Fugate lived in Lincoln, Nebraska with her mother Velma Bartlett and her stepfather Marion Bartlett. In 1956, at age 13, Fugate got romantically involved to Charles Raymond Starkweather. The man had dropped out of high school. He was born almost five years before Fugate was. They bet by way of Caril's sister Barbara. The latter was dating Starkweather's friend Bob von Busch. Starkweather was a truck unloader for the Western Union newspaper warehouse. 