Lynda Ann Healy's Home

Author: Jewls Krueger

In the early morning hours of February 1, 1974, University of Washington senior Lynda Ann Healy was abducted from the basement bedroom of the shared University District home she rented with four other women. She was 21 years old. Her disappearance and the discovery of her remains a year later on Taylor Mountain marked the first confirmed killing in one of the most notorious American serial killing sprees of the 20th century.

Lynda Ann Healy

Lynda Ann Healy - Public Domain

Lynda Ann Healy was born in 1952 and grew up in a suburb of Seattle. She was one of three children in a close-knit family. By 1974, the 21 year old was a senior at the University of Washington majoring in psychology, with plans to work with mentally handicapped children after graduation. She was a talented musician and lived with four female roommates in a green two story home at 5517 12th Avenue NE, in the University District of Seattle.

Lynda woke up early each weekday to broadcast the morning weather and ski conditions for Western Ski Promotions, which distributed her reports to 20 radio stations across Washington and Oregon. Each 60 second segment concluded with her signature signoff, "This has been Lynda with your Cascade ski report."

Both Lynda Healy and Ted Bundy were UW psychology majors at the same time in the early 1970s, and Bundy lived just a few blocks away from her home, but there is no evidence that the two of them ever met.

The Attack on Karen Sparks

Just under a month before Lynda's abduction, in the early morning hours of January 4, 1974, Ted Bundy had broken into the University District basement apartment of 18 year old UW student Karen Sparks. He beat her unconscious with a metal rod removed from her bed frame, then used the rod to sexually assault her. Sparks lay in a pool of blood for roughly 18 to 20 hours before her roommates discovered her. She spent 10 days in a coma and survived with severe permanent brain damage, roughly 50 percent hearing loss, and 40 percent vision loss. Sparks is widely believed to be Bundy's first confirmed attack victim, and her surviving the attack is what allowed detectives to eventually link her attacker with Bundy.

Ted Bundy Abducts Lynda Ann Healy

Ted Bundy's Mugshot - Public Domain

On the night of January 31st 1974, Ted Bundy broke into the home of Lynda Ann Healy, a University of Washington senior, and abducted her from her room. It is widely believed that Ted Bundy spotted Lynda and her roommates at the nearby Dante's Tavern (which has since burned down), and likely followed them back to their home. Lynda returned home from Dante's early to call her boyfriend, and stopped in a suitemate's room around 11:30 p.m. to chat before heading down to her own basement bedroom just before midnight.

Bundy later confessed to journalist Stephen Michaud that he had stalked Lynda earlier that day at a Safeway store and had checked the back door of her home while she was out, finding it unlocked. He waited until all of the women had fallen asleep before entering the home, hitting Lynda over the head to subdue her and carrying her outside to his car. He would later tell investigators that he had removed the front passenger seat of his Volkswagen Beetle to more easily transport unconscious victims. Bundy drove Lynda east to Taylor Mountain, roughly 20 miles east of Seattle.

Around 5am on February 1st, one of Lynda's roommates awoke to Lynda's alarm going off. Lynda usually woke up early because she would give the morning ski report on the college radio station, but she had never let her alarm go off before. Her roommate checked on her room, turned off the alarm but didn't see Lynda. She figured Lynda had likely left early and forgotten to turn the alarm off before she left, so she didn't think much of it.

Throughout the day Lynda's family and roommates became more concerned as she missed work and other scheduled meetings, including a dinner Lynda had planned to make for her parents that evening. Her roommates investigated their house to find that the back door, which the women kept locked at all times, was unlocked. Blood was found on Lynda's pillow, her pink satin pillowcase was missing, and her bed had been neatly made, which Lynda never did. Her nightgown, covered in blood around the neck, was found neatly folded in her closet. The only clothes missing from her closet were the ones she had worn to Dante's the night before, along with a pair of blue jeans, a white blouse, and a pair of boots. They called the police during the evening hours of February 1, but by then it was too late.

Lynda Ann Healy's Skull

Although we may never know the details of what exactly happened to Lynda Ann Healy, her skull was found by forestry students from Green River Community College on Taylor Mountain on March 3, 1975, along with the skulls of three other Ted Bundy victims: Susan Rancourt, Roberta Kathleen Parks, and Brenda Ball. Lynda's skull showed evidence of massive blunt force trauma. Bundy would later privately confess to investigators that he had decapitated approximately 12 of his victims with a hacksaw, and that he had kept the four heads later found on Taylor Mountain in his apartment for a period of time before disposing of them.

Lynda Ann Healy was Ted Bundy's first confirmed murder. Although he had violently attacked another University of Washington student, Karen Sparks, less than a month earlier, she had miraculously survived the brutal attack.

The House Today

The University District home where Linda Ann Healy was abducted is located on 12th Ave NE, between N 56th St and N 55th St. The light colored home has 3 side-by-side second-story windows by which you can identify it. Ted Bundy entered the home via an unlocked side door on the north side of the home.

This home is private property, do not trespass or enter on to the property without the express consent of the homeowner. Please do not disturb the current residents of the home.