Bundy With Arresting Officer Gene Flatt 

Archived news article details the hunt for Ted. 

The escape of accused murderer Theodore Robert Bundy produced concern and anger in the Rocky Mountain resort town ( Of Aspen ) but people still had a sense of humor …

 “I'm not Theodore Bundy“ read the sign of a hitchhiker standing beside a highway ...

  The FBI joined the search for accused killer Theodore Robert Bundy after Salt Lake County authorities charged the 30-year-old former law student with being an escapee from Utah State Prison. Bundy leapt to freedom from a courthouse window in Aspen Colo during a recess in a pre-trial hearing. He was to stand trial in Aspen later that year for the 1975 slaying of Caryn Campbell a Michigan nurse. Salt Lake County Deputy Sheriff Bill Gefinger signed a complaint charging Bundy with "escaping from official custody of Utah State Prison" He was serving a 1-15 year term for kidnapping a teenage girl when he was extradited to Colorado.  The Salt Lake County Attorney's Office also asked federal magistrate Daniel Alsup to declare Bundy a “ fugitive from custody “ which allowed the FBI to enter the search. FBI Agent Charles Shepherd said he was preparing an all-points bulletin for Bundy, a Tacoma Wash native who was convicted in 1976 of kidnapping Carol DaRonch from a Murray Utah shopping mall...

   Source:” The Ogden Standard-Examiner -10 June 1977.

In January 1977 Bundy came to Aspen Colorado , extradited from Utah to be charged with the murder of Caryn Campbell on Jan 12, 1975.

She was abducted and killed from the Wildwood Inn .

     “Campbell was the fiancée of Dr. Raymond Gadowski, who had been attending a convention at the Wildwood in Snowmass,” the Times reported.

“They returned to the lodge from dinner at around 6 p.m. Jan. 12, 1975. Campbell left the Wildwood lobby to go to their second-floor room for a magazine and was never seen again.”

     She was found Feb. 17, 1975, on Owl Creek Road, just west of Sinclair Divide.

One b/w image of two sheriff deputies during the search for Ted Bundy, June 1977. They are standing near a cabin, (possibly the cabin on Conundrum Creek that Bundy broke into)

Source: Aspen Historical Society, Aspen Times Collection

After making good his escape following a leap to freedom from the Law Library window, Ted trekked through the wilderness with no map, trying to find his way to Crested Butte. He remained in an unoccupied cabin owned by the Kaiser Family at Conundrum Creek, staying just one night where he stole some food,  a flashlight and a rifle. Thursday morning Ted headed off to hopefully make the last leg of his journey onwards to Crested Butte … with the helicopters circling overhead Ted had a brainstorm … why not follow ‘The Elks‘ … Ted climbed for seven hours following what he thought was the Elk Tracks which would take him onwards to Crested Butte, only Ted had become disoriented and rather was going in the opposite direction … going completely the wrong way, Ted hurried down the East Maroon Creek Trail straight toward Aspen and stumbled upon the voices of a family happily camping... Ted scrambled off the trail to hunker down in the underbrush until they were safely out of ear-shot …..

“ ... My theory was to follow these elk paths, because, for some unknown reason, I figured they’d go up and over and on and down to Crested Butte. I reasoned that they wouldn’t just go over to this other valley, which was right next door. I don’t know. I don’t know a thing about a goddamn elk. I mean I was trying to think like an elk! “