The decades-old murder case of a Utah girl, Melissa Ann Smith, has finally reached a conclusion, linking DNA evidence to the most notorious serial killer in U.S. history. Summit County Attorney Margaret Olsen highlighted four key factors that define Ted Bundy's modus operandi: pattern, motive, means, and opportunity.
Smith went missing in 1974, and her body was discovered days later. State officials held a news conference on Tuesday, October 27, confirming that DNA evidence has linked Ted Bundy to the murder of the then 17-year-old girl.
Investigators achieved a breakthrough in the Melissa Ann Smith case after Utah County detectives confirmed in April that Bundy had also murdered another Utah girl, 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime, in 1974. Bundy had confessed to killing Laura during a series of admissions made before his execution in 1989 for two of his other murders.
Laura was last seen at a Halloween party before being found dead and severely beaten in late November 1974. Melissa Ann Smith, the daughter of late Midvale Police Chief Louis Smith, was first reported missing from Salt Lake County on October 18, 1974.
Two weeks later, her body was discovered by hunters in a dense forest bordering Salt Lake County and Summit County. Summit County Sheriff's Lt. Alan Siddoway approached detective Ben Pender, who led the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office cold case unit, to review available evidentiary items.
Forensic experts from the Utah State Crime Lab developed a Y-STR profile from the Laura Ann Aime murder case for direct comparison with the Y-STR profile in Smith's case. A Y-STR profile is a DNA profile derived from the "Y" chromosome.
Law enforcement officials stated that bodily fluid extracted from Laura's body matched Bundy's known DNA profile. The Y-STR profile developed in Aime's case in 2006 was consistent with the profile found in Smith's case.
Ted Bundy, a Vermont native born in 1946, relocated to Salt Lake City in 1974 to attend the University of Utah law school. After escaping custody twice in Colorado, he murdered two women at a Florida sorority house and 12-year-old Kimberly Leach.
Bundy reportedly confessed to 30 murders, though not all were confirmed. Following his 1978 arrest in Florida, he was convicted of three murders and executed in 1989.