His life seemed to be moving in the right direction. .
After transferring from the University of Puget Sound to the University of Washington, Ted meets the love of his life, Stephanie (Rule, 2009). Everything went along great until Stephanie graduated and broke off the relationship (Rule, 2009). Ted was overwhelmed, but he used it as a resolve to become somebody. He changed his entire attitude toward school and began getting A's and B's in his psychology major (Rule, 2009). It wasn't long after that he met Elizabeth Kendall who became his long-time girlfriend (Rule, 2009). At some point Ted began a career as a petty thief (Kendall, 1981). Elizabeth (1981) confronted Ted on more than one occasion about his thievery but she wrote it off to his wanting more from his life and not being in the position to achieve those things. Amazingly, Ted was never caught for his theft crimes. But his theft did end up being the demise of his and Elizabeth's relationship (Kendall, 1981). It is unclear what triggered the first of Ted's known murders. In 1974, young women with long hair parted down the middle began disappearing (Rule, 2009). Ironically, these young women's features were similar to Stephanie's. Ted's method of rape and murder were both brutal and horrific. Each one was described as having been beaten in the head with either a crowbar or piece of wood (Rule, 2009). The girls were strangled with a stocking and brutally raped with foreign objects (Rule, 2009). Bundy then disposed of the bodies or parts of the bodies in various locations not too far away from the site of the actual murders (Rule, 2009). .
He was picked up in Utah in August 1975 for "possession of burglary tools" which resulted after he tried to evade the police (Rule, 2009). In October 1975 Ted was arrested for the attempted kidnapping of Carol DaRonch (Rule, 2009). After being convicted of the charges in the DaRonch case, he was charged with the murder of Caryn Campbell in October 1976 (Rule, 2009).