1989 “Final Confession” Interview Bundy did with WA State: Was this rehearsed?

Background:   In 1989, shortly before his execution, Ted Bundy met with Robert Keppel in what would be his final confession to the events that had occurred some years prior in Washington State. Although much of this confession has been published in other forms and through various media outlets, “In Defense of Denial” book is the original version of that confession as provided by an FOIA request made in June of 2015. It was released to me in transcribed form by the King County Sheriff Office. This transcript as it was originally transcribed in full by the WA State King County Sheriff Office raises questions about whether this “interview” was rehearsed.  On the surface, the transcript does not appear to contain explosive revelations but when you look at all that was hidden from the public, including the earlier involvement of the FBI than publicly admitted to [they state 1977 on their website but the records behind the scene show they were working with Bundy – the regional FBI – in 1973 and that someone from the FBI was present in Utah before Bundy was transferred to Colorado] –  this “final” confession becomes very disturbing from a violation of public trust and accountability standpoint.  There is also the concerning “shut downs” of the tape during not only this final interview but also the interview that was done with Bundy in 1984 related to the Green River killings.  There are several places where the tape recorder is purposefully shut down to discuss something with Bundy where they did not want it recorded.  This is not normal police tactics and should raise serious questions about ethics violations if nothing else.

Facts from the original records that were hidden and never put forward to the public:

Skeletal remains were found at Taylor Mountain… These remains were logged in and noted by several members of the search and record teams on site at the time the kill site of Taylor Mountain was discovered. I say “kill site” because it wasn’t a “dumping ground”.  It was an active crime scene with evidence of the killer, skeletons of multiple young girls including one girl who was not known at the time [i.e. in addition to the four found there], clothing, weapons, evidence of drugging or plying with alcohol and evidence of animal activity and shallow graves.  Issaquah also was an active crime scene with nearly the same types and amounts of evidence.  They were very similar.

Interesting that all of the evidence of Issaquah and Taylor Mountain was “lost” [Issaquah – they blamed the ME]  or denied its existence [Taylor Mountain].  WA State had Bundy identified by October of 1974 not because of a computer program but due to witness statements and DMV reports [they ran a broad check on all men who drove VWs named Ted after Sammamish].

In the 1989 interview, Keppel never asks a single question related to the evidence present at Taylor Mountain other than to discuss at great length Ott’s bike when a bicycle shift cable had been found at Issaquah and Ott and Naslund remains were known.  Not once does he ask Bundy about the unidentified girls found [1-2 at Issaquah in addition to Ott and Naslund and at least 1 at Taylor Mountain in addition to the four known there].  Not specifically.  He also tells Bundy that they never found skeletal remains, when they did– and he also never mentions all of the clothing found.

Keppel never asks about how long either site had been developed by Bundy.   To me, that would be more important than the bicycle.  He mentions that they found other victims but never presses him.  He allows Bundy to state things that Keppel knows are lies such as the decapitation.  There is no proof of it in either of Bundy’s sites in WA.  Keppel tells Bundy five femurs were found but that is not true:  More than five femurs were found:  skeletal remains were found of multiple girls and were logged in and noted in several reports at both sites.  Keppel never asks Bundy how long he kept his victims there alive or whether he had used the abandoned home nearby.  [There was one at Issaquah and at Taylor Mountain]. The abandoned home nearby was critical when you consider the number of girls missing and the proximity of the abandoned homes to the kill sites. He never tells Bundy that Keppel himself logged in the skeletal remains found on Taylor Mountain and sent them forward to Superior Court so Keppel knew all along that critical evidence was found there – and a lot of it.

In addition, in all those years, between the time Bundy kill sites in WA State were found and the time of the final interview, no one in WA State ever worked these cases for the evidence that was found in Issaquah and Taylor Mountain.  They had critical evidence: clothing, remains, evidence of the killer, weapons evidence, graves, jewelry and yet nothing was ever done.  There was never any evidence at all in either site of decapitation but rather animal activity scattering remains.  Yet Keppel played the scenario of decapitation of Hawkins immediately upon Bundy’s death and let it become public fact and the FBI issued a report in 1992 saying “we’ll never know”. We’ll never know because they concealed and lied about the evidence.

Keppel does ask Bundy about a porno book – he spends some time on it.  Why?  I mean at this point with all the missing girls who cares?  Keppel also mentions to Bundy in the 1984 interview that there are “powerful” people in the porn industry who wouldn’t want Bundy stating that Bundy was influenced by porn.   Why was Keppel so intent on mentioning the porn industry?  I mean why bring it up at all in repeated discussions when there are girls missing and their cases aren’t solved?  In all the public discussions Keppel has made over the years he has emphatically denied that Taylor Mountain had anything of value except skulls and jaws and a few hair samples but that is a public lie and does not reflect the original records that WA State took care to hide from the public.  Why was that done?  Who were they protecting – Bundy’s association to the political parties and justice departments or Bundy?  They never charged him.

After Bundy’s execution, a group of law enforcement met behind the scenes .  In this meeting the subject of a sex book came up as it had been part of a witness statement.  Keppel states that the witness statement about a sex book was “coerced” by Utah.  But in that original transcript of the witness statement which I have, there was no coercion that I could see on the part of the Utah detectives and this seems to be supported by the fact that in the original detective street notes of that era  it is noted that two sex books were taken into custody by King County police referenced to be belongings of Bundy. One of these books was described in detail.  These were never noted as put into evidence and do not appear to be in the remaining evidence lists. But Keppel’s questions to Bundy in the 1989 interview confirm he knew of it and enough so that he asked about it.

The entire “revelation” about Hawkins in this final interview is also very questionable when the totality of evidence is reviewed that had been hidden.  There was NO evidence at all of decapitation at either Issaquah or Taylor Mountain.  Skeletal remains were found on site at Taylor Mountain and at Issaquah and the remains on site at Taylor Mountain were confirmed in 2005 to be the missing girls with one skeletal set of bones never identified.  Hawkins has never been confirmed as found at either location and she remains missing.

Keppel knew there were skeletal remains so why did he accept the scenario of Hawkins decapitation and why did he rush to the media with it the minute Bundy was executed?  For one thing, it seems highly insensitive to the family and other victims. For another, he knew that scenario did not line up with the evidence that was actually found at the sites.  Why didn’t he question it instead of putting it out there as “fact”?  While Keppel claims Issaquah is where Bundy told him Hawkins was killed, her records that were hidden have her at Taylor Mountain.  At Taylor Mountain there were skeletal remains found that included tibias/fibulas which are leg bones.  Leg xrays were being requisitioned by several detectives during the original search at Taylor Mountain and a leg bone with a question mark is noted on the map near the stream.  These legs bones were sent without any paperwork to the ME in March of 1984 in a box of elk bones.  Why?  Who did this? Hawkins had a deformity of those bones.  The detectives in WA State knew that.

Then there is the whole scenario of Bundy and the clothing.  Bundy talks of “throwing” items out of the window in a panic while he drove or pulling over and throwing them down embankments but is that really what happened given the evidence found on site at Taylor Mountain and at Issaquah? This scenario has been put forward by Keppel and others for years until its nearly become “fact.”  But is it really?  No one saw Bundy do that and nothing at Issaquah or Taylor Mountain suggests that Bundy threw anything away.  Clothing and weapons and items and a lean to were all found on site at these locations. Clothing was found at Taylor Mountain that matched the description of what at least two of the girls found there were wearing.  There were also items like a lean-to, thermos, chemical bottles and food wrappers that suggest the killer spent time there with the girls.

The whole scenario of throwing clothing and items out of the window seems very unlikely. The whole scenario that Bundy stopped multiple times along the road shoulder to toss things over is also way out there.   The implication is that these items tossed by Bundy were then somehow in the side areas of the road or off embankments and not immediately visible. How would one do that while driving? How would one stop continually on a road shoulder at any time of day or night and not risk discovery for odd behavior something Bundy stealthily refused to do.

For one thing, it would take tremendous effort to toss items of clothing, weapons and a briefcase and possibly crutches out of a window [how do you toss crutches?] and for another in the United States the driver is on or near the center line of the road – that is quite a distance from the side of the road and tossing items out of the driver’s side would wind up in the middle of the street.   You’d have to drive to the other side of the road into oncoming traffic which would call attention to you….he was left handed so he’d have to use his primary hand for throwing and if he drove to the side of the road on the correct side he’d have to slow way down and try to toss things out the passenger window of the volkswagen and hope they didn’t drop on the road.  Or he’d have to stop multiple times to avoid all items being found in one location like a dumping ground of evidence. It just doesn’t make sense. Especially if he was in a panic.  Bundy was a planner, cool, calm and collected when killing and that has been in his profile for years.  This reactionary type of thing just isn’t borne out by his behavior in Utah or in WA.

No, the evidence [clothing] was there on site.  It is noted, logged in, and recovered on site originally by many professionals.  Keppel claims in “Riverman” he was carrying empty boxes out to make it look like they’d found things when they hadn’t.  Really?  According to the actual original documents many people found evidence.  There are pages and pages of reports.  Civil Air Patrol, police from other jurisdictions were there.  Keppel’s statement about not finding anything on Taylor Mountain and carrying out empty boxes is false.

Most important, some of these clothing items at both locations by description matched the missing girls and also were sent forward to Superior Court as evidence.  If they weren’t important why send them forward?   The girls were missing and you have girls clothing and even some bras and earrings?  That’s evidence.  There was a lot of it at both Issaquah and Taylor Mountain and those sites were very well developed by the amount of girls found at each one and the tremendous amount of evidence at each location.  If you count the unknown girls who were thrown away by WA State, you have four  to five individuals at each location.  How do you “lose” so much evidence?  How do you “forget” so much evidence was collected?  How do you throw away young girls like that so callously?  Together these sites contained over 300 pieces of evidence noted by ESAR teams and assigned numbers on evidence lists of the original search days.   These sites contained the bodies of the girls known and unknown.  Those unknown girls deserve their justice.  The living victim who survived multiple kidnappings [myself] also deserves justice.

Nothing about the final interview in 1989 with Ted Bundy lines up to scrutiny including the fact that there was no decapitation at Taylor Mountain or at Issaquah but rather evidence of animal activity, possible graves,  and skeletal remains. Hawkins was never found – her body never located –  so there is absolutely no proof of decapitation so why did this scenario ever see the light of day and why wasn’t it questioned and why wasn’t more attention paid to the actual evidence in these sites and the tremendous size and scope of these sites. You had multiple bodies at both locations. Bundy has been described as a necrophiliac but how does dismembering bodies and moving heads and parts around figure in to that scenario?   If Bundy returned to check on the sites it was because he wanted to see the girls, not pieces of them, not heads or skeletons, but the girls…just like Ridgeway had done. To me, granted a lay person, that would be what necrophilia is – not running around looking for body parts and heads in multiple locations.  There is nothing to support decapitation at all – there is nothing to support that Taylor Mountain was anything other than a major crime scene.  There is a detective report that states the ME who examined the evidence immediately when it was removed from the site stated that the “heads were with the bodies”.  It was only later in August of 1975 that Keppel notes in his own detective notes that he called another ME and asked what would be needed for a find of decapitation to be made.  This was about two weeks before Bundy was picked up in Utah.   Then, once that retrofit note was entered, Bundy was followed and picked up in Utah.  Yet, they had him identified in October of 1974.  They never worked his cases in WA State although they had plenty of evidence to charge him.

The AG Office still only shows one or two cars at the Taylor Mountain site. In reality there were many people there every day of the searches and there was air support and Civil Air patrol at the location.  I have the original documents of all of these reports. These are stamped “Original” and in the police format of that day and I saved all paper trail associated to them – they were all sealed away from the public and per internal memo supposed to be held there for 75 years.  Meanwhile this 1989 “confession” played out as “fact” for decades.

Overall in that time period the records show that there are multiple points in the prison interviews with Bundy where the tape is “stopped down” for discussions off tape.  They mention stopping the tape down on tape and then it is resumed.  In today’s world, I don’t believe that this tactic would be viewed favorably as it raises questions about what was discussed when the tape was shut down.

It makes no sense. Very little of the public scenario in 1989 lines up to the evidence.  Very little of the public narrative to date of Bundy’s killings in WA State add up to the actual records [original] of that day.  Yet this is what has been put forward nearly immediately after his execution to the press….where it has been repeated as “fact” for decades.  It raises questions about why Bundy makes the comment in this interview….”we talked”….as well as references to his killing starting sooner than 1974. He states “1972” before he re-phrases it to 1974.  Those parts of the final interview were edited out and are now contained in the full interview in “In Defense of Denial.”