DNA Ties Bundy to 1974 Slaying of Utah Teenager Found in Summit County Woods

DNA testing has linked Ted Bundy to another Utah homicide, announced 52 years after a hunter found the victim's body in the woods.

Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson said at a Tuesday news conference that investigators are satisfied Bundy killed 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith in 1974, a homicide that had been listed as a cold case. Smith was the daughter of the police chief in Midvale, south of Salt Lake City. She visited a pizza parlor and a restaurant before disappearing on Oct. 18, 1974, and her body was found nine days later in Summit County.

Olson said investigators linked DNA found on Smith to DNA found on Laura Aime, another victim in the case resolved last April in Utah County. Bundy's DNA profile was on file in Florida, where he was convicted. Olson said Smith's death also matched Bundy's "pattern, motive, means and opportunity."

The Utah state crime lab received new equipment in 2023 that can pull DNA from small samples, material degraded by age, or samples containing DNA from several people. Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said, "This case demonstrates the importance of preserving evidence." Rivera, whose department has investigated homicides tied to Bundy, said she works to solve cases to the best of her ability: "Nobody is just going to walk away and just blame everything on Ted Bundy, even though many cases have been that way."

Bundy was executed by electric chair in Florida in 1989 after convictions for three murders, including two women at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University. He killed at least 30 women and girls in several states during the 1970s. Authorities list victims in Colorado, Idaho, Washington state, Utah and Florida.

Det. Ben Pender of the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office said the agency is still working the 1974 death of 16-year-old Nancy Wilcox. "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," Pender said. Smith's parents are deceased, and her relatives declined to attend the news conference or speak with reporters, the Summit County Sheriff's Office said.