Ted Bundy Named in 1974 Killing of Melissa Ann Smith as DNA Closes Utah Cold Case

Fifty-two years to the day after her body was found in the mountains east of Salt Lake City, Utah authorities on Tuesday officially named Ted Bundy as the killer of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith and closed one of the state’s oldest open homicide investigations.

At a press conference on Oct. 27, Summit County Sheriff Kacey Bates announced “the closure of the 1974 homicide investigation into the death of Melissa Ann Smith,” crediting new DNA analysis and years of work across several agencies, according to KSL.com and KPCW.

What investigators announced

Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson said the Utah State Crime Lab matched DNA found on Smith’s body to a sample from the case of another known Bundy victim, Laura Ann Aime, a match made in July, KPCW reported.

“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.

Officials from the Summit County Sheriff’s Office, the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, the Summit County Attorney’s Office and the state crime lab took part in the announcement.

Who Melissa Ann Smith was

Smith was the daughter of then-Midvale Police Chief Louis Smith. According to KPCW, she went missing after leaving a Midvale pizza restaurant on Oct. 18, 1974, and her mother reported her missing that day, KSL.com said. Hunters found her body on Oct. 27, 1974, near Summit Park, just across the Summit County line.

At the time, there was speculation linking her death to other killings in the area, but no suspect was ever officially named and the case was never closed. “Although there was much speculation regarding a suspect at the time, a suspect was never named, and the case was never officially closed,” Bates said.

Smith’s closest relatives live outside Utah. A family member was notified of the breakthrough, and her next of kin declined an invitation to attend Tuesday’s announcement, according to the sheriff’s office.

The Laura Ann Aime connection

The breakthrough built on another case closed earlier this year. Laura Ann Aime, 17, of Fairview, disappeared on Halloween night 1974 after leaving a party in Lehi; her body was found weeks later near American Fork Canyon. That case was officially tied to Bundy through advances in DNA technology, KSL.com reported, and evidence from it allowed investigators to resolve Smith’s case.

A case dedicated to a late investigator

Officials credited the late Summit County sheriff’s Lt. Alan Siddoway, a 42-year law enforcement veteran who died of cancer on Oct. 11, with playing a key role. Bates quoted a line he often shared from Voltaire: “To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.” A Utah County Sheriff’s Office sergeant dedicated the case closure to Siddoway’s memory.

“Does not close the book”

Bundy, one of the most notorious serial killers in U.S. history, confessed to 30 murders in several Western states and Florida. He was arrested in Utah in 1975, escaped custody twice in Colorado, and was executed in Florida in 1989.

Salt Lake County sheriff’s detective Ben Pender said closing Smith’s case “does not close the book on Ted Bundy.” He pointed to the case of Salt Lake County teen Nancy Wilcox, whom Bundy confessed to killing in 1974 but whose body has never been found. Investigators are still working to back up that confession with evidence.

Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said the work is about families. “We owe that to the families of these cold cases,” she said, adding that investigators would not simply “blame everything on Ted Bundy” without doing the work to find the truth.

FAQ