Utah cold case closed 52 years later after DNA links Ted Bundy to crime
SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah (TCN) — A 1974 cold case has been closed after authorities linked it to serial killer Ted Bundy.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports that 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith, the daughter of the Midvale, Utah, police chief, was last seen on Oct. 18, 1974, after leaving a pizza parlor and going to a different restaurant. Her naked body was found in a wooded area nine days later by a deer hunter.
About a year later, police suspected Ted Bundy may have been responsible for Smith’s death. He was in jail in Utah at the time for kidnapping a 17-year-old girl in 1974, and investigators were trying to determine whether he was connected to the deaths of Smith and Laura Ann Aime — whose death was officially linked to Bundy earlier this year.
While behind bars for the kidnapping case, Bundy was served a warrant for murder in an Aspen, Colorado, case, and was transferred there. In Colorado, he escaped twice, eventually going to Florida and killing more women. He was executed in Florida in 1989, per the Tribune, and had confessed to killing at least 30 women.
On Oct. 27, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office announced during a press conference that they confirmed Bundy was responsible for Smith’s death through DNA evidence. According to the Tribune, DNA evidence used to solve Aime’s case matched evidence connected to Smith’s case.
A Facebook posthonoring Smith from the city government of Midvale, Utah, reads, “Today, our hearts are with Melissa’s family and all those who loved her. We also remember every victim whose life was cut short and every family still waiting for answers. May Melissa be remembered not for the terrible circumstances of her death but for the life she lived and the people whose lives she touched.”
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