Two 1974 Utah cases were linked by a matching Y-STR profile

Utah law enforcement officials said bodily fluid extracted from Laura Ann Aime’s body matched Ted Bundy’s known DNA profile. It was not until this year that new DNA testing backed Bundy’s account of killing Aime, the officials said.

Aime was another 17-year-old Utah girl. She was last seen during a Halloween party before being found dead and severely beaten in late November 1974. Bundy had confessed to killing Laura during a string of admissions he made before being executed in 1989 for two of his murders.

The Y-STR profile recovered from Aime’s body was a genetic match to one found from Smith’s body, state authorities said at a Tuesday news conference. At the same announcement, authorities said the DNA evidence made Bundy responsible for Smith’s murder.

Melissa Ann Smith was a 17-year-old Utah girl who went missing in 1974 before her nude body was found days later. The Smith homicide investigation remained open for decades, and officials said the Aime fluid discovery put the closure of Smith’s homicide investigation into motion.

The Smith identification came months after Utah county detectives confirmed in April that Bundy had killed Aime in 1974. The April finding concerned Aime, while the Smith result came later.

Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said on Tuesday, “This case demonstrates the importance of preserving evidence, even when decades have passed.” She also said, “We have the ability to take a look at these cases again and again.”

Mike Reynolds, a sergeant with the Utah county sheriff’s office, said on Tuesday, “The voices and cherished memories of Melissa Ann Smith and Laura Ann Aime and others involved in these cases ring louder than the hate and sedition of the one that took their lives.” He added, “With every case closure may we stomp the memory of Ted Bundy out.”

The Guardian reported that between 1974 and 1978, Bundy sexually assaulted and killed at least 30 women across the American West and Florida.

The Guardian’s report included a photograph of Bundy at his murder trial in Miami, Florida, in 1979, credited to Ken Hawkins/Alamy.