Oct. 27, 2026 at 8:30 am Updated Oct. 27, 2026 at 11:26 am

DNA connects serial killer Ted Bundy to the death of a Utah teenager, authorities announced Tuesday, exactly 52 years after her body was discovered in the woods by a hunter.

Bundy has been dead since 1989, but the tally of his confirmed victims continues to grow due to advances in DNA testing. He killed at least 30 women and girls in multiple states in the 1970s, and many more escaped or survived with injuries.

Investigators are satisfied that Bundy was responsible for killing 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith in 1974, a death that had long been listed as a cold case, Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson said at a news conference.

Besides DNA evidence, Smith’s death had the hallmarks of Bundy’s “pattern, motive, means and opportunity,” Olson said.

Investigators were able to close the cold case by making crucial DNA connections between Smith and Laura Aime, another Bundy victim whose case was resolved last April in Utah County.

A highly similar DNA…