610 Third Avenue Room 529
Seattle, Washington 98104
Dear Det. Jelberg,
As you requested, we are forwarding a written statement posting a reward for information leading to the return of our daughter, Georgann. Also enclosed are the pictures and description of the jewelry she was wearing at the time of her disappearance. I talked with her roommates Laura Heffron and Phyllis Armstrong last evening, and they indicated that a description, as well as a drawing, of the rings were given to Det. Ted Fonis of your Department.
In addition to requesting your help in securing the printing of posters and distribution concerning the reward, we would also appreciate having an account of the disappearance and Georgann’s description printed in the Crime Digest, which it is my understanding, is distributed throughout the country.
Mr. Hawkins and I are most appreciative of all of the hard work that you and your associates have put into trying to determine what has happened to our child. We know that you will continue to do everything possible to bring about a resolution of this problem.
God bless you in your work.
Sincerely,
Edith E, Hawkins
(Mrs. W. B. Hawkins)
P.S. It is also our understanding that the flyer or poster will contain a picture of Georgann and that you have the same available. If this is not correct, will you please contact us immediately? We feel that neither of the likenesses are good ones of her.
$5000 REWARD
GEORGANN HAWKINS, 18 years old, disappeared from the alley behind the 4500 Block of NE 17th Street, Greek Row, of the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, on June 11, 1974. A reward of $5000 for information leading to her safe return has been posted.
The police have indicated that the circumstances of her disappearance were very serious. If you have any information concerning Georgann, call Seattle, area code (206) emergency number “911,” (206) 583-2343, or your local police.
Description: White female, height 5’2,” weight 118 to 120 lbs., shoulder-length, medium brown hair, brown eyes, olive complexion, heavily tanned at time of disappearance. Last seen wearing (please complete from your records).
What follows is a portion of a Seattle Post-Intelligencer article, which was published on Wednesday, June 19, 1974.
Seattle police stated yesterday they have turned up “absolutely nothing” in the way of clues in the search for Georgann Hawkins, 18. When told that the parents of the girl, Mr. and Mrs. Warren Hawkins, of Lakewood near Tacoma, appear to be losing hope that their daughter will be found alive and well, a homicide detective said, “So are we.”
“Every day I’m a little bit lower,” the girl’s father said. “You’d like to hope. But I’m too realistic. She was a very friendly, very involved youngster. I keep saying ‘was.’ I shouldn’t say that. It’s a job raising kids,” Hawkins said, holding his head in his hands. “You steer them along and we figured we had both these kids over the hump.”
Warren and Edith Hawkins, devastated at the loss of Georgann, went through the years by withdrawing from the public conversation about Ted Bundy and the death of their daughter. They never gave press interviews (she once gave a single sentence to a reporter after Bundy’s execution, but that’s it) and writers of books and articles were always turned away as well. It was the only way to survive, Edith Hawkins would explain later. It would be almost four decades to the day before Georgann’s mother would allow the world just a peek into their lives. And it must have been a somewhat painful decision to do so.
Nevertheless, on June 11, 2014, the fortieth anniversary of Georgann’s disappearance, an article was published where Edith Hawkins, ninety-three years old, sat down with a reporter from the Green Valley News & Sun, an Arizona paper. As Edith explained, she and Warren had moved to Green Valley, Arizona, after they retired and built a house, which the article’s author describes as “a large home, bright and well-appointed.” It was just the two of them living there until 2003, when Warren Hawkins passed away.
Of course, it’s an interesting, well-written article, and it gives us a look into what their lives were like. But we must remember that the loved ones of the murdered never really come back from it. They manage and they adjust, but their lives will never be normal again. And above all, this is the unspoken thread that runs through this article. When the reporter spotted a scrapbook and other mementos of Georgann, Edith Hawkins explained, “That’s it,” she says. “That’s all I have left of my daughter.” Despite all the recounting of the many good things about Georgann’s life and all her accomplishments, the painful reminder of her death seeps through every word.
When her high school and college classmates held a memorial service to honor Georgann just days after Bundy was executed, they chose not to attend. “My feeling at the time was, what was it for, you know? It wasn’t going to help me any.” And Edith Hawkins was right, of course.
CHAPTER THREE
Kathy Parks
When I first wrote about Roberta Kathleen Parks (better known as Kathy to her family and friends, and now to the world) for my book, The Bundy Murders, I was able to touch upon her personality as well as the tragic circumstances of her death at the hands of Ted Bundy. A native of California, she enrolled at Oregon State University at Corvallis, and had the misfortune of encountering Bundy a little after 11:00 p.m. on May 6, 1974, as she was sitting in the Memorial Union Commons cafeteria. Bundy, speaking in the third-person to a writer, said he approached Kathy as she was sitting alone at a table. And chances are, there weren’t many in the cafeteria at that time as it was only minutes away from closing, so there’d be little to no witnesses. By some ruse, he was able to convince Kathy to leave with him in his car. After he cleared the environs of the university and no prying eyes were upon them, he took control of Kathy, and now it was just a matter of time.
During the writing of the Kathy Parks murder I had a great deal of material from the case file and was able to reconstruct the events of that evening of May 6, 1974. I did not, as in the case of almost all the other Bundy murders, speak with any of the investigators about Kathy as everything I needed was already in the record. That said, once The Bundy Murders was published, a number of people, all close to Kathy in one way or another, contacted me to tell me their stories.
One of these individuals was Lorraine Pickard, known in my book as Lorraine Fargo, a friend of Kathy Parks and the last person to speak with her before Bundy led her away to her death. I believe of all the people who’ve contacted me over the years, Lorraine Fargo made the greatest impression on me. Indeed, if it wasn’t for one of her sons searching out his mother’s name on the internet per her connection with the Bundy case, she would never have known that she was mentioned in my book! The bottom line was we became good friends (for the relatively short time she had left; Lorraine contacted me in 2010 and she passed away on March 12, 2011), and we exchanged a number of phone calls and numerous emails.
Because Lorraine had carried a lot of emotional damage from Kathy’s murder, she was a bit angered when she discovered that I had written about her role and her activities in the case but had never spoken with her. But once she got to know me, and I shared with her the information from the case files that allowed me to write about her role so accurately, she softened and we became “fast friends”, so to speak, and I like to think that over the time we “worked” together, her facing her fears and bad memories surrounding the event acted as a catharsis of sorts; something she confessed to me as things unfolded.
Not only did Lorraine open up about her role during those days, but she also confirmed two things I believed about the night that Kathy was abducted, but couldn’t prove. As such, when, I started writing The Trail of Ted Bundy: Digging Up the Untold Stories in 2015, I added some of the material I had collected from Lorraine that explains this. I also included where she goes into some detail about the emotional pain she’s experienced through the y
ears, and how the specter of Ted Bundy became a type of haunted essence that would pop up occasionally to spook her once again.
The information I’ll be including here will be new testimony from my time with Lorraine, and it all relates to her relationship with Kathy Parks. And, as is my custom, I will not be repeating the information she provided that I included in The Trail of Ted Bundy, but for quick access you can read this info on pages 35–38 in that book.
While this particular info from Lorraine came from a blog I chaired, much of it—but not all of it—had been copied and pasted by Lorraine from previous emails she’d sent me (why write it out twice, she mentioned), as we messaged each other about her role in the case. For this book, rather than copy and paste from her saved emails—I have them all—I found it easier to copy the blog and present it here.
Kathy and I met shortly after my roommates and I had moved to Sackett Hall at the beginning of winter term, in the 1973-1974 school year. We immediately identified that we were both from the San Francisco Bay Area. Kathy was from Lafayette, and I was from Novato, just a hop skip and a jump across the Bay. We were California girls, and most of the girls in our dorm were native Oregonians. Somehow silently deeming ourselves “more worldly” (young women can be so funny!) we both knew that we related to a similar “reality” that the other girls didn’t share. As silly as I know this sounds now, it was actually the basis for our friendship, and we really did see ourselves alike, and different from the rest.
Kathy was a sophomore, and I was a freshman. More significantly, she was 20 (when we met) and I was 18, so I both looked up to and admired her. She was a quiet girl, but had a sharp, quick wit that could be utterly ruthless, though she was careful to never share it in a way that would be hurtful to anyone. I liked Kathy a lot.
At the time of her abduction, Kathy was dealing with a number of things in her life that were troubling. She was in love with her boyfriend Christy, but he wanted her to settle down and commit seriously, as in marriage, and Kathy was sure she wasn’t ready for that. He was due to visit in about a week’s time, and she knew he wanted her to make a decision. She didn’t want to lose him, but she knew she wasn’t ready for marriage. She also wasn’t thrilled with her overall experience as a student. She felt that she was paying out-of-state tuition and going through the motions of her classes without feeling a direction. She questioned her major many times, and once declared that she would change her major to “underwater basket weaving” and leave it at that.
Prior to the conversation that Kevin mentions in his book (this is the conversation Kathy and Lorraine had on the sidewalk just across from the Memorial Union Commons where Kathy would soon encounter Bundy, and can be found in The Trail of Ted Bundy), Kathy and I had spoken earlier in the evening. At that time, she expressed her ongoing confusion about “what to do” about Christy, and her father’s heart attack earlier that day, which her sister had assured her was not life threatening. She was very concerned about a Spanish test scheduled for the following day, for which she felt totally unprepared. While she was a sophomore and I was a freshman, I was, in fact, in a more advanced Spanish class than she was. She asked if I would help “quiz” her later that night. “Yes, I would be happy to.”
Kathy and I were the “night owls” of our section of the dorm, so when I told her I had a literature report due the following day, which would require several hours in the library to complete, she said, “That’s fine, just come and get me when you get home.”
I went to the library (more on that later), finished my report, and left when it closed at 11:00 p.m. It’s about a seven-minute walk back to the dorm. I had made my way past the Memorial Union Commons, crossed the street, and saw Kathy heading my way. I said, “Oh, I was just going to come and get you to quiz you on your Spanish.”
She said, basically, “Forget the Spanish, I am still not prepared, and right now I don’t even care.” She went on to say that she was really having a rough time, trying to decide what to do about “everything” and that she had just smoked hashish. When I initially spoke to the campus police, after she disappeared, I wasn’t forthcoming with that information, because I didn’t want to get Kathy into any trouble. She said she was going to the Commons for a hot fudge sundae, and she would be back to the dorm in a while. I mentioned that I still had some things to do to complete my report, and that she could find me in the dorm “lounge” if she changed her mind about the Spanish help. I would be up late, and didn’t want to disturb my roommate while I continued to work.
Lorraine did, in fact, go to the lounge, continued working, and after a while, finished her report. But by 2:00 a.m., she was headed to bed. Kathy’s failure to return to the dorm bothered her, and Lorraine felt it was very odd she hadn’t returned home. Not only did Kathy fail to return by 2:00 a.m., which was the standard curfew at OSU, but Lorraine knew Kathy hadn’t made prior arrangements which would have allowed her to stay out and sleep somewhere else without ramifications. Indeed, everything about this was very troubling to Lorraine.
The next morning, Lorraine ran into Miriam “Bunny” Schmidt, Kathy’s roommate, before class, and Schmidt said Kathy never returned home and they just looked at each other. Lorraine said she could tell Miriam was as concerned as she was. It was, although they didn’t know it at the time, the beginning of their own personal nightmares.
The following information is from the Office of Campus Security, Oregon State University.
Since Kathy’s disappearance all points teletype bulletins have been sent to all police agencies in Oregon, California, and Washington, notifying them of her disappearance, her description, and several possible destinations. She has indicated to friends in the past that she would like to get away from Oregon State University and possibly go to The World’s Fair, or return to her sister’s residence in Black Point, California. On another occasion she mentioned that she would just like to leave campus and go to Portland and walk the streets. It is extremely doubtful at this time that she intended to return home because of her father’s heart attack, as she has not arrived, after being missing for over a week. We have made inquiries of the main hospitals in the Portland, Corvallis, Albany areas with negative results. Each of these hospitals have been requested to contact the Campus Security Office immediately if they receive information as to her location.
The Corvallis Police Department, Benton County Sheriff’s Office, Oregon State Police, and the FBI have been alerted as to her disappearance, and are coordinating their efforts with the Campus Security Department to locate her.
Her boyfriend, Christy McPhee, and her brother-in-law, Paul Kaehler, believe that Kathy may have gone to the Newport Beach area to seek solitude. We have placed telephone calls to various police agencies in the Newport, Florence, and Lincoln City areas, notifying them of her disappearance, and have also sent photographs to each of these departments and have requested that they be on the lookout for her. We have also received cooperation from the local and main channels of the news media which have broadcasted Kathy’s description, listing her as a missing person, and asking anyone that may have seen her to notify the Campus Security Department. This information has been channeled through the OSU Department of Information.
The local Greyhound Bus depot has been checked for possible leads to the location of Kathy. It was learned, however, that the ticket office closes at 9:00 p.m. on weekdays and that individual drivers would have to be located in order to possibly identify her. At this time attempts are being made to locate drivers of Greyhound buses who were in Corvallis the night of May 6th or early morning hours of May 7, 1974.
One positive lead which has been developed is Kathy’s checking account at Citizen’s Bank, downtown branch, Corvallis. On May 6, she received a $50 check from her mother, of which she deposited $35 into her checking account. An interview of several friends of Kathy’s at Sackett Hall revealed that she repaid approximately $10 in debts on this date prior to her disappeara
nce. This would indicate that she had less than $10 on her person at the time she disappeared. A check with the employees of Citizen’s Bank revealed that Kathy’s bank balance is presently $40.50. They have agreed to immediately notify the Campus Security Department in the event that they receive any checks written on her account at that bank.
The OSU Department of Information has supplied the Campus Security with copies of photographs of Kathy which have been sent out to police departments in areas which it is believed that Kathy may have gone.
Christy McPhee and Paul Kaehler have also contacted the Corvallis Gazette Times and had missing persons bulletins printed (800) which they are distributing in the area in an attempt to locate her. Information from Paul Kaehler is that Kathy’s grandfather has offered $500 reward for information leading to her location.
Kathy’s oldest sister, Sharon Kaehler, has stated that Kathy may have gone to the World’s Fair in Spokane, Washington. Kathy did tell her about wanting to go to the fair, however, Sharon does not think she would go until she was out of school this term. Information was recently received from Mr. Paul Kaehler, (Kathy’s brother-in-law) that her father is now aware of her disappearance.
Christy McPhee indicated that over Christmas vacation last year, he and Kathy had hitchhiked to his aunt’s residence in Canada, and that she had become very fond of this area. His aunt, Mary McPhee, area code (removed by author), was contacted, and she advised that she had not seen Kathy, but will call the Campus Security Office if Kathy arrives at her residence.
A telephone call was also placed to the Spokane Police Department and a photograph of Kathy sent to them. They will furnish to the Security Department at the World’s Fair in Spokane, and notify us of any information they receive.
A telephone call was also placed to Berwick, Louisiana where Christy McPhee resides. They were alerted to the information of the disappearance of Kathy and a photograph and a description was sent to them. They will notify us immediately if she arrives in their city looking for her boyfriend, Christy McPhee.
Ted Bundy's Murderous Mysteries Page 4