The Bundy Murders: A Comprehensive History (22 page)

Carol was shaking so badly she was having trouble getting the words out about what had just happened to her, and even catching her breath. Between sobs, she kept repeating, "I can't believe it, I can't believe it ... a man ... a man ... he was going to kill me."" With their own hearts now racing, Wilbur headed to the Murray police station while Mary comforted the distraught young woman, brushing her disheveled hair away from her eyes. From the time the Walshes picked up a terrified Carol DaRonch until they reached the police station was ten minutes, and the elderly couple would remain with her until she was led by a detective to an office."

Meanwhile, Ted Bundy had exited the freeway at Bountiful and had little trouble finding his way to Viewmont High School (in all likelihood) he would have already driven past the school the day he picked up the advertisement for the play), where he found the parking lot teeming with cars, as well as a small but steady flow of late-comers trying to hurry into the auditorium before the curtain was raised.

Viewmont High School in Bountiful, Utah. Buried deep within a suburban neighborhood, it was an unlikely place for abduction.

The lobby of Viewmont, which separates the main front doors from the auditorium. On the night of November 8,1974, this hallway was teeming with people, one of whom was Theodore Bundy.

Squeezing his VW Bug into a slot in the school's west parking lot, he found it dark, except for the artificial illumination produced by the high school's lighting system. He knew the semi-darkness would work to his advantage. Waiting inside Viewmont were 1,500 people, and Ted Bundy, who had come to Utah to study law, was about to expose himself to many of them in his attempt to abduct one of them. Switching the motor off, he got out of his car, and even though the murderous genie was now half in, half out, he attempted to fully reapply the mask for the hunt that was now in full swing. He wanted to appear as normal as possible. Later, investigators would hear from a young woman about being approached in the parking lot by a strange man, but after a brief exchange of words, the person walked away. It is believed by investigators that this was in fact Bundy, and for whatever reason, he was forced to back away from this encounter and seek a victim inside the auditorium.

Entering the main front doors, Bundy immediately began scanning the crowd that was still milling about the lobby, which runs between the main entrance and the doors leading to the auditorium. These were directly in front of him and open. From this vantage point he could see all the way to the stage, and would have known what a large crowd was already assembled in the theater. But that crowd didn't interest him; at least not yet. His eyes were now riveted on the females moving quickly through the hallway, who were, at least for the moment, alone.

One was twenty-four-year-old Raelynne Shepard, quite striking to look at, with long, dark brown hair parted in the middle. She was the drama teacher for Viewmont High School. Later, she would tell police of the strange but "very good looking" man who came up and asked her to please accompany him out to the parking lot to identify a car.23 She had told him no, for she was far too busy with the preparations for the musical. The man did not seem indignant at being told no, and like Carol DaRonch only a short time earlier, Raelynne Shepard noticed what a good dresser he was. Indeed, both women would tell police the man wore patent leather shoes.

Only a few feet away and through the opened doors leading to the auditorium, the Kent family was taking its seats close to the back row on the west side of the theater. This was the first time that Dean Kent, an oil executive with Triangle Oil, had been out of the house since his heart attack. The play would be therapeutic for him, everyone believed. His seventeen-year-old daughter Debra, a senior at the school, not only accompanied her parents to the play but was the driving force behind their attending the event this evening. The Kent's son, Blair, had been dropped off at a local roller skating rink for the evening and was expecting to be picked up by his family after the musical let out a little after 10:00 P.M. But the play would not begin on time, despite the hurried efforts of those involved, and for the Kent family, it would have fatal repercussions.

Having gotten everything squared away in the dressing room for the time being, Raelynne noticed the good-looking man for the second time as she was on her way into the auditorium to join her husband. He was still standing there, and out of politeness, she asked if he'd found anyone to help him. But instead of responding, he just stared oddly at her as she walked by. Perhaps Bundy was at that moment experiencing what he would years later admit to: a growling voice inside him that would often profanely instruct him as to what he should do to the women he was hunting. Whatever the reason for his silence, he was beginning to give Raelynne Shepard the creeps.

Leaving her seat to help orchestrate the costume changeover just before intermission, she was now confronted by the stranger with an increased boldness in his approach. Rather than speaking to her as she passed him, he stepped forward and touched her arm, which naturally caused her to pause momentarily. Looking at her breasts more than looking into her eyes, he told her how he'd been watching her go "back and forth all night long and I know you have time to come out and identify this car."24 Obviously still in copmode (who was he that Raelynne Shepard or anyone else had to identify a car for him?), and keeping eye-to-breast contact, he admitted how much he liked long hair. Disgusted, Raelynne continued on to the dressing room.

Another view of the Viewmont auditorium's lobby, farther down the hall.

During the intermission, throngs of people filed into the long hallways which ran in front of and to the sides of the auditorium. Amidst the chatter of a hundred conversations, Debbie Kent made her way through the crowded hallway and placed a call to the Rustic Roller Rink to let her younger brother know they'd be running a little late. Being a Friday night, the rink had its fare share of Bountiful's teenage population. But when Debbie asked to speak with Blair the rink refused to page him. Nor could she leave him a message, she was told. Once Debbie was told no, she figured someone needed to go get him at the correct time. Perhaps not wanting to rob her parents of the pleasure of seeing the remainder of the play, Debbie offered to go, and as mothers have a tendency to do, Belva Kent called out, "Be careful and hurry back, Deb.""

It should be mentioned here that at some point during the intermission, Ted Bundy entered the auditorium and was seen pacing back and forth along the back wall, very close to where the Kents were sitting just a few rows down from him. He was also seen not long after this looking quite disheveled. His hair was messed up, part of his dress shirt was pulled out and hanging over his pants and he was breathing heavily. What happened? We shall now see.

One of the main doors leading to the auditorium of Viewmont High.

While Bundy might not have noticed the Kents among all the others sitting with their backs to him, he certainly couldn't have missed Debbie as she rose to leave the theater. And this is when he made his move. However, it is my contention, based on the testimony of those who saw him that evening, that the abduction of Debra Kent went somewhat differently than has been presented in any prior work on the subject. Previous authors have assumed that once Bundy overpowered the unfortunate girl, he simply sped away. I believe this is incorrect, given the outward physical appearance Bundy presented just prior to Debbie Kent leaving the building, and how he looked moments later. The following is a scenario which, I believe, is far more plausible.

As Debbie exited the west doors of the school's auditorium, she was wearing long white pants, a blue long-sleeved sweater with a flower in the middle, a small gold necklace, and her Viewmont High School class ring. She wouldn't have far to walk to reach the car, but it didn't matter, as Theodore Bundy was quickly closing in on her from behind. Because the play was still in progress, it is entirely possible that no one else was either in the parking lot or anywhere nearby. Whatever struggle ensued between the two (and it's likely there was at least a brief one, the duration of which may only have been seconds, but long enough for Debbie to let out a scream), Bundy quickly took control of the situation and rendered her unconscious. After knocking her out by some means, he picked up her body and transported it to his car. This left him winded, his hair askew, and part of his shirt tail hanging out. It was at this point that he re-entered the theater and was seen by the others. However, when Raelynne Shepard pointed out to her husband the odd man who'd been bothering her earlier and Bundy noticed them looking his way, he got up from his seat and left the auditorium for the last time. He didn't want a confrontation with anyone now that he had a warm body in his car.

If this is correct, then two factors had to have come into play in his mind. The first was that he knew he'd been seen by many people that night. If he was seen leaving exactly when Debbie Kent left, this could bring immediate suspicion upon him, especially if anyone there had actually recognized him. Having no doubt whacked her in the same way he attacked his previous victims, he knew she'd be out for some time, and from previous experience, he understood she might never regain consciousness. Placing her in his VW) especially if he'd removed the passenger seat as he often did, allowed him to quickly lay her down and cover her before returning inside. Once he was back inside the theater he would be seen by numerous people in that same section, and the longer he stayed, the better it would look for him. That way he couldn't possibly have had anything to do with the missing Debra Kent, as she left the school before he did. In his mind, the police would not view him as a suspect.

Authorities would later interview a man who saw a Volkswagen Beetle speeding away from the school at the same time Bundy would have spirited away Debbie Kent, so it's safe to assume he unknowingly witnessed her kidnapping. Police would also learn from a person living in an apartment directly across from the school that sometime after 10:00 P.M., one or perhaps two piercing screams from an unseen female could be heard coming from the school's parking lot.