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Criminally Obsessed
She Believed Ted Bundy Murdered Her Sister - How DNA Confirmed It 51 Years Later
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- [00:00]
A
Hey everybody, it's Anne Emerson. And this is criminally obsessed. When the serial killer Ted Bundy was executed, people cheered. But Shirlene Amy felt guilty even though Bundy was suspected of killing her 17 year old daughter Lara Ann.
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B
Kind of makes you feel like a looter yourself because you're wanting it so bad. I'm dead so bad. Just glad it's over.
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A
That was 1989, but Bundy wasn't officially tied to Laura ann's murder until March 31st of this year. Thanks to DNA, we can now say
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B
without a doubt that Theodore Ted Bundy did in fact murder Laura Ann Amy in the fall of 1974.
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A
Laura Ann's sister Michelle Impala didn't even know that this video existed of her family listening to the execution of Ted Bundy until last 37 years later.
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B
Bundy, one of the most notorious serial killers in the last quarter century, had been executed this morning. I'm glad he's dead.
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A
Michelle may have been the last person in her family to see Laura Ann alive like and subscribe for more conversations like this one that take you beyond the headlines. Michelle, thank you so much for joining me. It is such a pleasure to speak with you. And I saw you in the the press conference as the Utah County Sheriff's Office was announcing this remarkable closure for your sister and her connection to this serial killer that has become one of the most notorious cases in the world. But Michelle, I'm just so grateful that you could talk to us today and tell us about Laura Ann. Michelle, tell me, where do you live?
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B
Spanish Fork, Utah, in the, actually in the area where the Utah County Sheriff's is at. It was northern Utah county that they found her body.
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A
And Michelle, have you lived there your whole life? Did you kind of stay in the Utah county area or Utah area?
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B
No, we actually I grew up south of here in a little town, real small town called Fairview, like in central Utah. We had a farm and it was wonderful. We just like we had animals. My dad was a real animal lover. So Laura and I really took after my dad and we had only lived here in Utah county for a few months when she died.
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A
Did you have any other siblings? Was it just you and Laura Ann?
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B
Oh, no, there's six of us have an older brother. He was the oldest, John. He was probably the most affected by her death, tragically. So one boy and five girls.
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A
Big family.
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B
Big family.
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A
Tell me about your relationship with your older sister.
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B
We were really close. Yeah, it's like my brother John and my sister Evelyn were close and then my sister Lara and I were close. And then my two younger sisters, siblings, Tommy and Dana, they were close. So Laura just, you know, we just did a lot of stuff together. We both loved riding horses and. And so, you know, we hung out a lot. And she took me everywhere. She's five years older than me, but she didn't mind me tagging along. In fact, she encouraged it. You know, you could just ride the horses out of the fence or out of the gate and then down into town and all over the place. So we used to just ride a lot.
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A
Tell me a little bit about her horse.
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B
Yeah, he was kind of a blue color. They call it blue. It's a gray, mottled gray color. And he was really flighty. You know, his head's always flipping around and stuff and things scare him really easy. And she just loved him and he loved her. I know I said this in the press conference, that she fed him red nibs. I don't know if you remember nibs. They were little cut licorice.
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A
Licorice, yeah.
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B
And I don't know if they make those anymore, but she fed those to him as a treat and he wouldn't eat them after she died.
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A
Michelle, tell me about what was going on when Laura Ann went missing.
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B
So Fairview is such a small town, and the county's very small, but once we moved up here, it's more, you know, there's closer towns and not big cities. And now it's kind of all one big. It's grown a lot. But we lived in a pretty small town with. And we just rented until we sold our. Our farm and we had a pond in our yard. And then, you know, we. We had our horses back there. But my two little sisters were only five. And you know, I look back now and I'm thinking, gee whiz, Laura. And I mean, you know, she's 17, I was 12. And we had. She said, let's go bum Main. My parents. Wait, my parents had left town for the weekend. And she said, let's go bum main street in Provo. You know, that was the thing you did back then. You go drag Maine. And so we went and we. And we left my two little sisters alone. I'm thinking, oh my gosh.
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A
Well, it was the 70s, right? You were like, right, right.
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B
I guess, but. But then we ended up late, turned red, and the guy in front of us didn't go. And we did. And we rear ended him. It didn't do any damage to his truck, but it kind of buckled my Dad's. And we had an old 70s, old gold 70s pickup, and it buckled the hood. But my mom just had a feeling that something had happened. And so they came home early. So when I woke up in the morning, my parents were home and Laura was gone.
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A
And
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B
it must have been around Halloween, because my mom thinks she disappeared on Halloween. We shared a room there in Salem. We lived in Salem, and. And she came home at some point in the night, somewhere between where my mom thinks she wanted to disappear. And when they found her body, and I got up for school and Lara was in bed, and she said, don't tell Mom I'm here. And I never did. And so it just dawned on me not that long ago that she really didn't go missing on Halloween when everybody thinks she did.
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A
There is a story about possibly being seen, like, buying cigarettes.
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B
Well, she did smoke cigarettes, but, you know, who knows? I mean, I really don't know the details surrounding that. You know, there's. It's been said Ted Bundy had seen her. Now, she would stand out because she was six foot one, you know, so. And of course, you've seen her pictures. She was beautiful. She had the split hair, but that was a 70s thing. And so she. She had told my mom previously, if I ever die, I want to be buried in my. In a nightgown and slippers. And she had told me that she wanted. If she ever dies, she wants the song Seasons in the sun played at her funeral. And then she had called my brother, who lived in Tacoma, Washington, and asked if she could come and stay with him. So I guess it's because she was afraid that Ted Bundy was going to get her because he had approached her. I don't know that. I don't know the details. This is something I've heard from my sister Evelyn, but I guess it fits. Or do people kind of know when they're going to die? So my brother told her it wasn't a good time, and he felt terrible because he felt guilty, I think, you know.
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A
So was there. Were there rumors that Ted Bundy was around there?
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B
Yeah. And he had already killed a girl here. So he was attending, I think, Utah State University Law School. So he had moved down here. Yeah.
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A
So tell me, as far as what happened with Laura Ann, when you were notified, how did you find out that her body had been discovered or how did your family find out?
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B
Well, I guess my mom had been. She had heard about other body, another body or something being found, and she was in contact with the sheriffs because she Was, you know, looking for her daughter. But the being that she was six foot one, the first body was, you know, he called and said, it's not her. And then the second one, it was the night before Thanksgiving. And I remember this really well. I was on the. I was washing dishes, and then there came a thing on the news that there was another body found. And so, of course, my parents called the sheriff. And then the next morning, my aunt came to pick us up for Thanksgiving and, you know, help just take me and my little sisters. And the sheriff came and picked up my parents.
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A
What was it like in the house? What do you remember when the news came?
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B
I was. You know, we came home, and then I went outside. I was always outside with animals and stuff. And then my dad came out and said he wanted to talk to me. But, you know, the story surrounding my dad having to identify her, you know, he wouldn't allow my mom to go in and see her. But even, you know, they had. They believed that the girl, the body they found was 5 foot 11 because of his, you know, Ted's abuse. But when my dad went in to see her, and I imagine, you know, he was just praying it wasn't her. Of course, he said, he looked at her, he said, I can't tell. He turned to go away, to leave, and then he remembered that she had scars on her arms where she had been thrown from Arab into the fence to just a couple years earlier into a barbed wire pants and had scars up her arm to her shoulder where she had stitches in three or four places. And sadly, that's how he identified her. He was just a different man after that, you know, my mom, too, but my dad was such a sensitive guy, and then having to see that, it really messed with him. So things really weren't even the same after that in our household, of course,
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A
you know, investigators have any idea what happened or when Laura. And when Laura actually died? Do we know? Because I've seen so many reports. Have you ever been able to sort of investigate on your own when you think your sister actually. When Bundy actually got your sister?
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B
Well, you know, it had to have been within two weeks that her body was found. Of course, it's cold here in November, generally, and she was found up in a canyon. I spent a lot of time in as a teenager, just because of where we lived, American Fork. But, you know, she was still intact, apparently, for. So it wasn't like she had started decomposing or anything or even animals had gotten to her, as far as I know. So it could have only been, you know, maybe a week, maybe two at the most.
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A
And when did. When did the word really start coming through from the sheriff's office that they believed that this was. Was a murder from Ted Bundy?
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B
You know, I'm not really clear on that. I don't know. I mean, again, I was just 12, and I just put things together in my head from little things I've heard. You know, I wish I kind of knew more now, but everybody older than me is gone, so I don't have that, you know, here in our family.
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A
Right.
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B
So.
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A
Well, and. And of course, your. Your sister fit the profile, correct? Like, she. She had the long brown hair, beautiful young woman.
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B
Y. His. Yep. His MO Was all over that, so we never questioned it after he was caught and other. Other murders were linked to him. So when this all came out that it was now a closed case, I was like, gee, I didn't even know it was open. I mean, it makes sense with the DNA. I was kind of shocked that it wasn't closed, because everything you see with Ted Bundy, there's a lot. You know, my sister's picture is in there. So, you know, it's never been a question.
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A
So you've always believed, like when. When he was arrested, was. Was Laura Ann's name linked with him?
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B
Yeah. And then, you know, my mom would go to any court case she could where that they held. Weirdly enough, she. She bought a gun too. And, I mean, in her mind, I guess she thought she might go in there. And they didn't have the metal detectors like they do now, so she carry it in there in her purse, you know, so she was thinking, you know what?
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A
He would deserve this.
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B
Yeah. Well. And then, you know, I recently saw a video I didn't even know was out there of my mom crying, saying she felt like a murderer because she wanted him dead.
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A
Oh, just because she thought it. That must have been an enormous amount of grief for your family to carry all those years.
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B
Terrible. Yeah.
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A
I was wondering, like, when you first saw him after he was arrested, I guess you were able to see who this man was that would be your sister's killer. What did you think when you saw Ted Bundy?
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B
Well, you hear, oh, he's so attractive. More manipulative, I think, but so charismatic and so good looking. And all I saw was evil, you know, and still I look at his eyes. His eyes are just dark and evil, you know, So I never. I just. Every time I see his picture, I just think, especially knowing what he did to These girls, it's just, you know,
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A
it took a while to catch him. I mean, it. It took years.
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B
What he do. Did he escape twice?
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A
I know. Did. When you heard that he escaped, I mean, you were still a young girl. Was there fear that.
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B
No.
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A
You know, maybe he would come back or. Did you ever worry about where he.
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B
No. No, it wasn't really much of a thought to me, you know?
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A
No. Especially with your mom carrying a gun. I don't blame her.
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B
Right.
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A
I could absolutely see that. You always maintain that. That. That your family and that you knew that Ted Bundy was responsible for this, but it. But it wasn't until just now that they were able to, as you said, close this case.
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B
Yeah. And apparently they had been working on it for over a year. So they came to my house. I was out shopping, and my daughter called me and said, the sheriffs came by and they want to talk to you about Laura. And so I just came home. And they came home, you know, and then they came by soon after that, really gracious and nice and excited that they had link this together and put it all together and discovered that he really was her murderer. And I was sitting there kind of shocked. I'm like, wow. You know, I didn't even know this was a thing at all.
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A
Right. So that they would go to these extremes to, like, do the final, like, crossing the T's and dotting the eyes kind of thing.
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B
Yeah. I was. I was quite touched that she was even on the radar, that people still cared enough. You know, she didn't just disappear into the. Into the past. Two years ago, I was told that they were making a memorial. So the evidence office had. Was cleaning up all their evidence room. And, you know, back then, everything was in boxes and whatnot. So they decided to make a memorial for her on the wall along with some others that they. They're working on or have been working on. But hers was the first one up there, and they wanted a story. And I was a little bit like, oh, wow, okay. You know, I saw things on there that I'd never known existed. Like, I mean, they had her wallet, and there were pictures. And our sixth grade teacher, who was also the principal of the school in Fairview. And so, you know, it's. It was touching, really touching that they would even do that, you know, to.
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A
Amazing was this people that had. Had died, been murdered or, you know, violent crime victims.
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B
The other one.
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A
Not just fundy victims. It was.
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B
No, no. So hers was the oldest case, and that's why they were. They put hers up there?
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A
Sure.
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B
Hers was the only one when I went to see it, but the other one, when I took my daughters to see it, was about two young teenagers that a man had murdered and put their bodies in a. Well, I want to put it.
- [18:30]
A
Just go back, just briefly, because there was this moment where it's understood that right before Bundy was executed for all of these heinous, horrible murders that he had kind of vaguely mentioned Laura. And were you aware of that, that. That he had confessed to. To her, her killing? Did you. Did that hit your radar?
- [18:54]
B
Well, yeah, kind of. I mean, it was just another story. And a hundred of them, you know, that he had confessed, but he liked the attention and I think that he wanted that. So a sensationalist, you know, and I. I remember a story, them for him, saying that he had murdered. The girls he had murdered were in the three digits. So I don't doubt it really, but they never connected that many to him.
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A
Have you ever had the opportunity to meet any. Any other family members that were, you know, the victims. Families of. Of Ted Bundy? Have you ever met anyone else?
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B
I would really like to. My daughter always found it fascinating what might have happened to each family after the fact, you know, rather than focus on Ted Bundy. But no, I've never met anyone.
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A
Well, you know, one thing I want to say, Michelle, is that I just found your way of talking about your sister, even though it was so long ago, it was 52 years ago that you lost her when she was just 17. But the way you talk about her is so beautiful. I. It just sounds like you are very close sisters, which is wonderful to hear that you're able to keep her spirit alive like that.
- [20:16]
B
Yeah. Thank you. Well, you know, she was. She took care of us. You know, she just took us places and did stuff with us, me and my two younger sisters. She was important to me, you know, 100%.
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A
And tell me, is there anything that you'd like us to know about your sister that maybe, you know, as we kind of walk through these stories about what he did and that you would like people to know about your sister, about the kind of person that she was?
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B
Well, you know, she was thoughtful, she was kind. She loved animals. She obviously loved me and my little sisters. My little sisters were only five and seven, but their. Their memories are of her taking them to buy candy. You know, she was tall, so, you know, we lived in a small town. She would. She was driving when she was 12, so.
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A
Oh, really?
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B
Yeah, because that's what you did back in the 70s. But, you know, she was thoughtful. She always made sure that we were, you know, just part of her life. She wasn't a sister. That kind of blew you off going, you're too young to be around us, especially me. You know, she took me everywhere. I'd hang out with her and her friends and. And so she's just a cool, big sister. Yeah.
- [21:38]
A
What do you think she would be like now? Like, if. If she had. If she had lived, like, what do you think about, like, what she would be like now?
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B
Yeah, I'm sure she'd have kids and grandkids and have animals and probably still have horses, and I think we'd still be really close. Even closer.
- [21:54]
A
I really appreciate you speaking with me today, Michelle, to hear about your sister. She sounded like a beautiful young lady, and I hope that going forward, this brings you the piece that. That you need.
- [22:09]
B
Well, thank you. I appreciate your interest. And, yeah, I feel at peace about the whole thing. You know, I've heard it all, seen it all so well.
- [22:21]
A
And hopefully the cna, the work they're able to do in the DNA technology these days, that they'll be able to also identify other. It sounds like they could be close to being able to make more definitive connections with. With Bundy's victims. How many more victims did he kill? Tell me what you think. I guess now with the new DNA technology, we're about to find out. Make sure you follow along with conversations like this one. But before we go, we're counting down the days until Crime Con in Vegas. I'm so excited to be hosting a panel with Blanca Trubiate Simpson. Y' all know her and love her from our Murdoch coverage. Use promo code criminally obsessed for 10% on the CrimeCon website. We'll see you there.