DNA Evidence Ties Bundy to 1974 Utah Teen Killing
WHO:
The Salt Lake Tribune - Summit County Sheriff Kacey Bates said, “Although there was much speculation regarding a suspect at the time, a suspect was never named, and the case was never officially closed.”
The Salt Lake Tribune - Melissa Smith’s father, Louis S. Smith, resigned as Midvale police chief in 1980 after 27 years on the force and died in 1985; her mother, Joan, died in 2024, and her sister, Jolene, died in 2014.
The Salt Lake Tribune - Summit County Sheriff Kacey Bates said no suspect had been named and the case had never officially been closed.
The Salt Lake Tribune - Melissa Smith was the daughter of Midvale Police Chief Louis S. Smith.
CBS News - Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson said investigators were satisfied that Ted Bundy killed Melissa Ann Smith.
CNN - Ted Bundy, a serial killer, was linked by DNA evidence to the killing of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith.
CNN - Summit County, Utah, prosecutor said investigators were satisfied Bundy was responsible for Smith’s death.
CNN - Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said, “This case demonstrates the importance of preserving evidence.”
CNN - Sergeant Mike Reynolds of the Utah County Sheriff’s Office participated in the investigation and said, “With every case closure, may we stomp the memory of Ted Bundy out.”
IJR - Utah authorities said DNA evidence linked Bundy to another decades-old murder in Summit County; IJR reported that officials had not publicly identified the victim.
WHAT:
The Salt Lake Tribune - Authorities said Smith’s death was the second Utah cold case linked to Bundy that investigators closed; they had announced in April that Bundy killed Laura Ann Aime.
The Salt Lake Tribune - Authorities said three other Utah cold cases were believed connected to Bundy: Susan Curtis’s 1975 disappearance while attending a youth conference at Brigham Young University, Deborah Smith’s 1976 death, and Nancy Wilcox’s disappearance.
The Salt Lake Tribune - Utah’s crime lab began using genotyping technology in 2023 to build full DNA profiles from degraded or mixed samples that older methods could not fully analyze.
The Salt Lake Tribune - Investigators first sought a possible link between Bundy and Smith’s death in October 1976.
The Salt Lake Tribune - Investigators formally closed the cold-case murder investigation and said DNA from the Laura Aime case matched evidence collected from Smith’s body.
The Salt Lake Tribune - Utah authorities said Bundy is believed to have killed at least five, and possibly eight, young women in Salt Lake, Davis and Utah counties; some victims’ bodies have never been found.
The Salt Lake Tribune - Investigators compared DNA from the Laura Aime case with evidence from Smith’s body and found a match.
The Salt Lake Tribune - Three other Utah cases were believed to be connected to Bundy: Nancy Wilcox’s disappearance, Susan Curtis’s disappearance, and Deborah Smith’s death.
The Salt Lake Tribune - Utah’s crime lab began using genotyping technology that can build full DNA profiles from degraded or mixed samples.
The Salt Lake Tribune - Before the DNA comparison, investigators had sought a possible link between Bundy and Smith’s death.
CBS News - Olson said Smith’s death also bore the hallmarks of Bundy’s “pattern, motive, means and opportunity.”
CBS News - A vial of Bundy’s blood, drawn in 1978 when he was arrested in connection with the death of a 12-year-old girl, was found in Florida in 2011; his full DNA profile was entered into the FBI’s national database.
CBS News - The Laura Aime case was resolved in Utah County last April.
CBS News - Utah historian Linda Sillitoe said Nancy Wilcox, a 16-year-old cheerleader, was believed to be one of Bundy’s first Utah victims; she disappeared on Oct. 2.
CBS News - High school senior Melissa Smith disappeared near the end of the same month; deer hunters found her bludgeoned body, Sillitoe said.
BBC - Utah County Sgt. Mike Reynolds said additional Bundy cases are still being examined in Utah.
NY Post - Authorities announced that DNA connected Bundy to a Utah teenager’s death.
CNN - The killing of Smith, previously listed as a cold case, was attributed to Bundy by investigators.
CNN - Bundy killed at least 30 women and girls in multiple states in the 1970s; many others escaped or survived with injuries.
CNN - Bundy was executed by electric chair in Florida for the 1978 murders of two women at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University.
CNN - Bundy made a series of confessions in his final days, including to crimes previously unknown to police; not all those cases have been confirmed.
IJR - Utah authorities said they were closing the case; the report described Smith as a long-standing possibility for the victim’s identity.
WHERE:
The Salt Lake Tribune - Smith’s body was found nude in Summit Park, a subdivision near Park City.
The Salt Lake Tribune - Bundy was serving a 1-to-15-year sentence at Utah State Prison in Draper for kidnapping a 17-year-old girl near Fashion Place Mall.
The Salt Lake Tribune - Smith’s body was found in a wooded area near Summit County’s northwestern border, in the Summit Park area near Park City.
The Salt Lake Tribune - Bundy was serving his sentence at Utah State Prison in Draper before transfer to Colorado.
The Salt Lake Tribune - Smith’s body was found in Summit Park, a subdivision near Park City.
CBS News - Bundy moved to Salt Lake City in September and began killing people in Utah, Idaho and Colorado.
NY Post - The teenager’s body was discovered by a hunter in Utah.
CNN - Smith’s case was in Summit County, Utah; officials said her next of kin no longer lived in the area.
CNN - Bundy was executed in Florida; the 1978 killings occurred at Florida State University’s Chi Omega sorority house.
WHEN:
CBS News - Young women, many of them college students, began disappearing in Washington state by 1974.
BBC - The article described the link as coming 52 years after the teenage girl’s murder.
CNN - Smith was killed in 1974.
CNN - Utah County officials presented the DNA evidence to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office on Oct. 7.
WHY:
CNN - Rivera cited the importance of preserving evidence in explaining the case’s significance.
CNN - Bundy’s confirmed victim count has continued to grow because of advances in DNA testing.
HOW:
The Salt Lake Tribune - Investigators used Utah’s newer genotyping technology to compare DNA collected in the state with Bundy’s complete DNA profile in Florida.
The Salt Lake Tribune - Investigators compared DNA from the Aime case with Smith-case evidence on July 14 and found a match.
The Salt Lake Tribune - Investigators used Utah’s genotyping technology to compare DNA collected in the state with Bundy’s complete DNA profile in Florida.
CNN - Investigators identified similarities between the Laura Aime and Melissa Smith cases, according to Utah County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Reynolds.
CNN - A Y-chromosome DNA profile identifying Bundy was highly similar to a profile found in evidence from Smith’s autopsy.
CNN - Officials said DNA evidence recovered from another victim matched evidence from Smith’s body.
IJR - The finding followed an earlier DNA-linked case involving Laura Ann Aime.
(UPDATED October 28, 2026 14:00 UTC)
DNA evidence has linked Ted Bundy to the 1974 killing of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith, and investigators have formally closed the Summit County, Utah, cold case. Using newer genotyping technology, investigators matched evidence from Smith’s body with DNA connected to the Laura Aime case, which was previously attributed to Bundy. Authorities say three other Utah cases may also be connected to Bundy, while the sheriff noted that the investigation had never officially been closed before.
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(UPDATED October 28, 2026 09:59 UTC)
Utah investigators have formally closed the cold-case murder of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith, saying DNA evidence links her killing to serial killer Ted Bundy. They matched evidence from Smith’s body to DNA from the Laura Aime case, and Summit County Sheriff Kacey Bates said no suspect had previously been named and the case had never officially been closed. Smith’s body was found in the Summit Park area near Park City, and authorities say DNA testing is helping them continue to examine other Utah cases potentially connected to Bundy.
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(UPDATED October 28, 2026 07:02 UTC)
DNA evidence has linked serial killer Ted Bundy to the 1974 murder of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith in Summit County, Utah, and investigators say they are satisfied he was responsible. A newer DNA profile was matched against evidence from Smith’s body, with investigators also comparing it to evidence from the Laura Aime case; the sheriff says the case had never officially been closed. Authorities say the breakthrough highlights the importance of preserving evidence, and investigators are still examining other Utah cases that may be connected to Bundy.
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(UPDATED October 28, 2026 03:59 UTC)
DNA evidence has linked Ted Bundy to the 1974 killing of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith in Summit County, Utah, and investigators say they are satisfied he was responsible. A Y-chromosome DNA profile from evidence collected during Smith’s autopsy matched Bundy’s profile, helping close a case that had remained unsolved for decades. Authorities say the finding underscores the importance of preserving evidence, and Utah investigators are still examining other cases potentially connected to Bundy.
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(UPDATED October 28, 2026 02:00 UTC)
DNA evidence has linked serial killer Ted Bundy to the 1974 killing of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith in Summit County, Utah, closing a case that had remained unsolved for decades. Investigators said a Y-chromosome DNA profile associated with Bundy closely matched evidence from Smith’s autopsy, and officials stressed that preserving evidence made the identification possible. Utah authorities say they are still examining additional cases connected to Bundy, who killed at least 30 women and girls.
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(UPDATED October 27, 2026 20:06 UTC)
DNA evidence has linked serial killer Ted Bundy to the 1974 killing of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith in Summit County, Utah, and investigators say they are satisfied he was responsible. A Y-chromosome profile associated with Bundy closely matched evidence from Smith’s autopsy, helping close a case that had long remained unsolved. Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said the case shows why preserving evidence matters, as advances in DNA testing continue to identify Bundy’s victims.