Nancy Baird

Hi friends! I wanted to share that I was featured in the Cold podcast and news story out of Salt Lake City on the Nancy Perry Baird case. She's known as an "unconfirmed victim"- one who has been linked to Bundy by circumstance, but not much else. You can listen to the podcast here: 

https://thecoldpodcast.com/season-3/bonus-the-convenient-alternative/ 

and watch the news segment here: https://ksltv.com/550243/blamed-on-bundy-cold-podcast-challenges-popular-theory-in-nancy-baird-cold-case/

I wrote this for social media to promote the story and summarize the case a bit. Please listen/read/watch and let me know what you think!
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On a hot Fourth of July afternoon in 1975, a pretty red-haired young woman was spending her holiday weekend working the cash register at a roadside gas station in East Layton, Utah. The 23-year-old mother made pleasant small talk with a local policeman, then sold a little girl some raspberry soda pop. The girl would later recall that the woman smiled kindly when she was short on change to pay, and let her have the soda anyway.

Less than fifteen minutes later, the station's manager walked in to find a line of annoyed customers. "Did you step out for a beer or something?" one quipped. Confused, the manager asked, "Isn't she here?" With several hours left in her shift, the cashier was nowhere to be found, although her car and purse were still at the station. Without a single witness or any sign of a struggle, Nancy Baird had seemingly vanished into thin air, never to be seen again.

Six weeks later, a young law student named Ted Bundy was arrested for suspicious behavior while prowling through a Salt Lake City suburb in the wee hours of the morning. He quickly became the prime suspect in another young woman's kidnapping, and investigators subsequently tied him to a string of murders and disappearances throughout the West.

On the surface, Nancy Baird's case seemed like a tenable fit for the man who would later become known as one of history's most notorious serial killers. Young and attractive, she resembled the basic profile of his victims, and he was living in Utah at the time of her disappearance. After his capture, police made an easy jump to the conclusion that Ted Bundy had abducted and murdered the young mother. No further attempts were made to find Nancy, even after the killer denied any knowledge of her case two days before his execution. But was Bundy really responsible? Or was he simply the convenient alternative for a small-town police force out of its depth?

In the latest episode of his hit podcast Cold, KSL News journalist Dave Cawley takes a deep dive into Nancy Baird's baffling disappearance, and turns over stones untouched for nearly 50 years. I collaborated with Dave to research this case, and I feel honored to have been featured in his riveting investigation.