Utah authorities say DNA ties Ted Bundy to the 1974 killing of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith, closing a decades-old cold case

What happened

Authorities in Utah announced Tuesday that DNA evidence links serial killer Ted Bundy to the 1974 killing of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith, CBS News and PBS NewsHour reported. According to the Associated Press report published by PBS NewsHour, the announcement came exactly 52 years after a hunter found her body in the woods.

Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson told reporters at a news conference that investigators are satisfied Bundy was responsible for Smith's death. The case had long been classified as a cold case. Olson said that apart from the DNA, the killing fit Bundy's "pattern, motive, means and opportunity."

How investigators made the link

A connection to another Bundy case

The breakthrough came through DNA connections between Smith's case and that of Laura Aime, both outlets reported. Aime was another Bundy victim whose case was resolved last April in Utah County. Utah County Sgt. Mike Reynolds said evidence collected during Smith's autopsy contained a highly similar DNA profile linked to Bundy.

Preserved evidence and a national database

Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said, "This case demonstrates the importance of preserving evidence." CBS News reported that a vial of Bundy's blood was found in Florida in 2011. The blood had been drawn in 1978, when he was arrested in the death of a 12-year-old girl.

His full DNA profile was then entered into the FBI's national database. CBS said that step gave investigators a chance to solve other cases that might be tied to him.

Officials have contacted Smith's next of kin, none of whom still live in the area, according to the reports. Reynolds said, "With every case closure, may we stomp the memory of Ted Bundy out."

Bundy's history

Crimes across several states

Both outlets reported that Bundy is known to have killed at least 30 women and girls across several states during the 1970s, and that many others escaped or survived with injuries. PBS NewsHour reported that besides Florida and Utah, authorities said he had victims in Colorado, Idaho and Washington state.

CBS News reported that by 1974, young women, many of them college students, had begun disappearing in Washington state. Bundy moved to Salt Lake City that September while those cases were still under investigation and began killing people in Utah, Idaho and Colorado. Citing historian Linda Sillitoe, CBS reported that Smith, a high school senior, disappeared near the end of October that year and that deer hunters later found her body.

Execution and unconfirmed confessions

Bundy was executed by electric chair in Florida in 1989 for the 1978 murders of two women at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University. In his final days he gave a series of confessions, including some to crimes police had not known about. According to both outlets, not all of those cases have been confirmed.

Why officials say it matters

Bundy has been dead since 1989, but CBS News and PBS NewsHour reported that the count of his confirmed victims keeps rising as DNA testing improves. Officials pointed to the Smith case as an example of the value of keeping evidence for decades. More national coverage is in our Nation section, and local crime and safety reporting is collected under public safety.

What to watch next

• PBS NewsHour reported that authorities said they are working to solve the death of 16-year-old Nancy Wilcox, another likely Bundy victim in Utah.
• According to CBS News and PBS NewsHour, not all of the crimes Bundy confessed to before his execution have been confirmed.
• Bundy's full DNA profile remains in the FBI's national database, which CBS News said gives investigators a way to check potential links to other cases.