DNA Evidence Links Ted Bundy to 1974 Killing of Utah Teenager
publishers 58articles 64first reported 27 Oct, 16:00 UTCdeveloping since 27 Oct · 6 editionstop 25 #17
Utah authorities have linked serial killer Ted Bundy to the 1974 killing of 17-year-old Melissa Anne Smith, closing a cold case that remained unresolved for more than five decades.
Smith disappeared in October 1974, and her nude body was found days later on a hillside in Summit Park, Utah. Authorities announced Tuesday that DNA evidence connected her killing to Bundy, who was executed in 1989.
The finding followed renewed testing in the case of Laura Ann Aime, another 17-year-old Utah victim killed in 1974. Bundy had confessed to killing Aime before his execution, and investigators said this year that bodily fluid recovered from her body matched Bundy’s known DNA profile. A Y-STR DNA profile recovered in Aime’s case was also a genetic match to one obtained from evidence in Smith’s case, prompting authorities to close the Smith investigation.
“This case demonstrates the importance of preserving evidence, even when decades have passed,” Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said at the news conference.
Bundy sexually assaulted and killed at least 30 women across the western United States and Florida between 1974 and 1978. The confirmation of Smith’s killing comes months after Utah County detectives formally attributed Aime’s death to him based on the new DNA testing.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 2 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one (5 if wire copies count as one too); this version written 24 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
- Publishers
- 58
- Source articles
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- Given to the writer
- 8, 2 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 8 (5 if wire copies count as one)
- This version written
- 24 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
- Publication gate
- passed
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WHAT THE EDITOR DID
The second model checked the writer's draft against the same sources and published it as written.
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