Bundy Timeline

While there may seem, at first, to be no way to pin down the start of the Bundy murders to within a minute or two, an examination of the witness testimony and Juditha Brown's phone records together with a map of the area proves otherwise.

The two Dog Walker animations are analytical tools that anyone can use to check the validity of various testimony and items of evidence against an impartial clock. The motion of the clock's hands are fixed, providing a valid frame of reference for each witness account of what happened in and around the 800 block of Bundy between 10:15 and 11:05. Where the accounts agree with the clock and each other they have to be right. Where they don't agree someone's estimate of time has to be wrong.

All of the barking dog witnesses said that the barking was continuous for over twenty-five minutes. Whether or not their definition of "continuous" takes into account brief pauses of a minute or so, it is enough to know that there was no sustained period of time between 10:33 and 11:00 that a dog wasn't barking furiously. When you set the dog-walkers (Heidstra and Schwab) in motion you can see that 10:34 to 10:48 was the only window of opportunity open to the killer that fits the overlapping testimony of all ten  timeline witnesses in the criminal trial.

Three of those witnesses testified that they heard a dog begin to bark before 10:25. Two of them testified that all was quiet on the 800 block of Bundy before 10:25. Four of them testified that all was quiet within earshot of the murder scene at 10:30. One witness could not say when she heard the dog begin to bark but it was so alarming to her and so persistent that she, a woman who had a barking dog of her own, called Animal Control.

The only way you can fit the sound of a dog barking for twenty five minutes or more to an impartial clock as well as the overlapping testimony of all five witnesses who made independent time checks is to begin at 10:34.

The end time is bounded by how long it took from the initial cut through Ron's left jugular to the puncture of his abdominal aorta (a minimum of five minutes). The end time is also bounded by how how long it took to kill Nicole and leave the evidence of O.J.'s guilt from the courtyard to the alley without getting caught in the act. To insure he would not be caught in the act, the killer would have required a lookout close by.

All of this activity fits within the timeline of Danny Mandel and Ellen Aaronson walking past Nicoles condo at 10:30 without seeing or hearing the Akita or any other commotion. It fits Robert Heidstra and Steven Schwab's normal dog walking routines. It fits Heidstra hearing the barking a few minutes later, walking through the alley, listening to two men arguing, leaving the alley and looking around to see a light-colored SUV turning south from Dorothy to Bundy at 10:47. It fits Lewis Karpf's report of seeing Nicole's Akita alone in the street in front of his condo between 10:45 and 10:50. It fits Steven Schwab's report of finding the bloody Akita on Bundy and Dorothy at 10:55. It does not fit any evidence or testimony that is consistent with O.J. Simpson's appearance on Bundy at any time on the night of the murders. --Jasper