Edna Martin harbored a chilling family secret for over 50 years: her beloved cousin Ted Bundy was one of America's most notorious serial killers. Living just a few blocks away from Bundy in Washington state, Martin once felt an ironic sense of safety from the very predator terrorizing women in their community, a revelation she shares in the upcoming Oxygen documentary Love, Ted Bundy.
While attending the University of Washington, Martin was unwittingly in close proximity to Bundy as he carried out his infamous modus operandi of raping and murdering young women. Amid widespread fear of an unidentified predator, she recalled Bundy's presence as oddly reassuring. "We knew that there was a predator out there, and we were his prey," Martin said. "The ironic thing is, I felt safer because Ted lived so close. Ted would come over, we would talk about this and how much we were scared and he was very sympathetic."
The facade shattered following Bundy's arrest on August 16, 1975, for the kidnapping of Carol DaRonch in Utah. At the time, Martin was working on a ship in Alaska when she received a devastating phone call from her brother confirming the accusations against her cousin.
In an interview with Fox, Martin described her family's initial disbelief. "My parents, my brother — we were just saying, 'This can't be. It has to be some kind of mistake. They caught the wrong guy. Maybe he was in the wrong place at the wrong time,'" she recounted, capturing the shock that rippled through her family.
The moment of realization hit Martin like a tidal wave aboard the ship. "Everything kind of shut down after that," she said. "I just needed some air. The whole ship is thrumming and vibrating, and I break through onto the deck outside, and I am running and I am just screaming."
Reflecting on the betrayal, Martin expressed profound trauma over discovering the "monster within" someone she had trusted her entire life. "I just needed to get it out of my system that, no, this can't be true, that someone you've grown up with, someone you trusted, someone who you felt safe with, could possibly have done this," she stated, underscoring the enduring family pain.
