The Fear Collector (40 page)

She reached for it and he let it fall into her palm.

Peggy had kept a souvenir. Just like the others.

“I’m the most coldhearted son of a bitch

you’ll ever meet.”

—T
ED
B
UNDY

Peggy Howell
gave several interviews after she pleaded guilty to the murders of Tricia O’Hare, Kelsey Caldwell, and Lisa Lancaster, and the abduction and attempted murder of Emma Rose. She didn’t proclaim her innocence, like Ted had done at first. Instead, she rather appeared to bask in the glory of her crimes. She was not charged with her son’s murder. As it turned out, Jeremy Howell had committed suicide. His mother told a reporter for the
News Tribune
that “Jeremy was a wuss. He was nothing like his father.” She went on to say that she had that her biggest regret was not the murders, but the fact that “Jeremy couldn’t man up. I had to tell him what to say, what to do, how to hold a knife. When we caught Kelsey—that’s the first girl’s name, I think—he couldn’t even do what had to be done. I did. I showed him. Girl number two was no better. I gave him one last chance to be the man that he should be, but hell, he took the easy way out.”

Jeremy Howell
was cremated after the autopsy that determined he’d died of a single gunshot wound to the head. His ashes remain unclaimed.

Emma Rose
was released from Tacoma General Hospital after three days of treatment for exhaustion, smoke inhalation, and dehydration. She told
People
in a telephone interview from her hospital bed: “Three amazing women saved my life—Selena Gomez, Elizabeth Smart, and Grace Alexander.” She quit Starbucks and went off to college in California. Marine biology is her stated major.

Anna Sherman
died on Christmas Day, never knowing for sure if her daughter, Susie, had been a victim of Ted Bundy or not. When the staff cleaned out her room at the assisted living center, they found a box of Ted memorabilia addressed to Grace Alexander with a small note written on the top:
You did it for Tricia, please do it for Susie, too.

Tavio
and
Mimi Navarro
welcomed their first baby, a girl, on January 14. They named her Catalina. Michael Navarro vanished. Police were able to track him to the Mexican border crossing in San Diego. After that, nothing.

Palmer Morton
was arrested two months after the fire on Howard Street and charged with twenty-seven counts of fraud in a case that halted The Pointe development. He certainly had the resources to wriggle out of the charges by blaming the subcontractor. But it was a statement made by Emma Rose that clinched the case: “When I confronted him, he said that no one would believe me because I was a kid. He said that the subcontractor was stupid and he told them to find another dump location, one farther out of town. He knew what they were doing all along.”

Sissy O’Hare
could finally really breathe again. Knowing what happened, who was responsible, had been the greatest gift of her life. She had never imagined that her daughter had been killed because she wanted someone—Peggy—to do the right thing. It seemed like Tricia.

Grace Alexander
took a leave of absence from the Tacoma Police Department. She used the time to work on a book,
My Sister’s Keeper
—at husband Shane’s urging. She never finished it. She found out she was pregnant. Her baby was due in the the summer. She still has dinner with her mother every Wednesday. She told Paul Bateman that “my mom and I have never been closer. We both feel free of something that took over our lives.”

Tricia O’Hare
is no longer considered a Bundy victim. The day after Peggy’s arrest, someone updated the victim list on Wikipedia by removing her name. Her bones were returned to Sissy the following spring, and she and Grace buried her next to Conner.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wanted to take a moment to thank some of the people who have been so instrumental to the process of writing
Fear Collector
. I’m grateful to my amazing editor Michaela Hamilton for her deft editing and consultation as this book came together. And I’m equally indebted to Laurie Parkin, my publisher, for her wisdom, support, and patience. Lots of each!

My appreciation also goes to Susan Raihofer, my literary agent for almost twenty years, for being such a great partner in this writing life. Finally, I want to thank my readers and my family (including Tina Marie) for keeping the faith and sharing the adventure. I love you all.