DNA match links Ted Bundy to 1974 killing of Utah teenager

Investigators in Utah have identified serial killer Ted Bundy as the man who murdered a 17-year-old girl in 1974, solving a case that had remained open for 52 years. Authorities announced the breakthrough at a news conference in Park City, saying a DNA match finally closed the file on one of the state's oldest unsolved homicides.

Summit County Sheriff Kacey Bates told reporters that investigators had long suspected a connection between two killings from the autumn of 1974 because of striking similarities in how the victims were found. New forensic testing, Bates said, allowed detectives to link all the evidence together and confirm Bundy as the perpetrator in both cases, even though he died decades ago.

The case dates back to October 27, 1974, when hunters discovered the body of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith in a wooded area of Salt Lake County. About a month later, another 17-year-old, Laura Aime, was found dead along a highway in Utah County. Aime had vanished after attending a Halloween party and had also been murdered.

For decades, detectives were unable to conclusively tie either killing to a suspect despite the apparent overlap in method and timing. The cases sat unresolved even as Bundy's crimes elsewhere became widely known and documented.

The turning point came in April 2026, when a hit in a DNA database connected genetic evidence from the scene to Bundy, according to investigators. The match confirmed, 37 years after his execution, that he was responsible for Aime's death. Officials said the same evidence review also allowed them to formally attribute the Smith killing to Bundy.

Rosie Rivera of the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office said the resolution of the case highlighted the importance of preserving physical evidence for long periods, even when a case appears to have gone cold. "This case shows how important it is to keep evidence even after decades," Rivera said.

Bundy raped and killed dozens of women and girls across multiple states during the 1970s. Before his execution, he confessed to more than 30 murders committed in several states, though the full scope of his crimes has never been definitively established.

His killing spree ended because of a mistake involving his final attempted victim. In 1978 in Florida, a young girl escaped after Bundy tried unsuccessfully to persuade her to get into his car. She remembered the license plate number of his white van, which police later determined had been stolen.

The information led to a rapid manhunt and Bundy's capture. He was convicted and sentenced to death, and he was executed in 1989.

The identification of Bundy in the Utah cases adds two more names to the list of victims formally linked to him, more than three decades after his execution. Authorities in Summit County said the investigation into whether additional unsolved cases from the period may also be connected to Bundy remains ongoing.