From Sweetheart to Suspect: Ron Eng Tells His Story

A young man sits in court on a scorching day in Miami, being questioned by Ted Bundy’s defense team. He’s not on trial, but the way the defense team treats him for pre-trial testimony, he might as well be. Originally named a suspect in the Chi Omega attacks of four young women, Ron Eng had come to court determined not to be railroaded by authorities for the acts of another man. The women attacked were his friends, and under no circumstances would he have harmed them. However, though police were eventually convinced he wasn’t involved, court officials weren’t so sure. Now, he was being questioned fervently in court as if he hadn’t already been through one of the most harrowing experiences of his life. As the defense attorney implies that Ron could have committed the murders, presiding Judge Edward Cowart stops the questioning and advises the young man to leave the stand. Walking out of the courtroom, Ron is eager to leave behind the grief and suspicion that had been stalking him over the past year.  

Crimes in Tallahassee

When we think back on the 1978 Chi Omega murders, it conjures up a time of chaos and terror for young female students on the campus of Florida State University. A violent killer was on the loose, having attacked five women in one night, and a sense of fear fell over the student body during the month-long wait for his capture. Every shadow, every strange sound seemed to spook them and induce panic. Young women clung to each other, afraid to trust any male that walked by them or even looked in their direction. Some chose to leave campus and not return, and others decided to ramp up security measures, including locking doors to their dorm rooms and cars, despite how unnecessary it had seemed in the past.

A world away from the Bundy crimes in the western states, Florida wasn’t prepared for the violence Ted brought with him after his escape from a Colorado jail. He had been in custody for over two years and was itching to regain his freedom again. Though Tallahassee authorities were notified he was an escaped convict, police weren’t able to see how his organized-style killings would match this obviously impulsive and disorganized crime scene. Unfortunately, police had no way of knowing that Bundy’s earliest known crimes had involved breaking and entering, leaving behind chaotic crimes. Unfortunately, that lack of knowledge allowed Ted to get away with his Tallahassee crimes and to commit a further murder in Lake City, Florida, before being captured.

A Fresh Start

Life was just starting for Ron Eng, who went by Ronnie during his college years, when he began his studies at Florida State University. Fascinated with music during his childhood in Boca Raton, it was his goal to study classical guitar at FSU’s prestigious School of Music. Though it took a few tries to get in, Ron landed a spot there and found lodging on campus in 1974. Putting himself through school wasn’t easy, but he made it work. Luckily, his sister lived in Tallahassee, and her husband had been a waiter at the Chi Omega sorority house.

He helped Ron get a job as a waiter there during his freshman year. Though the job wasn’t a paying one, the eight waiters on staff got free food during the meals they served including: lunch five days a week, dinner four days a week, Saturday brunch and Sunday lunch. Ron worked as a waiter at Chi Omega through his freshman year of school.

Putting oneself through music school can entail a great deal of struggle and, though his parents helped where they could, Ron always could use more money. Somehow, Chi Omega’s house mother must have known Ron was having financial troubles. At the beginning of his sophomore year, she asked if he’d like to be the house boy, a handyman role, because it was a paying position. Having enjoyed his time as a waiter at the sorority and because he already got along well with the women at the house, Ron leapt at the opportunity. He could certainly use the money and the additional breakfast this position included. The role of house boy included tasks like: gardening, mopping, washing breakfast dishes, fixing the combination lock on the back door that kept sticking, and other various small jobs around the house. Ron’s days for the next two years were full of classes, work, and spending time with friends.

During his sophomore year, he moved to the Pensacola Arms apartments off campus, near the Chi Omega house. He felt lucky to have the job at the sorority house and had gotten to know the sisters there really well. In fact, he often ran into them everywhere on campus and felt like he had eighty sisters no matter where he went. He was regularly invited to their house parties, which helped his social life. When the sorority sisters had their winter social during his sophomore year, Ron was voted “sweetheart” of the sorority house as part of their annual tradition. This role was designed to reward outside individuals that are most involved in the sorority.

Ron was constantly doing maintenance on the combination lock on the back door. It had a habit of sticking and often made it difficult for the women to enter the premises. He knew that sometimes the women would prop the door open to avoid having difficulties when entering. However, they wouldn’t always close it completely at night. Various reports indicated the lock on the back door was broken, but this information was never confirmed by police. In fact, former Leon County sheriff Ken Katsaris stated that the status of the lock was “unconfirmed.” Ron later feared the door being ajar could have been what allowed Bundy easy entry.

Chi Omega Attack

Ted made his way to Florida after escaping a Colorado prison on December 30, 1977. He was having a hard time keeping a lid on his murderous rages, especially after having been in police custody since October of 1975. While awaiting trial for a different crime in Colorado, he found the means to escape from captivity and made his way to the warmest, sunniest state he could imagine. Frankly, he was tired of all the snow in Colorado. He managed to stay away from trouble for approximately a week, though he had begun stalking a young FSU student whom he was determined to murder soon.

Ted moved stealthily through the shadows in the early morning hours of January 15, 1978, entering the Chi Omega house at approximately 2:45 A.M. He ascended the stairs to the second floor with a piece of oak wood in hand, purloined from a stack of firewood next to the entrance. He bludgeoned and strangled Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy in their dorm rooms. Moving to room #8, he rained down powerful blows on roommates Kathy Kleiner and Karen Chandler, before being interrupted by glaring car headlights beaming through their large window.

Leaving his latest victims wounded and in great distress, Bundy immediately departed the room and bolted down the stairs to the first floor. In that exact moment, Nita Neary rounded the corner, stopping dead in her tracks. She saw a man in profile in the dark foyer, wearing a watch cap, and holding a weapon in his hand. She immediately assumed he was Ron, despite him bearing little resemblance to the house boy. In that split second of misidentification, which was no fault of Ms. Neary’s, Ron’s life was upended and he was viewed as a suspect by police.

Students came together to memorialize Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy on campus shortly after the attacks. Classmates and sorority sisters remembered Margaret and Lisa fondly. They were athletes on the flag football team and Lisa was on the basketball team. Ron coached both teams and knew both of them from their time playing. Remembered as outgoing and attractive, Margaret she drew people to her without much effort. Ron spoke often with Lisa and really enjoyed their conversations. In fact, he spoke with both women regularly, but during this memorial, grief surrounded Ron from every direction. He saw many familiar faces who all came to honor the lives of the young women. Walking on campus became distressing despite having once felt so carefree in the Florida sunshine. No young woman would look any male in the eye anymore.

Two days after the murders, the lives of Florida State students were still reeling. Nothing like these attacks had ever happened, and they were on edge while trying to attend class. Many of them found it difficult to focus, wondering why police hadn’t arrested a suspect for the attacks at Chi Omega and at nearby Dunwoody Street. The sisters of Chi Omega were very nervous about the attacks. The men working in the house were trying to console them, but they also had to do their jobs. Several Chi Omega waiters, including Ron, were sleeping in the common areas of the sorority house so the women wouldn’t be there alone.

Ron’s sleep came fitfully, when it came at all. When he woke up on the Wednesday after the crimes occurred, his body ached, and his throat was sore, so he decided to return to his apartment to rest. At precisely the moment Ron was about to fall into his bed, his phone rang. The Tallahassee Sheriff’s department asked if he was free for an interview. Bone-weary and feeling weak, he requested an interview in the afternoon. Instead, the man on the phone told him they would be at his home within fifteen seconds. As soon as Ron hung up the phone, police officers stood at his door, demanding entry. They searched his apartment and insisted he come downtown to discuss the Chi Omega crimes. Feeling overwhelmed, and being too young to know better, Ron acquiesced.

At police headquarters, and without being advised of his Miranda rights, Ron was questioned for several hours. The young man wasn’t aware that he didn’t have to talk with authorities without an attorney, he didn’t know anything he said could be used against him in court, nor did he realize he could request an attorney before talking with police. He was advised by authorities that he was being seriously questioned in order to clear his involvement in the case, not that it made things easier.

Ron gave his alibi to authorities for the night of January 14, 1978. He had spent the evening out with friends, then returned to his off-campus apartment and went to bed. There wasn’t a moment unaccounted for in his evening. Still, police treated him like he was a criminal, and he worried he would be railroaded into giving a false confession.

Authorities pressured him to take a polygraph test, asking intrusive questions like, “Did you rape and strangle Margaret Bowman?” He was aghast at the caliber of questions he was forced to endure about women he cared a great deal about. Ron couldn’t understand how he was suspected in these attacks, especially since his alibi was iron-clad. He knew he was innocent, but realized that police didn’t know that. Thought he was later cleared by his polygraph, it was a harrowing ordeal. What Ron couldn’t have known at the time was that his name had been given to police by sorority sister, Nita Neary, who initially thought she saw him leaving the house that morning.

Eyewitness testimony is demonstrably unreliable and often leads to incorrect identification of a suspect. However, it is still considered solid information when prosecuting a crime. The Innocence Project’s web site states: “Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide, playing a role in nearly 75% of convictions overturned through DNA testing.” It’s clear that Nita was simply guessing at the identity of the man leaving the house in the dark and her initial thought was to try to recognize the person at the door. Ron didn’t hear anything about the case for more than a year when he was subpoenaed for Ted Bundy’s Miami trial.

1979 Miami Trial

Ted’s trial moved from Tallahassee to Miami to ensure a fair trial, despite his statewide notoriety. Pre-trial motions began in the Chi Omega-Dunwoody Street case in May of 1979. Ted’s defense team called all of the Chi Omega waiters and, of course, Ron, to be deposed during the pre-trial motions. The goal of the defense in interviewing Ron was to create doubt based on Nita Neary’s identification of their client. They were hoping to redirect suspicion on someone other than Ted. Ron was asked to stand next to Ted before his questioning, and it was clear that the two men could have resembled one another in the dark, crouching at the front door of the sorority house. The defense team was desperate to prove it was likely for the two to be confused for one another, and hoped to acquit their client on this unfortunate misidentification. Ron patiently awaited their inquiries and, though seemingly calm in court, he was on pins and needles. Not only had he driven over an hour from Boca Raton to Miami, but now he was all-but-being accused by Ted’s defense team of having committing the attacks.

Sitting in front of the Miami courtroom, his nerves were frazzled, but he appeared nonchalant. Ron had graduated from Florida State the previous December, but this case was still haunting him. Ron could hear his heart beating rapidly. He tried not to look into the defendant’s eyes, instead focusing on the attorney lobbing questions at him. He figured, if he could push through and answer their questions, he could soon return to his daily life.

Though he was innocent, Ron worried that he would be implicated nonetheless. When questioned by one of the defense attorneys, Judge Cowart did not approve of their line of questioning. He slammed his gavel, interrupting the interrogation, and reprimanding the attorney stating, “We’re done, that’s it. You’re not going to try and incriminate Mr. Eng. He’s not on trial here.”

Aside from being asked to stand near Bundy during the pre-trial motions, Ron had no further interaction with the alleged killer and Bundy neither said nor did anything in unusual when Ron stood nearby. It was as if Ted was waiting with baited-breath for the comparison to offer enough reasonable doubt to have his charges dropped. In the end, Ted was charged with two counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder, and breaking and entering. He was found guilty and received two death sentences for the murders of Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy.

The Aftermath After the Trial

After his father’s sudden death in 1980 at fifty years old, and after having endured this tragedy, Ron began to compartmentalize his feelings. It became very difficult for him to emote and, though he didn’t realize it until years later, what he was experiencing was not normal. Ron found he had trust issues and held his emotions inside. Thinking back on the events, he realized that he never cried for the young women who died.

Trauma can cause dissociation in people, causing an inability to process feelings. Often it leads to an avoidance of emotion as a coping strategy. Ron couldn’t work through his feelings after the Chi Omega attacks and found it easier to push them down instead of dealing with them. As a result of this experience, Ron learned how to navigate the world by shutting down emotionally and found it difficult to trust others. Ron likely compartmentalized his feelings because his experience had been so isolating. He didn’t have other survivors around him to share his feelings or to process them. Leaving college meant leaving an entire world full of his peers and, not only did Ron leave the school, but he left the entire state. It took going to therapy before he realized how truly affected he had been by the whole experience.

After graduation from FSU in December of 1978, Ron started his career teaching guitar at a local music store and playing music in bars at night. After some time spent between Florida and California, Ron finally settled life on the west coast. In time, he joined a road band and traveled throughout the western United States. He later settled down, got married, gaining two stepchildren, and found himself putting sound to movies, including: Coraline, Mulholland Drive, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Cruella, John Wick: Chapter 3, and Twin Peaks. He’s living a semi-retired life now, though memories of Lisa and Margaret will always remain with him.

REFERENCES:

 “Eyewitness Misidentification.” Innocence Project.  https://innocenceproject.org/eyewitness-misidentification/ 

Eng, Ron. Interview. Conducted by E.J. Hammon. December 7, 2023.

Katsaris, Ken. Interview. Conducted by E.J. Hammon. December 12, 2020.

Lilienfield, Scott. “Why Science Tells Us Not To Rely On Eyewitness Accounts.” Scientific American, https://www.scientificamerican./article/do-the-eyes-have-it/ January 1, 2010.

 “Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services.” National Library of Medicine, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207191 2014.