Seattle woman narrowly escapes after accepting a ride from Ted Bundy unaware he was a notorious serial killer

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 light yellow Volkswagen Beetle pulled up at the bus stop on Seattle's Rainer Street, and the driver motioned for her to hop in.

She didn't recognize the man but was thankful he had stopped. Podcaster Mr Ballen shares that Sotria was already 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 got 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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However, alarmingly, the route soon became unfamiliar . The driver signaled to take a turn onto a bustling freeway, and just as Sotria was about to point out they were going entirely the wrong way, the driver smiled at her and said: "You know it's a terrible idea to take a ride from a stranger.", reports the Mirror .

In a chilling account, Sotria experienced a terrifying ride when the man driving started to search under his seat as if looking for something. Sotria, in panic, thought of jumping out but realized the passenger door handles were missing.

"Sotria got the strong impression that the man had found whatever it was that he was looking for, some heavy metal object that she never quite got a proper look at," recounted Mr Ballen. "But then something strange happened," he continued, "The man's face changed from determined, and almost cruel, to confused. Sotria watched as his eyes darted up to the top of her head, and the man told her to take off her hat."

"With trembling hands, she did as she was instructed, although she had no idea why he was asking. When the hat was off her head the man looked shocked and he dropped whatever it was he had found under his seat. Sotria heard it land with a heavy metallic thud."

The driver broke the silence by asking, "There was a long tense silence and then when the man finally spoke he just said 'Why did you cut your hair? '" Then, unexpectedly, he drove her safely to her college, remarking that 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 familiar face on TV.

She turned up the volume on the news broadcast to find out that the attractive, wavy-haired man 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 the actual death toll is thought to be 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.