For nearly 50 years, police and many of Nancy Perry Baird's relatives speculated she might have fallen prey to serial killer Ted Bundy. Now, a review of case files obtained by KSL's COLD podcast is casting doubt on that theory of Bundy's involvement.
LAYTON — A young woman disappeared from a gas station where she worked on July 4, 1975. Investigators at the time believed someone had abducted and murdered Nancy Perry Baird, but they were never able to locate her remains.
Anderson wrote he then left the Fina station and drove to another gas station on the opposite corner of the highway. In his report, he described looking back toward the Fina between 5:20 and 5:30 p.m., noticing a green van parked outside. He "went over to check it out," without explaining why the van piqued his suspicion.
In a report, Payne wrote Williams had taken two of his children, David, 14, and Jana, 9, to the Fina station at about 5:15 p.m. the prior afternoon. The Williams children had entered the convenience store while their father remained outside, filling his car with gasoline.Payne also interviewed David and Jana Williams. The Williams children reportedly described seeing two men at the counter, presumably speaking to Nancy Baird, while they were at the convenience store.
The report said Nancy Baird had not appeared "alarmed or nervous" at the time of her interaction with Jana Williams.Jana Williams Grow and David Williams are the last people known to have seen Nancy Perry Baird. This 1970s-era Identi-kit allowed police to generate composite images of faces by stacking transparencies of individual features.
The two men are described in police reports as "hippie types." David Williams told COLD he also recalled seeing a brown "hippie van" outside the Fina station, though this detail was not included in any of the reports obtained by COLD through an open records request. Detectives also questioned several of Nancy Baird's current and former boyfriends. One of them, a man named Dennis Forsgren, told investigators he'd been out of state vacationing with his family at the time. Investigators later verified this.
Davis County detectives learned Torres was in Pocatello, Idaho. They asked the Bannock County Sheriff's Office in Idaho to locate and interview him. According to a report, a Bannock County detective made contact with Torres, describing him as "quite jittery." Drake reportedly said she heard "Tom" make a threatening sexual comment toward Nancy Baird. Drake ordered "Tom" to leave, at which point the man drove away in a yellow Volkswagen van.
Still, some investigators continued operating on a belief Bundy was somehow involved in whatever had happened to Baird.In July of 1975, Jackson was the most junior member of the East Layton police force. Case records show Jackson did not play a significant role in the investigation. But Jackson told COLD he'd not bought into the speculation about Bundy. Jackson had instead wondered if his colleague, officer Dave Anderson, might have been the culprit.
Jackson then replaced Anderson as East Layton's only full-time officer. Jackson said he deferred on handling the Nancy Baird investigation, telling the Davis County Sheriff's Office he preferred they manage the case.A few months later, in 1986, Jackson also quit the East Layton Police Department to take a job in the private security sector. The Nancy Baird case then lapsed into cold status.
The jury did not agree. On July 24, 1979, the jury found Bundy guilty of murder. A week later, Bundy received the first of two death sentences that would keep him firmly, finally, in custody.It took nearly a decade before Florida would execute Bundy by electrocution on Jan. 24, 1989. This graphic from a Jan. 24, 1989, KSL-TV story shows the Utah victims Ted Bundy admitted to killing shortly before his execution. Police suspected the unidentified fifth victim could’ve been Nancy Baird.
It comes by way of a professional archivist and researcher named Tiffany Jean, who, in 2019, began gathering and"I looked at the case a little bit and I thought that it didn't quite fit M.O.," Jean said.
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