That is one of the reasons Bundy was not apprehended sooner. In 1974 police released a sketch and a profile, 4 women called the police hotline giving them ted Bundy's name. Police did a background check on him and determined that a clean cut, law student could not possibly be the man they were looking for. One was Bundy's girlfriend; one was Anne Rule, who worked with him at the time at a rape crisis hotline center; another was one of his professors and another a State employee.
His girlfriend called the police again after Bundy moved to Utah and murders started happening there. When she called a 3rd time the police added his name to a list of suspects, but did not take the tip seriously.
It wasn't until a police officer stopped him in 1975 because of suspicious behavior that they took a serious look at him. He was driving his Volkswagen early in the AM up and down streets. In his vehicle they found his tools.
because there was insufficient evidence tying him to the murders, they could only charge him for kidnapping. A judge released him on his own recognizance.
Between the time of the original tips in 1974 and his arrest in 1975 he committed 7 more known murders.