DNA ties Ted Bundy to 1974 Utah teen murder
Prosecutors announced Tuesday that new genetic evidence links the late serial killer to the death of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith.
By Jillian Foster ·
The death of a Utah teenager has been officially linked to serial killer Ted Bundy, more than 50 years after her body was found. Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson announced the closure of the cold case at a news conference on Tuesday. Smith, who was 17 in 1974, is now counted among Bundy's confirmed victims.
Bundy died in 1989, but the number of victims attributed to him continues to rise due to modern DNA testing techniques. He was executed by electric chair in Florida for the 1978 murders of two women at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University. Investigators have linked him to at least 30 women and girls across multiple states during the 1970s.
Olson stated that investigators are satisfied Bundy killed Smith based on both DNA evidence and circumstantial factors. She noted that the case matched Bundy's pattern, motive, means, and opportunity. Utah County Sgt. Mike Reynolds explained that a highly similar DNA profile linked to Bundy was found in evidence from Smith's autopsy.
The breakthrough came through a connection to another Bundy victim whose case was resolved last April in Utah County. A vial of Bundy's blood, drawn in 1978 during his arrest for the death of a 12-year-old girl, was discovered in Florida. That sample provided a full DNA profile that was entered into the FBI's national database, allowing for the new match.
Smith was a high school senior who disappeared near the end of October 1974. According to historian Linda Sillitoe, deer hunters discovered her bludgeoned body. She disappeared shortly after Nancy Wilcox, a 16-year-old cheerleader believed to be one of Bundy's first victims in Utah, went missing on October 2 of that year.
By 1974, young women in Washington state were beginning to disappear, a trend that continued as Bundy moved to Salt Lake City in September. He then began killing people in Utah, Idaho, and Colorado. Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said the case demonstrates the importance of preserving evidence for future analysis.
Officials have contacted Smith's next of kin, none of whom still live in the area. Reynolds said the closure adds to the tally of Bundy's victims. He stated, 'With every case closure, may we stomp the memory of Ted Bundy out.'
Source: KCNC-TV · original report published
