Utah authorities are connecting serial killer Ted Bundy to another 1970s homicide
Oct 27, 2026, 8:29 AM | Updated: 8:32 am
FILE - Utah County Sheriff's Deputy Jake Hall, lead detective on the case, hugs Tommi Aime, the youngest sister of Laura Ann Aime, after announcing that definitive evidence has linked Ted Bundy to Laura's murder at a news conference at the Utah County Sheriff's Office in Spanish Fork, Utah, April 1, 2026. (Isaac Hale/The Deseret News via AP, File)
Credit: Isaac Hale/The Deseret News via AP
(Isaac Hale/The Deseret News via AP, File)
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Authorities in Utah are holding a news conference Tuesday to pin another decades-old homicide on serial killer Ted Bundy.
The Summit County sheriff and county attorney “will provide information regarding the investigation, the findings that led to this conclusion, and the decision to close the case,” the sheriff’s office said.
The victim’s name has not been released yet, though the local death of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith in 1974 has long been listed as a cold case.
Bundy has been dead for nearly 40 years, but the tally of his confirmed victims continues to grow due to advances in DNA testing.
Bundy killed at least 30 women and girls in multiple states in the 1970s, and many more escaped or survived with injuries.
In April, Utah authorities said Bundy was responsible for the murder of Laura Ann Aime, 17, who disappeared on Halloween in 1974.
He was executed in 1989 by electric chair in Florida for the 1978 murders of two women at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University.
Bundy gave a series of confessions in his final days, including to some crimes that were previously unknown to police. Not all of those cases have been confirmed.
