Rhonda Stapley Research Paper

The victim I will be writing about is Rhonda Stapely. I do not know her personally, but I have read her story, and watched her interviews. Stapley was one of the infamous Ted Bundy’s victims, but she was lucky enough to survive her attack. Stapley’s story of survival has inspired women all across the country.
October 11th 1974 started out like any other average day for twenty-one year old student Rhonda Stapely. The Utah University student was impatiently sitting at a bus stop, when a man in a Volkswagen beetle pulled up. The handsome man in the car asked where she as going, and offered her a ride to her school. As she got into the car she realized the inner door handle was missing, but it did not raise any concern. The man introduced himself as Ted, and he told her he was also a student. As they were driving she noticed he had gone in the opposite direction of her dorm, but he reassured her that he just needed to make a quick stop. As they continued to drive, Stapely began to worry that Ted was going to park the car and try to kiss her. As he drove down a side road she could see he was looking for a secluded place, and she started to think about polite ways to turn down his advances. After he parked, he turned to face her and leaned in very close to her and whispered “you know

Eventually, she completely dropped out of her social life, and became very depressed. The emotions were so difficult to live with, she started to self-medicate with alcohol. Before the attack, these types of behaviors never occurred and would be completely out of character for her. Finally, after years of struggling, she discovered that she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Since discovering she had a diagnosable mental illness, she has encouraged others to seek help. Stapley makes it clear that the suffering does not end, when the attack ends, but only after you seek