The Bundy Murders: A Comprehensive History by Kevin M. Sullivan Read Free Book Online Page A

Susan would have needed had she gone on an overnight visit was still in place: purse, identification, wallet, checkbook, cash, and dental floss (some thing the family knew, given her extensive dental work, would not have been left behind). She had even left her glasses and contact lenses behind before the meeting; perhaps a small but contributing factor to her disappearance. Walking back to her dorm at night meant traversing a portion of the campus where the lighting varied. Add this lack of light to her inability to see clearly, and you have a combination of circumstances that might make escape far less likely.

    Although the investigation into her disappearance would begin immediately, two months would pass before anyone would hear of the Kathleen D'Olivo incident. But D'Olivo wasn't the only young woman to have a significant encounter with the odd man with a sling on his arm. Jane Curtis, also a student at CWSC, came upon him as she left the Bouillon Library on a Sunday evening. She isn't certain which Sunday exactly; it could have been the April 14 (three days prior to the Rancourt abduction) or perhaps the following Sunday. In any event, he was seeking a victim.
    Jane Curtis was a twenty-one-year old student at the time of her brush with death. On this particular night she'd been working in the library stacking books for about two hours. She left Bouillon through the main front doors between 8:30 and 9:00 P.M. As she would later reveal to Detective Robert Keppel: "After I finished work, I walked out the main entrance of the library, and was just minding my own business ... and ... there was this guy coming along and he had this huge stack of books, like eight or nine books (all hardbound), and he had a cast on his left arm ... and all of a sudden he just kinda drops them, right in the direction I was walking ... so I just more or less offered assistance." The cast, she told detectives, wasn't hard plaster, but more like gauze wrapped around the arm. He also wore the metal splint, poorly applied, on his right hand. Unlike his appearance in the D'Olivo encounter, he wore a long, "grubby" coat and a woolen hat "with a brim that went up."19
    Jane assumed he was going to the parking lot used by most students heading for the library, which would be just across the street, running directly behind the building and less than a block away. But he didn't stop at that lot. He continued on towards the railroad trestle and apparently a little further still. As they walked along the sidewalk he spoke of being injured skiing at Crystal Mountain where, he said, he ran into a tree. That was odd, she thought, for she too was a skier familiar with Crystal Mountain and wondered how he'd managed to do such a thing. It was clear she had her doubts about his story. "He didn't look like the skier-type to me," she added.19
    The entire time they were walking he kept to her left. Once, she remembered, "He ... kind of turned his head and looked at me kind of funny like. He looked at me strangely. His eyes seemed weird. 1121 Indeed, she couldn't comprehend the depth of depravity and wickedness which lived just behind those eyes. Already in a high state of internal arousal, he must have been figuratively drooling at the thought of what he had in store for her. A true predatory monster savoring the meal to come!

    As they approached his VW Beetle he began complaining of pain, something he had managed to avoid during their walk. Coming up to the passenger side of the car, Jane, carrying most of the books (he carried two), heard him say: "Open it up," and then attempted to hand her the keys. She refused. Believing now she was as good as captured, he then unlocked the door and blurted out: "Get in!" "What?" she said, surprised at the order. Realizing how it must have sounded, he quickly tried to smooth it over: "Oh ... could you get in and start the car for me?" But no, Jane wouldn't do it, so he opened it himself. And as he did, she became troubled by