True-crime writer Ann Rule, an author renowned for profiling serial killer Ted Bundy in her book, The Stranger Beside Me, has died. She was 83.
Rule died on Sunday, July 26, at the Highline Medical Center in Burien, Wash., a spokesperson for CHI Franciscan Health said in a statement.
Rule's daughter, Leslie Rule, wrote on Facebook that the acclaimed author had battled numerous health scares leading up to her death, including heart failure. "My mom died peacefully last night," Leslie wrote. "She got to see all of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren."
The cause of death remains unknown.
Rule, a former Seattle police officer, first found the spotlight after she published her first and most famous work, The Stranger Beside Me, in 1980. The book has sold more than 2 million copies, and Rule went on to publish dozens of best-selling tomes over the decades.
Rule's final book, Practice to Deceive, was published in 2013. On her website, it says that Rule wrote more than 1,400 articles over her career.
In a 1998 interview with the L.A. Times, Rule said she struggled with crime writing, seeing it as an ethical dilemma. "I thought: 'Oh my God, I'm making a living from somebody else's tragedy. Can I do this?'" she told the paper. "I really care about the people I'm writing about… I finally came to the knowledge I'm doing what I probably was meant to do in life."
Rule leaves behind one ex-husband Bill Rule, and their four children.
