Ted Bundy’s ex-girlfriend still doesn’t believe the man she loved was a serial killer and rapist

When Elizabeth Kendall approached Ted Bundy in a Seattle bar in 1969, she thought she had found a man who had everything.

Smart, sweet and charming Bundy, then a psychology student at the University of Washington, wooed her. He also sneaked into her family and helped Kendall – a single mother – look after her three-year-old daughter Molly.

The couple were together for five years and the relationship was largely happy.

At the same time, increasing numbers of young women were being murdered and raped in several states.

In 1974, when Kendall learned that police were looking for a suspect who drove a white Volkswagen Beetle (like Bundy) and introduced himself to his victims as “Ted,” he called the police. She confessed her fears that her boyfriend could be the wanted murderer.

He was.

“I’m still in disbelief that this man who I loved and who seemed like a great guy could do such terrible things,” Elizabeth Kendall says in a special episode of ABC’s “20/20” airing tonight at 9 p.m. ET and also features her daughter Molly Kendall. “It’s just so hard to accept.”

Mother and daughter spoke out for the first time in 40 years for Amazon Original’s five-part documentary. Ted Bundy: Falling in love with a murdereravailable Friday on Amazon Prime Video.

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Kendall says she thought she would marry Bundy one day and admits, “I always felt loved,” although she notes, “But with Ted, that’s impossible to say. It could have been love, it could have been just another manipulation.”

She still has photos from her years with Ted – and their complicated relationship inspired her memoir. The Phantom Prince.

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Although Kendall says she feels a strong sense of guilt for letting Bundy into her and her daughter’s life, she is grateful that they survived – and she hopes to use her profound experience to help others overcome to help from trauma. “I hope that (others) will realize that it is possible to go through terrible, traumatic experiences and that it is possible to rebuild your life,” Kendall said, according to ABC.

RELATED: The True Story of Ted Bundy’s “Girl Who Got Away”

Bundy was arrested in 1975 and, after two dramatic prison escapes and many years behind bars, executed in Florida in January 1989. Before his death, Bundy confessed to more than 30 murders he committed in seven states between 1974 and 1978.

“I hate to even say this because it makes him sound normal, but I think he loved us,” Kendall admits.