Advanced DNA testing has connected notorious serial killer Ted Bundy to the murder of a 17-year-old Utah girl whose body was found by hunters more than five decades ago.
Melissa Ann Smith, the daughter of a local police chief, was discovered on Oct. 27, 1974, with signs of rape and torture.
In April, Utah officials identified teenager Laura Ann Aime as another of Bundy’s victims. Evidence from that case was later used to help solve Smith’s killing.
Before his execution in 1989, Bundy confessed to killing two other teenage girls in Utah. He has been linked to at least 30 murders across the United States.
At a Tuesday news conference, Utah County Sgt. Mike Reynolds said more Bundy cases are still being examined in the state. “With every case closure may we stomp the memory of Ted Bundy out,” he said.
Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera added that the case should signal to other cold-case victims “that there is hope out there.”
“Every single day forensics is changing and we have the ability to take a look at these cases again and again,” she said.
Rivera also praised detectives for preserving evidence in the case for so long, saying it “demonstrates the need to preserve evidence even when decades pass.”
In April, the director of the Utah Bureau of Forensic Services told the Salt Lake Tribune that the state had 444 unsolved death investigations, including 258 homicides.
Bundy is among America’s most infamous serial killers. He began his spree by attacking victims throughout the U.S. Pacific Northwest.
He often approached women in public places, using his charm or a fake injury to gain their trust before luring them to secluded areas and killing them.
He was first arrested in 1975 for kidnapping a woman and sentenced to 15 years in jail. In 1977, he escaped by jumping out of a prison library window. He was recaptured but escaped again eight days later, continuing to kill until he was finally caught in 1978.