Ted Bundy to be linked to another decades-old homicide using DNA evidence
Authorities in Utah are expected to announce Tuesday they have linked the notorious serial killer to a new case, nearly 40 years after his execution.
Utah authorities are expected to link notorious serial killer Ted Bundy to another decades-old homicide on Tuesday, nearly 40 years after his execution and months after DNA evidence tied him to the killing of a 17-year-old girl.
The Summit County Sheriff's Office and county attorney are expected to identify the victim during a news conference and reveal the evidence linking Bundy to the killing, as well as explain why investigators are closing the decades-old case.
The announcement comes about six months after authorities in Utah County used DNA evidence to link Bundy to the 1974 killing of 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime. Aime vanished after leaving a Halloween party on Oct. 31, 1974, and her body was discovered by hikers near American Fork Canyon days later. Investigators determined Aime had been raped, strangled, and murdered.
For decades, Bundy was considered a suspect in Aime's death. He began studying law at the University of Utah just two months before she disappeared. The case remained unsolved for 51 years until investigators used new DNA technology to develop a male DNA profile from bodily fluids found on Aime's remains. This profile was entered into the Combined DNA Index System, which produced a match in Florida. Additional analysis ultimately linked the DNA to Bundy.
"We bring this case to a closure and more importantly closure to the Aime family," Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith said at an April news conference.
The Utah County Sheriff's Office later shared the DNA profile with other law enforcement agencies in hopes of identifying more of Bundy's victims. Officials said at the time that they believed the breakthrough could help resolve another cold case, though they did not provide additional details.
Bundy killed at least 30 women and girls across multiple states during the 1970s, according to The Associated Press. He was executed in Florida's electric chair in 1989. In his final days, Bundy confessed to a series of killings, including crimes that had previously been unknown to police, though not all of the cases have been confirmed. He has been linked to killings in Florida, Utah, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington between 1974 and 1978.
Bundy was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering two Florida State University students in 1979 and received another death sentence the following year for the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl.