Utah's Summit County Announces on October 27: DNA Evidence Confirms Bundy Killed 17-Year-Old Melissa Smith, Closing a 52-Year-Old Cold Case
Coalville, Summit County, Utah — Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson announced on October 27 at the Summit County Justice Center that DNA evidence confirms serial killer Ted Bundy was responsible for the 1974 murder of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith, formally closing the 52-year-old cold case. Smith, from Midvale in Salt Lake County, was the daughter of the local police chief. She disappeared on October 18, 1974, after visiting a friend, and nine days later hunters found her body in woods near the Summit County–Salt Lake County line. The break came through Utah County: in May 2025, Utah County investigators contacted Summit County about similarities between Smith's case and that of Laura Ann Aime, a 17-year-old who disappeared that same Halloween. A DNA profile the Utah State Crime Lab developed from evidence in the Aime case matched Bundy's profile on file in Florida, and the Aime case was closed on April 1, 2026. On July 14, the lab concluded that the DNA profile recovered from Aime's body matched evidence in the Smith case, and the evidence was submitted to the county attorney's office on October 7. Olson said the DNA evidence, considered alongside evidence of pattern, motive, means and opportunity, establishes that Bundy was responsible for Smith's murder; Bundy is no longer alive and cannot be prosecuted.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：泰德·邦迪1988年佛罗里达州惩教局登记照（资料图）。Florida Department of Corrections 摄，公共领域，来源：Wikimedia Commons / Photo: Ted Bundy in a 1988 Florida Department of Corrections mugshot (file photo). By Florida Department of Corrections, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
