The Bundy Murders: A Comprehensive History (20 page)

Once again he'd subdued a living human being, much like taking a trophy, and it mattered not in the least who Melissa Smith was, or that he was in effect emotionally killing the remainder of her family. None of that could ever matter to a psychopathic monster. All things were his for the taking. In the case of Melissa Smith, he would take and not let go; at least not for a while, for the sinister cravings were increasing now, as was his arrogant belief that he could do absolutely anything he wanted with the living or the dead, and still escape detection. It is important to look at the available evidence to determine what happened, or what may have happened, from the moment he sent the crowbar crashing into Melissa's head on the evening of October 18, 1974, to the time when her body was discovered on October 27.

In the early afternoon of October 27, deer hunters came across the body of a young white female on a brush-covered hillside in Summit County, Utah. She was nude, except for a beaded necklace and what appeared to be a man's blue sock wrapped tightly around her neck. These were the only two items with the body. One of the hunters, Phillip Hughes, made a call to Summit County Sheriff Ron Robinson. But Robinson, short on manpower, asked for the assistance of the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office.

At approximately 4:00 P.M., Detectives Ben Forbes and Rick Sommers arrived, as did their superior, Captain Pete Hayward. Detective Forbes's report describes in clinical detail the condition of the body before them. "The location of the crime scene is approximately due east of the Summit Park subdivision, bordering Timberline subdivision. The actual area of the crime scene itself is mainly predominated by fairly heavy scrub oak and innersparsed [sic] small pine trees. In some fairly tall scrub oak the body of a white female ... present age unknown, appears to be about 54' to 5'5" ... 110 to 115 pounds, auburn-reddish hair. Around the neck of the victim is a necklace made of wooden beads.... Also around the neck of the victim is what appears to be a man's navy blue knit sock, and this is tied behind the neck of the victim.""

"The body is located on its stomach," he continued, "with the left arm completely folded underneath the body and the right arm extended and unfolded at a 90 degree angle and both legs bent at the knees." Forbes goes on to note the heavy abrasions on the shoulders which continue down the back and the cuts and abrasions on the buttocks and legs; although he doesn't state it in his report, these are post-mortem injuries caused by dragging the remains over rough terrain.

Squatting down, Forbes leaned forward to get a closer look at the damage to the head, and notes that besides the obvious blunt-force trauma she'd suffered, "approximately 6 inches above the top vertebra is what appears to be a bullet wound of contact."" But of course, there had been no bullet fired through the head of Melissa Smith. The extensive damage done to her skull had been the result of the blow from the crowbar only. If the veteran detective could have at that moment miraculously examined the craniums of the murdered women of Washington State, most of which were yet to be discovered, he would have recognized the similarities right away.

But perhaps the most stunning discovery of the day was the determination of the time of her death. From the condition of the body, Forbes believed she'd been dead for no more than thirty to thirty-six hours. But even if you were to double that time, it meant that Melissa Smith had been held at a location for the pleasure of her abductor for at least five days; very likely in a state of unconsciousness the entire time due to the head injury. It is my contention, based on the theory of an investigator from Colorado, that he kept Melissa, as well as upcoming victim Laura Aime, in his upstairs apartment at 565 First Avenue. Here he could clean them, make love to them, and prepare them for their trip into the wilderness where he would finally release them for natural decay. But a deeper look into this possibility will come later.

It is a fact that when Bundy began those particular abductions by striking the victim with the crowbar (as in the case of Georgann Hawkins) where he had to get her completely incapacitated quickly), he inflicted heavy damage, rendering victims unconscious. It didn't matter to him how badly they were injured, or that they could die from the skull fracture. It only mattered that they survived long enough to allow Bundy to perform whatever acts he wanted to commit with them while they remained alive. Strangling a victim to death while she lay on her stomach, feeling the muscles tighten around him as he was having intercourse during her expiration, worked, even with those in a semi-coma. But taking a victim and killing her in such a condition did lack one element Bundy desired, and that was fear!

Denise Naslund and Janice Ott were captured through the use of a ruse, and by the time they learned of their predicament, escape was impossible. Bundy would later tell how both women were naturally in a high state of fear, and it seems certain they were under no illusions as to their final outcome. Violence against these women would come swiftly at the end. Bundy later confirmed that he purposely killed one girl in view of the other to incite terror in the one witnessing the slaughter before murdering her as well.

One can only imagine the raw terror Lynda Ann Healy must have experienced after awaking from her near strangulation (which caused a hemorrhage, Bundy said, resulting in the small amount of blood found on her bed and nightgown) and staring into the cold eyes of a madman.16 She truly had awakened to a nightmare.

The fear generated in Ott, Naslund, Healy, and any other women he abducted without crashing a tire iron into their head brought him a special sexual pleasure; indeed, it was almost like an aphrodisiac for him to have a female truly afraid of him, especially if he was in predator mode with his prey in hand, and her death was imminent. In the vernacular of the street, Ted Bundy was "turned on" to unleash the monster. For Bundy, the paralyzing fear experienced by his captives fueled him. It was a sadistic meal from which he could draw strength long after the bodies had been transformed into scattered bones. That type of fear was missing from the Smith abduction, and it is quite possible Melissa Smith never awakened to see the face of her killer.

Thus far Ted Bundy seemed to have a potpourri of ideas about sex with his victims, be it anti-mortem, at the moment of death, or post-mortem. But now, apparently with the abduction of Melissa Smith, Bundy appears to have taken things not one step further, but many steps beyond what he had attempted before. What he would do in Utah would so stretch the limits of belief that when it was suggested by an investigator in a neighboring state, even the hardened investigators working the Utah cases had a hard time accepting it. Some never did.

When Melissa Smith was found on that rugged hillside in Summit County, none of the officers at the scene had any knowledge of who was lying before them and what a serious problem they had breathing down their necks. But one aspect was noticed by those who inspected the body, a body that had been traumatized by blows to the head, and had numerous bruises and abrasions. Despite all of this, her hair had been washed, her nails painted, her eye makeup reapplied, and the cadaver looked unusually clean. According to Jolene Smith, the makeup on her sister's body did not belong to Melissa; neither did the paint covering her nails. The fact that she had been kept alive by her abductor a number of days before her murder was troubling in and of itself. But this added dimension of applying makeup, washing the hair and body like she was some kind of living (or dead) doll spoke of something far stranger than even your average female murder. This had the feel of some thing vastly different, and far more horrifying. And he wasn't even finished for the month of October.

While his professors at the university were pondering where their new student might be, Bundy was living his ultimate fantasy. Far from the investigation in Washington, he believed authorities there would never be able to connect him with the death and destruction he left behind, and he was now free to start life anew in Utah. And that life was a life of unabated murder. He was a temporarily hidden malignancy which brought death to the young and beautiful females of Utah who were unfortunate enough to meet up with him on a dimly lit street, parking lot, or by the side of a road where they gladly accepted a ride from him. He was on a roll now, and living the life he had dreamed about for so long.

Usually the "evil" you encounter on Halloween will produce little more than a smile on your face. Those things which actually send a chill up the spine are the true evil we try to avoid in real life. On this October 31, there was indeed a good reason to feel a chill for those living in Utah, especially if you were a female between the ages of, say, twelve to thirty, or you cared about someone in that category. For there was an unusual being in their midst, who preyed upon females who found themselves isolated or momentarily alone, even if it was only for a few seconds or minutes. He was a bogeyman who might be anywhere, at any time of the day or night, and only now, with the death of Melissa Smith, were people getting their first real glimpse into what was now living among them. For those parents who made it a priority to stay informed about the events in their community, there was plenty coming across the television and in the newspapers about the murder of this young and pretty girl. Not only did the public feel a deep sympathy for the Smiths, but now an over-all concern began sweeping throughout the community; indeed, a very subtle fear began to take hold of the city. If this terrible thing could befall the family of Chief Louis Smith, many reasoned, it could happen to anybody. And to make matters worse, there were few to no leads in the case. It was Washington State all over again.

Parents Jim and Shirley Aime of Salem, Utah, took the news of the murder of Melissa Smith seriously, and Shirley Aime used the opportunity to once again warn her daughter Laura against the dangers of hitchhiking, especially now that a killer was on the loose. But Laura, a free-spirited and wandering youth of seventeen, could not see the danger and quickly answered: "Oh, Mom, I can take care of myself.""

Nearly six feet tall and weighing 140 pounds, a horsewoman who enjoyed hunting and the outdoors as much as her father, it is understandable why she believed this. In fact, she was perhaps the largest, and certainly the most rugged girl to fall victim to Ted Bundy. But in reality, Laura was no match for what was about to befall her. Having recently quit school, she was living with a friend in American Fork, some thirty miles south of Salt Lake City. Although her life was not heading in the direction her family wished (she seemed to be drifting) and her choice of friends didn't please her parents either, they maintained a good relationship with one another, and like most mothers and fathers in similar situations, they no doubt believed things would eventually work out for their kid. But for the presence of Theodore Bundy in the state, they might have.

On the night of her disappearance, Laura had gone to a party at a house in the suburbs of Orem, less than ten miles north of American Fork. According to witnesses, Laura left the party alone around midnight with the intention of hitchhiking into the city of Lehi, and would naturally have taken U.S. Highway 89 going north. Indeed, authorities would come to believe that Laura disappeared along one of the more desolate and dark portions of this highway. Even so, she would have felt no trepidation at the thought of hitchhiking this road, even at midnight, and the warning of her mother was probably long forgotten. Here is where the trail goes cold. As Laura Ann Aime stepped out into the frigid air that Halloween night, she was wearing blue jeans, a sweater, and a hooded coat resembling, authorities said, a navy pea coat. At first glance, it seems almost inconceivable that Ted Bundy could have been in this unlikely location, at that hour of the morning, and so far south of Salt Lake City. But Bundy was nomadic too, and while Laura was learning to stretch her wings, and was in that process of finding herself, Ted Bundy knew exactly who he was and what he was looking for. As Laura slid into the passenger seat and began the usual banter, it wasn't long before the crowbar came crashing into the rear of her head. Like all the women before her, Laura Aime would soon be immortalized in that heartbreaking litany of those who succumbed to the deviant desires of the serial killer known as Theodore Robert Bundy.

Because Laura kept in regular phone contact with her family, they didn't consider it strange when their initial attempts to locate her were unsuccessful. She had become somewhat nomadic, and troubling to her parents as it was, they were learning to deal with it. She would call, they reasoned. It was just a matter of time. But when she failed to show up for a planned hunting trip with her father, the Aime family knew something was terribly wrong. This isn't something Laura would have missed, and with no calls, the combined emotions of fear, worry, and dread began to settle over them all.

This was the third Utah family to suffer at the hands of Theodore Bundy.

State Street, also known as 89, runs south out of Salt Lake City, and is a main thoroughfare through all of the many small, inter-connecting towns which make up the most populous region in the state. Those not wanting to navigate the innumerable traffic lights which dot this road like signposts, can move considerably faster using 1-15 which, like a newer, more efficient big brother, runs parallel to State and is a main north south artery for the greater Salt Lake area.