Before he was executed in Florida in 1989, Ted Bundy, one of the country’s most notorious serial killers, confessed to killing 30 women.
One of them was Laura Ann Aime, a 17-year-old from Fairview, Utah, whose body was found by two college students hiking in the American Fork Canyon, southeast of Salt Lake City, on Nov. 27, 1974.
On Wednesday, Utah County detectives said they were finally able to confirm that Mr. Bundy had killed Ms. Aime, based on DNA evidence that had been preserved for more than 50 years.
The Utah County Sheriff’s Office said DNA extracted from semen swabbed from Ms. Aime’s body in 1974 had been entered into a national criminal database. That DNA matched DNA from Mr. Bundy that had been entered into the database in Florida, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office said.
The Sheriff’s Office said it did not consider Mr. Bundy’s confession sufficient evidence to close Ms. Aime’s case because he had refused to provide any details that would corroborate that he had killed her. Now, it said, the case is closed.
“We can now say without a doubt that Theodore ‘Ted’ Bundy did, in fact, murder Laura Ann Aime in the fall of 1974, and that law enforcement now has DNA testing results that are compatible with the latest DNA testing standards,” Mike Smith, the Utah County sheriff, said at a news conference. “This will make any future DNA test comparison easier for those law enforcement agencies who still have open cases involving Bundy.”
Michelle Impala, Ms. Aime’s younger sister, who was 12 when she was killed, said at the news conference that she had not known the case was open. She said she was grateful that investigators had re-examined the evidence as part of a review of cold cases in Utah County.
“It’s really quite amazing that people even are still interested in Laura’s case,” she said. “But I appreciate it.”
Investigators said Ms. Aime’s murder fit the pattern Mr. Bundy used during his reign of terror in the 1970s.
A law student, he often abducted young women from college campuses at night or crowded parks in daytime, when their defenses were lowered in familiar settings. Witness accounts and other evidence suggested he used his good looks and soft-spoken charm to lure victims. Sometimes, he showed off a bandaged arm or leg to gain sympathy.
He often throttled his victims and then sexually abused and mutilated them before disposing of their bodies in remote areas.
Ms. Aime was last seen leaving a Halloween party in Utah County on the evening of Oct. 31, 1974. Witnesses said she left alone and told people she was going to purchase some items from a convenience store.
Investigators believe that Mr. Bundy abducted her and kept her alive for days or weeks before murdering her. When her body was found in American Fork Canyon, she was not wearing clothes, and she had been bound and severely beaten. A nylon stocking that had been used to strangle her was found nearby.
At the news conference on Wednesday, Ms. Impala recalled how she close she was with her sister. They shared a bedroom and spent a lot of time together, riding horses, she said. Ms. Aime was especially fond of her horse, Arab, and would feed him red licorice nibs as a treat, Ms. Impala said. After Ms. Aime died, the horse refused to eat more licorice, Ms. Impala said.
She said believed her sister would be pleased that a DNA match had allowed detectives to close her case.
“I know that she would be really happy to know that it’s been closed, and just to know that Ted Bundy is, like, gnashing his teeth in hell,” Ms. Impala said. “I hate to think of people doing that. But with him and a few other people in the world, that’s what they deserve.”
Michael Levenson covers breaking news for The Times from New York.
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