The FBI Bundy Statement that they weren’t involved with his cases until 1977 is False: He worked with FBI indirectly on a project in 1973; FBI was in Utah before his transfer & More….

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The FBI website states: “In 1977, Theodore (or Ted) Robert Bundy (1946-1989) escaped from custody while being transported to Colorado to stand trial for murder. Salt Lake City issued an escape warrant that prompted the FBI’s involvement.” The records that were hidden in the archives in WA State show that this statement is not entirely true.  Ted Bundy was familiar to the FBI through projects prior to his escape from Colorado and also through his close relationships with the AG office of WA, the Justice and Planning division of the DOJ, the Seattle Crime Commission, the CHECC, and the Republican Party affiliations.

In January of 1973, the WA State Justice and Planning commissioned a report/study on recidivism which was done by “Theodore R Bundy” Corrections Consultant.  This study followed approximately/ [per the records] 1000 people being released from prison and was supported by, and followed by, the regional FBI per an internal memo.  There was an agent assigned to it from the regional bureau [name of agent on the memo].   In fact, Bundy met with the FBI regional agent on that project. The commissioning agency Justice & Planning is under the umbrella of the Department of Justice.  This is in the original records which authorities have refused for decades to disclose.   They could not have known he was a serial killer and a serial rapist more than likely honing his skills during this time as he wouldn’t have shared that detail.  His statements behind the scenes per witnesses were that he knew he was “sick” before he met Liz in 1969 and put him at the exact entrance to the crime scene of Taylor Mountain back in 1972.

He worked as a paid consultant to the Justice and Planning division from January 1973 to April 1973 and was contracted and paid around $4000 for it according to records.  His design report was also completed and it ran for quite a few pages, typewritten with his initials on it.  In the report Bundy made recommendations. Why does the FBI claim they were involved only in 1977?  They were also present in Utah before he escaped.  This fact is on the original unredacted tape recordings of Bundy in prison.  The FBI was also sent hair samples obtained from Taylor Mountain for analysis and analyzed a handcuff key in Utah that had dropped off another victim [other than DaRonch] who managed to escape and that handcuff key matched the handcuffs found on DaRonch per the report and the publication of that FBI analysis in a local Utah newspaper.

Bundy was a trusted member of the Republican party at the time at a high level and he was also on the crime commission and serving on committees that investigated rape and white collar crime.  He wrote a report on rape, he researched and wrote a report on recidivism which detailed flaws in the justice system related to apprehension of repeat offenders.

He obviously deceived them as to his crimes behind the scenes but is refusing to acknowledge that fact and covering up all the evidence that was found at Taylor Mountain really necessary?  If embarrassment was behind the public deception it seems to me that it does not over ride the girls who were missing and killed by Bundy and the amount and types of evidence found at Taylor Mountain and Issaquah sites that was either “lost” “destroyed” or sealed – that evidence could have been worked and should have been worked and there are many more investigative tools in the crime scene investigation arsenal than just DNA so to restrict Bundy cases to only using DNA as per a 2011 announcement is counterproductive and counter intuitive to modern day forensics.

In 1992, the FBI issued a report on Bundy and the opening statement was made by  Sessions and it stated that the investigation was essentially “comprehensive” and that there was nothing more to learn as there was little evidence that hadn’t been looked at already by investigators.  But that report is not accurate to what the individual states and investigators had in their possession, especially WA State.  WA State has never acknowledged the full findings of Taylor Mountain [see blog post of what was there on this site].  WA State has denied publicly for decades that anything was found but skulls, jaw fragments and a few bunches of hair – but the map that was released publicly was altered from the original map of the search and rescue teams and the AG Office of WA State plays down the Taylor Mountain site when in reality it was a major crime scene with multiple vehicles, helicopters, search and rescue teams from many state agencies and so forth.  This deception by the FBI and the AG Office of WA breaks all the codes of conduct of federal agencies that I am aware of.  When I issued complaints for years I was told [and I have this in writing] by all agencies involved that they would not investigate the deception of hiding the evidence that was held in WA State.  It seems to me that these agencies in this instance are bending the laws and the rules which they apply to others and that they need to be called out on it.  They are not above the law. Further, comments that evidence against Bundy was only “circumstantial” is patently not true to the collective witness statements and evidence from all the WA and Utah crime scenes.  People have been convicted and charged with much, much less.

While I understand that some of this behind the scenes activity such as the recidivism study may not be related to his killing I question whether it is related directly to the cover up of the evidence during that time period by officials not only in Washington State but elsewhere.  Utah never disclosed that Bundy was dating a woman like Liz who had a child and that they had gone to a party at a prosecutor’s home before his capture.  Utah and WA State had evidence obtained from crime scenes in both Utah and WA that the officials compared and which could have been used to charge Bundy and they failed to do that instead moving him to Colorado where there were less murders that could be tied to him and far less evidence.  None of the officials ever disclosed that Bundy had written [typed] a 33-page single spaced document that refuted Ann Rule’s work “Stranger Beside Me” or that he also stated that much of what he gave to Michaud and Aynesworth was in Bundy’s words in 1984 to Robert Keppel [on the unredacted tape] “a lot of fiction done to pander to a reading audience”.  I personally don’t think it was all fiction – but more typical of Bundy half truths and lies.  To me, having lived through those years and having known him, he enjoyed embedding small bits of truth into broader lies and misdirection.

But again, for years after his death, the public story revolved around “traumatized Bundy” because of his CA girlfriend instead of focusing on his statements made behind the scenes that possession drove him, that he was known to use surveillance tactics towards victims, and that extensive evidence had been found which could have, and should have, been used against him.  There were over 300 pieces of critical evidence taken off the crime scenes of Issaquah and Taylor Mountain which was never protected and authorities claimed was “lost”.  How do you lose that many pieces of evidence from major crime sites in a serial killing – evidence which included the remains of unidentified girls? Those girls were somebody’s children and they are forever lost due to the officials mishandling of the Bundy cases.

And Bundy also stated to Bill Hagmaier that he had been abducting a “woman” over and over as a dry run – something that was lining up to what I’d been telling authorities for years ever since I’d been coming forward to WA State law enforcement beginning that I can document in 2001.  In the interagency meeting notes, held after the execution, law enforcement officials from several states met to discuss Bundy and these notes, again never publicly released are disturbing to me in that they verify some of the maneuvering that was going on behind the scenes in what the public was told.  For instance, Bundy had wanted to hold a press conference for some reason to discuss his crimes and he was talked out of it by Bill Hagmaier of the FBI BAU and the reason in the notes is that Bill voiced concern for what Bundy’s family would go through if Bundy did that [echoing Bundy’s fears already].  But my question is – since when is the FBI more concerned about the perpetrator’s family than justice or the victims’ families?  There were at least three unidentified girls [by skeletal remains] found in WA state that NEVER got their justice because their remains were handled carelessly and evidence was not protected even while public lies about what had happened in WA State were put out to media.  In the records it is noted with a question mark on the side of this interagency report “What happened to these notes?”  My question back to the officials is why was Robert Keppel empowered to sue the State of Florida for Bundy’s notes and effects after his death and where are those now?  In Keppel’s possession?  Since when does a single official get to hold on to official documents?  When I asked repeatedly for AG of WA records I was told to ask Keppel.  That is NOT the normal route of FOIA under state/federal laws.  I’d like an answer.  I’ve been silenced now and circumvented for nearly 20 years.

According to the case records, Ted Bundy been reported for possible records thefts [ in college] and also had been reported to the police for rape in 1972.  He also had a record that was expunged.  He made a comment to Florida law enforcement when he was first arrested there that he knew powerful people.  Was he alluding to his work with the FBI on the recidivism project, to his friendships in the Republican Party, to his friendships in the DOJ divisions of AG of WA State offices and DES?  I’ve been told repeatedly behind the scenes that some of the Bundy investigation was influenced by “politics”.  Since when does politics over ride the justice system?

When Bundy was in Utah, the FBI was present there BEFORE he was transferred to Colorado and before he escaped.  This is proven by the 1984 recordings [not redacted] in which Keppel on tape is discussing with Bundy the days before Bundy’s transfer from Utah and how an FBI official was on the scene when Utah was effecting the transfer and so also was Richard Larsen [book author].  It was discussed back then [per Keppel to Bundy] fears about what Larsen would say in a book related to Utah and perhaps to WA State.  The FBI was there it seems to help Keppel in some capacity because the tape states [direct quote] “all of a sudden, they [investigators from another region than WA] show up and FBI called me and said do you want this guy there and I said well I guess I do now, they’re here….” I took the FBI aside and I said, ‘look, this is not good…you’ve got to stay the interview…do something…because it’s just not right this guy’s going to go out there and we don’t know what he’s going to say or what kind of deal he’s going to make with this guy but something’s wrong…so the FBI guy stays in the interview with him…”  The conversation apparently had to do with an informant.  But why is the FBI already there  – Keppel states on tape they were there.  They deny being involved until 1977.  Why is Keppel even telling Bundy this?  Is it normal to tell such information to a suspect in serial killings who is facing the death penalty?  Keppel talks to Bundy like he is an insider on all this information. If John Henry Browne was defending Bundy as he claims then why wasn’t he notified of all this and why was Keppel there with the FBI without attorneys present?  Where is protocol in all of this?   Keppel also worked with the FBI in later years.  The FBI also visited Bundy in prison without his attorneys present and helped Bundy facilitate the contact with the WA State AG Office through a judge – this too contradicts the public story.

In another statement from the tape, Keppel seems distressed about the situation and Keppel goes on to tell Bundy about fears of what was going to be put in a book.  Was FBI presence in Utah to prevent Larsen from either becoming aware of information or gaining access to it.  Was it knowledge that Bundy had been working on a project with WA State officials and the FBI?  Larsen’s book went out of print shortly after or near the time Keppel’s book “Riverman” was published with many misstatements and inaccuracies about the time period back then and investigations including the fact that Taylor Mountain was a major crime scene with over 150 pieces of critical evidence and that victims were NOT decapitated but found with skeletal remains present including at least 3 girls total between Issaquah and Taylor Mountain that were not known victims and never identified.  The evidence of Issaquah was misstated and was “lost” with WA State even settling out of court with families – but what they never followed up on or talked publicly of much is the remains of the unidentified girls thrown away found at that site.  Nor did WA State and the FBI ever disclose to the public the totality of the evidence found at Taylor Mountain, the fact a search was done at Tiger Mountain, and the fact that again, another unidentified girl was found there per her skeletal remains.

There is also an official letter from Keppel at the AG Office in 1981 to Utah about another author and possibly charging that person with obstruction depending on what a book about to be published said.   These tactics seem incredibly aggressive towards silencing anyone, even a critical victim/witness [myself, who was blocked from the justice system process for over a decade], from challenging the status quo story.  It doesn’t seem to me to conform to society laws nor to the dictates of the institutions which these people represent:  the Attorney General and the FBI.  The actions seem more geared toward protecting their relationship with Bundy than protecting the public and doing what the role of their institution and jobs is: and that is being accountable to the public and to the laws.  The laws do not include intimidation of people nor the covering up of critical evidence.

There were 58 young girls missing in the three county area around Seattle from 1970 on – they never worked these cases in a timely manner to analyze them against Bundy and in 1992 they issued a statement that “we’ll never know” his true killing – of course we won’t – they made sure of it.  They lied about the findings at Taylor Mountain, their relationship that had existed with Bundy and never worked the cases around WA State against his DNA in early years when DNA was becoming available.  They didn’t protect the cases and they didn’t protect the evidence.  That is apparent when you review the records and the lack of chain of custody and questionable chain of custody on some documents.  Further, when Bundy had attempted to hold a press conference before his death he was talked out of it [in the records] by a member of the FBI who told him his family had suffered enough and then there were remarks in these notes of what happened to Bundy’s notes associated to that press conference and Keppel sued the state of Florida to get possession of Bundy’s effects and notes after he was executed.  This raises multiple questions:  since when does an investigator sue another state for notes from a convicted killer – an investigator who went on to publish a book for profit before he left public employment – and since when does the FBI advise a death row inmate on press conferences without regard to what the families of missing and murdered girls were suffering?

Further proof of the Taylor Mountain evidence is contained in detective notes of the period of which is a direct quote from one of the detectives on site at Taylor Mountain and present on the task force investigating the missing and murdered girls in Washington State’s west side:  Date of entry:  March 3, 1975 [this is AFTER the find of Issaquah in which a “Ted” with a VW had been identified by witnesses; AFTER a witness came forward in October 1974 identifying Ted Bundy as a potential suspect who drove a VW that fit the description of the “Ted” at Sammamish and who also currently lived in Utah where more girls were disappearing; and AFTER a DMV report had been run on “Teds” in WA State who owned VWs.]  “An extensive search was conducted by Explorer Search and Rescue Units and additional skulls and mandibles were found which made the identification of four victims possible….When the news media released the  information of additional bone finds, this prompted a torrent of phone calls to the office concerning sightings of “Ted” and his brown Volkswagon, [citing case number associated to Issaquah crime scene].  Most of the information coming in related to the older case but will now be incorporated into this case from this point on….German Shepherd’s rescue called the office to say that [the] organization was on the mountain 3-10-1975 after the search had been secured and found more bones – he arranged to bring them to the office…”

Skeletal remains were found on Taylor Mountain, logged in, and assigned evidence numbers.  In 2005 those same skeletal remains were sent to TX and verified to be those of the girls found there with a few bones not identified and not a match to missing girls.  But that is decades later.  Who moved those bones to the ME office without paperwork in March of 1984 and why weren’t these cases worked and charges made against Bundy?  In the notes there is also a hand written note by a list of missing and murdered girls in three states that says FBI.  There were two girls murdered in WA State who bore similar very specific wounds [unusual] to two victims Bundy had killed in Utah.  A very distinct signature.  Did the FBI have him identified long before he left Utah?

When I came forward to the FBI in 2011 as a critical witness to Georgann Hawkins’ disappearance and as a victim who had survived his kidnappings and his stalkings over a four year period I was turned away without a case number even though the timeline I was giving them and the photos and so on supported and corroborated that experience.  Further, about one month later the Attorney General in WA State issued an edict that only DNA would be used from now on since remarkably a vial of Bundy’s blood had just been located.  How convenient….if you “find” a vial of blood the immediate question should be why wasn’t this protected over the years and what happened to the chain of custody requirements in law enforcement? There was evidence found at the scene of the Florida crimes that could have been matched to blood such as semen and other areas of forensics and DNA was being used before Bundy’s execution though in its infancy.

  1. The FBI states the vial was found in Florida.  News reports state that the blood was taken when Bundy was arrested and was somehow preserved despite an order to destroy evidence.     There are several immediate questions here:  first, why would anyone give an order to destroy evidence in a murder conviction situation?  Who gave that order and why isn’t that order in the public domain?  It should be available FOIA.  I’ve never seen it.  Why would you take a vial of blood from him in 1978 when he hadn’t yet been convicted?  Where were his attorneys at the time and wouldn’t you need a warrant for that blood?  Again, where is the paper work for the drawing of the blood? Where is the paper trail and provenance?
  2. The role of the FBI instead of announcing that the vial of blood had been found and from now on only DNA used should have been to do a thorough investigation of WHY that blood even still existed – why it hadn’t been put forward as evidence and why and where it had been stored all those years.
  3. Where is the chain of custody paperwork and the trail of paper between 1978 and 2011?  Where was the blood found and who found it – was the find logged in via proper channels?  What condition was it in?  How was it stored over the years?  Who tested it?  An independent lab or the FBI?  How did they prove it was Bundy’s – what sample did they obtain and compare it to?  Where is the actual data of that comparative analysis – where was the comparative sample obtained, how old was it and how did they come by that comparative sample?  If the chain of custody cannot be proven and the blood was in poor condition has it been retested at all independently?   If they had blood before his final appeals why wasn’t the blood evidence there in the vial factored in to his trial in Florida and compared against any found at the scene in Florida?  They had blood evidence but they were relying on teeth marks?  In so serious a case as his?  Couldn’t it have been compared against the semen found?  There was semen evidence from what I’ve read in the bedroom of at least two of the girls and there were also the other items which could have been tested against this blood.  If they indeed drew it at the time of his arrest why wouldn’t it have been used in the trial? DNA was in use at the time.What happened to all the evidence of the girls attacked in Florida?  The bedsheets, etc.
  4. Here is a link to one of the articles:
  5. They located the vial of blood after a Tacoma detective started looking into Ann Marie Burr  – a victim of someone but she is a victim that Bundy emphatically always claimed was not his – even if she was and we will never know that now,  what about all those years that passed between the time the trial of Bundy ended and the execution and all the families who were still seeking loved ones who were missing and all the evidence of Taylor Mountain and that “find” of the Bundy blood?  Why did it take the case of Ann Marie Burr to “find” that blood and why wasn’t the totality of the evidence gathered back then actually worked? Why weren’t the family cries for resolution heard for decades?  Their loss was never even considered or their cases worked yet in 2011 Ann Marie Burr was investigated as a Bundy case when he always denied she was a victim of his and when Taylor Mountain and Issaquah evidence showed at least 2-3 girls who were never identified – yet their cases weren’t worth investigating?  They weren’t worth looking at thoroughly?  What about the other 58 young girls missing in a 3-county radius around the Seattle Tacoma area in 1971 to 1973? They weren’t important enough to elicit a “find” of his blood?  Why wasn’t that vial of blood used to test the materials at Taylor Mountain both retrieved at the site and also at Issaquah and also directly associated to Bundy like the axe handle?  The FBI report claims in 1992 “we’ll never know”.  Why didn’t they search for a vial of blood immediately in 1978 if one was drawn?  Where is the record of that initial draw and where is the chain of custody?  Why again was any order given to destroy any evidence?  They are asking the public to believe that the police departments of WA State, Utah, Florida all couldn’t handle chain of custody regulations and couldn’t keep track of evidence?
  6. What about the evidence found at Taylor Mountain and proven by the original search lists…there was much more than just skulls and jawbones and the FBI received multiple hair samples from WA State from Taylor Mountain so they can’t say they didn’t know.  They did know.
  7. Has there been any independent testing in a lab certified to do so of the sample given out by FBI to verify the profile?  Has it ever been carbon dated as to its actual date of origin?
  8. Who authorized Bundy to be cremated when DNA was already in its infancy and being used and there were multiple unsolved cases in WA State and other states?
  9. Where is the medical examiner report issued after the execution?  According to Florida law any inmate executed or dying on state premises has to be examined by the medical examiner.  Where are those records and who authorized the image of Bundy post mortem appearing on the internet?
  10. Bundy’s clothing that he wore in prison also would have had DNA on it and so DNA was present all the time that he was incarcerated in Florida and during his entire trial.  Why wasn’t this used when at the same time DNA was being used in Florida in another case and it was known of?  A warrant could have been obtained to test his DNA using his clothing or his blood during the trial – again so why the vial of blood drawn when he was arrested and why wasn’t it put forward as evidence and called out to the attention of the court and to his attorneys and so forth.  Nothing in the Bundy cases adds up to the way the justice system is supposed to work.
  11. How did Robert Keppel get empowered to sue the state of Florida for Bundy’s notes that Bundy had kept in prison after Bundy was executed?  Keppel at the time was an investigator for the AG office of WA, but he wasn’t an AG so why was he able to accomplish this lawsuit?  Why did he sue for all the originals?  Bundy was dead, he was executed in another state and Keppel could have just asked for copies but he didn’t – he sued and he won to get custody of the originals.  What was in those notes that he felt he needed to sue the state of FL to get them?  Obviously it was something he wanted to hide otherwise why bother?  Where are those notes now and who has them and why was Keppel ever allowed to do this and why did he win?  It seems to me unprecedented in its action.
  12. Lastly, while in prison in Florida, it was the regional FBI who met with Bundy in prison and helped him facilitate his contact with WA State about the Green River killer.  They helped him get a letter to a judge in Tacoma – what serial killer and criminal gets such specialized assistance from the FBI?  They owe the public an explanation and the public has the right to deserve a high level impartial investigation of why all of this has been covered up.

The authorities back then didn’t treat Bundy like the killer he was:  they treated him like one of their own.  I mean, just look at all these instances.  I can’t believe things like this happen on a regular basis. There’s only one entity capable of silencing things like this and keeping such a widespread cover up in place and that is the FBI.  The records prove beyond any doubt that they were involved with Bundy not as an investigating body but as a colleague type of relationship as far back as 1973 and that they failed to put in place measures that would have protected evidence and helped the families and the victims.  They didn’t do it.

The following is a quote of Bundy talking taken from the 1984 interview in prison with Robert Keppel which is from the original tapes in my possession which were never redacted:

Ted Bundy: “…it was just unavoidable to become familiar with police procedures [pause] over the years that I was on the streets [pause] and it wasn’t out of any desire to be a police officer, I mean I did work for the Seattle Crime Bureau but that wasn’t [pause] I didn’t select the job because I wanted to get close to law enforcement, that was sort of genuinely a coincidence[pause] I did not really look for that job to get inside police [pause] and in the job with King County law enforcement, with the King County deputies office, I remember filing for all the records in file cabinets on the first floor of the courthouse in the Sheriff’s office [pause] I went through all that stuff [pause] but that wasn’t because [pause] I didn’t get that job because I wanted to get inside the Feds, the police officers, but it just happened that the job opened up and [pause] there’s plenty of ways to learn how to [pause] to learn police procedures without getting close to you.  Detective magazines contain a surprising amount of information, about investigative techniques, laws, methods of operation…”

It seems to me that Bundy  accomplished his goal of embedding with the authorities very well.  They took great measures to protect the full extent of their relationship with him behind the scenes, even going so far as to destroy evidence and shut down investigations of missing and murdered girls leaving the families to grieve for decades.  Their role should have been to investigate aspects of the evidence; to question the find of the vial of blood rather than embrace it; but instead they covered it all up and made sure that media repeated and repeated the story they wanted the public to believe.  They focused their efforts on making a legend out of a routine serial killer and profiting from it instead of on investigations that proved he was no different than Ridgeway and never attempting to solve the many cases of missing and murdered girls.  It also raises the question that if they had done their job back then – they had him identified per the records in October 1974 and they had the evidence of Issaquah in September 1974, along with the name Ted and VW seen at Sammamish by August of 1974, and Taylor Mountain in March of 1975….would any of those girls in Colorado or Florida have had to die?  To me, they are responsible.

The girls who authorities threw away by with-holding and destroying evidence and by refusing to work the cases of Ted Bundy matter:   they were somebody’s children….they need to be held publicly accountable.