Ted Bundy's girlfriend Liz Kendall – also known as Elizabeth Kloepfer – was introduced in Netflix's true-crime hit, The Ted Bundy Tapes, earlier this year. Now there's renewed interest in Liz’s story thanks to the Bundy biopic, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile.
Who is Liz Kendall, what’s the true story of what happened between her and Ted and where is she now?
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Director Joe Berlinger is behind both Bundy projects. Each provide a detailed deep-dive into the mind of the notorious serial killer, as well as the lives that he touched and the media frenzy he created.
Extremely Wicked is based on the non-fiction book The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy, which was written by Bundy's former girlfriend Liz Kendall and published in 1981. The film is told, for the most part, from her viewpoint.
The film opens in a bar in Seattle, setting the scene for Liz and Ted's first meeting. A single mother with a daughter from a previous relationship, she and Bundy set up house together.
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In Extremely Wicked the part of Liz is played by Lily Collins, and it turns out that the pair of them met while preparing for the role.
During an exclusive interview with Digital Spy, Joe Berlinger explained: "I found it was important for all of us to meet. Liz, honestly, was very ambivalent about doing the movie. She has very mixed feelings. It’s still a painful experience for her. But I thought all of us meeting would actually be somewhat healing for her. She wanted to meet."
He added: "So the meeting could have gone in a lot of different ways, but Lily immediately put her at ease, and made her feel comfortable. It was really such a privilege to watch the two of them interact. Obviously I was part of the meeting too, but it was really for them."
Berlinger also said that the meeting made him realise that the path they were on for the movie, to tell the story from Elizabeth’s perspective, was the right one.
Ted Bundy could be heard discussing his relationship with Liz in one of the recorded interviews featured in the Ted Bundy Tapes.
During the Netflix docu-series Bundy also described how he had a hard time adjusting to this sense of normality; in audio used in the series, Bundy revealed how he'd struggled with day-to-day things like cooking and cleaning, as well as opening himself up to family life.
Eerily, Bundy also hinted that he had been "hiding" parts of himself from his then-girlfriend, perhaps alluding to the disturbing things he had been getting away with in secret.
Related: Extremely Wicked director defends movie against backlash that it 'glorifies Ted Bundy'
It is now understood that, during the 1970s, Bundy had committed a number of violent crimes against women in the Washington area. His then-girlfriend Elizabeth had been unaware, but did contact police as soon as she started to become suspicious that something darker could have been going on.
An eyewitness to two 1974 disappearances in Lake Sammamish State Park had named the suspect as a man introducing himself as "Ted", but the police had little else to go on. It wasn't until Elizabeth came forward that a fuller picture started to form.
"He mentioned an incident about following a sorority girl. When he was out late at night and he would follow people like that," Elizabeth told police.
In the documentary, Liz also described to police that Ted had left early "the night that Brenda Ball disappeared". Ball was one of the other women known to be missing at the time.
At that time, Liz was still unsure of Bundy's involvement. "In my own mind there were coincidences that seemed to tie him in, yet when I would think about our day-to-day relationship there was nothing there that would lead me to think that he was a violent man capable of doing something like that," she said during an archival interview included in the Ted Bundy Tapes.
With the addition of the information given by Liz, the police started to connect the dots and Ted Bundy became their prime suspect. But with no material evidence to connect him to any crimes, they were unable to make an arrest.
At this point Bundy moved to Utah, and a similar pattern of missing women started to emerge. In 1978 he was finally arrested for the attempted kidnapping of 18-year-old Carol DaRonch, but he escaped police custody.
When Ted was arrested again, he refused to give his real name; it was at this point that he got back in touch with Elizabeth, trading his identity to the authorities in exchange for a phone call.
"He repeated over and over again that this was really going to be bad when it broke," Liz said of her conversation with Ted during a police interview at the time. "That it was not going to break until tomorrow morning and be in the press, but it was going to be really ugly."
Elizabeth told the investigators that she had asked Ted whether he was referring to the murder of some sorority girls, and he told her that he "wouldn't talk about it".
According to Liz's account,he then went on to say that he wished he could talk to her "without anyone listening" so that he could explain "why he was the way he is".
During a second phone conversation from prison, Elizabeth told police that Ted had admitted to being "sick", and that he had told her he was "consumed by something that he didn't understand".
Related: How to watch Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile in the UK
This is the last time that Elizabeth Kloepfer (Liz Kendall) is referred to in Netflix's Ted Bundy Tapes, but it's far from the end of her story. It's believed that Liz continued to have some communication with the killer after his incarceration.
In 1981, she published her book under the pseudonym Elizabeth (or Liz) Kendall. It details how she met Ted, what their relationship was like and how she felt about him after his guilt became known.
In her book, it's clear that Liz had been conflicted in her feelings for Ted. She described him as "warm and loving", and yet admitted that she was "sickened by him".
Since the release of her memoirs, Elizabeth has not spoken publicly and has stayed out of the spotlight.
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is released on May 3 in UK cinemas and on Sky Cinema. The Ted Bundy Tapes is available to stream on Netflix now.
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TV Editor, Digital Spy Laura has been watching television for over 30 years and professionally writing about entertainment for almost 10 of those. Previously at LOOK and now heading up the TV desk at the UK's biggest TV and movies site Digital Spy, Laura has helped steer conversations around some of the most popular shows on the box. Laura has appeared on Channel 5 News and radio to talk viewing habits and TV recommendations. As well as putting her nerd-level Buffy knowledge to good use during an IRL meet with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Laura also once had afternoon tea with One Direction, has sat around the fire pit of the Love Island villa, spoken to Sir David Attenborough about the world's oceans and even interviewed Rylan from inside the Big Brother house (housemate status, forever pending).
