A DNA breakthrough has resolved the 52-year-old murder of a Utah police chief’s teenage daughter, while the detective who helped identify her killer says notorious serial killer Ted Bundy may have claimed additional victims who remain unknown.
Melissa Ann Smith was 17 when she was killed in 1974. Her father, Louis Smith, was then the police chief in Midvale, Utah. Investigators spent decades suspecting Bundy but never had enough evidence to conclusively link him to the crime.
That changed in July after DNA evidence in the murder of another 17-year-old Utah girl, Laura Ann Aime, was matched to Bundy. Investigators then compared that profile with evidence preserved from Smith’s case for more than 50 years.
“There may be more victims out there that we’re not even aware of, and I think there’s always been that speculation,” Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office Detective Ben Pender told News Outlet in an exclusive interview Wednesday.
Bundy confessed to 28 murders, but investigators have long believed the serial killer may have been responsible for hundreds of deaths. (Bettmann Archive via Getty Images)
Pender, a 35-year law enforcement veteran assigned to the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office unsolved homicide and missing-person unit, said authorities will preserve the evidence that helped solve Smith’s murder. It could be valuable in other investigations.
“We’re gonna hold on to this evidence, and we’re gonna utilize it in cases that we believe may be connected to see if we can’t resolve not only our case, but anybody else who may have a case with Bundy,” Pender said.
Hunters found Smith’s body on Oct. 27, 1974, in a wooded area near the boundary between Summit and Salt Lake counties.
Ted Bundy appears in a Miami courtroom on July 13, 1979. (Bettmann Archive via Getty Images)
“These cases that are unsolved are unsolved, in my opinion, for a reason, and because they are extremely difficult to solve,” Pender said.
Although Smith’s murder shared similarities with Bundy’s other crimes, those parallels alone could not establish his responsibility, investigators said.
Authorities needed evidence directly connecting Bundy to the killing instead of relying only on a familiar pattern or method, Pender said.
“DNA is not always the answer, but it definitely is a piece that’s missing a lot of times in these cases that, with everything else with the case, will maybe bring that together,” he said.
Laura Ann Aime, 17, was identified as a Ted Bundy victim after disappearing in Utah in 1974 and later being found dead. (Utah Department of Public Safety)
The crucial lead came through the investigation into Aime’s murder.
Aime disappeared after leaving a Halloween party to buy cigarettes on Oct. 31, 1974. Hikers found her body several days later near American Fork Canyon. Investigators determined she had been raped, strangled and killed.
Bundy remained the leading suspect for decades, but authorities had no conclusive evidence tying him to the crime.
Investigators eventually created a DNA profile from evidence in Aime’s case and linked it to Bundy. That development allowed them to compare the remaining Aime evidence with material preserved from Smith’s murder.
Ted Bundy listens as attorneys argue during pretrial hearings before his trial for the killings of two Florida State University students. (Getty Images)
Pender said investigators had retained reports and evidence from the original Smith investigation, including material gathered during her autopsy.
After the Aime breakthrough, Utah County investigators contacted Summit County to determine whether the remaining evidence could help solve Smith’s murder. Summit County then turned to Pender because Salt Lake County had preserved evidence from the 1974 investigation.
Working with the Utah Bureau of Forensic Services, investigators compared DNA evidence from the two cases and confirmed that the profiles matched.
The DNA match, together with evidence involving Bundy’s pattern, motive, means and opportunity, led authorities to determine that he killed Smith. Officials formally closed the case Tuesday—52 years to the day after her body was discovered.
The resolution depended on evidence that investigators had carefully preserved for more than five decades.
Ted Bundy waves toward a television camera as the indictments for the murders of FSU students Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman are read at the Leon County Jail. (Getty Images)
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“It’s extremely important, in all of these cases, to preserve the evidence,” Pender said. “We, in all homicide cases, maintain that evidence forever.”
“We don’t ever get rid of that, even if a case is resolved or solved, and we don’t get rid of it for this very reason,” he added.
Still, Pender warned that solving one cold case with DNA does not allow investigators to automatically run every unsolved killing possibly connected to Bundy through a database.
Every investigation presents different challenges. Some cases contain DNA evidence and others do not. Material collected decades ago may have deteriorated, been mishandled before the value of DNA was understood or contain genetic material from more than one person.
“Back then DNA wasn’t a thing, so nobody knew of it,” Pender said.
Modern forensic advances continue to create opportunities to revisit old evidence, but the limitations of each individual case still determine what investigators can prove.
Ted Bundy’s image appears on a television screen outside Florida State Prison. (Getty Images)
Pender said his current caseload includes 34 unsolved homicides and 14 adult missing-person cases in which foul play is suspected. He emphasized that none is believed to be connected to Bundy, with one important exception.
Nancy Wilcox is still missing, and Pender said Bundy confessed to killing her. Because her body has never been found, however, investigators cannot close the case based solely on that confession.
Smith’s case, Pender said Tuesday, “does not close the book on Ted Bundy.”
Investigators will continue pursuing Wilcox’s disappearance and will retain the Bundy-related evidence for any other case in which it may be useful.
Pender said DNA could potentially provide answers in other investigations linked to Bundy.
“I think it’s definitely possible,” he said. “It just depends on what information other agencies maybe have in their particular cases.”
Pender also credited cooperation among law enforcement agencies with helping solve Smith’s murder. Summit, Salt Lake and Utah counties worked alongside the state crime laboratory during the investigation.
“It’s more about the victim, right? It’s about the victim, the family, the community, it’s about resolving the case,” Pender said.
Ted Bundy, left, is shown with Leon County Sheriff’s officers in this undated file photograph. (Tallahassee Democrat/IMAGN)
Bundy killed at least 30 women and girls across several states during the 1970s, although investigators have long suspected that the actual number of victims was much higher.
Before his death, he confessed to dozens of murders, including crimes that had not previously been known to police. However, not every killing attributed to him has been independently confirmed.
In 1979, Bundy was convicted and sentenced to death for killing two Florida State University students. The following year, he received another death sentence for raping and murdering a 12-year-old girl.
Florida executed Bundy in the electric chair in 1989.
Ted Bundy is shown in custody on Feb. 18, 1978. (IMAGN)
Nearly 40 years after Bundy’s execution, Pender said it remains essential to establish which crimes he actually committed rather than assigning unresolved murders to one of the nation’s most infamous serial killers without proof.
“It is very important that we always make sure of who we are suspecting, or have accused, or have confirmed that it’s actually that person, regardless of the number of killings or murders that Ted Bundy committed,” Pender said. “It’s still important that we connect them the right way and we don’t just…throw everything on to Ted Bundy that we’re not quite sure of.”
“We don’t want to accuse the wrong person of something that they didn’t maybe have any involvement” he added.
