Debi Kent

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

## Debi Kent

### Cause of death

Unknown

**Debra Jean "Debi" Kent** (March 12, 1957 - c. November 8, 1974) was a teenager who was murdered by Ted Bundy in Bountiful or Fairview, Utah, on November 8, 1974. She was Bundy's twelfth known murder victim.

## Background

Debi was born on March 12, 1957, in Utah. Details surrounding her life are unavailable.

## Disappearance

On November 8, 1974, Debi was at her school play. She had to leave to pick up her brother, but she was never seen again.

## Aftermath

### Initial Aftermath

Debi's drama teacher and a student said they said a strange man asking the student to go with him to the parking lot to identify a car. Another student spotted the same man pacing at the end of the auditorium, and the drama teacher saw him again at the end of the play.

Police found a small key in the school's parking lot when searching for Debi. The key was identified when it unlocked a pair of handcuffs that was attached to the wrist of Carol DaRonch, by a man who attempted to abduct her, but accidentally attached both cuffs to the same wrist. This happened the same day Debi was abducted.

The nude body of a teenage girl was found in American Fork Canyon, Utah, on November 27, 1974. The girl had been murdered, but her face was beaten beyond recognition, so she couldn't be visually identified. The body was believed to be Debi's, but dental records disproved it. The body would later be identified as Laura Aime, who was last seen on October 31, 1974.

Debi's remains weren't found, meaning she remained a missing person, but she was believed to have been murdered.

### Identification of Killer

Debi's suspected killer would later be identified as Ted Bundy, who was first apprehended in 1975. He was a suspected in many disappearances in Washington and Oregon, but it's unknown if he was during the Utah murders. 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 Debi's murder. He claimed her abducted Debi, and took her to his house, where he held her captive for an unknown period of time, presumably assaulting her. He murdered her and claimed to have left her body near Fairview, Utah.

### Discovery of Patella

In May 1989, searches of the are were made in efforts to recover Debi's remains. They accumulated over ten bags of animal bones, but in one of those bags was a human patella, otherwise known as a knee cap.

They determined it belonging to a woman or smaller man, who was approximately fifteen to thirty years old. Without any teeth, they couldn't make a positive identification. Despite this, the patella was presumed to be Debi's so it was given to her family.

### Identification

In 2015, human remains were discovered in Fruit Heights, Utah. They presumably weren't Debi's but it caused police to review their missing persons cases, one of which being Debi. The patella was considered lost, but when they watched an interview with Debi's mother, she showed a box, with the patella inside.

Hoping to identify the patella with advanced DNA technology, police obtained the patella from Debi's mother, and extracted DNA. They tested the DNA against Debi's, and it was a match. The identification was publicly announced in 2019. Debi is no longer considered a missing person.

## Sources

* Ted Bundy on Wikipedia
* Debi Kent at *Find a Grave*
* *Deseret News*
* *The Naples Daily News* (subscription required)