Utah authorities say DNA links Ted Bundy to 1974 killing of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith

As of 5:25 p.m. ET, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026

DNA connects serial killer Ted Bundy to the 1974 death of a Utah teenager, authorities announced Tuesday, The Associated Press reported. The Summit County prosecutor said investigators are satisfied that Bundy was responsible for killing 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith, a death that had long been listed as a cold case, according to the AP.

The Summit County Sheriff's Office, together with the Salt Lake County and Utah County sheriff's offices, announced that DNA and other evidence conclusively prove Bundy murdered Smith in October 1974, KSL-TV reporter Andrew Adams reported from the news conference. Cowboy State Daily reported that the Summit County Sheriff's and Attorney's offices said at a joint news conference that DNA evidence definitively connects Bundy to her killing.

Smith, 17, of Midvale, never came home after Oct. 18, 1974, TownLift and Cowboy State Daily reported. Her body was found on Oct. 27, 1974, near Toll Canyon in Summit Park by a man who was hunting there, TownLift reported, citing the state's file. Tuesday's announcement fell on the 52nd anniversary of that discovery.

How DNA reopened the case

Summit County Sheriff Kacey Bates and County Attorney Margaret Olson were scheduled to present the findings alongside Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera, Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith and Utah State Crime Lab DNA analysts, according to a media advisory reported by TownLift.

The Utah State Crime Lab acquired technology in 2023 that can build full DNA profiles from small, degraded or mixed samples, Cowboy State Daily reported. Utah County authorities used it in April to conclude that Bundy killed another 17-year-old, Laura Ann Aime, who disappeared on Halloween in 1974, the AP reported.

In interviews before his execution, Bundy confessed to some Utah killings but could not place Smith's or Aime's names, according to accounts of the recordings reported by TownLift. Bundy killed at least 30 women and girls in multiple states in the 1970s, the AP reported. He was executed in Florida's electric chair in 1989 for the 1978 murders of two women at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University and the kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach of Lake City, Florida, according to the AP.

What is not known

Officials' full description of the DNA evidence and what other evidence they relied on was not available in the sources reviewed. Because Bundy is dead, no charges can be filed.