George Hawkins

*This article includes details of sexual abuse, sexual assault, and/or rape. Discretion is advised.*

## George Hawkins

### Cause of death

Unknown(Possibly Strangulation)

**Georgann "George" Hawkins** (August 20, 1955 - June 11, 1974) was a young woman who was murdered by Ted Bundy in Seattle, Washington, on June 11, 1974. She was Bundy's sixth known murder victim.

## Background

### Birth and Early Childhood

George was born on August 20, 1955, in Tacoma, Washington. She had an older sister and was raised in an upper-middle class Episcopalian home in Sumner, Washington.

As a child, George's mother described her as a spirited, vivacious, and outgoing person. Her mother also described her as a "wiggle worm," being unable to sit still. She was also very social, being popular with her classmates adoring her. She didn't stick to one specific "clique," making friends with multiple of them.

At one point in her childhood, George developed Osgood-Schlatter disease, leaving multiple small bumps on her patellae. Despite this, she was very athletic, swimming competitively throughout her early childhood, winning many AAU medals.

### Teenage Years

As she entered high school, George transitioned from swimming to cheerleading, being a member of her school's cheerleading team for four consecutive years. Much like in grade school, George was a straight-A student throughout high school.

While George was a senior in 1972 and 1973, she was named a princess to the royal court of the annual Washington Daffodil Festival. She traveled throughout Washington, being featured in numerous newspaper. A highlight of this was when she made a speech addressing lawmakers at the Washington state Legislature.

### College

George's sister was attending a college far from their hometown, so when George announced her plans to attend college, her mother convinced her to enroll in the University of Washington in Seattle, which was close to their home.

George's parents payed for her tuition, books, room, and board, with George paying for all other expenditures herself, working all summer to pay for them. When she was in college, she returned to her parents home on occasional weekends.

George joined the on campus sorority Kappa Alpha Theta. After her time spent as a Daffodil Princess, she formed dreams of becoming a broadcast journalist or a news anchor, which was her plan at the time of her murder. Much like in grade and high school, George was a straight-A student throughout her freshman year, but she was stressed over her upcoming Spanish final at the time of her murder.

## Disappearance

On the night of June 10, 1974, George and one of her sorority sisters attended an on campus party, having a few mixed drinks there. She was planning to study for her Spanish finals, so she didn't stay for long, telling her sorority sister that she planned to go to the Beta Theta Pi House to say goodnight to her boyfriend and collect revision notes before leaving.

George was a cautious person, but she knew the area along the sorority houses extensively, and the alley was brightly lit. She began walking to her boyfriend's fraternity house, and arrived at approximately 12:30 a.m. She spent time with her boyfriend and collecting the notes for about thirty minutes.

When she left to return to her sorority home, she left through the back door, alerting one of the members. He stuck his head out of his window, and recognized her, calling out "Hey George! What's happening?" They talked for about two minutes, and George mentioned her upcoming Spanish finals. After their conversation, George began walking to her sorority house, jokingly shouting "Adios!" George was never seen again.

## Aftermath

### Initial Aftermath

George's roommate became concerned when she didn't return home before 2:00 a.m. She called George's boyfriend, who told her she left his fraternity house an hour prior. After a few more hours with no sign of George, police were called to the campus to search for her. They arrived very quickly, as George wasn't the first college-aged woman to disappear in the area at the time.

One of the campus housemothers reported hearing screaming in the early hours of the morning, at about the time George left her boyfriend's fraternity house, but assumed it was just some students playing a joke, so she went back to sleep. It's unknown if these screams belonged to George.

George was the fifth of many young women to go missing in the area. All of the cases were believed to be connected, and were believed to have been committed by a man in a sling or cast, who went by the name "Ted," as this man was seen in the area at the time of some of the disappearances.

### Possible Discovery of Remains

On September 6, 1974, two hunters came across skeletal remains in Issaquah, Washington. A three-day search was initiated, uncovering two skulls, numerous bones, and tufts of reddish blonde and dark brown hair. The skulls would later be identified as being those of Jan Ott and Denise Naslund, two of the missing women who disappeared in Washington months prior.

The only remains found at the scene that didn't belong to Jan or Denise were a femur and several vertebrae. These remains were believed to have belonged to George, but they couldn't be identified due to the lack of a skull. In 1975, the remains of most of the other missing girls were discovered on Taylor Mountain, but George and another young woman, Donna Manson, remained missing.

### Identification of Killer

The killer would later be identified as Ted Bundy, who was first apprehended in 1975. He had been a suspect in the Washington and Oregon murders for a while, but there was no substantial evidence against him. He escaped in late December 1977, and murdered three women in Florida. He was apprehended for the final time on February 15, 1978.

Bundy confessed to George's murder in effort to avoid execution. He allegedly approached George in the alley after she finished her conversation with the man in the window, limping towards her on crutches, and dropping his briefcase as a ruse. After approaching George, Bundy asked her to assist him in taking his briefcase to his car in the nearby parking lot.

George agreed to help Bundy, and while she was putting his briefcase in his car, Bundy struck her from behind with a crowbar and pushed her into his car, before getting in himself and driving away. One of her shoes and her earrings were left in the parking lot. While Bundy was driving, George woke up, but she was incoherent, talking about her Spanish finals and assuming she was in Bundy's car because he was tutoring her for her finals. Bundy struck her with the crowbar again, knocking her unconscious.

When Bundy had arrived at a secluded location near Lake Sammamish, he took her out of his car before strangling her to death with an old rope. He returned to the scene days later and decapitated George's head, burying it on a rocky hillside in the woods. While he didn't confess to sexually assaulting her, it was part of his *modus operandi* and was his motive.

After murdering George, Bundy returned to the parking lot he abducted George from on his bicycle, and obtained her shoe and earrings from the scene, noticing police hadn't yet searched the area.

Bundy also recalled one of George's femurs being discovered, but remaining unidentified, at around the same time Denise and Jan was discovered. A search for George's remains sparked from this, but no remains were ever found. Bundy was executed on January 24, 1989, and George was declared legally dead on May 27, 1981.

## Sources

* George Hawkins on Wikipedia
* George Hawkins at *NamUs*
* George Hawkins at the *Doe Network*
* George Hawkins at the *Charley Project*
* George Hawkins at *Find a Grave*
* Washington State Archives