Utah authorities announced that DNA evidence connected serial killer Ted Bundy to the killing of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith, closing a 52-year-old cold case.
DNA testing has connected serial killer Ted Bundy to the 1974 killing of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith, Utah officials announced Tuesday, resolving a cold case that went unsolved for 52 years. PBS NewsHour reported that Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson said investigators are satisfied Bundy was responsible for Smith’s death, which took place shortly after the serial killer moved to the state.
How DNA cracked the case
Investigators solved the case by comparing evidence from Smith’s autopsy to DNA recently tied to Bundy in another Utah murder. According to Fox News, Utah County authorities announced in April that they used new forensic technology to pull a male DNA profile from bodily fluids found on the remains of 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime. Aime vanished on Halloween in 1974 after leaving a party, and hikers later found her body in American Fork Canyon.
When Utah detectives ran that profile through the national CODIS database, it produced a match in Florida, where investigators in 2011 had found a preserved 1978 blood vial taken from Bundy, CBS News reported.
Utah County Sgt. Mike Reynolds said an autopsy examination of Smith produced a highly similar DNA profile linked to Bundy. Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera commended past investigators for keeping the biological material intact over half a century. “This case demonstrates the importance of preserving evidence,” Rivera said.
The death of Melissa Ann Smith
Smith, a high school senior and the daughter of a local police chief, vanished in late October 1974. Hunters discovered her bludgeoned body in the woods on Oct. 27, 1974, exactly 52 years before Tuesday’s announcement. BBC News noted that her remains showed signs of rape and torture.
Olson noted at Tuesday’s news conference that the killing matched Bundy’s established pattern, motive, means and opportunity. Officials said they reached out to Smith’s surviving relatives, none of whom live in the area anymore.
Bundy’s trail of crimes
Bundy killed at least 30 women and girls across several states during the 1970s, while many other victims survived his attacks or escaped. He began killing in the Pacific Northwest before moving to Salt Lake City in September 1974 to study law at the University of Utah. Investigators believe 16-year-old cheerleader Nancy Wilcox was one of his first Utah victims after she vanished on Oct. 2, 1974.
Police first arrested Bundy in 1975 for a Utah kidnapping, which led to a 15-year prison sentence. He escaped custody in 1977 by jumping out of a courthouse library window, was recaptured after eight days, and then escaped a second time. Bundy went on to kill two Florida State University students at the Chi Omega sorority house in 1978 before police caught him again later that year. He received two death sentences in Florida, including one for the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl, and died in the state’s electric chair in 1989. Before his execution, he confessed to multiple killings that law enforcement hadn’t previously linked to him.
Ongoing cold case reviews
Utah authorities are continuing to examine whether Bundy was responsible for other unresolved killings and disappearances across the region. Reynolds said detectives are still reviewing cases connected to Bundy and working to solve Wilcox’s disappearance. “With every case closure, may we stomp the memory of Ted Bundy out,” Reynolds said.
Rivera said the breakthrough should give hope to families waiting for answers in long-running investigations, noting that modern forensic science allows investigators to reexamine physical evidence that sat untouched for decades. State forensic officials reported in April that Utah still has 444 unsolved death investigations, including 258 open homicides.
