Ted Bundy Linked by DNA to Utah Teenager's 1974 Killing More Than 50 Years After Her Body Was Found

Authorities have linked Ted Bundy to the 1974 killing of 17-year-old Utah teenager Melissa Ann Smith through DNA evidence, more than 50 years after her body was found. Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson stated that investigators were satisfied he was responsible.

Smith's death had long remained a cold case. Investigators reached their conclusion after making crucial DNA connections between evidence from her autopsy and the case of Laura Aime, another Bundy victim whose killing was resolved in Utah County, according to authorities.

Ted Bundy DNA Evidence Supports Case Closure

Utah County Sgt. Mike Reynolds reported that a highly similar DNA profile linked to Bundy had been identified in evidence obtained during Smith's autopsy. The comparison with Aime's case enabled investigators to close the Smith investigation, authorities stated.

Olson told a news conference that the evidence extended beyond DNA. Smith's killing also matched Bundy's 'pattern, motive, means and opportunity,' she stated.

'This case demonstrates the importance of preserving evidence,' Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera stated.

Officials have contacted Smith's next of kin, none of whom still live in the area. The announcement concerned a case dating back to 1974, when Smith, a high school senior, disappeared near the end of October.

Historian Linda Sillitoe described how deer hunters found Smith's bludgeoned body. More than 50 years would pass before authorities announced that DNA evidence connected her death to Bundy.

Ted Bundy's Move to Utah

Smith's disappearance followed that of Nancy Wilcox, a 16-year-old cheerleader in Salt Lake County, on 2 October. According to Sillitoe, Wilcox was believed to have been among Bundy's first victims in Utah.

Young women, many of them college students, had begun disappearing in Washington state by 1974. Authorities were still investigating those cases when Bundy moved to Salt Lake City in September and began killing people in Utah, Idaho and Colorado.

Bundy killed at least 30 women and girls across multiple states during the 1970s. Many others escaped or survived with injuries. His murders occurred in sorority houses, parks and elsewhere, while his arrest attracted widespread fascination, partly because many considered him charming and handsome.

He was executed by electric chair in Florida in 1989 for the 1978 murders of two women at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University.

Ted Bundy DNA Profile and Unconfirmed Confessions

Bundy's death did not halt efforts to establish his responsibility for other killings. Advances in DNA testing have allowed investigators to continue confirming victims decades after his execution, with Smith's case among those resolved through preserved evidence.

In 2011, a vial of Bundy's blood was found in Florida. It had been drawn in 1978, when he was arrested in connection with the death of a 12-year-old girl.

His full DNA profile was entered into the FBI's national database, providing investigators with an opportunity to examine potential cases linked to him. That development preceded the DNA comparison that authorities identified as crucial to closing Smith's case.

Bundy provided a series of confessions in his final days, including accounts of crimes previously unknown to police. Not all of those cases have been confirmed, and when he first began his attacks remains unknown.

'With every case closure, may we stomp the memory of Ted Bundy out,' Reynolds stated.