Is This What Happened To Ted Bundy's Daughter?

Though serial killers are often defined by and remembered for their crimes, the fact is that many of them lived something akin to regular lives before and during their murder sprees. Many rented or owned homes, held jobs, maintained relationships, and even had children. Indeed, the daughter of "BTK Killer" Dennis Rader even wrote a memoir about her life as the daughter of a murderer (per ABC News).

Another serial killer who fathered at least one child is Ted Bundy. As All That's Interesting notes, he got married while in prison and — though conjugal visits weren't allowed — through unknown chicanery managed to impregnate his wife, Carole Ann Boone, whom he married while behind bars. Boone later gave birth to a daughter, Rose Bundy, in 1982.

Inasmuch as her father was facing the death penalty when she was conceived, Rose, also known as Rosa, had little contact with her father while he lived except via whatever the prison system allowed, and she was still a preteen when he was put to death.

The last time anybody heard from Rose Bundy was in 1986, according to All That's Interesting. That is when her mother, Carole, divorced her husband and took her children with her to another state. From there, the trail goes cold. According to The Sun, it's entirely likely that Carole changed her own name and the names of her children to protect their privacy and to disassociate the family from the convicted serial killer. Indeed, Rose may not even be alive at all, and if she is, all that can be said for certain about her is that she is nearing her 40th birthday.

For whatever it's worth, Ann Rule, who worked with Bundy at a suicide prevention hotline and wrote a book about him, claimed as recently as 2020 that Rose was alive and doing about as well as could be expected. "I have heard that Ted's daughter is a kind and intelligent young woman, but I have no idea where she and her mother may live. They have been through enough pain," Rule told The Sun.