They are survivors not only because they escaped death, but because they attempted to live normal lives despite all that was taken from them. They are speaking out about the event unlike Valerie Duke, who also made it out alive from the murder by not being present during the scene. Valerie refused to get psychological help due to the fact that she believed there was a “stigma attached to mental health counselling” (Wilson, 1989, p. 6). Not speaking out caused her to commit suicide on May 1st, 1979, making her yet another victim of Ted Bundy. According to Laurence Gonzales, “survival means accepting reality, and accepting reality takes a hard heart.” (Gonzalez, 2003, p.210). This is to say, to survive one must accept the situation they are in, face the problem head on, and make tough decisions. All of which Duke failed to do. She failed to accept that she was alive while many of her sisters were not, recognize the need of psychological help, and make the hard decision to reach out to others for assistance. For this reason, Valerie Duke did not survive the infamous serial