DNA Evidence Links Ted Bundy to 1974 Murder of Utah Teenager

The announcement brings a cold case involving Smith to a formal resolution more than five decades after her disappearance. The supplied reports do not establish the precise date of the killing or the exact Utah location where her body was found, but they agree that she vanished in 1974 and was discovered dead days later.

The DNA finding also connects Smith’s case to the broader record of Bundy’s crimes. PBS NewsHour reports that DNA connections between Smith and another Bundy victim helped investigators close the case, although the available reporting does not provide detailed laboratory or investigative methodology.

The development followed an earlier Utah case involving Laura Ann Aime. The Guardian reported that Utah county detectives confirmed in April that Bundy had killed Aime, who was also 17, in Utah in 1974.

Bundy was executed in 1989. The South China Morning Post reports that advances in DNA testing have continued to add confirmed victims to his record, while Clarín also reports his execution that year. The new identification therefore extends the documented list of killings attributed to Bundy after his death, while leaving the technical details of the Smith investigation outside the information supplied for this report.

Authorities’ announcement establishes the central finding: DNA evidence has linked Bundy to Smith’s 1974 murder. Beyond that conclusion, the supplied sources leave some specifics unresolved, including the exact murder date, the precise discovery location and the detailed process used to reach the DNA determination.