Ted Bundy's site at Taylor Mountain

This is the Taylor Mountain site where serial killer Ted Bundy disposed of the remains of at least four of his victims.

It is located on Washington State Route 18, near the southern entrance to Tiger Mountain. The coordinates are 47.465586, -121.927695.

Bundy left the victims near a winding dirt trail by the entrance to a power line access road.

Discovery

On Saturday, March 1, 1975, two forestry students from Green River Community College were working on a project in the woods when they spotted a human skull among the damp, moss-covered trees. After contacting the police, the pair agreed to return the next day to lead investigators to the location.

When King County Detective Robert Keppel arrived the following afternoon, he noticed that silver fillings in the skull's upper teeth matched the dental records of Brenda Ball. Leaves from the previous autumn found inside the cranium indicated it had lain in situ for months.

Ball was a 22-year-old who vanished from Burien nine months earlier.

Although authorities knew a man calling himself "Ted" was targeting young women in the Seattle area, they did not initially link Ball's case to him because the modus operandi and victim profile did not match. The discovery at Taylor Mountain, however, proved them wrong.

Second discovery

On the second day of the investigation, Keppel tripped over a branch while searching for more of Ball's remains and discovered a second skull.

Authorities identified the victim as Susan Elaine Rancourt, an 18-year-old college student who disappeared from Ellensburg in April 1974. Nearby, police found a green military-style jacket and an old lean-to shelter, suggesting someone had used the area for sleeping. They also recovered a large clump of Rancourt's blonde hair.

The discovery of a second skull led Keppel to realize they were dealing with another of "Ted's" disposal sites. Six months earlier, grouse hunters had uncovered a similar site in a wooded area near Issaquah, 11 miles away.

Search operation

Following these finds, police launched a large-scale operation and enlisted ESAR volunteers to comb the area for remains and evidence.

One volunteer compared the scene to a Gothic film. The site was gloomy, damp, and cold. Wet leaves carpeted the ground, and the dense vegetation reduced visibility to approximately 15 feet, forcing the team to rely on flashlights while searching for remains.

Keppel spoke to reporters at the site during the search:

"We keep finding more and more every day. You go into those woods, and you just don't know what's in there. It's so thick, so overgrown with bushes that you could find anything. A couple of minutes from now. A couple of hours from now. It doesn't matter."

During the operation, the team found the skull of missing woman Roberta Kathleen Parks and a mandible (jawbone) belonging to Lynda Ann Healy.

The recovered skulls showed signs of blunt-force trauma, indicating the killer had struck the victims on the head. Due to the dates of their disappearances, it became clear this was his first burial site.

The discovery at Taylor Mountain forced detectives to reevaluate their theories regarding "Ted." Previously, they believed he focused solely on university campuses in and around Seattle.

Ball's murder indicated the killer was willing to vary his modus operandi and victim selection. He had also ventured beyond his comfort zone by traveling more than 250 miles south of Seattle to abduct Parks in Corvallis.

Condition of the remains

For years, Keppel questioned why only skulls were found at the site.

Ball, who went missing on June 1, 1974, was the last victim left at this location. Consequently, local wildlife had at least 274 days to disturb the remains.

The area is home to black bears, cougars, coyotes, and other predators.

In his 1989 confession to Keppel, Bundy offered an explanation, stating:

"If the bodies aren't there, I think it's because the animals took everything. And where they took them, God only knows. They must have just chewed them up."

He also speculated that animals left the skulls behind because they were difficult to break down:

"And why they leave the skulls the way they do. Maybe it's just because they're so hard to break up."

Confessions and DNA evidence

Bundy said he also left Donna Gail Manson in the area, though he stated he buried her body in a different area further along the power line road.

Manson was Bundy's second murder victim. After killing her, he reverted to the original location near the entrance.

Bundy: "Ok. Well, I think that she was just further up the road."

Keppel: "She's further up the road, and she's buried. How far off the road do you think she's buried?"

Bundy: "Yeah, well, inside. Inside the tree cover."

Following Bundy's confession, two searches of the suspected site yielded no results.

No trace of Manson has ever been found.

Bundy was familiar with the area

Investigators began digging into Bundy's background after he became a suspect in 1975.

While speaking to friends, they learned that he frequently hiked around Taylor Mountain.

A tenet of geographic profiling is that offenders often operate near familiar "anchor points," making his use of the area consistent with this pattern.

Forensic identification

Bundy claimed he disposed of five victims at the Taylor Mountain site, but Keppel remained skeptical. The lack of additional bones led him to believe the rest of the remains had been buried elsewhere.

In 2005, investigators discovered overlooked evidence from the Taylor Mountain case while sorting through storage bins at the King County Medical Examiner's Office. Among the evidence was a container holding bones that the medical examiner at the time had misidentified as belonging to animals. At least 12 were human, including one fibula, and two tibias.

Authorities contacted the families of Bundy's Washington victims for DNA samples. All cooperated except for Healy's family. Her brother, Robert Healy, refused because his family had closed that chapter of their lives.

In 2006, the DNA samples and bones were sent to the University of North Texas for testing.

Results returned more than two years later confirmed that four bones belonged to Ball, two to Parks, and one to Rancourt.

The remaining bones belonged to an unidentified individual believed to be Healy.