Updated Oct. 27, 2026, 8:23 p.m. ET
More than 50 years after hunters found the body of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith in Utah, officials have determined that notorious serial killer Ted Bundy was responsible for her murder.
The announcement comes 52 years to the day after the hunters found Smith’s body in a wooded area on Oct. 27, 1974. Smith, the daughter of the police chief of Salt Lake City suburb Midvale at the time, had last been seen at a restaurant just south of Salt Lake City in Midvale that month.
The Utah State Crime Lab concluded on July 14 that a DNA profile recovered from Smith’s body matched a profile from the body of another Bundy victim, 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime, said Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson during a news conference on Oct. 27. Utah officials definitively linked Bundy to Aime’s 1974 murder for the first time in April.
“This DNA evidence, when considered alongside evidence related to pattern, motive, means, and opportunity, establishes that Ted Bundy was responsible for Melissa Ann Smith’s murder,” Olson said. “Although Ted Bundy is no longer alive to face prosecution, advances in forensic science and the continued dedication of law enforcement professionals have helped provide answers in a case that has remained unsolved for over 50 years.”
Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said the case demonstrates the importance of retaining evidence, even decades later. She said that when a Summit County detective reached out to her agency in June 2025, a Salt Lake detective was able to locate original investigative reports and evidence that helped connect the cases.
“It’s super important for law enforcement to do their due diligence to solve a case,” Rivera said. “We owe that to the families of these cold cases.”
Bundy confessed to about 30 murders, including Aime’s and Smith’s, but wasn’t convicted of many of them because he declined to provide any details about crime scenes and authorities suspected he was lying to gain more infamy. He’s estimated to have killed anywhere between 20 and 100 women in at least seven states, including California, Washington, Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Florida.
Bundy was convicted of three of the murders, including that of a 12-year-old girl named Kimberly Leach. He was executed by the electric chair in Florida in 1989. In the days leading up to his execution, he made tearful last-minute confessions to authorities from several states in futile hopes of winning a delay, according to archived news reports.
On the eve of his execution, Bundy spoke with detectives from Utah, Idaho and Washington. But they weren’t necessarily buying what he was selling.
“Ted Bundy is a conniver and he’s a mass killer,” Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth said at the time, according to an archived story in the Washington Post. “He’s trying to manipulate the system again.”
Salt Lake County Detective Ben Pender said during Tuesday’s news conference that officials also believe Bundy may be responsible for the killing of 16-year-old cheerleader Nancy Wilcox, who was last seen alive in Bundy’s yellow Volkswagen on Oct. 3, 1974. That case is still under investigation.
October and November 1974 was a very busy time in Utah for the prolific serial killer. Another woman, Carol Daronch, testified that Bundy kidnapped her from a shopping center parking lot on Nov. 8, 1974. She said he handcuffed her and had her in his Volkswagen when she escaped by jumping out of the car.
Bundy, a law school dropout, questioned Daronch himself for hours during his Colorado trial for the 1975 murder of Caryn Campbell, according to an archived news report by United Press International.
“Miss Daronch,” he told her at one point, “I feel very sorry for you but you’ve made a mistake.”
Daronch didn’t flinch and told Bundy she was certain that he was her kidnapper: “You can’t change your face.”
Also in November 1974, Bundy kidnapped and murdered 17-year-old Debra Kent north of Salt Lake City in Bountiful. Kent had been with her parents at a high school play when she left during intermission to pick up her brother and was never seen again.
Officials said Smith’s remaining living relatives declined to attend Tuesday’s news conference or otherwise speak to reporters.
Smith was the daughter of Midvale’s police chief, Louis Smith, who resigned from the department six years after his daughter’s murder and died three years after that. His other daughter, Jolene, died in 2014 and his wife, Joan, died in 2024, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
Utah County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Mike Reynolds said that “the hearts and minds of our county mourn” Smith’s loss.
One thing remains after all these decades following the murders of the teenage girls, Reynolds said, and that’s “the wake of pain and sorrow that was left behind for the victims’ family and community members.”
He added: “With every case closure, may we stomp the memory of Ted Bundy out.”
This story has been updated to add new information.
Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime and courts reporter who covers the death penalty, cold cases and breaking news for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat
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