Going West: True Crime - The North Pole Murders // 159

Episode Date: December 22, 2021

Between 1979 and 1981, a handful of girls and young women disappeared around the jolly small town of North Pole, Alaska, only for their remains to show up later. When their cause of deaths matched up, local State Troopers knew they had a serial killer on their hands. And eventually, they flew out of state to track down the man behind it all. This is the story of Glinda Sodemann, Doris Oehring, Wendy Wilson, Marlene Peters, and Lori King, also known as the North Pole Murders. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/114362966/glinda-sodemann https://robinbarefield76.medium.com/the-north-pole-murders-2df18db4c864 https://www.lelandhale.com/wordpress/murder-alaska-terrible-80s/ https://frankweberauthor.com/blog/its-just-another-manic-bunday https://www.amazon.com/Murder-40-Below-Stories-Alaska/dp/0945397992 https://murderpedia.org/male.B/b/bunday-thomas-richard.htm https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2550860/ https://www.amazon.com/Murder-40-Below-Stories-Alaska/dp/0945397992 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to crime fans? I'm your host Teef. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. How many folks? Thank you so much for tuning in today. Today, so I know obviously the Christmas holiday is coming up. So I was looking for kind of like a holiday case.

And I came across this one. It doesn't take place around Christmas, but it takes place in like the home of Christmas, which is North Pole Alaska. So this case is wild. So thank you for tuning in. We also have a brand new bonus episode up on our Patreon if you guys want to check that out. It's about the wild and very bizarre murders of the Miyazawa family instead of a guy of Japan. So if you guys are interested in that, please go check that out. Such a bizarre case. I can't even, words can't even explain.

It's super, super weird. I mean, this words can't even explain. It's super super weird I mean this was one of the largest cases in Japan ever so it's it's really insane They had like over 13,000 pieces of evidence. It's really weird so go check it out and the 54 other Bonus episodes that we have on there patreon.com slash going west podcast All right guys This is episode 159 of going west, so let's get into it. Between 1979 and 1981, a handful of girls and young women disappeared around the jolly small town of North Polalaska, only for their remains to show up later. When their causes of death matched up, local state troopers knew they had a serial killer

on their hands, and eventually they flew out of state to track down the man behind it all. This is the story of Glindisodaman, Doris O'Ring, Wendy Wilson, Marlene Peters, and Laurie King. Also known as the North Pole and the city of Fairbanks, Alaska. North Pole, Alaska, is a small town, which around 1980 had a population of just over 700 people, whereas today, it hosts about 2,000 people.

And it's just like you're probably imagining. It's basically a Christmas town year round. Like I'm talking Christmas decorations everywhere, candy cane street lights and street names like Missile Toe Lane and Chris Cringle Drive. And not surprisingly, it's known as a safe and quaint place to raise a family. And it's got some gorgeous wilderness nearby, including nice hiking trails and the China Lake recreation area, which includes a boat launch and ski trails. And Fairbanks is just about 14 miles away or 22 kilometers, so it's super close. And Fairbanks is not only the coldest city in the state of Alaska,

like sometimes negative 62 degrees Fahrenheit, but also the third largest city after Anchorage and Juno. But Fairbanks and Juno are basically tied, they both host around 31,000 people today, and about 22,000 people back in 1980. Fairbanks also has a low law enforcement to residence ratio and I can only wonder if this was the case back in the early 1980s when this story took place. So now that you guys have a very basic picture of this area, let's discuss the tragic events that transpired there over 40 years ago. And really quick actually fun fact, this area is considered one of the best spots to see the Northern Lights. And since we're talking about Alaska where there's many natives, it's in Native American stories and quote unquote folklore that the Northern Lights represent torches held by spirits who have died violent deaths. I've always wanted to see the Northern Lights. Someday, hopefully you and I can do that.

We should. I mean, it seems amazing. But very interesting that this is like in Native American history, essentially in folklore, that is what it represents. Yeah, very crazy. So this entire case started with a young woman named Glinda Sodaman. Glinda was born in 1959 and was raised in the North Pole area, and her father was an Alaska State trooper there named Ellis Armstrong, who seemed

absolutely wonderful. By 19 years old, she was freshly married to a military man named Jerry Sodaman, and they had a newborn baby as well. They had a house in North Pole together and they were excited to start their future together as husband and wife and also now parents. But in August of 1979, things took a devastating turn. On August 29, 1979, Glenda Sodeman was seen for the very last time at her North Pole home by her husband. When he returned home from work that day, he noticed that their baby was in their crib, but Glenda was nowhere to be found. By all accounts, Glenda had been incredibly happy with her life and her baby, and wouldn't have any reason to run away or leave them, especially having a state trooper for a dad. So her husband Jerry was just extremely worried about what could have happened to her. He was the one to report her missing, but it was as if she just vanished.

Two months later, in October of 1979, a young boy hunting alone stumbled across her remains in a gravel pit over 10 miles outside of North Pole, and this area was near Moose Creek on the Richardson Highway, so right near the Eilsen Air Force Base. And we did post a screenshot on our socials if you're more of a visual person, but basically she was found just off of main highway by the Air Force Base, just southeast of North Pololaska, so extremely close to where she lived. Glinda was found fully clothed, lying on her back, and she had died from a gunshot to the face

with a 38-calibre pistol. But due to her advanced state of decomposition, investigators weren't able to determine if she had been sexually assaulted. But they were able to find that she had been strangled. Of course, since Glinda was married, officers originally wondered if her husband Jerry was behind her murder. And although he denied any involvement, Jerry Sodom and failed a polygraph test.

And this led Glinda's State Trooper father to suspect him, too. And I know this whole thing, of course, was really hard on Glinda's father, Ellis, just in general, but to also be a state trooper? You know, because he got to work alongside the detectives who were working on her case. So of course, being her dad, he always wanted to know what the latest was and just know everything that was going on. But sadly, the state troopers working on her case they really didn't have any leads at all, or proof that Jerry was behind the murder, so they just had no idea what happened to her.

So let's go back to the crime scene for a moment. The pistol cartridge of the single gunshot that had hit Glenda was found near her body, which led investigators to believe that she had been killed there. Then, about 10 months after Glenda's disappearance in murder, someone else went missing in the area. An 11-year-old girl named Doris O'Ring. A young girl full of life who enjoyed singing and playing the trumpet. On June 11, 1980, Doris's older brother Thomas saw her writing her bicycle on Badger Road in the town of North Pole, but she wasn't alone. He saw her talking to someone in a bluish-colored car that was parked on the side of the road with the front

hood up. The man standing in front of the car alongside Doris was wearing blue clothes, and it appeared to Doris' brother Thomas that this man was likely wearing an Air Force uniform, which wouldn't have been unlikely considering the Air Force base was so close by. Yeah, this is like North Pole as kind of like a military town because of this Air Force base being right there, so a lot of people are in the military there. Yeah, so it's not strange that Thomas would have seen someone in a military uniform. Right, and it also doesn't make this person like stand out from another person because there's so many air force employees there. Right. So as soon as this man saw Thomas, he waived Doris on

God in his car and left. So everything was fine after that until two days later on Friday, June 13, 1980, when Doris disappeared after another bike ride. Her parents were frantic, thinking that she couldn't have run away and just hoping that she was somewhere out of Friendshouse. They called her best friend Lisa's house to see if she was there, but Lisa didn't know where she was. Obviously, there was a lot of concern for her here, because even though it was the summer, this area doesn't get very warm in general, and if the local wildlife doesn't pose their threats to safety on their own, especially for small children, the weather did. So originally, Alaska State troopers believed that she had likely run away, as they often

think for kids under the age of 18. But after questioning friends of hers, learning about this man in the bluish car that she had recently spoken to, and as days continue to pass, they feared that Doris had been abducted, especially after her bike was found by mile nine and a half on Badger Road, hidden in the bushes just 20 feet off the road. And this is the same road that Doris was seen riding on when she spoke to the man in the car two days before her disappearance. Badger Road today is a highway with one lane on each side, but we can't confirm that it was the same back then, but so just so you guys know, and running along both lanes of traffic are wooded areas.

And one side, there's a river past the trees. So there's it's a wooded area for sure. So by Tuesday, June 17th, troopers banded together alongside over 60 volunteers to search the area surrounding her bike, but nothing was uncovered. Two witnesses came forward, saying that they saw a car speed away from the scene shortly before Doris' bike had been found. So once they heard about the potential abduction in that area, they put the pieces together, and they thought that it could definitely be connected. They also noted that the man in the car seemed to be struggling with something in the seat next to him.

Neither witness was able to give any descriptors, so they both voluntarily went under hypnosis, and this brought forward some details. They described the car as a late model vehicle, so a newer car to 1980, in the shade of either blue or green. They said that the driver was a white male with combed back, light brown hair, and he was either wearing sunglasses or eye glasses. And they hadn't heard about Doris' brother Thomas' s sighting from two days before Doris

went missing, yet they matched very well. Still, they had no idea who this man was, or what happened to Doris. So please continue to search for leads, ask questions, and post-doors' missing poster all over town. And these witnesses worked with a composite artist to get a sketch of the suspect. And in the composite, the thin man is wearing like aviator-style sunglasses and sporting a mustache. And this sketch was given to various news media sources for distribution so that everybody

knew to be on the lookout for the sky. But I mean, there was nothing really special about his appearance, especially with his hair. I mean, that was totally like a common military style haircut. And he just has a mustache. He's just like a white thin dude like nothing super crazy here. But still, I mean, they wanted to try.

So police continued to search by ground and air for this young girl, but they couldn't find anything that led to aware about. Knowing that Doris' brother Thomas believed the man that he saw was wearing an Air Force uniform, detectives headed over to the Isleson Air Force Base, and asked security for a list of cars registered to drive on the base. But security handed them a list of 550 names and license plates, so it was going to be quite the search, but they got to it.

Of course, North Pole Police wondered if Doris' case was connected to Glendas, and they worried that more girls would start to go missing. And about seven months later, another one did. On January 31, 1981, a 20-year-old indigenous woman named Marlene Peters, who was originally from the very small city of Tannenau, Alaska, hosting just over 300 people back when she was born in 1960, was reported missing by her family.

She had last been seen in downtown Fairbanks, which again is just about 12 miles outside of North Pole, trying to hitch a ride. Her father was sick with cancer and anchorage, which is about a six hour drive away non-stop. And she was trying to get to him and to be with her family. But when she didn't show up and her parents couldn't reach her, they called Fairbanks police regarding her potential disappearance. Now although it was the dead of winter and there was seemingly someone out there harming local girls, the state trooper that was investigating Marlene's missing persons report felt that

it was probably just a regular routine case that maybe she had just run away because there was no evidence that foul play had occurred, but her family was extremely concerned, especially thinking about something having happened to her while she was trying to hitch a ride to them. And police considered this as well, and it just made it all harder. Because if something had happened to Marlene while she was trying to hitchhike that far of a distance, there would be over 350 miles or 580 kilometers of ground to cover, most of which was out of their jurisdiction. But bad things just kept happening

in this area. Because just five weeks after Marlene went missing, so in early March of 1981, a 16-year-old girl named Wendy Wilson was walking with her friend when she started heading to her boyfriend's house in Moose Creek. And for reference, Moose Creek is a small, census, designated place, one of those. That's pretty much smack dab between the town of North Pole and the Isles in Air Force Base, so very close to where these other crimes are occurring. Wendy's friend decided not to join her, and they walked in separate directions in the

freezing winter temperatures. And before her friend was at a site, she looked back to see Wendy talking to someone in either a light blue or a white truck, before getting inside, since she had likely been hitchhiking according to her friend. When Wendy was reported missing, police really began to worry that they potentially had a serial killer on their hands, and that someone with very bad intentions was out there just driving around picking up local young women and girls. In three days after Wendy took this ride, her body was discovered about 32 miles or 50 kilometers outside of the city of Fairbanks near Johnson Road and by the Trans-Alaska Pipeline

in the Islesen Air Force Base Area. And her cause of death was the very same as Glinda Sodomens, a shot to the face after being strangled. But instead of being shot with a 38-calibre pistol like Glinda, the killer had used a shotgun on Wendy. So with this information, it really seemed like these young women and girls were being murdered by the same person. But police couldn't help but be a bit confused at the different vehicles involved.

You know, as we know, there's a bluish or greenish car that was seen in Doris' case, but then a light blue or white truck in Wendy's case. But as far as Glinda and Marlene's cases went, no cars were seen at all. And speaking of Marlene, about nine weeks after Wendy's body was found, so in May of 1981, Marlene's was found just two miles away from Wendy's, also near Johnson Road. As we know, Marlene was lasting hitchhiking and trying to get to Anchorch to see her father who was sick with cancer, and there was no information as to where she could have gone.

But finding her body confirmed that she had been met with foul play while looking for a ride, because she had been strangled just like Glinda and Wendy, and she was shot in the face with a 16-gauge shotgun just like Wendy as well. So at this point, four young women and girls have been met with a monster. 19-year-old Glinda, 11-year-old Doris, 16-year-old Wendy, and 20-year-old Marlene. Glinda, Wendy, and Marlene have all been found, and were murdered in the same way, strangled and then shot in the face, which just shot in the face at Soka, damn brutal. It just seems like overkill at that point. Yeah, and especially with a shotgun, I mean, Jesus.

But Doris, at this point, is still considered a missing person. So police wondered if she was potentially being held hostage somewhere, and if she was still potentially alive. In May of 1981, so the same month when Marlene's body was found, police were still working hard at trying to find a man that fit the description that they have, or that drove one or both of the cars that had been described thus far. And that's when another young woman disappeared. Just two days after Marlene Peters' body was identified, an 18-year-old woman named

Lori King, born in California on February 12, 1963, went missing after hitchhiking in the city of Fairbanks, just like Wendy had months prior. So clearly, the person behind this is like stalking their prey while in the car, like just looking for vulnerable girls and young women who are out on the roads by themselves. Which just makes me wonder then if Glinda was outside when she disappeared because she was last seen inside her home by her husband, but that doesn't mean that she was inside her home

when she went missing. True, I mean, she could have gone for a walk or any number of things. So at this point, it was clear to police and the entire area that a serial killer was out there on the loose and people were just terrified. The murders started getting referred to as the Fairbanks serial murders and then later the North Pole murders.

Both of which are fitting since the murders either took place in North Pole or Fairbanks. Since Marlene and Wendy's bodies were found near the Johnson Road area, police got together with the military as well as numerous local volunteers to search that area and hopes of finding answers that would lead them to Doris O'Ring and Laurie King. This story was all over the media and newspaper coverage in the area, and police urged people to report any suspicious clues or even strange people in their own neighborhoods. Also, since people still continue to hitchhike, police also encourage drivers

to write down the license plate number of any car that they saw picking up a hitchhiker and then call the state troopers and give that information to them. Which is very smart, because if a hitchhiker is picked up and someone writes down the plate number and then someone turns up missing, boom, they could know who picked them up and who this serial killer is. So good thing can for sure. So lots of tips were coming in, but there weren't any actual persons of interest in this case, except for Glinda's husband, Jerry Sodomann. But although they continue to question him, there was never anything concrete that pointed to him

as the killer of any of these women. Then, months later on September 2, 1981, four soldiers who were outhunting for rabbits in a wooded area came across the body of 19-year-old Lori King, just off Johnson Road, as well as by an old Nike missile site. And just like the other victims, Lori had been strangled and shot in the face with a shotgun. So it's clear that this killer has some dumping grounds. I mean, this Johnson Road area is where victims are being found. Johnson Road and the Air Force Base, which is where Johnson Road is.

So yeah, all in this same area. So Lori's body in particular was on a federal reservation, so the FBI quickly became involved in our case and got to work trying to help find this serial killer. And as we were just talking about, I mean, many of the victim's bodies were found in the general area of the Isle of the Air Force Base. And this base also potentially comes into play with what Doris's brother Thomas said about the man he saw potentially wearing an Air Force uniform. So although police were already working

on narrowing down the list of men on the base who drove certain vehicles, they decided to do a sort of stakeout by the base to see if they could witness the man they were looking for right there in the flesh. And also, I mean, we just have to remember, this is 1981. So the technology where you could just like look in a database at the list of vehicles and names and owners, etc, it didn't exist.

And everything had to be done manually. Or at least it didn't exist in the capacity where it was accessible for everybody. So this just meant that it took much more time and work. And they're trying to do this while also following up on an extremely overwhelming number of leads and tips and investigating those while also going out there searching. So it was a lot. Also, they weren't putting much focus on this list necessarily at this time because they had no idea if the killer was even military.

Right, I mean, they had like maybe a thought that the killer could be in the military but they weren't going to rely on that. And especially once they did the stakeout, they're like, we don't see this car leaving or going into the air force base. So maybe the guy isn't military and we're totally looking in the wrong place.

They really had to use their time wisely and they were just trying to figure out how to best do that. At this point, police believed that one man was behind all of these cases, so they felt that he drove two vehicles to throw people off, a bluish car, and then a white truck. But during their long-winded stakeout, they didn't come across either vehicle like Daphne just mentioned. So speaking of technology, one of the state troopers on this case, whose name is Sam Bernard, actually flew to Atlanta, Georgia to study how police caught the man behind the Atlanta Child Murders that occurred between 1979 and 1981, so the same time period

that the North Pole murders occurred. The Atlanta Child murders probably sound pretty familiar to you guys, and Wayne Williams the killer is also known as the Atlanta Boogie Man and the Atlanta Monster. So since he was caught and this was such a huge serial murder investigation, Trooper Sam Bernard wanted to learn all that he could about catching a serial killer and bring this knowledge back to Alaska to solve their own case. And this helped a lot because now the local Alaska police had a new method of collecting leads that was computerized.

So much faster than doing it manually. The city of Anchorage actually built a computer specifically for this case, and a few employees were hired to input all the data. And with that, a massive Alaska task force was set up, so various teams and agencies could kind of band together to solve these murders. FBI profilers were a part of this as well, and they developed a better description of who they believe this killer was. A man in regular civilian, so someone not in the armed forces, who lived by himself and

had trouble keeping a job. And although everyone wanted to really narrow down who this person was, they also didn't want to base their whole search off of this description, because they wanted to keep an open mind in case this description was not accurate. And at this time, I think it was around 80% of the FBI profiler's descriptions in cases were accurate and correct. So pretty good. That's a pretty high percentage, yeah.

Yeah, absolutely, but obviously there is that 20% where, you know, maybe this isn't right. So even though Jerry Sodomin was a military man, they still weren't giving up the fact that he could be behind all of this. So he was given yet another polygraph test, and this wasn't quite a fail, but it was inconclusive, but they quickly found out why. Alaska troopers had a polygraph specialist

come into question Jerry again, but after just 10 minutes with Jerry, the expert was able to determine that Jerry had an irregular heartbeat, a heart murmur to be specific, meaning that it would be impossible for him to pass a polygraph test, and they would always either be a fail or be inconclusive. And since there's really no evidence to prove that he could be behind Glinda's murder or anyone else's, and he was denying it over and over, police had to drop him as a potential person of interest. And I understand why they were questioning him

because he was the husband of the first victim, but it's also like, I don't know, I've never heard of a case where a man murders his wife and then goes on to murder a bunch of other people and becomes a serial killer. Maybe that's a case somewhere, but I've never heard it. It doesn't mean it's not possible, but it's funny how they kept coming back to Jerry even though they had absolutely nothing on him. Well yeah, I mean, Glinda seems to be the first victim here.

So of course, you always look to who is closest to the victim and that's her husband Jerry. So I understand why they did this, but also yeah, I agree with you. Like, typically serial killers at least the ones that we've talked about on this show. Don't kill their wife and then go out and kill random women. Right. So as the months pressed on, no one else was falling victim to the supposed serial killer, which is awesome.

So the task force pondered why this would be. As they continued to try and figure out who was behind it all, they believed less and less that the FBI profiler's description was accurate regarding the killer being a civilian, because everything was pointing to them being in the military in some way, from the suspected man's haircut to his potential uniform, and the fact that so many of the victim's bodies had been found in the general vicinity or direct location of the Isles and Air Force Base. So then they started focusing on the men who worked at this base, because if the killer

left the area as they felt he may have due to the lack of murders, they would be able to track this via the base's records. They also looked back at the list of the 550 registered cars from the base's security, and then they started to narrow down which of these people transferred to a different base after September of 1981, when the 5th victim's body was found, which again was Laurie King. The state troopers also essentially put out a bulletin to any law enforcement agency in the world that was near an air force base to be on the lookout for a murder that fits the same description as the ones that they'd been seeing. Right, because they're thinking if this guy transferred to a different base,

and he commits murders there, it's like if a murder, if somebody's strangled and shot in the face, let us know. Exactly, and if any of these agencies saw one come up to notify them, and to give you guys an idea of how many agencies this would have been, so in the 1950s, around 30 years before these murders occurred, there were about 162 active air force bases in the world, and in 2020, there was just 59. So we're not exactly sure how many there were in 1980, but somewhere between 162 and 59. So a lot, but also not that many. So the months still continue to pass

and the task force hadn't been able to figure out who the killer could be. But over a year after Lori King's body was found, in November of 1982, Alaska troopers received a possible tip from a law enforcement agency in North Texas. In the small city of Henrietta, Texas, a young woman was murdered in a very similar way as the North Pole murder victims.

So the same Alaska State trooper who had gone to Atlanta, Georgia the year prior, who again was Sam Bernard, headed down to Texas to meet with the sheriff, only to find that they already knew who the killer was apparently. They felt certain that it was a man who knew a guy who knew the victim, and that this guy ran a meth lab and had blown himself up. So that meant that the supposed killer was dead, but Sam Bernard was not buying this, and he felt that the killer was still alive and looking to murder more young women. And Sam wasn't dismissing that this murder could have potentially been committed by the same man.

He actually thought it was super possible. So he and the other troopers worked to get a list of men that transferred from the Isles and Air Force Base to the base nearest to where the woman's body was found, the shepherd Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas. And almost immediately, one name stuck out to the troopers. Thomas Bunde. I know Bunde just feels wrong, like we all know Bunde. So, but it's spelled like Sunday, but with a B.

The first time I saw it, I was like, that's gotta be Bundy. I just wanna say that within one of the troopers with an accent said Bundy, but he said it really fast like Bundy, you know? And then everybody else said Bundy. So I think it's Bundy. It looks like Bundy. The problem is people are saying it differently,

but it looks like it's Bundy. It's spelled just like Sunday. Yeah, exactly. It's gotta Bundae. The problem is people are saying it differently, but it looks like it's Bundae. It's spelled just like Sunday. Yeah, exactly. It's got to be Bundae. It's got to be Bundae, but it feels so wrong to say Bundae, but that's what it is. Thomas Bundae was a technical sergeant who had transferred from the Isles in Basin, Alaska

to the Shemperd Basin, Texas shortly after Laurie King's body was found in September of 1981, and not only this, but Thomas Bundy owned both a blue car and a white truck. He also matched the description of the man they had been looking for, and he had numerous complaints from women he worked with regarding inappropriate sexual comments. Despite this, Thomas didn't fit the FBI's profile of the killer. He was born on September 28, 1948, making him 34 years old at this point in the story. In this part matched fine, but Thomas was also married, and he was the father of two children, a son and a daughter.

The FBI felt confident that the man behind the murders was single and couldn't hold a job, although Thomas could. Let's learn a little bit more about Thomas before we move on. He was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and he had one older brother named Ralph, who was 15 years older than him. And Thomas had a pretty tough upbringing because his father, who was a World War II veteran, was very emotionally and physically violent towards Thomas and his mother due to his mental disorders.

And Thomas had such bad feelings towards his dad for this that when he died in 1963 when Thomas was just 14 years old, Thomas actually refused to go to his funeral and he ran away for almost a week. Which I mean makes sense. So Thomas was known to go to his funeral and he ran away for almost a week. Which I mean makes sense. So Thomas was known to be a good student and fairly outgoing, but he wasn't very popular though he did have a nice group of friends who enjoyed this company. So after his father died, things seemed to turn around for the better for him.

And he graduated from high school in Tennessee a few years later and then married his high school sweetheart right after. A year after graduating, so in 1967, Thomas joined the U.S. Air Force and immediately began working as a technical sergeant. But things weren't all great here for him. While he was serving in Southeast Asia, his wife had an affair and actually gave birth to this other man's son. So of course, Thomas was heartbroken by this, but he wanted to stay with her, and eventually together, they had a daughter. But the affairs kept occurring, so after Thomas transferred to the Isles and Bays outside

of North Polalaska in the mid-1970s, just a few years before the murders began. Thomas started seeing a psychotherapist due to his emotional state. And while living there, he resided in Moose Creek, which, by the way, is that small, like, census-designated place that Wendy went missing from after getting picked up by a stranger in a white truck. And his name was on this list of over 500 names and cars given to the state troopers by the Isles and Security. Exactly. And the reason that Thomas Bunday's name stood out to investigators was because he was on this list. And that helped lead them to creating a list of three potential suspects

around this very same time. and he was one of them. So the timing worked out well on that, and even though he didn't fit the FBI's profile of the killer, they knew that they needed to question him. State trooper Sam Bernard headed over to Thomas' house and asked him some questions, which Thomas was very willing to answer. But when asked to take a polygraph test, Thomas declined. And this was the first person to date that they had questioned who refused to take one.

So this was pretty suspicious to Sam. But he had no choice but to respect Thomas's wishes and head back home to Alaska. But they weren't letting Thomas Bundy off their minds. So one of their first steps was to talk to Doris' brother, Tom again, and see if he could pick Thomas out in a photo lineup. They showed him a selection of various men's photographs, including Thomas Bunday's, and asked him if any of them looked like the man that he saw talking

to his sister before she disappeared. Tom immediately selected the photo of Thomas Bunday as the man that he saw with the blue car, feeling very confident that he was the right guy. And on top of this, Thomas also shown various blue vehicles, and he selected the photo of Thomas Bunday's blue car, confirming a match. Troopers felt very confident at this point that Thomas Bunday really was their guy because everything seemed to be lining up perfectly. So two Alaska State Troopers headed down to Texas to question him again on March 7, 1983.

Almost three years since the first victim, Glendizotamin was murdered. They asked Thomas to come with them to a motel room where they could sit down and question him, and he agreed. They talked for many hours every day for a few days in a row, and surprisingly, Thomas' bundles seemed like he was enjoying talking to them. To make Thomas more comfortable, they barely discussed the case at all, and they talked about pretty much everything but the case. And Thomas apparently never asked why he was there

or what they wanted, and he would even show up early to these questionings. Which is really weird. Like, you would think an innocent person shows up and is like, hey, what do you want from me? Why am I here? I didn't do anything. But he literally didn't deny anything. He didn't ask.

He was just sitting there talking to a couple of state troopers from a different state. Yeah, it kind of seems like he's like a little bit lonely because he's like showing up early to these situations like. He just needs somebody to talk to, I guess. So about a week later, Thomas Bundae showed up for yet another questioning and he kept avoiding eye contact. Instead, he handed them a piece of paper and then he left. And the paper read, I've really enjoyed talking to you guys these past few days. I kind of like you guys. But you say I did these things and I didn't. Rich.

And by the way, Thomas' middle name is Richard, so sometimes he went by Rich. Formally we're calling him Thomas, but I think most people called him Rich, but we're just calling him Thomas. So, I mean, this was really bizarre to the troopers that the entire time they spoke, he really didn't deny anything or claim innocence, they just talked. And then suddenly, he hands him this paper saying he didn't do anything after speaking

numerous times, like it was all really odd. But they felt they had more than enough to get a search warrant for Thomas Bunday's house, and they got one. When they searched his Texas home and cars alongside Thomas, by the way, like he was watching the whole thing, they found Shotgun ammunition and a newspaper page regarding a few of the murders. So they immediately asked him why on earth he had this in his house and he laughed and said that it was a souvenir But then he stopped himself and laughed again and said that he didn't mean it like that But then he grabbed that in Fairbanks and it was his way of remembering Fairbanks So as if like, oh, I'm moving out of this place. Let me grab a newspaper about murderers that happened here to remember it

Like what I grabbed this specific newspaper of these murders that occurred in the town that I'm being investigated for as a souvenir. Super odd. But unfortunately they weren't able to find anything concrete in his home that proved that he was behind the murders. And it didn't help that he had moved out of Alaska. So it was potentially a stretch anyway. Yeah, because even if he had previously had things that would have connected him, it would have been at his house in Alaska, but now he's in Texas. Right. They were able to collect some various samples

from his vehicle, but testing would take some time. So this didn't really help them right in that moment. But just a few hours after the search was done, Bunde called Trooper Jim McCann and said that he couldn't find his car keys. So he thought that maybe Jim accidentally had taken them during the search. And this is actually what happened. So Jim McCann apologized and said that he'd bring them over right away. But strangely, Bunde said not to bother, and that he planned to get together with them the following morning at 9 a.m. to talk, so he'd just get his keys then.

The whole conversation kind of confused Jim, and he worried that Bundae was planning something sinister. So while still on the phone, Jim told Bundae that the murders had gone on long enough, and he didn't believe that there were only five victims, but that there were potentially more. And Bunde agreed that yes, there were other victims, almost as if he was confessing. And by the way, the troopers did question him about the murder of the young woman in Henrietta, Texas, but he denied it. And they believed that he denied it so that he could avoid the death penalty and also avoid being arrested for a crime in the state that he was currently in, but they did believe that he committed this murder as well.

So the next morning, Bunde only implicated himself more. When he showed up to the motel for another questioning, Jim McCann and the other troopers started telling him that 11-year-old Doris was very missed by her family, and they just wanted to know where she was so that they could give her a proper burial and have some closure. And while they were saying this, Bundae actually started to cry, and then explained that he was behind the murders, killing over five young women and girls, and even giving details about the attacks.

He then said that he strangled Doris to death before dumping her body in a remote area of the Isles and Air Force Base where he worked, and that he would go back to Alaska with them and show them where her remains were. He also said that he didn't know why he did it, but that it was likely because of the troubles that he had with his wife, and the fact that he never got to prove himself to his abusive father before he died. But there was a big issue here, because the troopers couldn't arrest him right then and there, being very much out of their jurisdiction there in Texas.

So even though he was agreeing to go back with them, there wasn't a direct flight back to Fairbanks, and they would have had to have a short layover in Seattle. So the troopers worried that, you know, maybe they would land in Seattle and Bundy would change his mind, and then he would be off. Right, but luckily something awesome happened. And Alaska's governor gave troopers the option to take Bundy on a private plane directly back to Alaska. So they scheduled this flight for the following morning, which was March 15, 1983, and Bundae

didn't show up. The weather there in which it all falls that March day mirrored how the troopers were feeling about this situation. It was very dark and stormy and eerie outside. They worried that he was out there murdering more women and that he had escaped. And even though they had someone stationed outside of his house all night, somehow, Bunde was able to escape on his motorcycle unseen by the officer. Hours later at 2pm, the troopers got a devastating phone call to their motel. Thomas Richard Bunday was dead. While writing his motorcycle that day, he dropped off his taxes at an H&R block office in town

and then drove 40 miles north as if to escape before deciding to turn around. And while driving over 100 miles an hour, he suddenly crossed over the double yellow lines on the road and drove his motorcycle into an oncoming truck, killing himself. And I mean, this wasn't like an accidental swerve because the driver of the truck said that it appeared very intentional and that Bunde had more than enough time to move away before being hit. And so much time that the truck driver themselves even tried to swerve out of the way, but they couldn't do this safely, so they ended up hitting him, because

I mean, he was in their lane. So his death was ruled a suicide, and sadly, he never showed them where Doris' remains were. Which is so angering, because they just had him, but they couldn't arrest him because they were in Texas, but they had him, like he confessed, there was evidence, they had him right there, they were gonna go to Alaska the next day, and obviously he had just been thinking about it and was like, I know I'm gonna go to prison

for the rest of my life, so then he just decides to do this. And what's annoying too is that he could have at least left a note and said, you know, this is exactly where Doris is, this is exactly what I did to everybody, but he didn't do that. Yep, he's a complete fucking coward. Yes he is. So of course, the troopers kept working on the case just to fully prove that Thomas Richard Bunde was behind all the murders.

And thanks to some hair samples found in Bunde's car, troopers were able to match them with 16-year-old Wendy Wilson. And then, shotgun shells found in his house were matched to a few of the other murders. So by this time, without a doubt, they knew Bunda was behind it all. And then three years later, and six years after Doris O'Ring went missing, in August of 1986, her skull was found at the Isleson Air Force Base in a very remote area, just like Bunda had told troopers. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Friday we'll have an

all new case for you guys to dive into. I was so mad at doing this research and like when I was getting to the part where you know he's confessing it's like yes finally like some closure this is all gonna happen and then it's like are yes, finally, like some closure. This is all gonna happen. And then it's like, are you kidding me? So so frustrating. I guess the one thing that we can lean on is the fact that he did confess. Yes, and we end there is closure in the case. Yeah, and there's links to him so we know for a fact that Thomas Bunde is a huge piece of shit. Exactly. So thank you guys so much for listening. Thank you for tuning in.

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