By November of 1974, Ted Bundy had killed at least a dozen women in the Pacific Northwest and Utah and was growing more confident that he would be able to continue his crimes without being caught. Just after 6pm on November 8, eighteen-year-old Carol DaRonch parked her car in the southwest lot of Fashion Place mall to meet up with her cousins. The mall had opened just 2 years prior and was a popular hangout for young people in the town of Murray.

While Carol was looking at books through the window of Walden's Bookstore, she was approached by Bundy who claimed to be a police officer. Bundy told Carol that her car had been tampered with, and that he needed her to accompany him to her car to confirm, and Carol agreed. When they got to her car, everything looked normal but Bundy insisted that they needed to go to the police substation across the street from the mall to make a formal report. The pair then walked north across 6100 S and went to the building located at 139 6100 S, which was actually a laundromat but Bundy insisted was a police substation. He knocked on the door of the laundromat, but after receiving no response he told Carol they would have to go to the main police station several miles away.

Carol became suspicious when Bundy asked her to get into his VW Beetle instead of having a police car, but Bundy was able to flash a badge and convince her that he was indeed a police officer, so she entered the car and sat in the passenger seat. The pair drove north on Fashion Blvd for a short time before Bundy pulled over in front of McMillan Elementary School. It was then that he pulled out a pair of handcuffs and attempted to put them on Carol, but Carol fought back and Bundy accidentally placed both handcuffs on the same hand. Because of this mistake, Carol was able to jump out of the car and into the car of a couple that was driving by and saw that she was in trouble. They drove her immediately to the actual police statement where she gave a statement and was able to provide a description of Bundy and his vehicle. Bundy drove North towards Bountiful, UT, where later that evening he would abduct and kill seventeen-year-old Debra Jean Kent.

On August 16, 1975, Bundy was arrested in Utah after driving erratically. DaRonch was able to identify him as her attacker in a lineup several months after his arrest. Due to her positive ID and other compounding factors, the DA was able to charge Bundy with aggravated kidnapping and attempted criminal assault of Carol DaRonch. The trial began in February 1976 and Bundy was found guilty and sentenced to to one-to-15 years in the Utah State Prison. While he was incarcerated, he was charged with murders of several other women in Colorado and transferred there to face trial.