Katie Ring
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
And in early 1974, Ted took it to another level.
On the night of January 4th, 1974, Ted drove to the University District in Seattle, a neighborhood that was popular with students.
Ted liked to peep on young women there, and that night, he decided to prey on 18-year-old Karen Sparks, a freshman political science major who lived in the basement of a house she shared with some friends.
Karen was pretty, brunette, and had her hair parted down the middle.
From far away, she looked a lot like Ted's ex-girlfriend, Diane Edwards.
Whether that was Ted's reason for choosing Karen, he was dangerously fixated on her.
He followed Karen home, blending in with all of the other students who were out that night.
He hung back as Karen went inside and got ready for bed, then watched her sleep through a small window.
It wasn't long before he was overwhelmed by rage and desire.
He slipped through an unlocked door on the opposite side of the house, then made his way to Karen's room.
It would have only taken one creaky floorboard or someone heading to the kitchen for a late night snack to stop him, but the place was quiet as Ted crept down to the basement, completely undetected.
For a moment, Ted just watched Karen sleep.
He'd pushed his obsession with peeping to its limit, but it wasn't enough for him.
All of the sudden, he ripped off a piece of her bed frame and swung it into Karen's skull.
Before she could even take a look at her attacker, Karen went limp, blood seeping into her mattress.
Ted sexually assaulted her, beat her even more, then left her for dead.
Once he finished, he sneaked back out as quietly as he'd entered.
for hours none of karen's housemates realized something was wrong it wasn't until 2 30 the following afternoon that someone noticed that she hadn't come out of her room 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.