On a sun-drenched Sunday, July 14, 1974, Janice Ann Ott, a 23-year-old female probation caseworker, decided to enjoy the weather at the bustling Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah, Washington. She rode her yellow ten-speed bicycle to the park, found a spot on the beach, and laid out her towel to sunbathe among the estimated 40,000 people who had flocked to the lake that day, many for an annual picnic hosted by Rainier Beer.
Living in what she believed to be the safer, smaller community of Issaquah after a car break-in in Seattle, she left a simple, cheerful note for her roommate: "I'll be at Lake Sammamish sunin' myself. See ya."
As the afternoon wore on, a handsome and personable young man with his arm in a sling approached several young women in the park. He introduced himself as "Ted" and asked for help loading his sailboat onto his tan Volkswagen Beetle. While several women declined or became suspicious and fled upon seeing no boat, Janice was seen talking with him. Witnesses overheard her expressing an interest in sailing and seemingly agreeing to help him in exchange for a ride in his boat. She was last seen leaving the beach with the man who called himself Ted. Four hours later, another young woman, 19-year-old Denise Naslund, would also vanish from the same park after an encounter with the same man.
The disappearances of two women in broad daylight from a crowded park sparked a massive investigation and spread fear throughout the community. Police received numerous tips and witness descriptions of the polite young man named Ted and his distinctive car. On September 6, 1974, two grouse hunters stumbled upon the skeletal remains of both Janice Ott and Denise Naslund near a service road just a few miles east of the park. The cause of death could not be determined from the remains, but the cases were ruled homicides.
The suspect, "Ted," was eventually identified as Theodore Robert Bundy, a clean-cut law student who would become one of America's most infamous serial killers. Bundy was arrested in 1975 and ultimately linked to a terrifying string of abductions and murders of young women across several states. After escaping custody twice and committing further murders in Florida, he was recaptured. Just before his execution in Florida on January 24, 1989, Bundy confessed to the murders of Janice Ott and Denise Naslund. He provided chilling details, stating he had taken Janice to a secluded spot where he assaulted her. He then returned to the park, abducted Denise, and in one version of his confession, forced one woman to watch as he murdered the other.
