Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - How Rhonda Stapley escaped Ted Bundy’s murderous grasp

Episode Date: March 9, 2017

Rhonda Stapley kept her near-death encounter with serial killer Ted Bundy secret for decades, fearing the judgment that could come if she told how he kidnapped and raped her. The Utah college student hitched a ride with someone she thought was a cute law student, but he took a detour and coldly announced he was going to kill her. It was only because she fell into a river and was swept away by a swift current that she escaped. Stapley talks with Nancy Grace about the pain that followed in this “Crime Stories” episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Ted Bundy is a name instantly recognizable and one that brings fear to the minds of many. Rhonda Stapley was a student at the University of Utah back in 1974, but she nearly lost her life at the hands of one of America's most notorious serial killers. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Then this tan Volkswagen came by and the driver rolled down his window and said, where are you going?

I said, I'm going up to the U. He said, me too, hop in. She said she didn't think twice about accepting a ride from the smooth-talking, handsome law student. He leaned in close and I thought he was going to kiss me. He said, you know what? I'm going to kill you. In the weeks that followed, Bundy kidnapped and killed two Utah women. She kept the secret from her husband and later her children until 2012.

If my story can help one or two other people, then it's worth telling. For 37 years, she kept a terrible secret, a horrible secret. The secret is that as a 21-year-old University of Utah co-ed, she was raped. She blamed herself, thought it was all her fault. She should have known better, she thought, than to take a ride from a stranger. She was also afraid if her mother found out, her mom would pull her out of school. She didn't want that. At that time, she was a young Mormon, also a virgin. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before. Only later did she realize her attacker was Ted Bundy. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.

Thank you for being with us. And a special thank you to that then young girl now coming out, breaking her silence as she did in her book. Rhonda Stapley is with us. Rhonda, thank you for being with us. Thank you, Nancy, for inviting me. I want to go back, as I'm sure you've tortured yourself with this story for all these years. What happened that day? Well, that day was in October of 1974, and I was a student at the University of Utah. I was at a downtown city park waiting for a bus to take me back up to campus. Instead of waiting for the bus, which was kind

of late, a tan Volkswagen drove by, and the queue driver offered to drive me up to the campus, and I got in. Instead of driving me to campus, he drove me up one of several canyons that surround Salt Lake Valley, and I was assaulted and nearly murdered. Managed to escape. You are referring to the Volkswagen that we have all heard so much about because that Volkswagen was used in other crimes. When you saw him, what was your impression of Ted Bundy? What about him?

I know he can be very charming. What about him made you think, okay, I'll hop in? Well, first of all, I'd been to the dentist and my mouth was sore. And so I was trying to hurry and get home where I could get some aspirins or something. And so I'm waiting for the bus and the bus isn't coming. My mouth is getting more sore and more sore, and I'm thinking maybe I need to go find a different bus route. And then he drives by.

So the timing was just right that I was wishing I had a ride up to campus. And here comes this nice-looking young man and says, Where are you going? And I told him I'm trying to get to the university. He said, I'm going that same place. You know, hop in. I'll take you. And there was, you know, this was 1974. People are not afraid of helping people, and people are not afraid of allowing people to help them. So I got in, expecting him to take me to the U. Guys, with me is Rhonda Stapley, who is breaking a silence and verbalizing her assault at the hands of Ted Bundy.

She was nearly another one of his murder victims. Now, tell me the name of your book, Rhonda. The book is called I Survived Ted Bundy, the Attack, Escape, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that Saved My Life. That Changed My Life, sorry. I I don't know the name of my book now tell me something Rhonda Stapley you say that he was attractive what about him was attractive I had nice his clean cut didn't have long shaggy hair was longer than LDS missionaries would be wearing but he was clean cut cut and his car was clean and his hair was combed. He had on a nice pullover sweatshirt.

Then he told me that he was a law student and he looked exactly like I would picture a law student on his way to or from a class. Then what happened? Then he turned a direction that I didn't think was the normal route to campus, and I questioned him about that, and he was very, very polite, and he just said, well, I have a little short errand to run up by the zoo. Would you mind? I hope you don't mind if I have this little errand to run.

I didn't mind. I was a 21-year-old single college girl with a single college law student. I thought I was having a good day. But instead of taking me to camp, he drove me up a canyon, and that's where I was assaulted and nearly murdered. Ted Bundy takes Rhonda to an isolated canyon picnic spot. Now according to you Rhonda this good-looking guy who offers you a ride in his VW gives his name as Ted. He gives his real name and announces he meant to kill you. Yeah the first thing we did when we got to the canyon is he pulled off into an isolated picnic area,

and I thought I was going to need to send off a romantic advance. I thought he was going to try to make out, and I wasn't really a make-out kind of a girl. Instead, he leaned in really close, and I thought he was probably going to kiss me, but instead he said very politely and quietly do you know what I'm going to kill you and he started strangling me. As you're sitting in the passenger seat of the VW? Yes and then I went unconscious and he moved me out of the

Volkswagen and the attack continued outside of the Volkswagen. How did you get home? How did you survive, Rhonda? Well, Ted Bundy liked to watch you go in and out of consciousness, and so he would choke me until I was unconscious and then kind of revive me and let me breathe a little bit, and then he would repeat that over and over just so that he could kind of smile and watch me nearly die. The last time that I became conscious after being unconscious, he had moved several feet away and was over by the Volkswagen doing something in the back seat of the car, and

I just jumped and ran. I happened to be right next to, right along the riverbank. There's a swift-moving mountain river right there. And when I jumped, because my pants had been in a wad around my ankles, I tripped and fell into that river that swept me away from him and is essentially what saved my life. Rhonda, I'm just trying to imagine. From there, I just decided to walk home and pretend it never happened.

Oh, my stars I'm just imagining what you went through and falling into the water and that river literally saving your life because you know he would not have let you live so when you got home how far did you have to walk to get home? Well, the campground is about, the picnic area is probably four miles up the canyon. And then from the bottom of the canyon back to the university is probably another 12 miles. So 15 to 16 miles I walked home. It took me all night.

And during that walk, I decided that nobody would ever know what happened to me. I would just suck it up and pretend it didn't happen and go on with my life. When you got home, what happened? I showered and changed my clothes and tried to pretend it never happened. I wore long-sleeved shirts and high-neck collars and wore a baseball hat to kind of shade my eyes. And I just tried to get back into the groove of life. But it kind of changed my life, so I became less involved with my community and my school work. Who were you living with at the time? I was living with some college roommates.

There's a 14-story apartment building on campus, and I was living on the fourth floor of the 14-story apartment building. I had some roommates, but they were out of town happily, and that gave me some solitary time to clean up and rest. I was exhausted after that experience and walking all night. I made some choices. I thought about who should I tell or what should I tell and how can I tell, and I decided that it was just, if I went to the police, the police would ask me for details that were just too personal that I was not able to give them at that time.

I thought if I went to my mother, she would make me drop out of school and go home. I thought that if I told my roommates, they would treat me differently and things would just be awkward and weird. I imagined strangers pointing at me and saying, that's her, that's that girl that was raped. I couldn't go there, so I decided the best thing for me to do was just to suck it up and pretend it didn't happen, which I've since learned is what 80 to 90 percent of women do. Did you ever feel like it was your fault because you got in the car with him?

I didn't feel exactly that it was my fault, but I thought that people would judge me and think it was my fault. I should have known better than to get in that car. I shouldn't have gotten into such a dangerous situation, and that was really stupid. I thought that people would think I was stupid. I know it's hard to believe, but you are not all wrong. It's about blaming the victim. It's all about blaming the victim.

One by one, you hear reports of other Utah women who have gone missing. When you heard those reports, what did you think? Well, at first I was denying that they could be related. I just thought, wow, that's really strange that bad things are happening in our safe little city. But I didn't really connect them that they were farther away from the university and some of the girls were younger. And I didn't really connect it until there had been three other murders and one attempted kidnapping. And when Carol Durant was kidnapped, she gave police a description of him in his car,

and then I knew that my bad guy was everybody's bad guy, and that's when the guilt really hit me. I thought that had I come forward sooner, maybe he would have been arrested or people would have been warned to stay away from nice-looking guys in Volkswagens. You know, you may be right about that. If you had come forth, maybe it would have saved somebody else. But the guilt is not on you. It's on him.

He did this thing. You're the victim. You were not mentally or emotionally able to come forward at that time. Period. Yes, it's true. Maybe if you had come forward, maybe he would have been stopped earlier but maybe he wouldn't have but at that time you were not capable of doing that you've got to believe that you could not do it for whatever reason and I pray to God in heaven you're not

still carrying that around this is not your fault this is his fault, I've had some therapy and I'm feeling better about that now. It's a miracle you even lived, Rhonda. I really believe you were saved by that running water. You didn't need to fall into it, but you did. You were saved by a force much greater than yourself. I will go to my grave believing that you lived that day. So when you finally realized this was the guy, did you see his face on TV? I mean, is that what happened? When he was arrested for Carol's kidnapping, that's when I saw his face, actually. But I had seen her drawings, the police drawings, according to his description, and heard her telling her description of him.

And I kind of knew it before he was arrested, but when he was arrested in August of the following year, that's when I knew for sure and I felt really good that they had caught him and the world was now safe, except that it really wasn't. Now, amazingly, after all of this, you became kind of consumed with Ted Bundy. And when you heard that he had escaped from custody, what happened? Well, I started running. I think I was running trying to get away from my thoughts and my fear,

but it totally tipped my wagon back over, and I was in a panic and depressed and feeling all that guilt and things that he'd been put away for several months, and I was getting my life back. All of a sudden he's escaped from jail, which is impossible. Nobody can do that in this day and age. And yet he had, and I imagine that he could, if he's smart enough to escape from jail,

he's smart enough to find me, and he can kill me, and he can kill other people. I took an overdose of medication, is what I did. And then I felt guilty about that. I was an active LDS girl, and you're not supposed to try to take your life. You're supposed to handle whatever challenges come along. And I had taken this handful of sleeping pills. So I phoned a crisis hotline and I talked to a counselor there who had the line changed and paramedics and people sent to my rescue,

and I didn't want rescuing, so I became angry at that psychologist. I turned all my anger to him. I thought that, you know, I'm a pharmacist by now, and I'm doing things with medication that I shouldn't be doing with them, and it's probably going to ruin my career. I turned all that anger towards that psychologist. You know, Alan, do you remember reading about or hearing about when Bundy escaped? Do you remember?

Yes, actually, he escaped two times. The second time, unfortunately, he made his way all the way down to Florida and killed again. Now, one time he starved himself down and got thinner and thinner and thinner and escaped, I guess it was through a heating shaft. And the other time, as I recall, he jumped through a window at the courthouse. Was that how it went? At the library. He was acting as his own lawyer, and so they would allow him to visit the library. That's right. And he ran away. That's exactly correct. So we're talking about Ted Bundy, one of the most prolific serial killers in history. He has confessed to killing over 30 women across seven states and I imagine that there are others that he did not include in that figure finally apprehended after murders in Florida. When you look back on Ted Bundy Rhonda

what do you recall about him? Well I recall mostly his eyes People talk about Bundy's eyes being pretty and also being black, and they were both of those. They were very nice, bright, shining eyes, and then they could just turn a really creepy black. During his attack on you, was he talking? Did he say anything? Yeah, this went on for quite a while, and he did talk to me. Well, one time he had strangled me unconscious with his hands, and sometimes he would put his hand over my nose and mouth and stop me from breathing, and sometimes he would just sit on me really hard until, you know, crushing me so that there was no room for my lungs to expand and get air. And one time right after he had let me breathe again, he said,

how was that for you? Did you like that? Which way do you like it better? Do you like it better like this? And he put his hand over my mouth and nose again and stopped me from breathing. And then he says, or do you prefer it like this? And he sat on me really hard again. Or do you like it better like this? And he put his hands around my throat and choked me again. It's like he just enjoyed watching me die. You know, just hearing you talk just made chills just run up and down me to think you were that close to being murdered, and by some miracle you were in fact saved.

Do you ever look back on that and realize it was a miracle? Yes, I do realize that was a miracle and I was saved for some reason. I haven't figured out why. But maybe it's this book because I've heard that my book is helping other people who have been victims of violent crimes. What do you mean? Well, I'm getting messages and emails and letters and things from other people who have been victims and also kept it secret because that's what most of the victims tend to do is not tell anybody.

And I'm able to kind of encourage them to tell their story, which might help prevent PTSD from happening. So one of the main risk factors for developing PTSD is holding those emotions and feelings inside and never sharing them with people. Tell me how this whole thing, your attack by Ted Bundy, has changed your life. Well, it changed the kind of mother I was. I have two daughters, and when they were teenager-ish age and starting to want to ride buses and things, I wasn't really willing to let them do that. I would drive them to school, and I would drive them to wherever they needed to go rather than letting them take city buses or even school buses. Or I would be the mom that went to all of the field trips with them.

When they would want to have sleepovers, I encouraged them to have them at our house instead of at someone else's house so I could kind of keep track of them, know where they were, probably a bit more cautious than most parents were. Guys, with me is Rhonda Stapley, a survivor, one of the strongest women I know, and the author of a book explaining why she did not come forward after being kidnapped and raped by Ted Bundy and her incredible story of survival. You know, you said that you were guilty.

You felt guilty you didn't come forward. But by telling your story now, so many other victims hear it. You have no idea the strength that you're giving, not just them, but me. It just encourages me to keep going and to go on and do what the Lord put us here to do, whatever that may be. Because, you know, Rhonda, you could have stopped. You could have given up. You could have given in to that desire to kill yourself, that urge when it all just became too much for you. But you did not.

You survived. And now you are telling a story that will inspire other people to survive. And I'm just proud to know you. I'm glad to speak to you, and I'm so grateful that you are speaking on our podcast today. And I want to thank you, Rhonda, so much. Well, thank you, Nancy. It was a pleasure talking with you. And again, give me the title of your book.

It's an awesome title, by the way. It says it all. It's I Survived Ted Bundy, the attack, escape, and PTSD that changed my life. Now, where could I get your book for people that want to read your full story? Can I get it on Amazon? Yes, it's on Amazon.

It's also at Barnes & Noble, a few other places, but those are the main places where it can be easily gotten. As I always say, you know, Rhonda, I always say this. God has a plan, even when I don't, which is most of the time. Somehow, out of the horror that you lived through, you are changing people's life. You are affecting people. I mean, you're affecting me right now. And you're inspiring me.

And I'm super grateful. Thank you. Rhonda Stapley with us today, survivor and author. And I also want to thank Simply Safe, who sponsors our podcast. And I'm proud that they are our sponsor. Because today, this day, they have let Rhonda Stapley tell her story again to inspire other people, to warn other people, and to empower other people. So Simply Safe, not only protecting homes across our country, but now allowing this story to be told. So thank you, Simply Safe.

Alan, as always, thank you for being with me. To everyone, Crime Stories. Nancy Grace signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.