Katie Ring
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
One of the young men who lived with her peeked inside and saw Karen bundled up in bed, covered by a pile of blankets.
He figured she was sleeping and left her alone.
But five hours later, so this would be around 7.30 p.m., she was still there.
At that point, someone went back in to check on Karen.
When she didn't answer, they pulled back her blankets and realized what had happened to her.
Miraculously, Karen was still alive, although she'd fallen into a coma.
She was rushed to the hospital as news spread around campus that a young woman had been attacked.
The police launched an investigation, but there wasn't much to go on.
Ted hadn't left anything behind at the scene.
And these were the days before DNA profiling.
Although Ted certainly hadn't planned for Karen to survive the attack, his horrific plan had otherwise gone just as he'd wanted.
Even after Karen woke up from her coma 10 days later, she wasn't able to identify him.
So after less than a month, he decided it was time to strike again.
After midnight on February 1st, 1974, Ted went back to the same neighborhood where he'd nearly killed Karen Sparks.
He ended up only a couple minutes away from her house, outside another basement apartment.
This one belonged to 21-year-old Linda Ann Healy, a senior at Washington University.
Linda had gone out with some friends to a popular college bar called Dante's.
After some drinks and dancing, she called it an early night.
She watched TV with her roommate, then chatted with her boyfriend on the phone for about an hour before falling asleep.
Linda had no idea that the whole time Ted Bundy had been stalking her and he was desperate for another victim.