Serial killer Ted Bundy has been linked to the death of another Utah teenager – 52 years to the day after her body was discovered in woods.
One of the most prolific murderers in US history, Bundy went to the electric chair in 1989. But his list of victims has continued to grow along with advancements in DNA testing.
He murdered at least 30 women and girls across several states throughout the 1970s. Many others escaped or survived his attacks.
Cold case investigators are now satisfied Bundy was responsible for the killing of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith in 1974.
Bundy’s DNA was on file in Florida, where he was convicted and ultimately executed.
Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson said Melissa Ann’s killing also showed hallmarks of Bundy’s ‘pattern, motive, means and opportunity’.
During his trial and subsequent decade on death row, Bundy was glamorised as a handsome, charming, intellectual law student who flitted seamlessly between boy next door and serial killer.
His supposed MO became legendary – gaining the confidence of unsuspecting women, rendering them unconscious and disappearing with them, all seemingly in a matter of seconds.
Millions tuning into the trial also watched Bundy question witnesses as part of his own defence team and smile at the public gallery.
Even the judge appeared to have fallen under his spell, telling Bundy: ‘You’d have made a good lawyer and I would have loved to have you practice in front of me, but you went another way, partner.’
In April, Utah law enforcement announced they’d used new DNA testing to confirm that Bundy had also killed 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime more than 50 years ago.
Aime went missing in Utah on Halloween night in 1974, and her body was found a month later on the side of a highway.
Authorities believed she had been kept alive for several days after her abduction.
Bundy had long been a suspect, but there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him while he was alive.
The case’s evidence was carefully preserved, and advancements in DNA forensic technology eventually enabled investigators to extract a DNA profile that matched Bundy and officially close Aime’s case.
Authorities said that same DNA profile was then forwarded to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office, and detectives were able to confirm the profile matched evidence found on Smith’s body.
‘This case demonstrates the importance of preserving evidence,’ said Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera, whose department has also investigated homicides linked to Bundy.
‘We have to solve these cases to the best of our ability,’ she said, explaining the importance of tapping science, even so many years later.
‘Nobody is just going to walk away and just blame everything on Ted Bundy, even though many cases have been that way. Here in the state of Utah, we take it very seriously.’
Melissa Ann’s father was police chief in Midvale, south of Salt Lake City.
She was at a pizza parlour and a restaurant before she disappeared on October 18, 1974, The Salt Lake Tribune reported at the time. Her body was found in Summit County nine days later.
‘With every case closure, may we stomp the memory of Ted Bundy out,’ Utah County Sergeant Mike Reynolds said.
Bundy was executed in Florida in 1989 after being convicted of three murders, including the killing 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 especially working to solve the 1974 death of 16-year-old Nancy Wilcox of Utah.
Solving the Smith homicide ‘does not close the book on Ted Bundy,’ Detective Ben Pender of the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office, which has the Wilcox investigation, said.
‘Information kind of leads to Ted Bundy but again we’re not for certain on Nancy Wilcox. We’re going to continue to work that case.’
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