DNA Links Ted Bundy to 1974 Murder of Utah Teen Melissa Ann Smith, Officials Say

Summit County, Utah, officials announced Tuesday at a news conference in Park City that DNA evidence links serial killer Ted Bundy to the 1974 murder of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith, closing the cold case 52 years after her body was found. Smith, the daughter of then-Midvale Police Chief Louis Smith, disappeared on October 18, 1974, after meeting a friend at a local pizza restaurant. A hunter found her dead nine days later in the Summit Park area near Park City. An autopsy showed she had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled.

Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson said the DNA evidence, considered with evidence of pattern, motive, means and opportunity, establishes that Bundy was responsible. The Utah State Crime Lab began using technology in 2023 that can build full genetic profiles from degraded or mixed samples. It is the second Utah cold case tied to Bundy this year, after that of 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime.

CBS News, on the left, gives the shortest treatment. It leads with Bundy's name, calls him a notorious serial killer, and says Utah authorities linked him to the case through DNA testing, pointing viewers to a report by correspondent Jericka Duncan. Its excerpt names Smith and her age but leaves out her father, the timeline of her disappearance and the lab details. The Daily Wire, on the right, frames the story around the victim, with a headline about a murder victim linked to a killer decades later. It adds her father's job, the pizza restaurant, the autopsy findings, the anniversary timing, Olson's statement and the lab technology. Both agree on the DNA link, the 1974 date and Smith's age. They differ mainly in depth and in whether the focus is Bundy or Smith. Straight Arrow News largely matches this account, stressing the earlier Bundy cold case.