In October 1974, Rhonda Stapley, a young pharmacy student at the University of Utah, was waiting for the bus to campus when a Volkswagen Beetle pulled up. The driver was a handsome and charming young man who offered her a ride. Rhonda accepted, believing there was nothing unusual about the situation.
Once she got inside the car, however, she noticed that the passenger door handle was broken. She thought it was simply an oversight and did not immediately see it as a warning sign.
The driver was not taking the common route to campus. When Rhonda noticed the different direction, he told her that he wanted to take a little detour to the zoo. Rhonda thought the unexpected ride might even be the beginning of a college romance, so she agreed to continue.
Instead, the situation became terrifying.
A few minutes later, the driver stopped the car in the middle of the woods. He looked directly at Rhonda and told her that he was going to kill her.
The man was Ted Bundy, the serial killer who would later become one of the most infamous criminals in American history. Rhonda was now alone with him in an isolated area, far from the route she had expected to take.
Bundy began choking her until she fell unconscious. He then sexually abused Rhonda and beat her for three hours. The attack continued with extreme violence, leaving her fighting to survive against someone who had already told her exactly what he intended to do.
Eventually, Bundy became distracted and returned to the car. That moment gave Rhonda the opportunity she needed.
She tried to run.
But her escape did not go as planned. While fleeing, Rhonda fell into a raging stream of water.
The situation was still extremely dangerous, but the water became part of her escape. Despite everything that had happened to her, she survived the attack.
Rhonda’s survival did not mean that the experience simply disappeared. She spent years dealing with post traumatic stress disorder after the attack.
Her story shows how quickly an ordinary situation can turn into something terrifying. She had been waiting for a bus when a stranger offered her a ride. He appeared handsome and charming, and at first there seemed to be no obvious reason to believe she was in danger.
There were warning signs, however. The passenger door handle was broken, the driver was taking a different route, and he suggested going somewhere else instead of taking her directly to campus.
Those details became much more significant once Rhonda realized who she was actually riding with.
According to the FBI, serial killers can display traits including a lack of remorse or guilt, a need for control, and predatory behavior. But identifying someone dangerous is not always easy, especially when that person initially appears friendly or trustworthy.
Rhonda Stapley’s experience became one of the stories of a survivor who escaped Ted Bundy. She had accepted a ride from a stranger and ended up isolated in the woods, where she was attacked for hours.
But when an opportunity finally appeared, she ran.
And despite the violence she had endured, Rhonda survived.
