We were living in Issaquah, outside Seattle, from 1972 to 1974. Women were disappearing. Young women with long brown hair parted in the middle, just like Judy. We had noticed that similarity. There were no bodies. These were not known to be killings, there were just young women disappearing with no explanations.
We spent one afternoon at the beach at the south end of Lake Sammamish and left at dusk in our VW Bus. Just outside the park we came across a guy hitchhiking. It was common to hitchhike then. Guys would hitchhike. Girls would hitchhike. I hitchhiked home from work in Seattle when I worked later than the bus ran. We picked up hitchhikers. We picked this guy up. It was 1974. I was driving and didn’t see all that much of him as he sat in the back seat in the dark, but he was a normal-looking guy about our age. His arm was in a sling. It was a pleasant ride; we all chatted while we drove out of our way to take him home. He directed us all the way to the north end of Lake Sammamish where he was going and by now it was raining. At a dark intersection just off the main road, he said you can let me out here. I said no problem, we didn’t mind, we’d take him right to his door. At that point he got insistent. “No. Just drop me here.” That’s the only thing that seemed out of the ordinary. He asked for a ride home, but then stopped us before we got all the way there and was going to walk the rest of the way in the rain.
It wasn’t until later we heard about the two women who went missing in one day from the beach at Lake Sammamish and the suspect was a good-looking young guy with his arm in a sling. Did we give Ted Bundy a ride?