DNA evidence collected from a Lehi-connected murder helped close a 52-year-old cold case, Summit County Sheriff Kacey Bates announced Tuesday, Oct. 27.

Bates said investigators have definitively linked serial killer Ted Bundy to the 1974 killing of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith. Hunters found her body in Summit County on Oct. 27, 1974, nine days after she was reported missing from Midvale.

The breakthrough traces to the case of Laura Ann Aime, 17, who disappeared on Halloween night 1974 after leaving a party in Lehi, according to the Deseret News. Aime's body was found Nov. 27, 1974, near American Fork Canyon. Utah County investigators closed Aime's case in April after new DNA technology tied it to Bundy.

Summit County then asked to share the DNA profile Utah County had built. On July 14, the Utah State Crime Lab compared Y-STR DNA from Aime's case with DNA taken from Smith's remains and found a match, ABC4 reported.

Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson said DNA, combined with evidence of pattern, motive, means and opportunity, proved Bundy was responsible for Smith's murder.

The announcement came on the 52nd anniversary of the day Smith's body was discovered. Bates made it at a Park City news conference alongside Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera, Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith, crime lab analysts and investigators from multiple agencies.

Smith was the daughter of Louis Smith, then the Midvale police chief. She went missing after leaving a pizza restaurant on Oct. 18, 1974, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Bundy had long been suspected in both killings. But the case had never been officially closed.

"Although there was much speculation about a suspect at the time, a suspect was never named and the case was never officially closed," Bates said.

The Utah State Crime Lab began using new genotyping technology in 2023 that can build full DNA profiles from degraded or mixed samples older methods could not analyze, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Investigators used the technology to compare DNA collected in Utah with Bundy's complete profile on file in Florida.

Bates credited the late Lt. Alan Siddoway, a 42-year law enforcement veteran who died of cancer on Oct. 11, for his work on the case. Utah County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Mike Reynolds dedicated the closure in Siddoway's memory, KPCW reported.

Smith's surviving family members were notified of the findings but no longer live in Utah and declined to attend the announcement, according to the Summit County Sheriff's Office.

Salt Lake County Sheriff's Detective Ben Pender said closing the Smith case does not close the book on Bundy. Investigators continue to pursue leads in other suspected cases, including the 1974 disappearance of 16-year-old Nancy Wilcox of Holladay, whose body has never been found.

Bundy was executed in Florida in 1989 after confessing to killing at least 30 women across multiple states.