Bettmann/Getty ; ABC News Elizabeth Kloepferdidn't want to believe her longtime boyfriend,Ted Bundy, might be aserial killer. She had a rollercoaster romance with Bundy for more than five years, but at the same time, he was stalking,kidnapping, raping, torturing and killing numerousgirls and women. Kloepfer said that the side she saw of him was one of a man who charmed her and doted on her young daughter. "Never in my dreams did I think he was out stalking women and then eventually ... abducting and murdering women," she toldABC Newsin 2020. "There was no context for that." Bundy admitted tomurdering at least 30 women across seven states, but only 20 of his victims have been identified. Eventually, Kloepfer (who has also gone by "Liz Kendall") began to suspect Bundy may be involved with the disappearances and slayings in several cases and even warned the police about him, but it wasn't until he confessed to herfrom jailthat she truly believed he was a killer. Bundy wasconvicted of three murdersin Florida in 1978 and was sentenced to death for each. Hedied in the electric chairon Jan. 24, 1989, at age 42. Years later, Kloepfer's memoir was adapted for the screen in Netflix'sExtremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile—Zac Efronplayed Bundy and Kloepfer was portrayed byLily Collins. Here is everything to know about Ted Bundy's ex-girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, and where she is now. Harry N. Abrams/Amazon Bundy was in a long-term relationship with Kloepfer from 1969 to 1974. Kloepfer was born in Ogden, Utah, in 1945 and was the youngest of four children. Her father was a doctor and mother was a nurse until they had children, at which point she became a homemaker. In the Amazon Prime docuseriesTed Bundy: Falling for a Killer, Kloepfer said that her family wasn't religious, but that the kids were baptized into the Mormon church and were taught that women should be subservient to their husbands. "I didn't see myself as having to ask [a husband] for money," she recalled of growing up in her Utah community. "I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb." Kloepfer said she was introverted and had low self-esteem growing up and in college, so she turned to drinking to feel better about herself and become more extroverted. While in college, she got pregnant with her daughter Molly and married the father. Kloepfer described him as a man a year younger than her who was "immature." Molly, who Kloepfer referred to as Tina in her 1981 bookThe Phantom Prince, was born in 1966. "The marriage just didn't survive," she said. Kloepfer moved to Seattle in 1969 in hopes of finding a job, a new husband and to eventually have more children. She quickly got hired as an administrative assistant at the University of Washington. Amazon Prime Video/ Alamy Kloepfer met Bundy at the Sandpiper Tavern in the fall of 1969 — the very first night she and a friend went out in Seattle. She said inTed Bundy: Falling for a Killerthat she "had [her] eye on him all night." After chatting and dancing together, Bundy went home with an inebriated Kloepfer, but allegedly didn't attempt to have sex with her. The next morning, he got Molly up and made her and Kloepfer breakfast. "I was like, 'Oh my gosh,' " she said. "It just took my breath away, basically ... I had not had that with anyone else, where I just right off the bat felt connected to someone. It just felt like two pieces of a puzzle coming together and just fit. It was really quite spectacular." Their relationship took off quickly, with Kloepfer admiring that Bundy bonded with her family. "It was like everything I ever wanted, so I was hooked," she said. "I felt good in the relationship. I felt loved." Kloepfer was 24 years old when she met Bundy in early fall 1969. Bundy, born Nov. 24, 1946, was just shy of 23. Bettmann Archive/Getty Bundy and Kloepfer never married. "The conflict in the first couple years was that I wanted to get married and he wasn't ready to commit," Kloepfer recalled inTed Bundy: Falling for a Killer. "He was reluctant, and I knew that." The pair allegedly obtained a marriage license, but never made it official. "He picked a fight and tore the marriage license into a million little pieces, and that was the end of that," she said. Bettmann Archive/Getty Kloepfer and Bundy's relationship was tumultuous because she wanted a commitment and Bundy allegedly refused. In her bookThe Phantom Prince: My Life With Ted Bundy, Kloepfer wrote that in March 1971, she and Bundy agreed to see other people. However, when she went on a date with another man she met through a friend, Bundy showed up, took her home and allegedly berated her. That June, Bundy and Kloepfer started growing apart, and in July, he told her he had a date with another woman. The pair didn't speak for two weeks, then reconciled. After Bundy got a job in Olympia in 1974, two hours from Seattle, his murder spree ramped up, and the relationship worsened. Kloepfer noticed he looked increasingly haggard and rarely wanted to have sex. They saw each other less often due to the distance, and Kloepfer wrote that she thought he was having an affair. Kloepfer and Bundy also argued frequently about his theft habits, which he allegedly boasted about. Their first major split came after she called him repeatedly the night of Aug. 16, 1975, and didn't hear back. When he finally called her days later, she learned that Bundy had allegedly stolen a bicycle as a gift for his brother — and she told him to "go to hell." Still, they reunited off and on for several years while Bundy was out on bail after his arrest for the attempted kidnapping of Carol DaRonch and while he was in prison. "I felt like this man is not a killer," she recalled onTed Bundy: Falling for a Killer. "There is no way this can be true, this is the Ted I've known for so many years." It wasn't until 1978, when Bundy was arrested for the Chi Omega and Kimberly Leach homicides in Florida, that Kloepfer says she was no longer "under the spell," calling it quits with Bundy for good. When Bundy was arrested for possession of burglary tools in August 1975, he gave Kloepfer excuses for having pantyhose, a ski mask, rope and other tools in his bag. That October, in a phone conversation with Bundy while he was in jail, she told him that she'd spoken with police in Salt Lake City and Seattle, and he allegedly told her not to worry because the truth would exonerate him. He did the same in letters to her. However, in 1977, he admitted to Kloepfer that he was "sick," which he allegedly said drove him to murder. "It took him telling me himself that he had something wrong with him [to accept that he was a killer]," Kloepfer told ABC News. "It was awful, and yet it took me so long to really fully accept that he did those things. Even after he told me that, I still was spending endless hours trying to figure out how this could be, how this man that I thought I knew could do these things. It was really a struggle." Bettmann Archive/Getty Kloepfer called the police about Bundy several times more than a year before they finally considered him a suspect in the murders and disappearances of women and girls in Seattle and Utah. The first time she called was in late July 1974 after a colleague showed her a police sketch of a man named Ted who was suspected in the missing persons cases of Denise Naslund and Janice Ann Ott from Lake Sammamish Park. Her colleague thought the sketch resembled Bundy, especially because the suspect's vehicle was a Volkswagen. Kloepfer also knew Bundy had been at the park recently. Kloepfer used a payphone to call a police tipline and check if the suspect wore a watch on his right wrist like Bundy did, and asked what color the Volkswagen was. None of the witnesses mentioned a watch and they all described the vehicle as being metallic bronze, not the dull tan color of Bundy's car. The sketches also showed the suspect with straight hair, not curly like Bundy's, and as several inches shorter than Bundy, so she dropped it at the time. Kloepfer next called in August 1974 after reading a news story about a woman who'd encountered "a man like Ted" on crutches near where victim Georgeann Hawkins had last been seen. Kloepfer spotted crutches in Bundy's apartment, which he said belonged to his landlord. On Labor Day weekend in 1974, Bundy left for law school in Utah, after which women and girls began to go missing in that state as well, and he allegedly asked Kloepfer over the phone if Seattle police had found more bodies. Kloepfer remained in touch with a Seattle detective, but after a witness said Bundy's photo looked "too old" and officers noted that Bundy had no criminal history, they allegedly declined to pursue him further. Bettmann Archive/Getty Molly told ABC News that one of Bundy's attorneys had a theory of why he let her and Kloepfer live despite murdering so many other women and girls. "He said Ted told him that he would play games with these animals," Molly recalled. "He would let some of them live and some of them die, and to me, that's us. We're just these mice that were allowed to live." Kloepfer, however, has a different view. "I always felt loved, but with Ted, it's impossible to tell," Kloepfer told ABC News. "It could've been love, it could've been just another manipulation. I hate to even say this because it makes him sound normal, but I do think he loved us." Still, Kloepfer claimed in her book that Bundy once told her that he had tried to kill her: He allegedly said he closed the damper on her fireplace and put a towel under her apartment door so it filled with smoke. ABC News While Kloepfer said inTed Bundy: Falling For a Killerthat she was initially "decimated" upon learning Bundy was a serial killer, learning the truth made her feel free of him. With the encouragement of her therapy group for victims and survivors of violent crimes, she began attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and has been sober for more than 40 years and developed a love of hiking and the outdoors. In her bookThe Phantom Prince, Kloepfer wrote that she chose to stay in Seattle because her job at the university was "gratifying." She volunteered in her community, including at a cat rescue, and has several cats she adores. Kloepfer also married and divorced a man named Hank and had several short relationships before deciding she'd be happier single due to the trust issues Bundy gave her. In 2019, she gave directorJoe Berlingerher permission and blessing for the filmExtremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile, starring Efron as Bundy and Collins as Kloepfer. "So many years later, after much counseling, praying and growing, I've accepted that he is who he was accused of being," Kloepfer toldVanity Fair. "He's a violent, rageful sexual deviant. I just could not wrap my head around that in the beginning." She also noted inTed Bundy: Falling for a Killer, "I hope that this will be the end of my participation in anything related to Ted." Read the original article onPeople
