DNA connects serial killer Ted Bundy to the death of a Utah teenager, authorities announced Tuesday, exactly 52 years after her body was discovered in the woods by a hunter.
Bundy has been dead since 1989, but the tally of his confirmed victims continues to grow because of advances in DNA testing. He killed at least 30 women and girls in multiple states in the 1970s, and many more escaped or survived with injuries.
Investigators are satisfied that Bundy was responsible for killing 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith in 1974, a death that had long been listed as a cold case, Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson said at a news conference.
Besides DNA evidence, Smith’s death had the hallmarks of Bundy’s “pattern, motive, means and opportunity,” Olson said.
Investigators were able to close the cold case by making crucial DNA connections between Smith and Laura Aime, another Bundy victim whose case was resolved last April in Utah County.
A highly similar DNA profile linked to Bundy was found in evidence obtained from Smith’s autopsy, Utah County Sgt. Mike Reynolds said.
“This case demonstrates the importance of preserving evidence,” said Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera.
Officials have been in touch with Smith’s next of kin, none of whom still live in the area.
“With every case closure, may we stomp the memory of Ted Bundy out,” Reynolds said.
Bundy was executed in 1989 by electric chair in Florida for the 1978 murders of two women at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University.
He gave a series of confessions in his final days, including to some crimes that were previously unknown to police. Not all of those cases have been confirmed.
Besides Florida and Utah, authorities said Bundy had victims in Colorado, Idaho and Washington state. They said they’re working to solve the death of 16-year-old Nancy Wilcox, another likely victim in Utah.
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