This article is best viewed in "web version," which can be selected below the Comments section.
The myriad of questions surrounding the Halloween 1974 murder of 17-year-old Laura Aime has distinguished it as one of the most intriguing cases in the study of Ted Bundy's history. Examples of said mysteries include:
1.) Did Bundy hold Laura captive, keeping her alive for "several days" - more accurately, twenty days, per the death date set by the medical examiner - as an addendum in her autopsy report suggests?
2.) Why was Laura's hair described as "freshly washed?" (Such an observation is not present in her autopsy file.)
3.) Where exactly were the tire tracks investigators found at the dump site - American Fork Canyon, east of the Timpanogos Cave [National] Monument⁷, or 500 yards north east of the Timpanogos Cave Visitor's Center¹³ - as the site appears mostly inaccessible by vehicle¹⁰⁺¹¹ and Bundy likely rolled Laura's body part-way down an embankment, just off the American Fork Canyon [paved] Road above⁷? (Plaster casts were taken of these tire tracks and later sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which determined the casts were of the same width and had the same tread design as the tires that were on Bundy's 1968 Volkswagen in 1974.⁵)
4.) What made two of Laura's friends think they had received a phone call from her in mid-November 1974, weeks after her disappearance?⁵
5.) Could Bundy have returned to the dump site? (The two hikers who discovered Laura's body reported seeing a light blue Volkswagen in the area at the time of their discovery.⁵ The color of Bundy's Volkswagen was also mistakenly described by survivor Carol DaRonch, initially, as light blue.¹⁴)
6.) And, of course, the predominant question of all, the one that generates the most discussion about the Laura Aime case: Did Bundy know her?
This article does not attempt to provide researched answers to those questions. Instead, it will examine a surprisingly neglected aspect of the Aime case: the two conflicting versions of Laura's whereabouts that Halloween night. Doing so may ultimately confirm or invalidate in your mind whether Bundy did, in fact, have an acquaintanceship with Laura, thus departing from his usual modus operandi of killing only strangers and classifying Laura as an anomaly among his victims.
First, a bit of Laura's background for context, as gathered from various sources: Either during her sophomore year or before what would have been her junior year, Laura dropped out of high school and chose not to move with her family from Mount Pleasant, Utah, to Salem, Utah.
TIMELINE OF LAURA'S MOVEMENTS, FIRST VERSION
These are the conclusions that the Utah County Sheriff's Office recorded in its case reports.⁴ They were first published in narrative form in Ted Bundy: The Killer Next Door by Steven Winn & David Merrill (1979). Excerpts from that narrative comprise the timeline below; phrases and sentences with superscript notations at their ends are derived from other sources (i.e., not the Winn & Merrill book).
Laura was living with the family of her friend, "Judy Olsen," in American Fork, Utah. In the Winn & Merrill book, Laura's friend is identified as "Judy Olsen." But her name was likely Jody [sp.?] Nelson.¹
Halloween night, Thursday, October 31, 1974:
7:00 P.M.: "Fred Strobbe" picked up Laura, "Judy," and "Judy's" brother "Mark Olsen" at the "Olsens' " house to attend a party at Steven Bullock's² mobile home in Orem, UT. Laura was dressed in casual clothes (i.e., not a Halloween costume).
[Blog's note: The distance from American Fork to Orem is roughly 9.3 miles, or an approximate 18-minute drive, making the friends' arrival time at the party approximately 7:18 P.M.]
around 10:00 P.M.: Bored at the party, Laura left by herself.
[Blog's note: The distance from Orem to the site of Laura's next reported appearance - the original location of Jack and Jill Bowling Lanes in American Fork¹¹ - is roughly 8.7 miles, which would have taken Laura approximately 2 hours and 48 minutes if she'd walked. If she hitchhiked after the party and caught an undisclosed ride to the bowling alley - which is the more likely scenario, if this first version of her movements is valid - it would've been an approximate 14-minute drive, depending where she was picked up.]
10:30 P.M.: "George Roth" (or, George Alley³), an acquaintance, picked Laura up in front of the Jack and Jill Bowling Lanes in American Fork. Laura complained to George about the "cowboys" she'd encountered while traveling from Orem; the "cowboys" had either a.) ignored her attempts to hitchhike, spraying dust from their vehicle(s) on her instead, or b.) offered her a lift(s), which she'd rejected².
- OR -
11:00 P.M.: Bryan Southwick saw Laura by Jack and Jill Bowling Lanes in American Fork. Laura was hitchhiking north at the time along U.S. 89.¹⁵
[Blog's note: Perhaps Bryan saw Laura before George picked her up, and one of the guys had their times mixed up.]
[Blog's note: The distance from the original location of the bowling alley¹¹ to the site of Laura's next reported appearance - the former Knotty Pine - is 4.3 miles, or an approximate 10-minute drive.]
[estimated time, based on George's account] 10:40 P.M.: George dropped Laura off at the Knotty Pine Café (aka, "Mole" Brown's Café¹) in Lehi, UT, where she went in and had a Coke.
unknown time: Once again finding herself bored, Laura headed from the Knotty Pine to William S. Robinson Park (aka, Robinson Park) in American Fork.
[Blog's note: The Knotty Pine may also have closed at 11:00 P.M.,¹ forcing Laura to seek another destination - the park. The distance from the former Knotty Pine to Robinson Park is 3.3 miles, which would've been a 75-minute walk for Laura, putting her arrival at the park at the estimated time of 12:15 A.M.; unless she hitchhiked and arrived earlier, at approximately 11:08 P.M., per the estimated 8-minute drive.]
shortly after 12:00 A.M.: Laura left the park, last seen by Thomas Jones around midnight²⁺¹⁵.
[Blog's note: Laura had consumed alcohol at some point during the evening, as toxicologic tests in her autopsy report indicated a blood alcohol level of .107.]
Utah County Sheriff's Office was never able to establish where Laura disappeared (i.e., where Bundy encountered her)¹⁰ after her last known sighting at the park.
Sunday, November 3, 1974:
unknown time: From the Aime residence in Salem, UT, Laura's mother, Shirleen Aime, called the "Olsens" in Orem to check on Laura. Mrs. "Olsen" replied, "Isn't she with you? We haven't seen her since Thursday when she and 'Judy' and 'Mark' left for the Halloween party."
[Blog's note: Ann Rule's The Stranger Beside Me quotes Mrs. "Olsen" as saying, "Laura isn't here. We haven't seen her since she left on Halloween."]
- - - end of relevant events in the timeline - - -
The element that legitimizes some of Laura's movements in this first version of events is the "Olsens." It seems Laura was likely bunking at their house at the time of her disappearance because not only did her mother, who was accustomed to speaking with Laura almost daily, call that residence looking for her after three days of no communication, but Mrs. "Olsen" confirmed as much in her response to Mrs. Aime. Mrs. "Olsen's" response also validates that Laura did attend a party in an Orem trailer park, as Mrs. "Olsen" observed Laura leaving the "Olsen" residence with two of the "Olsen" children.
The problem with this first version is that without the benefit of police reports, verification of these eyewitness accounts is nearly impossible. Were "Judy Olsen" and "Mark Olsen" able to corroborate their mother's statement to Mrs. Aime that they and Laura had departed the "Olsen" residence on Halloween to attend a party? Did anyone from the party - like the host, Steven Bullock² - come forward to confirm Laura's attendance? How did Thomas Jones²⁺¹⁵ know Laura was in Robinson Park at midnight - was he a friend of hers who spoke with her there? Also, without reference to police reports, the critical question of "when" these eyewitness accounts were recorded is unanswerable. The sooner they were taken by authorities, the more accurate they likely are. But no investigation into Laura's initial "disappearance" was performed when her mother formally reported her missing on November 5th or 6th¹² because authorities dismissed Laura as a runaway. Certainly, efforts were launched when her body was discovered on Wednesday, November 27, 1974⁷⁺⁸ (her parents made the identification the next day,⁴ on Thanksgiving). However, the investigation was hampered from the beginning, not only due to the inexperience of former patrol deputies who comprised the fledgling detective division of Utah County Sheriff's Office at the time of Laura's murder¹⁰, but because Sheriff Mack Holley refused to cooperate with - among other authorities - the Utah County Attorney's Office and the sheriff's office in Salt Lake County (where one teenage girl - Nancy Wilcox - had already disappeared, another - Carol DaRonch - had escaped an attempted kidnapping, and a third - Melissa Smith - had been found murdered in an identical fashion to Laura; all girls - plus, 17-year-old Debra Kent of Bountiful, UT - were later determined to have been murdered or nearly abducted by one perpetrator, Ted Bundy).
TIMELINE OF LAURA'S MOVEMENTS, SECOND VERSION
This rendition is based on Laura's friend's, Marin - pronounced like "Corinne," but with an "M"¹ - Beveridge's, 1977 statements to Utah County Sheriff's Deputy Dick Smith and Utah County Attorney's Office Investigator Brent Bullock. Dick Smith had first interviewed Miss Beveridge in 1975 - after Ted Bundy's initial Utah arrest in August of that year - and had learned from her then that in late summer/early autumn 1974, a man had been hanging around Brown's Cafe, in Lehi, where Laura was suspected of disappearing; Beveridge had identified the man from a photo lineup as Ted Bundy.⁴ Though nothing came of Miss Beveridge's statements in 1975, by 1977, authorities were eager to follow up with her. The first source Miss Beveridge's account appeared in print was the book Bundy: The Deliberate Stranger by Richard W. Larsen, the narrative of which is excerpted in the timeline below; phrases and sentences with superscript notations at their ends are derived from other sources.
Halloween night, Thursday, October 31, 1974:
[Blog's note: Though Laura had stayed with the Beveridges previously¹, there is no indication by Marin that Laura was couch-crashing at the Beveridge home on this date.]
Marin hosted a Halloween party at the Lehi, UT, house of her parents', who were out of state at the time¹, and Laura and several other teenagers attended. The boys brought an abundance of vodka, and Laura consumed a lot of alcohol (including Jungle Juice¹).
about 12:00 A.M. or so - OR - 10, 10:30 P.M.¹: Laura was "drunk" and wanted to walk downtown to buy some cigarettes. She requested Marin accompany her, but Marin declined. She discouraged Laura from going because of the lateness of the hour.¹ Marin watched Laura start walking toward Brown's Café (aka, the Knotty Pine¹) in Lehi, which was open all night (or, it closed at 11:00 P.M.¹).
- OR -
along towards midnight: Laura wanted to hitchhike from Marin's party to downtown [Lehi] to buy cigarettes. Marin refused to go with her. She was [also?] going to hitchhike down to American Fork. ⁵
[Blog's note: The distance from the former site of the Beveridge home in Lehi¹⁰ to the former Brown's Café is 0.3 miles, or a 6-minute walk. Laura was probably hoping to buy cigarettes at Brown's Café before it possibly closed at 11:00 P.M.¹ and would've accepted a ride if offered one, but it's unlikely she "wanted"⁵ to hitchhike such a short distance. If, however, her destination was American Fork, then, yes, Laura would've likely preferred to hitchhike the roughly 3.3-mile distance from the Beveridge home, rather than attempt the approximate 75-minute walk while intoxicated.]
unknown time: Vera Campbell - Marin's older sister¹ - witnessed Laura get into Ted Bundy's Volkswagen outside of Brown's Café,⁶ where Vera was an employee. (Vera⁶ made a positive identification of Bundy.)
[Blog's note: Again, Brown's Café purportedly closed at 11:00 P.M.¹]
around 3:00 or 4:00 A.M.: As Laura had not returned from her errand, Marin and some of her party guests went to town to (unsuccessfully) look for her.
[Blog's note: Among the conflicting reports and varying times within this second version of events, the only indisputable piece of evidence (thanks to phone records) is that Bundy called his Seattle girlfriend Liz at 10:25 P.M.² from his apartment in Salt Lake City, UT. The distance from his residence to the former Brown's Café is 31 miles, or an approximate 37-minute drive. Assuming Bundy went out hunting for a victim (or Laura, specifically) after his phone call with Liz - say, around 10:45 P.M. - he would not have even arrived in Lehi until around 11:22 P.M., after Laura would've likely been forced to leave the café (if it indeed closed at 11:00 P.M.¹); thereby possibly invalidating Vera Campbell's reported sighting of Laura's getting into Bundy's car outside Brown's Café⁶.]
Unknown date:
Marin phoned authorities to report Laura missing, but was informed that a family member of the missing had to file such a report.¹
- - - end of relevant events in the timeline - - -
The legitimacy of this second version of events hinges on Miss Beveridge's credibility. She did pass a polygraph test, at Investigator Bullock's request.⁴ Her account was also believable enough to prosecutors to potentially call her as a witness in Bundy's Colorado murder trial, along with other unnamed witnesses who could testify that Ted had hung around Brown's Café, where Laura frequented.⁵ Without access to police reports, it's unclear if these witnesses could also corroborate Laura's attendance at Miss Beveridge's alleged Halloween party or could attest to the numerous encounters between Bundy and Laura that Miss Beveridge claimed to have observed (reviewed below). However, according to Investigator Bullock, these additional witnesses were not even interviewed until 1977, when he joined the Laura Aime investigation:
I had an intern guy who went over [to Lehi] and interviewed some people, and we found some people over there - it was called Brown's Café over at Lehi. And he had two or three people [who] identified him [Ted Bundy] as an individual who'd been in there. And one was this girl [Marin Beveridge].¹⁰
For the purposes of evaluating Miss Beveridge's credibility, let's examine two particular Ted/Laura interactions of the numerous she revealed, along with discrepancies in the descriptions of said interactions. Miss Beveridge's statements have been solely responsible for originating the popular theory that Ted Bundy had a relationship with Laura Aime prior to murdering her, as she alleged to authorities multiple instances of Bundy's September - October 1974 interactions with Laura and her group of friends around Lehi, UT; noteworthy is the absence of transactions in Lehi and American Fork within Bundy's gas records²:
Interaction #1:
a.) Sourced from the first printed reference to the story, Bundy: The Deliberate Stranger; author Larsen constructed the following narrative based on Miss Beveridge's 1977 interviews with Utah County Sheriff's Deputy Dick Smith and Utah County Attorney's Investigator Brent Bullock:
An older, good-looking, wavy-haired man, who said he was a university student and who drove a Volkswagen, had first appeared at the small town of Lehi one day in September 1974. Marin remembered that she and Laura were sitting together in sunshine with some other teenagers on the grass of a high school. He joined them. When a boy teased Laura by putting some grass down her halter top, the "college guy" objected. "This guy came unglued and told him [the boy] Laura was his," Marin said.
b.) As the story appeared in "Similar Transaction No. 2" in later 1977⁵:
On another occasion, either late September or early October [1974], Laura Ann Aime introduced Ted Bundy to a group of her friends, including Jerry Bowers. Jerry Bowers and Ted Bundy got into an argument after Jerry puts grass in Laura's halter top. Bundy told Jerry to leave Laura alone because Laura was his girl. Laura told Bundy to "Get screwed." Bundy was left speechless.
c.) In 2018, Marin Beveridge gave an interview to historian/researcher Captain Borax on his YouTube channel and relayed a new version of the incident. The dialogue went:
C.B.: Well, there's that, that old story you hear about how Ted came up to you guys when you were sittin' there [at the old high school/ junior high in Lehi¹], and he started stuffin' leaves down her [Laura's] shirt, or something like that.
M.B.: Yep. Well, he would sit there and pull the grass out of the lawn, and he put that down her shirt. And that, that's when Jerry [Bowers] told him, "Enough's enough," you know? He was that. . . in-, in-. . . um, what's the word I'm looking for?. . . [*sigh]. . . I'm not sure. . . [insistent] on Laura. He was bound [and] determined he was gonna have her.
Granted, forty-one years had passed between Miss Beveridge's first iteration of the story and her last recollection of it, (forty-four years since the alleged encounter itself). Also, Captain Borax's leading question which illustrated Bundy, rather than Bowers, as the culprit in stuffing leaves/grass down Laura's shirt may have thrown off Miss Beveridge's memory of the event.
Interaction #2:
a.) Sourced from the first printed reference to the story, Bundy: The Deliberate Stranger; author Larsen constructed the following narrative based on Miss Beveridge's 1977 interviews with Utah County Sheriff's Deputy Dick Smith and Utah County Attorney's Investigator Brent Bullock:
Marin told her interviewers she had seen the man [Ted Bundy] again and again, once driving his Volkswagen past Marin's house when Laura was there. One night he came to the house and called Laura outdoors where they held a private conversation. Afterward, said Marin, "Laura was really shook up. But she wouldn't say what happened."
b.) As the story appeared in "Similar Transaction No. 2" in later 1977⁵:
On another occasion, Ted Bundy went to a house where Laura was visiting. Laura went outside with Ted and became quite upset. A witness [Marin Beveridge] heard Laura tell him "Get the fuck out of here, I don't want to see you no more."
c.) During Marin Beveridge's 2018 interview with Captain Borax, she relayed a new version of the incident. When asked if Ted knew where she (Marin) lived, she replied:
All the parties and shit was always at my mom and dad's house 'cause my dad was a long-distance truck driver, never home. And my mom would always go with him - you know, we was teenagers, she didn't need to sit home with us and babysit, you know? And, yeah, he [Ted] showed up one day at my mom and dad's door; and I don't remember who it was that answered the door, but they're like, you know, "You're not welcome here. Get the hell off the porch." And that's back when my mom and dad had a old wood porch. And, um, I wanna, I wanna, um, I wanna say it was my [older¹] brother Bill that answered the door that day, but I'm not, I'm not positive. And like I say, you're [*unintelligible] cop [. . .] now. [*laughter] But, uh, I mean, he - but, I mean, Bill's - no bigger than what I am, you know; I mean, well, maybe a little bit nowadays 'cause I got bone cancer. But, um, Bill. . . I mean, he [Ted] just pushed my brother over like he was fuckin' not even there, and come into my mom and dad's front room. And Laura went out. . . see, my mom and dad had, had. . . we [the family] went in through, through the kitchen, into the house. But there was one - a door - almost side by side, that went into the front room. My dad always had that one blocked off; you know, we didn't use that door. And when he [Ted] came in, into the front room after Laura, I told her, I said, "Go out the front room door!" And she went out the front room door; and all the guys were like, stood in front of both doors, and they were like, "Leave her the fuck alone, dude." You know, "What part of - do you not understand - is she does not want nuttin' to do with ya." I mean, he was insistent that she was gonna be with him. [She'd say,] "Look, just leave me alone. I don't want nuttin' to do wi'ch ya," and that didn't even work, you know? The more - I, I, I swear to God - the more people would tell him to back off, the more he was insistent on being with her, you know? If that makes any sense. [. . . .] She was crying.
Again, forty-one years had passed between Miss Beveridge's first iteration of the story and her last recollection of it, (forty-four years since the alleged encounter itself). But the two versions differ drastically.
Without police reports to reference, it's difficult to know what else Miss Beveridge may have revealed to Sheriff's Deputy Dick Smith during her initial interview in 1975, besides the information that Ted Bundy had hung around Brown's Café in the weeks leading up to Laura's murder - did she also tell him about all those supposed meetings between Ted and Laura (like the two above), or did those stories only surface later in 1977 when the Aime case was being re-investigated? Logic dictates that even if Miss Beveridge fabricated the Ted/Laura encounters, she may have been honest about Laura's attendance at her party Halloween night.
Rather than scrutinizing Miss Beveridge's credibility or motives, Bundy author Kevin M. Sullivan - who adamantly maintains the belief that Bundy and Laura had no previous relationship - has adopted a more pragmatic approach when debating the authenticity of their supposed interactions. He instead focuses on when the testimony was reported to police; and because it was done so after Bundy's August 1975 arrest, a witness's memory may have been tainted by the extensive Utah news coverage of the arrest and subsequent investigation. Here is a response from Mr. Sullivan in the Facebook group "In Plain Sight" during a 2019 discussion of the possible Ted/Laura relationship:
There are numerous problems with that supposed connection. One has to do with Laura's disappearance in the early morning hours of November 1, 1974. She was found on November 27, I believe, and these people who supposedly knew Bundy and knew that he and Laura had an argument NEVER came forward until AFTER Bundy came to light in 1975!!! Do you find their tale believable? I don't. Why wouldn't they have told Sheriff Mack Holley what they knew long before this? It just doesn't ring true. Plus I have some printed info that the prosecution who knew of this story [Salt Lake County Deputy District Attorney Dave Yocum, who prosecuted Bundy in the DaRonch kidnapping trial] were not very impressed with what they knew about it. It just doesn't add up in my view.
(District Attorney Dave Yocum would not have prosecuted the Laura Aime case, though, if Bundy had ever been charged. That task would've fallen to Utah County Attorney Noall Wootton, whose office was investigating her case in 1977.)
Perhaps the strongest argument against the validity of a Ted/Laura acquaintanceship, as postulated by Bundy researcher Joy Mulvaney in her December 31, 2022, post in the Facebook group "In Plain Sight," is a common-sense one:
It seems very unlikely to me that Laura [continued] to hang out with Ted and [hopped] in his car [Halloween night] when he constantly degraded and threatened her[, according to Marin Beveridge's statements].
Indeed, Miss Beveridge made no bones about how disinterested and often upset Laura was during all her supposed encounters with Bundy. So, as Ms. Mulvaney pointed out, why would Laura accept a ride from Bundy that last night, per Marin's sister's observation⁶?
A third, more obscure theory involving the possible location Laura encountered Bundy that Halloween night exists but has never gained as much traction as the two primary versions. The theory originated from FBI agent Chris W. Eskridge, "[who] was investigating the Laura Aime case, working directly with Utah County law enforcement [and] collecting data in the months after Ted Bundy's arrest in August of 1975."¹⁷ He wrote in an official report:
I suspect that Laura continued hitchhiking toward Lehi [from where, he doesn't say] but was picked up along U.S. 89 somewhere between where the road divides on the north end of American Fork and the Bryants' home. This is a long, not frequently traveled, dark straightaway road.¹⁷
(It's unclear why Special Agent Eskridge suspected Laura was hitchhiking "toward Lehi.")
Kevin M. Sullivan was the first Bundy author to reference this theory in published form, borrowing from Stephen G. Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth's The Only Living Witness (originally, 1983) to construct a semi-alternate narrative of events. Sullivan wrote that Laura attended the aforementioned house party in Orem. She left around midnight - (Michaud & Aynesworth said before midnight) - with the intention of hitchhiking into Lehi - (Michaud & Aynesworth contended she decided to hitch a ride into downtown Orem, to buy a pack of cigarettes). Mr. Sullivan proposed Laura "would naturally have taken U.S. Highway 89 going north" and noted authorities' belief that "Laura disappeared along one of the more desolate and dark portions of [that] highway," (which alludes to Special Agent Eskridge's theory¹⁷). ⁹
Bundy's own October 31, 1974, recorded activities do fit this third variation. Without a specific address for "U.S. 89 [. . .] where the road divides on the north end of American Fork,"¹⁷ calculations are not precise; but Bundy would've had a roughly 33-mile drive from Salt Lake City to American Fork proper and arrived in an estimated 38 minutes - at approximately 11:23 P.M. - after he ended his phone call to Liz, or a roughly 41-mile/46-minute drive to Orem's general vicinity, arriving at approximately 11:31 P.M. (In the first and third timelines, Laura departed the Orem party at 10:00 P.M. or midnight, thereby negating any possibility of Bundy's abducting Laura before speaking to Liz - he could not have abducted Laura at her earliest reported departure time from the party - 10:00 P.M. - and returned to Salt Lake City in time for his 10:25 P.M. phone call to Liz.)
If we apply Occam's Razor to the three possibilities of Laura's activities on the night of October 31, 1974, as presented in this article, the third one - the simplest explanation - would be the most likely. But it doesn't explain all the eyewitnesses prevalent in the first version: Were those who sighted Laura in various locations all mistaken? Because Ted Bundy never elaborated (nor speculated) on his involvement in the Laura Aime case¹⁶ - at least, not in any available resources - the circumstances of her disappearance will always remain a mystery.
CITATIONS
¹ Marin Beveridge's statements, "Ted Bundy By Marin Beveridge 2018 Phone Interview (2020 Update)," June 29, 2020, Captain Borax YouTube channel, https://youtu.be/7doWEogYy-U?feature=shared
² Ted Bundy: A Visual Timeline by Rob Dielenberg; Electronic version: Copyright © Robert A. Dielenberg, May 2016., Copyright © Motion Mensura Pty. Ltd. May 2016., Updated edition, November 2016, 2nd updated edition July 2017.
This text is the only one among the more prominent works in Bundy literature to present both primary variations of Laura's movements the night of Halloween 1974.
³ "Ted Bundy Victim Deep Dive. Laura Ann Aime.," Another Bundy Blog. by The Yellow Beetle, April 2, 2024; source of the name "George Alley" uncited; https://anotherbundyblog.com/2024/04/02/laura-ann-aime/
⁴ Bundy: The Deliberate Stranger by Richard W. Larsen, Copyright ©1980 by Richard W. Larsen, © renewed 2018 by Becky Beasley
⁵ "Similar Transaction No. 2" is a legal document filed in November 1977 by Colorado 9th Judicial District Attorney Frank G. E. Tucker and Deputy District Attorney Milton K. Blakey during pretrial of Bundy's first-degree felony murder case in Pitkin County, Colorado. It is commonly circulated online as "Laura Aime Autopsy Report." (This document contains at least one mistake: it states that Laura Aime's body was located on Thanksgiving Day, when, in fact, it was located the day before, Wednesday, November 27, 1974.⁷⁺⁸)
In order to bolster Colorado State's case against Ted Bundy for the 1975 Aspen murder of Caryn Cambell, Prosecutor Blakey was attempting to introduce mostly homicide cases from Utah with similar modus operandi to Campbell's, offenses which Bundy was suspected of committing, but not charged with (i.e., "similar transactions"): Melissa Smith, Laura Aime (Similar Transaction No. 2), and Debra Kent, as well as the Carol DaRonch aggravated kidnapping case which Bundy had already been convicted for. Multiple law enforcement officers and county or district attorneys in both Utah and Colorado investigated Laura Aime's case to contribute to the information presented in "Similar Transaction No. 2." Ultimately, however, the presiding judge of the Caryn Campbell trial, the Honorable George E. Lohr, ruled in favor of Bundy's defense and denied admissibility of all similar transactions, except the Carol DaRonch case.
⁶ information communicated by Ted Bundy researcher and YouTuber Chris Mortensen (aka, Captain Borax) in his video "Ted Bundy By Marin Beveridge 2018 Phone Interview (2020 Update)," June 29, 2020, https://youtu.be/7doWEogYy-U?feature=shared
⁷ "Slay Victim Identified As Salem Girl, 17; Investigation Intensifies" by Ron Barker; The Daily Herald, Provo, Utah, Friday, November 29, 1974
⁸ "Body of Slain Girl Found in AF Canyon," American Fork Citizen, December 5, 1974; courtesy of "Ted Bundy 'I was trying to think like an Elk' " Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/TedBundyResearchBlog
⁹ The Bundy Murders: A Comprehensive History by Kevin M. Sullivan, ©2009 Kevin M. Sullivan
¹⁰ "Laura Aime/Ted Bundy, The Utah County Case," Captain Borax YouTube channel, June 29, 2020, which includes interviews with both former Utah County Attorney's Office Investigator Brent Bullock and former Utah County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Owen Quarnberg (lead investigator on the Aime case);
¹¹ "Laura Aime Abducted by Ted Bundy Location tour in Utah 2017 (Update)," Captain Borax YouTube channel, June 29, 2020, https://youtu.be/KgYOh6CBE4E?feature=shared
¹² This blog is not in possession of the missing person's report Shirleen Aime filed on her daughter. The filing dates noted in this article - November 5th or 6th - were sourced from the following passage in Ted Bundy: The Killer Next Door by Steven Winn & David Merrill, Copyright © 1979 by Steven Winn and David Merrill:
Finally, five days after Laura had last been seen, Shirleen Aime called the police.
¹³ "Murder victim identified as missing Salem girl," The Deseret News, November 28, 1974; courtesy of The Yellow Beetle [see ³]
¹⁴ "Trial Transcript: Carol DaRonch, Part II, 1976," Ted Bundy: Killer in the Archives blog, December 4, 2019, https://killerinthearchives.blog/trial-transcript-carol-daronch-part-ii-1976/
¹⁵ "This document compiled by Brent Bullock, Utah County Attorney's Office," as partially featured in "Ted Bundy By Marin Beveridge 2018 Phone Interview (2020 Update)," Captain Borax YouTube channel, June 29, 2020, https://youtu.be/7doWEogYy-U?feature=shared :
.jpg)
¹⁶ "The Utah Confession, 1989," Ted Bundy: Killer in the Archives blog, November 21, 2019,
https://killerinthearchives.blog/the-utah-confession-1989/ ; transcription referenced to review Bundy's (lack of) responses to the brief mentions of Laura Aime by Salt Lake County Sheriff's Detective Dennis Couch during their January 22, 1989, interview
¹⁷ "Captain Borax True Crime Research and More" Facebook page, September 26, 2017, post (description excerpted);
The partial report - as written by FBI agent Chris W. Eskridge - featured in the post, the second paragraph of which was transcribed in this blog article:
Also notable in this report is the dubious, perplexing information about Bundy contained in the first paragraph, as transcribed:
9. The suspect [Ted Bundy] often came into Brown's Restaurant in Lehi with a friend. The friend drove a blue-green late model truck, was approximately 6'1" and slender. They frequently visited Brown's when the Ewings were the managers, this being from January 1975 through the summer months of 1975.
Could the witnesses Investigator Brent Bullock's intern developed in 1977¹⁰ - the ones who identified Bundy as the man who'd hung around Brown's Café - not only have been mistaken in their identification, but also in their recollection of time periods (meaning, the man they thought was Bundy had patronized Brown's Café not in late summer/early autumn 1974, but in 1975, well after Laura had been murdered)?
ADDRESSES
The street addresses gathered from various sources which were used to calculate distances and times for this article are the following:
1.) the former site of the Knotty Pine/Brown's Café: 130 W. Main Street, Lehi, UT
2.) original site of Jack and Jill Bowling Lanes¹¹: 615 E. State Street, American Fork, UT
3.) former site of the Beveridges' house: 165 N. Center Street, Lehi, UT¹⁰
4.) boarding house where Ted Bundy was a tenant: 565 E. First Avenue, Salt Lake City, UT
- - - My immense gratitude to the authors, researchers, and content creators who've made such significant contributions to the Laura Aime case and have shared their discoveries, as well as to those who challenged my own preconception that Ted had essentially been stalking Laura in the weeks leading up to her murder. You inspired this article. - - -
Copyright © 2024 Cynthia Walker. All Rights Reserved.
