Who is Rose Bundy? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Nick Name: Rosa

Age: 42 Years, 42 Year Old Females

Family:

father: Ted Bundy

mother: Carole Ann Boone

Born Country: United States

Family Members American Women

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Before Birth

Ted and Carole Ann Boone, a twice-divorced mother, were colleagues at the ‘Washington State Emergency Management’ (or the ‘Washington State Department of Emergency Services’) in Olympia, Washington, in 1974. Carole, who was going through her second divorce back then, was immensely attracted to Ted, as mentioned in Hugh Aynesworth and Stephen G. Michaud’s book 'The Only Living Witness.' However, when Ted asked her out, Carole denied at first. Back then, theirs was a platonic friendship. She had no idea about Ted’s heinous acts.

Ted and Carole stayed connected via letters when he was imprisoned in Utah in 1977. That was when their relationship developed into a romantic one. According to 'Rolling Stone,' Carole even assisted Ted escape from the Colorado prison in December 1977.

Ted was arrested again, in 1978. During his 1980 trial in Florida, Ted and Rose got married in the courtroom, in front of a judge. Ted had already been sentenced to death by then. However, Carole always believed him to be innocent.

As shown in the 'Netflix' series 'Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes,' Carole had conceived Rose while Ted was on death row. He had apparently impregnated Carole when she had come to visit him in the prison. The documentary showed Ted revealing that they had bribed guards to let Carole inside the cell to have sex on a few occasions. Carole added that the guards did walk in on them sometimes but never stopped them. Apart from managing the conjugal visits, Carole allegedly smuggled drugs and money to the jail for him.

Rose’s conception has always been a mystery. Some believe that Carole had smuggled a condom into the prison and that Ted had filled it with his genetic material and returned it to her through a kiss.

Carole traveled about 40 miles to be Ted’s character witness during his 1980 Orlando trial, while she was pregnant. Interestingly, the second anniversary of Ted’s brutal kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach marked his first wedding anniversary, too.

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Birth

Rose Bundy, nicknamed “Rosa,” was born on October 24, 1982, just a couple of years after Ted was sentenced to death. Ted was also a father figure to his former girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer’s daughter, Tina. Elizabeth and Ted had dated for 7 years. He even had a cordial relationship with Jayme, Carole’s son from a previous relationship.

Carole always took Rose and Jayme along with her on her visits to prison. They even had a few family pictures taken in jail.

Despite Rose’s loyalty to Ted and her continuous denial his crimes, their perilous, unconventional, and deceptive marriage came to an end 3 years before his execution in 1989. Carole divorced Ted and moved to Florida for good, with Rose and Jayme. She reportedly never saw or spoke to Ted again.

In Florida, Carole lived a low-profile life. Hence, Rose’s current whereabouts are still a mystery. Some believe that she maintains a low profile purposefully because of her father’s criminal history. Some theories suggest that Carole has remarried, changed her name, and is living in Oklahoma as “Abigail Griffin,” though nothing has been confirmed.

In the 2008 reprint of 'The Stranger Beside Me,' author Ann Rule described Rose’s character as “kind” and “intelligent.” She even displayed sympathy for the family, saying that they had been through enough pain. Rule wrote that she had avoided digging into the lives of Carole and Rose to avoid breaching their privacy.

Rose Bundy Biography