They finally
confirmed that Ted Bundy, obviously the notorious serial killer, killed
a young woman.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
She was seventeen years old at the time.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Her name was Laura and Amy fifty two years ago.
It took them fifty two years to bring closure for
Laura and Amy's family.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
It's remarkable, didn't I see that, A sister says, I
didn't even realize it was still an active open case.
They know they were still working on it. Yep, that
is amazing that this is able to be done. And Rose,
I guess first fact, he was always linked to this death. Yes,
but they would be able to prove it.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
The way they described it was before his execution. And
we'll get into all of the crimes that led to
him ultimately being executed, but he suggested to police that
he was responsible for it, but he didn't give any details.
He didn't give any information to detectives that would able
would make it able for them to connect him directly
to the case and be able to prove that he,
(01:37):
in fact, yes, did kill Laura and Amy. He just
kind of said, yeah, yeah, probably, uh huh. So it
certainly didn't even come close to rising to the level
where they could say, we know that Ted Bundy killed
this young woman.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Is he the most notorious? I'm just thinking about that
as we're sitting here. I think about serial killers that
we've known. I think about the Zodiac killer, but I
don't know the name. I can't remember the name.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Well, I would say Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gaze
and maybe Jeffrey Dahmer. Those are the three big ones
that are always linked to a serial murders. And look
Ted Bundy, there's still a lot of unknown unknowns about him.
So the killing spree, the years that we know of,
and there's so many details that I forgot about.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
It's so fascinating.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
But he told police he killed as many as thirty women,
but authorities believe the number could be as high as
one hundred.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Oh wow. He was only convicted though, of.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Three three well, there were three that put him basically
on death row, and so he but he's been linked
to thirty.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Specifically, that's the number we always hear is thirty. But yeah,
he wasn't convicted of all those crimes. And as a point,
I know you're probably going to get into here as well,
that they're saying that this crime being solved and the
technology they used could now pave the way for more
possible murders to be solved. I know you get into
that to a point, but this is a This is
why this case is such a big deal.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
It is a big deal.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
It's not just closure for Lori and Amy's family, but
it could mean, as you point out, closure for so
many other families because now the profile that police were
able to create by using the DNA from Amy's case
can now be used in other unsolved killings that police
are very suspicious. He was responsible for basically everywhere Ted
(03:26):
Bundy lived, and he moved around a bit.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Women died, and that is just true.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
And so there are a lot of unsolved murders that
could absolutely be solved or linked to Ted Bundy now
that they have this DNA profile, so to go back
to the crime a bit. And it's so sad when
you think about this young woman. She was seventeen, babe,
she was seventeen years old. She was last seen leaving
a Halloween party party knight fu Yeah, October thirty first,
(03:55):
nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
I mean, that's the beginning of a bad horror movie.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Damn, that is exactly And she ran into a real
life monster. That is nuts that you actually put it
that way. Ropes, That's exactly what you described. We have
watched this scene before, we.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Have, and it took It was almost a month later
before her body was found on Thanksgiving Day by two
college students. They were out for a hike in Utah's
American Fort Canyon, this beautiful but very remote area. They
found her body naked, bound and severely beaten. Also, I
(04:29):
think maybe just for the fun of it, because I
don't know why he would have tossed Ted Bundy would
have tossed out this nylon stocking that he used to
strangle her, because they believe that he placed her body there.
She wasn't murdered there. They believe she actually was kept
alive for quite some time, for many days, they believe
because for her body to have been found when it was,
(04:50):
since she was missing the decomposition, decomposition had not taken place,
so he had just recently killed her and dumped her body,
so he kept her. Which is it's so sadistic and
scary to think about what may have happened to this
very young woman, this young teenage girl, for all of
those days, in maybe even.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Weeks in his custody. She was captured by him.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
And he's known for police talked about just having all
these inventive, creative ways to lure women. He would feign injuries,
he would feign car trouble. He would basically play on
a woman's desire to help, to be a nurturer and
use that against her to kind of get her in
a position where he could push her into the back
of his car.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I remember that about his cases, but yeah, I was
reading up on it today. But yeah, he was elaborate.
You know what, this was a guy. This wasn't a
one off. This was a way of life for him.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Almost absolutely.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
And look, he was considered, as we talked about earlier,
a suspect at the time, but there was no evidence
linking him up until now, and so this new DNA
profile is pretty cool. They got the state crime lab
there in Utah got this new technology in the way
it's described as it allows even the smallest, tiniest samples
of DNA, even those that have been degraded by age
(06:08):
and time. Like think about this, fifty two years. This
DNA has been sitting in a crime lab and probably
some locker in Utah for five decades.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Unbelievable, rods. If this technology wasn't we you can eliminate
serial killers almost like this, they leave something behind. Do
we have current serial killers anymore?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yes, absolutely we do. We just saw one on Long
Island on Gilgo Beach murders.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, well what years were that?
Speaker 4 (06:35):
That was in the nineties.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yes, I'm saying the technology keeps coming. I'm saying the
day and age where we are now, we are solving
serial killer crimes from fifty years ago. If that technology,
does this stuff eliminate the likelihood I should say, of
a serial I.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
See what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
The hope would be that if you can get this
DNA into the system quickly enough and there is a match.
You can stop somebody before they have absolutely horrific kill
liss that could be as long as one hundred people.
Maybe you could stop a serial killer after he commits
two or three crimes versus dozens, like we have been
reporting on these notorious cases from decades past. But this
(07:15):
is pretty cool because yes, and I also just appreciate
the thought back in the seventies.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
To know to just store whatever.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Evidence you have and hope that one day technology would
catch up to the evidence you have so that it
could point.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
To your kill us some might. We got to get
somebody on to explain to me how this is possible.
How can something be trusted? How was it not degraded
over all this time? How do they store this stuff? Babe?
This is this DNA was stored before I was born.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
And before yes, I mean that's exactly I was one.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
They just solved the crime and what it is. It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
It is amazing because the DNA was there the whole time,
but it was so degraded and it was such a
small sample, but they were able to extract with this
new tech analogy a single male DNA profile which unequivocally
matched Ted Bundy's and so they could take the DNA
from this young lady's clothing and then put it right
(08:12):
onto Ted Bundy. And so now, yes, her family in
fact has gotten closure. But when we come back, we
want to talk about and go over because I had
forgotten Ted Bundy's history and the fact that he committed
many of these murders while he was escaped from custody.
He didn't escape just once from custody. He escaped twice,
(08:34):
and during those times while he was on the run,
he was able to commit even more atrocious crimes. Welcome
back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ Presents.
We are talking about one of the most notorious serial
(08:57):
killers in US history, Ted Bundy. This month, Utah officials
were able to link him directly to a fifty two
year old unsolved murder, the murder of seventeen year old
Laura and Amy. A small amount of DNA that had
been stored for more than five decades was able to
(09:18):
be extracted and then matched to Ted Bundy's DNA profile,
giving the family of Laura and Amy some.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Closure after all these years.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
But my goodness, this is now paving the way for
perhaps more closure, for more families because officials believe ted
Bundy could be responsible for as many as one hundred
murders in a pretty short period of time.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Oh, what's seventy where'd he go? It's from the uh.
He went from the Pacific northwest, right.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
He went from California to Oregon, to Washington to Idaho,
to Utah, to Colorado and to Florida, where he was
ultimately executed.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Wait a minute, I didn't realize he went up the
coast yep or their deaths in each of these states. Yes, okay,
whit and I do that again from me California.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
So he raped and murdered dozens of young women and
girls from California to Oregon, to Washington State, to Idaho,
to Utah, to Colorado and then to Florida.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
The Idahoo, Idaho and Colorado stops I don't think I
was familiar with.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
He left a wake damn of rapes and murders in
that past. And this is all in a window of
time between nineteen seventy four and nineteen seventy eight.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Hard that's incredible, and the whole time.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
By the way, and I got to do this when
I was with ABC News. He was with for the
majority of those years a girlfriend were helping raise her
young daughter, and they completely were in the dark. They
had no idea that he was living this double life,
posing as a loving boyfriend and father figure during the
day and in the evening and in ways in times
(10:54):
he could get away, he was raping and murdering.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Where was law school in all this for him?
Speaker 4 (10:58):
In the middle of it all? And he was a
law student.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yes, this was.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
An unbelievable and you know it's sad because he was
obviously a brilliant guy and he used all of his
intelligence for evil.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Man, if you could use all those powers for good,
Oh my goodness, I swear that's incredible. And get wait,
can I ask you something you're about to give me? Yeah,
but you said the range. So the only confirmed deaths
are of seventy four to seventy.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Eight, correct, But guess what. He was arrested in nineteen
seventy five.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Okay, take me through, So seventy five. How much time
was he off the streets between seventy four and seventy eight?
He said he was arrested in seventy.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yeah five, okay, And he was able to escape in
nineteen seventy seven. Caught a week later, and then escaped
again six months later, and then committed.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
A whole bunch of other murders.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Okay, so you're good.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
He was.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
He was arrested in nineteen seventy five.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
He was pulled over and they found a rope, handcuffs,
and a sche mass in the back of his Volkswagen.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
He was found.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Guilty of kidnapping and assaulting a teenager, and then while
he was in prison for that crime, they were able
to link him with killing a nursing student.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
So now he's in prison.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
After being found guilty of kidnapping an assault, but he's
now being charged with murder. So he's brought to Aspen,
Colorado for a hearing in that murder case.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
In nineteen seventy seven, he escaped by climbing out of
a second story courthouse window. He was caught a week later,
but then he escaped again six months later by breaking
through the ceiling of the jail.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
I don't remember when he got out.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
In nineteen seventy seven, that's when he went on a
killing rampage. He infamously made his way to the Cayomega
Sorority House at Florida State University where he killed two
of the girls and badly injured three others. And then
a month later he killed another twelve year old Florida girl.
Her name was Kimberly Leach. And so it was those
last three murders, the two sorority girls and that twelve year.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Old Florida girl his yes, damn maybe.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
And so he was convicted of the last three murders
and sentenced to death for the Coyomega girls and the
little Kimberly Leech girls.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
What years are we talking about now?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
That was nineteen seventy seven to nineteen seventy eight he
committed those murders.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
What okay, So we know he stopped killing in seventy
eight because he was in prison.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
And he was executed in nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
So after nineteen seventy eight when he finally was arrested
for the last three murders while he was escaped from prison,
those were the last three murders he was convicted of.
Those are the last three murders that led to his execution.
And so we know from nineteen seventy four to nineteen
seventy eight, those are the murders we.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Know of, and he was in jail for a lot
of that time.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Okay, what is the best guests they have that before
nineteen seventy four, Like, what was he up to?
Speaker 4 (13:54):
They think he was raping and murdering women?
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yes, yes, that's just such a short change of time
to do as much as they suggesting. Wrong, We're talking
he's averaging a killing or two a month based on
some of the numbers.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Yes, and I'm telling you it is so chilling to
know and to hear from the people who loved him,
who lived with him, and they said they had no idea.
His own mother stood by him for some time. So, look,
he was good looking as far as serial killers go.
He was talked about his not a menacing looking person.
He's not someone who a young woman would feel fearful,
(14:33):
maybe even helping get something in his car, or she
sees he's got a broken arm, so she wants to
help open a door for him, while he then pushes
her in. Because he didn't look like somebody who had
those type of sexual deviations, that.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Type of evil.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Just how could you possibly see into his dark soul?
Because he looked so pleasant.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
But not just the look. Didn't they say he was charming?
Speaker 3 (14:57):
As well charming as hell, and yes he brought people in.
He was charismatic, he was a.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Sociopathic femly of this picture, he looks more like the
lawyer representing it. Yeah, the actual he does in this picture,
sitting there, he does. He looks like the lawyer versus
the actual person on dry out for being a serial killer.
So this is incredible.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
This is a story that will continue.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
I'm sure now that we've got this new technology where
now maybe we can go back before that first nineteen
seventy four known killing and go back and start looking
to see and really police have said, if you go
and just see where this man lived, and then you
go and you look at the timeline and you see
where the missing women or you know, the unsolved murders,
(15:43):
you can now go back if there is evidence that's
been stored in any of these cases, and try to
go ahead and put that final piece of the puzzle
in place and give so many families who've been waiting
for answers for so long some closure and some peace
to know what happened to their loved one.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Look and just chilling to see her face, just a.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Sweet seventeen years old and Amy.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Yeah, something that his life is weird like that. We
never would have known who she was, known her name,
had she lived out her lives at kids, grandkids, and
here we are fifty two years later talking about and
looking at her. Damn. Oh that sucks. Ah, what a
life she had ahead of her seventeen years old. But
we're going to be doing probably rogues follow ups on
(16:26):
this story because they are they and how many is
the question? Like how many more are they going to solve?
Speaker 4 (16:31):
Dozens and dozens?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Police believe, Oh man, this is incredible.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
This is an incredible story. So we will keep an
eye on it because this won't be the end of
this story. They are very very hopeful new technology now
that I've got how the language they use rodes, but
they have some kind of not a baseline, but now
this pile they have now a complete something that's easier
(16:55):
like they might have police departments all over the country
calling and so oh yes, we need to take a
look at that.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
That was the way and look when the officials, when
Utah officials came out, this was a celebration. This was
exciting not just for Amy's family but for all the
other families out there. They were very very quick to
point out this technology is a game changer. So it's
exciting when it comes to forensics and what they're able
to do. And maybe look, who knows it could get
(17:21):
so good that we could even prevent crime because evildoers
will know I'm going to get caught.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Okay, that's me me.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
With some hopeful just just to thought that maybe this
type of technology can change not only lives after the fact,
but maybe it could even prevent someone from doing something.
You're going to get caught, but and you're going to
face the penalties. Criminals aren't known for me and the
brightest so every criminal things they're going to get away
with it. So we shall see. We shall see where
(17:52):
this leads and where this heads. But certainly a very
fascinating story and the continuing saga of Ted Bundy without
everyone thinking, thank you so much for listening to us
on Amy and TJ Presents.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
We will talk to you soon.
Heks he hasn't killed anybody since the seventies, but they
are still solving Ted Bundy's murders. And with that, welcome
to this episode of Amy and TJ Presents and Road.
We are presenting now is an unbelievable story of them
now confirming that Ted Bundy did in fact kill a
(00:25):
woman in nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
So, yes, this month, the Utah Sheriff's Office was able
to proudly say this case is officially closed. They finally
confirmed that Ted Bundy, obviously the notorious serial killer, killed
a young woman.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
She was seventeen years old at the time.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Her name was Laura and Amy fifty two years ago.
It took them fifty two years to bring closure for
Laura and Amy's family.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
It's remarkable, didn't I see that, A sister says, I
didn't even realize it was still an active open case.
They know they were still working on it. Yep, that
is amazing that this is able to be done. And Rose,
I guess first fact, he was always linked to this death. Yes,
but they would be able to prove it.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
The way they described it was before his execution. And
we'll get into all of the crimes that led to
him ultimately being executed, but he suggested to police that
he was responsible for it, but he didn't give any details.
He didn't give any information to detectives that would able
would make it able for them to connect him directly
to the case and be able to prove that he,
(01:37):
in fact, yes, did kill Laura and Amy. He just
kind of said, yeah, yeah, probably, uh huh. So it
certainly didn't even come close to rising to the level
where they could say, we know that Ted Bundy killed
this young woman.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Is he the most notorious? I'm just thinking about that
as we're sitting here. I think about serial killers that
we've known. I think about the Zodiac killer, but I
don't know the name. I can't remember the name.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Well, I would say Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gaze
and maybe Jeffrey Dahmer. Those are the three big ones
that are always linked to a serial murders. And look
Ted Bundy, there's still a lot of unknown unknowns about him.
So the killing spree, the years that we know of,
and there's so many details that I forgot about.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
It's so fascinating.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
But he told police he killed as many as thirty women,
but authorities believe the number could be as high as
one hundred.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Oh wow. He was only convicted though, of.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Three three well, there were three that put him basically
on death row, and so he but he's been linked
to thirty.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Specifically, that's the number we always hear is thirty. But yeah,
he wasn't convicted of all those crimes. And as a point,
I know you're probably going to get into here as well,
that they're saying that this crime being solved and the
technology they used could now pave the way for more
possible murders to be solved. I know you get into
that to a point, but this is a This is
why this case is such a big deal.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
It is a big deal.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
It's not just closure for Lori and Amy's family, but
it could mean, as you point out, closure for so
many other families because now the profile that police were
able to create by using the DNA from Amy's case
can now be used in other unsolved killings that police
are very suspicious. He was responsible for basically everywhere Ted
(03:26):
Bundy lived, and he moved around a bit.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Women died, and that is just true.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
And so there are a lot of unsolved murders that
could absolutely be solved or linked to Ted Bundy now
that they have this DNA profile, so to go back
to the crime a bit. And it's so sad when
you think about this young woman. She was seventeen, babe,
she was seventeen years old. She was last seen leaving
a Halloween party party knight fu Yeah, October thirty first,
(03:55):
nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
I mean, that's the beginning of a bad horror movie.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Damn, that is exactly And she ran into a real
life monster. That is nuts that you actually put it
that way. Ropes, That's exactly what you described. We have
watched this scene before, we.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Have, and it took It was almost a month later
before her body was found on Thanksgiving Day by two
college students. They were out for a hike in Utah's
American Fort Canyon, this beautiful but very remote area. They
found her body naked, bound and severely beaten. Also, I
(04:29):
think maybe just for the fun of it, because I
don't know why he would have tossed Ted Bundy would
have tossed out this nylon stocking that he used to
strangle her, because they believe that he placed her body there.
She wasn't murdered there. They believe she actually was kept
alive for quite some time, for many days, they believe
because for her body to have been found when it was,
(04:50):
since she was missing the decomposition, decomposition had not taken place,
so he had just recently killed her and dumped her body,
so he kept her. Which is it's so sadistic and
scary to think about what may have happened to this
very young woman, this young teenage girl, for all of
those days, in maybe even.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Weeks in his custody. She was captured by him.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
And he's known for police talked about just having all
these inventive, creative ways to lure women. He would feign injuries,
he would feign car trouble. He would basically play on
a woman's desire to help, to be a nurturer and
use that against her to kind of get her in
a position where he could push her into the back
of his car.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I remember that about his cases, but yeah, I was
reading up on it today. But yeah, he was elaborate.
You know what, this was a guy. This wasn't a
one off. This was a way of life for him.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Almost absolutely.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
And look, he was considered, as we talked about earlier,
a suspect at the time, but there was no evidence
linking him up until now, and so this new DNA
profile is pretty cool. They got the state crime lab
there in Utah got this new technology in the way
it's described as it allows even the smallest, tiniest samples
of DNA, even those that have been degraded by age
(06:08):
and time. Like think about this, fifty two years. This
DNA has been sitting in a crime lab and probably
some locker in Utah for five decades.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Unbelievable, rods. If this technology wasn't we you can eliminate
serial killers almost like this, they leave something behind. Do
we have current serial killers anymore?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yes, absolutely we do. We just saw one on Long
Island on Gilgo Beach murders.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, well what years were that?
Speaker 4 (06:35):
That was in the nineties.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yes, I'm saying the technology keeps coming. I'm saying the
day and age where we are now, we are solving
serial killer crimes from fifty years ago. If that technology,
does this stuff eliminate the likelihood I should say, of
a serial I.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
See what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
The hope would be that if you can get this
DNA into the system quickly enough and there is a match.
You can stop somebody before they have absolutely horrific kill
liss that could be as long as one hundred people.
Maybe you could stop a serial killer after he commits
two or three crimes versus dozens, like we have been
reporting on these notorious cases from decades past. But this
(07:15):
is pretty cool because yes, and I also just appreciate
the thought back in the seventies.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
To know to just store whatever.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Evidence you have and hope that one day technology would
catch up to the evidence you have so that it
could point.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
To your kill us some might. We got to get
somebody on to explain to me how this is possible.
How can something be trusted? How was it not degraded
over all this time? How do they store this stuff? Babe?
This is this DNA was stored before I was born.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
And before yes, I mean that's exactly I was one.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
They just solved the crime and what it is. It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
It is amazing because the DNA was there the whole time,
but it was so degraded and it was such a
small sample, but they were able to extract with this
new tech analogy a single male DNA profile which unequivocally
matched Ted Bundy's and so they could take the DNA
from this young lady's clothing and then put it right
(08:12):
onto Ted Bundy. And so now, yes, her family in
fact has gotten closure. But when we come back, we
want to talk about and go over because I had
forgotten Ted Bundy's history and the fact that he committed
many of these murders while he was escaped from custody.
He didn't escape just once from custody. He escaped twice,
(08:34):
and during those times while he was on the run,
he was able to commit even more atrocious crimes. Welcome
back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ Presents.
We are talking about one of the most notorious serial
(08:57):
killers in US history, Ted Bundy. This month, Utah officials
were able to link him directly to a fifty two
year old unsolved murder, the murder of seventeen year old
Laura and Amy. A small amount of DNA that had
been stored for more than five decades was able to
(09:18):
be extracted and then matched to Ted Bundy's DNA profile,
giving the family of Laura and Amy some.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Closure after all these years.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
But my goodness, this is now paving the way for
perhaps more closure, for more families because officials believe ted
Bundy could be responsible for as many as one hundred
murders in a pretty short period of time.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Oh, what's seventy where'd he go? It's from the uh.
He went from the Pacific northwest, right.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
He went from California to Oregon, to Washington to Idaho,
to Utah, to Colorado and to Florida, where he was
ultimately executed.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Wait a minute, I didn't realize he went up the
coast yep or their deaths in each of these states. Yes, okay,
whit and I do that again from me California.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
So he raped and murdered dozens of young women and
girls from California to Oregon, to Washington State, to Idaho,
to Utah, to Colorado and then to Florida.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
The Idahoo, Idaho and Colorado stops I don't think I
was familiar with.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
He left a wake damn of rapes and murders in
that past. And this is all in a window of
time between nineteen seventy four and nineteen seventy eight.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Hard that's incredible, and the whole time.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
By the way, and I got to do this when
I was with ABC News. He was with for the
majority of those years a girlfriend were helping raise her
young daughter, and they completely were in the dark. They
had no idea that he was living this double life,
posing as a loving boyfriend and father figure during the
day and in the evening and in ways in times
(10:54):
he could get away, he was raping and murdering.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Where was law school in all this for him?
Speaker 4 (10:58):
In the middle of it all? And he was a
law student.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yes, this was.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
An unbelievable and you know it's sad because he was
obviously a brilliant guy and he used all of his
intelligence for evil.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Man, if you could use all those powers for good,
Oh my goodness, I swear that's incredible. And get wait,
can I ask you something you're about to give me? Yeah,
but you said the range. So the only confirmed deaths
are of seventy four to seventy.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Eight, correct, But guess what. He was arrested in nineteen
seventy five.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Okay, take me through, So seventy five. How much time
was he off the streets between seventy four and seventy eight?
He said he was arrested in seventy.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yeah five, okay, And he was able to escape in
nineteen seventy seven. Caught a week later, and then escaped
again six months later, and then committed.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
A whole bunch of other murders.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Okay, so you're good.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
He was.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
He was arrested in nineteen seventy five.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
He was pulled over and they found a rope, handcuffs,
and a sche mass in the back of his Volkswagen.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
He was found.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Guilty of kidnapping and assaulting a teenager, and then while
he was in prison for that crime, they were able
to link him with killing a nursing student.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
So now he's in prison.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
After being found guilty of kidnapping an assault, but he's
now being charged with murder. So he's brought to Aspen,
Colorado for a hearing in that murder case.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
In nineteen seventy seven, he escaped by climbing out of
a second story courthouse window. He was caught a week later,
but then he escaped again six months later by breaking
through the ceiling of the jail.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
I don't remember when he got out.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
In nineteen seventy seven, that's when he went on a
killing rampage. He infamously made his way to the Cayomega
Sorority House at Florida State University where he killed two
of the girls and badly injured three others. And then
a month later he killed another twelve year old Florida girl.
Her name was Kimberly Leach. And so it was those
last three murders, the two sorority girls and that twelve year.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Old Florida girl his yes, damn maybe.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
And so he was convicted of the last three murders
and sentenced to death for the Coyomega girls and the
little Kimberly Leech girls.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
What years are we talking about now?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
That was nineteen seventy seven to nineteen seventy eight he
committed those murders.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
What okay, So we know he stopped killing in seventy
eight because he was in prison.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
And he was executed in nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
So after nineteen seventy eight when he finally was arrested
for the last three murders while he was escaped from prison,
those were the last three murders he was convicted of.
Those are the last three murders that led to his execution.
And so we know from nineteen seventy four to nineteen
seventy eight, those are the murders we.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Know of, and he was in jail for a lot
of that time.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Okay, what is the best guests they have that before
nineteen seventy four, Like, what was he up to?
Speaker 4 (13:54):
They think he was raping and murdering women?
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yes, yes, that's just such a short change of time
to do as much as they suggesting. Wrong, We're talking
he's averaging a killing or two a month based on
some of the numbers.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Yes, and I'm telling you it is so chilling to
know and to hear from the people who loved him,
who lived with him, and they said they had no idea.
His own mother stood by him for some time. So, look,
he was good looking as far as serial killers go.
He was talked about his not a menacing looking person.
He's not someone who a young woman would feel fearful,
(14:33):
maybe even helping get something in his car, or she
sees he's got a broken arm, so she wants to
help open a door for him, while he then pushes
her in. Because he didn't look like somebody who had
those type of sexual deviations, that.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Type of evil.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Just how could you possibly see into his dark soul?
Because he looked so pleasant.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
But not just the look. Didn't they say he was charming?
Speaker 3 (14:57):
As well charming as hell, and yes he brought people in.
He was charismatic, he was a.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Sociopathic femly of this picture, he looks more like the
lawyer representing it. Yeah, the actual he does in this picture,
sitting there, he does. He looks like the lawyer versus
the actual person on dry out for being a serial killer.
So this is incredible.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
This is a story that will continue.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
I'm sure now that we've got this new technology where
now maybe we can go back before that first nineteen
seventy four known killing and go back and start looking
to see and really police have said, if you go
and just see where this man lived, and then you
go and you look at the timeline and you see
where the missing women or you know, the unsolved murders,
(15:43):
you can now go back if there is evidence that's
been stored in any of these cases, and try to
go ahead and put that final piece of the puzzle
in place and give so many families who've been waiting
for answers for so long some closure and some peace
to know what happened to their loved one.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Look and just chilling to see her face, just a.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Sweet seventeen years old and Amy.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Yeah, something that his life is weird like that. We
never would have known who she was, known her name,
had she lived out her lives at kids, grandkids, and
here we are fifty two years later talking about and
looking at her. Damn. Oh that sucks. Ah, what a
life she had ahead of her seventeen years old. But
we're going to be doing probably rogues follow ups on
(16:26):
this story because they are they and how many is
the question? Like how many more are they going to solve?
Speaker 4 (16:31):
Dozens and dozens?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Police believe, Oh man, this is incredible.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
This is an incredible story. So we will keep an
eye on it because this won't be the end of
this story. They are very very hopeful new technology now
that I've got how the language they use rodes, but
they have some kind of not a baseline, but now
this pile they have now a complete something that's easier
(16:55):
like they might have police departments all over the country
calling and so oh yes, we need to take a
look at that.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
That was the way and look when the officials, when
Utah officials came out, this was a celebration. This was
exciting not just for Amy's family but for all the
other families out there. They were very very quick to
point out this technology is a game changer. So it's
exciting when it comes to forensics and what they're able
to do. And maybe look, who knows it could get
(17:21):
so good that we could even prevent crime because evildoers
will know I'm going to get caught.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Okay, that's me me.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
With some hopeful just just to thought that maybe this
type of technology can change not only lives after the fact,
but maybe it could even prevent someone from doing something.
You're going to get caught, but and you're going to
face the penalties. Criminals aren't known for me and the
brightest so every criminal things they're going to get away
with it. So we shall see. We shall see where
(17:52):
this leads and where this heads. But certainly a very
fascinating story and the continuing saga of Ted Bundy without
everyone thinking, thank you so much for listening to us
on Amy and TJ Presents.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
We will talk to you soon.
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