DNA connects serial killer Ted Bundy to the death of another Utah teenager, authorities announced Tuesday, exactly 52 years after her body was discovered in the woods by a hunter.
Bundy has been dead since 1989, but the tally of his confirmed victims continues to grow due to advances in DNA testing. He killed at least 30 women and girls in multiple states in the 1970s, and many more escaped or survived with injuries.
Investigators are satisfied that Bundy was responsible for killing 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith in 1974, a death that had long been listed as a cold case, Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson said at a news conference.
They were able to close the case by making crucial connections with DNA found on Smith and Laura Aime, another Bundy victim whose case was resolved last April in Utah County. Bundy's DNA was on file in Florida, where he was convicted and ultimately executed.
Besides that evidence, Smith’s death showed hallmarks of Bundy’s “pattern, motive, means and opportunity,” Olson said.
Utah's state crime lab got new technology in 2023 that extracts DNA from samples even if they are small, degraded from age or contain DNA from multiple people.
“This case demonstrates the importance of preserving evidence,” said Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera, whose department has also investigated homicides linked to Bundy.
“We have to solve these cases to the best of our ability,” she said, explaining the importance of tapping science, even so many years later. "Nobody is just going to walk away and just blame everything on Ted Bundy, even though many cases have been that way. Here in the state of Utah, we take it very seriously.”
Smith's relatives were contacted about the findings but declined to attend the news conference and declined to speak to reporters, the Summit County Sheriff's Office said. Her parents are deceased.
Smith's father was police chief in Midvale, south of Salt Lake City. She was at a pizza parlor and a restaurant before she disappeared on Oct. 18, 1974, The Salt Lake Tribune reported at the time. Nine days later, her body was found in Summit County.
“With every case closure, may we stomp the memory of Ted Bundy out,” Utah County Sgt. Mike Reynolds said.
Bundy was executed by electric chair in Florida in 1989 after being convicted of three murders, including the killing of two women at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University.
He gave a series of confessions in his final days, including to some crimes that were previously unknown to police. Not all of those cases have been confirmed.
Besides Florida and Utah, authorities said Bundy had victims in Colorado, Idaho and Washington state. They said they're especially working to solve the 1974 death of 16-year-old Nancy Wilcox of Utah.
Solving the Smith homicide “does not close the book on Ted Bundy,” said Det. Ben Pender of the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office, which has the Wilcox investigation. “Information kind of leads to Ted Bundy but again we're not for certain on Nancy Wilcox. We're going to continue to work that case."
FILE - Ted Bundy smiles during the second day of jury selection for his murder trial in a Dade County courtroom in Miami, June 27, 1979. (AP Photo, Pool, File)
AL-TUFF, Syria (AP) — Jordan and Syria agreed Tuesday to form a joint committee to investigate the circumstances leading to Jordanian strikes that killed a number of civilians in Syria the day before, raising tensions between the neighboring countries.
Jordan on Tuesday said its airstrikes over Syria killed some 20 militants of the extremist Islamic State group, but acknowledged that civilians had also been killed in the attacks. Syrian authorities have reported seven people killed in the strikes, most of them women and children.
A joint statement after a call between the Syrian and Jordanian foreign ministers said the two countries will “develop mechanisms for field and intelligence coordination to deal with terrorist threats in a manner that ensures the preservation of Syrian sovereignty and the protection of the lives of innocent civilians."
The Hashemite Kingdom’s air force on Monday evening carried out airstrikes in Syria in retaliation for last week’s attacks on a funeral at a Greek Orthodox Church in the southern Jordanian city of Karak that killed nine people. Earlier that day, it announced it arrested the three gunmen, but did not disclose their affiliation.
The numbers given in remarks by Jordanian government spokesperson Mohammad al-Momani differ from what Syrian first-responders reported. Syria's civil defense said it only recovered the bodies of seven civilians killed in Jordanian strikes in the southern Daraa and Sweida provinces. Five of those were a family, including three children and a woman; two of the men who were killed were elderly.
Syria’s government said the strikes were carried out without prior coordination or notification. Both Damascus and Amman said they are in communication and following up on the incident.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry in a statement condemned the strikes, calling them an “unacceptable violation and encroachment” of Syrian airspace, but also said that both countries’ leaderships will strengthen security coordination to “obstruct any efforts to destabilize the two countries’ security and spill the blood of its people.”
Al-Momani said the attacks were based on intelligence on “confirmed threats and planned terrorist acts against Jordan,” and expressed regret over the civilian casualties.
Amman and Damascus maintained strong bilateral ties following the downfall of the Assad dynasty in December 2024 and the emergence of interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s Islamist-led government.
Masoud al-Salim lost his wife, son and three grandchildren in one of the strikes that hit his home in the Syrian border village of Al-Tuff in Daraa province.
“I came running and found there was no house anymore, no tent, nothing. I couldn’t find anyone,” al-Salim said, rummaging through children’s schoolbooks and toys in the rubble. “I started looking under the rubble. I thought they might be buried there.”
At the funeral for the family killed in Monday's strikes, mourners were in shock.
“When the church in Karak was targeted, we felt sorry for them and were upset for them,” said Majed al-Hayjan, a resident of Daraa. “But what did the children who were sleeping have to do with this? We had to pull them out from under the rubble. What did they do to deserve this?”
Masoud al-Salim, right, is comforted by a mourner during the funeral of his wife, son and three grandchildren, killed in a Jordanian airstrike, in Al-Tuff in southern Syria's Daraa province, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, as Jordan acknowledged civilian deaths in strikes it said killed about 20 Islamic State militants. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Mourners bury five members of the same family, including three children, in Al-Tuff in southern Syria's Daraa province, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, after they were killed in a Jordanian airstrike, part of attacks Jordan said targeted Islamic State militants and acknowledged also killed civilians. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Mourners pray during the funeral of five members of the same family, including three children, killed in a Jordanian airstrike, which Jordan acknowledged had killed civilians, in Al-Tuff in southern Syria's Daraa province, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Mourners join the funeral procession for five family members, including three children, killed in a Jordanian airstrike in Al-Tuff in southern Syria's Daraa province, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, following attacks Jordan said targeted Islamic State militants and acknowledged also killed civilians. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Household belongings lie scattered amid rubble after a Jordanian airstrike in Al-Tuff, in the countryside of Daraa province in southern Syria, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Men inspect the aftermath of a Jordanian airstrike in Al-Tuff, in the countryside of Daraa province in southern Syria, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Men inspect the aftermath of a Jordanian airstrike in Al-Tuff, in the countryside of Daraa province in southern Syria, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Men inspect the aftermath of a Jordanian airstrike in Al-Tuff, in the countryside of Daraa province in southern Syria, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
A man inspects the aftermath of a Jordanian airstrike in Al-Tuff, in the countryside of Daraa province in southern Syria, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
