In September 1974, Ted Bundy moved into room #2 at 565 1st Ave N. in Salt Lake City. He had been accepted to the University of Utah Law School and was pursuing a career as a lawyer. He had previously abducted and murdered at least 8 women in Washington and Oregon, though some investigators think there were more victims.
Almost immediately after moving into the boarding house, he began murdering women and teenage girls in the Salt Lake City area. The confirmed victims of Bundy up to this point had been college-aged women, but while living here he shifted his focus to include high-school and middle-school aged girls. In total during his stay at this house, he murdered at least 10 girls and women ranging in age from 12 to 26. He later admitted to bathing the bodies of some of his victims and applying makeup to them post-mortem. Bundy would also photograph the bodies of his victims, and he hid these photographs in the utility room of the boarding house.
On November 8, 1974, Bundy attempted to abduct Carol DaRonch from a mall. He impersonated a police officer and told her someone was trying to steal her car and she needed to come out to the mall parking lot with him. After attempting to handcuff her, she escaped and got to safety, making a police report with a full description of Bundy and his vehicle.
In August of 1975, Bundy was pulled over and arrested for cruising around a neighborhood in early morning hours then fleeing at high speeds after spotting the police officer. When the police officer searched his vehicle, he found many suspicious items including a ski mask, handcuffs, trashbags, and rope. After his arrest, a detective recognized his car from the DaRonch report and his name from a list of suspects for the Washington and Oregon murders.
In October, police asked Carol DaRonch to identify his abductor in a lineup, and she successfully identified Ted Bundy. He was formally charged with attempted kidnapping in the DaRonch case and murder in the case of Caryn Campbell, whom he abducted from the Wildwood Inn in January 1975. Ted Bundy was let out on bail paid by his parents. He then left Utah and lived with his Seattle area girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, until the trial in Utah began.