Ted Bundy was an American serial killer who murdered girls and women in multiple states before he was arrested in 1978; he was executed in Florida in 1989. How many victims he killed in total remains unknown. While Bundy may have committed previous murders, his earliest confirmed killings took place in the Seattle area beginning in early 1974. A consistent pattern of women, often college students, vanishing or being attacked created public concern over the next six months; in July 1974, Bundy abducted two women from a crowded beach at Lake Sammamish State Park (an incident that Knoll incorporates into her novel’s plot).

In August 1974, Bundy moved to Utah; attacks stopped in the Seattle area, but women began to go missing or were found murdered in the Salt Lake City area. Meanwhile, police in Seattle continued to investigate the string of cases. In November 1974, Bundy attempted to kidnap a woman who escaped and later described his identity to police; he was arrested on kidnapping charges in Utah in October 1975. Although there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him with any of the Seattle murders, investigators from that region came to question him. Investigation during this time also revealed substantial evidence linking Bundy to a murder committed in Colorado; after he was tried in 1976 and given a 15-year prison sentence in Utah, he was extradited to Colorado in January 1977.