Utah Prosecutors Link Ted Bundy to 1974 Murder of Teenager Melissa Ann Smith via DNA

Utah authorities announced Tuesday that DNA evidence links serial killer Ted Bundy to the 1974 murder of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith, closing a cold case 52 years after her body was found. Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson said the DNA, considered with evidence of pattern, motive, means and opportunity, establishes that Bundy was responsible. Hunters found Smith's body on Oct. 27, 1974, in a wooded area near the Summit and Salt Lake county border, and no suspect was ever officially named. The breakthrough came when DNA in the killing of Laura Ann Aime, also 17, produced a CODIS match to Bundy. Investigators then matched that profile to evidence preserved from Smith's case. Utah County investigators had contacted Summit County in May 2025 about similarities between the killings, and Utah authorities attributed Aime's murder to Bundy in April. Bundy was executed in Florida in 1989 and is linked to at least 30 killings in several states. A vial of his blood drawn in 1978 was found in 2011, and its full profile went into the FBI database.

Fox News, on the right, opens with a promotion for its Fox Nation series on Bundy, then leads with the 52-years-to-the-day detail, the CODIS sequence, the May 2025 timeline and a direct Olson quote. Its headline stresses another decades-old homicide. CBS News and CNN, on the left, also attribute the finding to the prosecutor and DNA testing. CBS adds that Bundy's confirmed tally keeps growing through DNA advances, and it covers his Florida sorority house murders and the 2011 blood vial. CBS leaves out the Olson quote and the May 2025 timeline. The outlets agree on the core facts: Smith, Aime, Bundy and DNA. NewsNation's coverage matches this account.