Authorities in Utah announced Tuesday that DNA evidence has connected serial killer Ted Bundy to the 1974 death of a teenager, closing a case that had gone unsolved for more than 50 years.
Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson told reporters at a news conference that investigators are satisfied Bundy killed 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith. Her death had long been listed as a cold case. Her body was discovered by a hunter. Olson said the killing also carried the hallmarks of Bundy's "pattern, motive, means and opportunity."
Investigators were able to resolve the case by drawing key DNA connections between Smith and another Bundy victim whose case was resolved last April in Utah County. Utah County Sgt. Mike Reynolds said a highly similar DNA profile linked to Bundy was found in evidence taken from Smith's autopsy.
Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said the case shows "the importance of preserving evidence." Officials have been in contact with Smith's next of kin, none of whom still live in the area. Reynolds added: "With every case closure, may we stomp the memory of Ted Bundy out."
Bundy was executed in the electric chair in Florida in 1989 for the 1978 murders of two women at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University. Even so, the number of his confirmed victims keeps rising as DNA testing advances. He is linked to the deaths of at least 30 women and girls in several states during the 1970s, and many others escaped or survived with injuries.
A vial of Bundy's blood, drawn in 1978 when he was arrested in the death of a 12-year-old girl, was found in Florida. His full DNA profile was entered into the FBI's national database, giving investigators a chance to solve other cases potentially tied to him.
His crimes, which took place in sorority houses, parks and other locations, set the nation on edge. His arrest drew wide fascination, partly because many people considered him charming and handsome. In his final days, Bundy gave a series of confessions, including to some crimes police had not known about. Not all of those cases have been confirmed.
It is not known when Bundy began his attacks, but by 1974 young women, many of them college students, were disappearing in Washington state. Authorities were still investigating those cases when Bundy moved to Salt Lake City in September and began killing in Utah, Idaho and Colorado.
According to historian Linda Sillitoe, 16-year-old cheerleader Nancy Wilcox of Salt Lake County was believed to be one of Bundy's first victims in Utah. She disappeared on Oct. 2. Melissa Smith, a high school senior, vanished near the end of the same month. Sillitoe said deer hunters found her bludgeoned body.
