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Archive photo · 23 August 2008Utah Authorities Link Serial Killer Ted Bundy To 1974 Murder Of Melissa Ann Smith
8 Western Mainstream3 Local Western1 Asian1 OtherPhoto: Tricia Simpson, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Cropped for layout
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DNA testing linked Ted Bundy to the 1974 murder of Melissa Ann Smith in Utah. Smith's body was found by a hunter in 1974 and remained unsolved.
13 outlets told this the same way.
DNA links 52 years later
Utah authorities announced that DNA connects serial killer Ted Bundy to the 1974 murder of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith, with the body found by a hunter in 1974 and the announcement made on Tuesday exactly 52 years after her body was discovered. Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson said investigators were satisfied that Bundy was responsible for killing Melissa Ann Smith in 1974, a death that had long been listed as a cold case.
“‘This case demonstrates the importance of preserving evidence,’ said Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera.”
Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said, "This case demonstrates the importance of preserving evidence," as investigators tied the Smith case to DNA work connected to another Utah victim. Utah County Sgt Mike Reynolds said, "With every case closure, may we stomp the memory of Ted Bundy out," as officials described the case as a closure more than 50 years after the body was found.
How the case was closed
Utah County investigators said they closed the cold case by making crucial DNA connections between Smith and Laura Ann Aime, another Bundy victim whose case was resolved last April in Utah County.
Utah County Sgt. Mike Reynolds said a highly similar DNA profile linked to Bundy was found in evidence obtained from Smith's autopsy.
Evidence gathered from the Laura Ann Aime case was subsequently used to help solve Smith's case, and it described Bundy as having confessed to killing two other teenage girls in Utah before his execution in 1989.
The Y-STR DNA profile recovered from Laura's body was a genetic match to one found from Melissa's body, and it quoted Rosie Rivera saying, "We have the ability to take a look at these cases again and again."
What comes next in Utah
Utah officials said they are still working to link the death of 16-year-old Nancy Wilcox to Bundy, after authorities referenced the case as another likely victim in Utah.
Det. Ben Pender said, "Solving the Smith homicide "does not close the book on Ted Bundy,"" and it added that investigators were continuing to work the Wilcox case.
Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera added that the case should be a sign to other cold case victims "that there is hope out there" and forensics is changing.
Officials linked the death of Melissa Ann Smith of Midway, Utah, to Ted Bundy, and it described the case as the second time this year that Utah officials concluded Bundy had murdered a Utah teenager whose killing had gone unsolved for decades.
