Seattle woman accepted lift from weird stranger – four years later she realised who he was

On a chilly, snow-filled day in the winter of 1972, 22-year-old student Sotria Kritsonis was heading to college donning a cozy wool hat to shield her fresh haircut.

After waiting for a bus for nearly an hour, a pale yellow Volkswagen Beetle pulled up at the bus stop on Seattle's Rainer Street. The driver motioned for her to hop in. Although she didn't recognise him, she appreciated his gesture.

Podcaster Mr Ballen narrates that Sotria was running late for school and was excited to meet her friends. He said: "Despite that she loved her new hair. In fact, she deliberately wore this big hat to hide her haircut because this would make the reveal to her friends at school that much better."

When the VW driver offered her a ride to school, she was thrilled and quickly hopped into the car. "Sotria sat back in the seat, enjoying the warm air blasting out of the vents and as she did she looked out her window at the familiar route passing by," Mr Ballen added.

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But things took a turn when the route became unfamiliar. The driver signalled to take a turn onto a bustling freeway.

Just as Sotria was about to point out they were headed in the wrong direction, the driver turned to her with a smile and said: "You know it's a terrible idea to take a ride from a stranger."

In a terrifying turn of events, the man began to search under his seat as if looking for something. Sotria contemplated jumping out of the moving car, but was horrified to find that the door handles had been removed from her side.

Sotria sensed that the man had located what he was searching for - a heavy metal object she couldn't quite see.

"But then something strange happened," Mr Ballen narrated. "The man's expression shifted from determined and almost cruel, to puzzled. Sotria watched as his gaze moved to the top of her head, and he instructed her to remove her hat."

With shaking hands, she complied, unsure of his intentions. Once her hat was off, the man appeared taken aback and dropped the object he had found.

Sotria heard it hit the floor with a metallic thud. A tense silence ensued before the man finally asked: "Why did you cut your hair?"

To Sotria's surprise and relief, he then turned the car around and dropped her off at her college, telling her she was "lucky."

She brushed off the strange encounter and didn't even report it to the police, considering the man was odd and unsettling but hadn't caused her any harm. Sotria had nearly forgotten about that chilly morning until she saw a face she recognized on television.

She increased the volume of the news broadcast to find out that the attractive man with wavy hair being led into a courtroom by police was none other than Ted Bundy. The notorious serial killer had enticed dozens of young women into his VW Beetle before attacking them with a tire iron, sexually assaulting them, and then mutilating their bodies.

Bundy eventually admitted to around 30 murders across the US, but it's believed the actual number of victims is much higher. All of Bundy's known victims were young white women, like Sotria, and most of them had long dark hair, parted in the middle.

To this day, Sotria believes that her hairstyle at the time saved her life.