Back in the early 90s I had occasion to be stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington state. The area was quite beautiful, and I was excited to be so close to Seattle, Washington. For years, I had heard about how wonderful the area was, and I was a huge fan of the Seattle Mariners at the time. The move was an exciting one for me.
In the back of my mind, it occurred to me that serial killer Ted Bundy had grown up and ultimately began his gruesome reign of terror in nearby Tacoma, Washington. I have always been a true crime buff, and so I was quite familiar with the facts of the case. What I did not know was the effects that this madman had on the area and how it lingered on in spite of his capture.
When I arrived in Ft. Lewis, I went about the business of learning about the area and finding all the hotspots. I eventually met and began dating a student at the University of Washington. Eventually, our conversation turned to the murders. When the name Ted Bundy is mentioned in Tacoma, you get this blank stare most of the time. Occasionally you will get an angry look. The man left a scar on the area that will likely never go away. Each succeeding generation of people seem to get the story from someone, and it keeps the story alive. I know that in the summer of 1992 it was alive and well, and I witnessed it first hand. What happened to me is something that will forever haunt my dreams, and make me question the existance of ghosts.
One night after an argument with my girlfriend, I went outside and decided to take a walk in the Tacoma night air. The night was brisk, but warm, and the street lights had just turned on. My girlfriend lived on a street very much like the ones that Bundy had cruised looking for victims back in the 70s. As a matter of fact, the very street I was walking on might have well been one he rode down. I was going over the argument in my head and just trying to cool off, and my mind was not on anything remotely related to Ted Bundy.
As I turned a corner, I looked up and a young lady was walking down the sidewalk that looked very familiar. I was certain that I had seen her before, but I could not put my finger on it. When she walked past, I nodded silently and gave her a look that said I thought I might know her. She looked at me and smiled broadly. She was rather beautiful, and I must admit that I was a bit intrigued. Still, I walked on without much thought about it. I walked up the street a little more and then saw some approaching headlights.
As the car approached, I noticed that it was a VW bug. My mind immediately went to Bundy because he drove a VW on most of his killing sessions. As the bug rode by, a man that looked incredibly like Ted Bundy was driving the car. He had the same hair, and the same piercing eyes. Oddly, the man never looked in my direction. He instead was looking straight ahead, and my gaze automatically followed his. As I did so, I realized that he was looking at the girl that had just passed me.
I got a terrible cold chill as my eyes fell on the girl slowly walking up the street alone, and the Bug coming ever closer. I thought it over and realized that my imagination was surely getting the better of me. Then the bug stopped, and the man motioned for the girl to come over. They talked for a moment, and then she climbed into the bug. Something told me to scream out to her, and attempt to stop her, but I did not. The car door closed and the bug began to take off.
As the VW drove away, the car simply vanished. Not into the night, or into the darkness. It literally disappeared before my eyes. I began to feel very dizzy, and quickly went back to my girlfriend’s apartment. Needless to say I was very shook up. That night, I picked up a copy of “The Stranger Beside Me” by Anne Rule. It is a very good book about the life and crimes of Ted Bundy. There, in the center of the book, was pictures of both killer and victims. As I flipped through the pages, there was a picture of the girl I had just seen earlier that night. The girl walking down the street!
Ironically, and after some studies, I found that the girl had been kidnapped from her Tacoma apartment by Bundy only a block away from where I saw those ghosts. I will not reveal the name of the girl out of respect for the family, but it was one of Bundy’s earliest victims. After that day, I believed in ghosts one hundred percent. Ted Bundy does still live on in Tacoma, if only in our fears.
