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A DNA discovery has helped solve the 52-year-old murder of a Utah police chief’s teenage daughter, and the investigating detective who helped solve the case says notorious serial killer Ted Bundy may have other victims that investigators aren’t even aware of.
Melissa Ann Smith, 17, daughter of Louis Smith, then the Midvale police chief, was found dead in 1974. For decades, investigators suspected Bundy, but lacked the evidence needed to definitively link him to his murder.
That changed in July, when DNA evidence in the murder of another 17-year-old Utah girl, Laura Ann Aime, was matched to Bundy, allowing investigators to compare evidence preserved in Smith’s case for more than half a century.
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“There may be other victims that we’re not even aware of, and I think there’s always been that speculation,” Ben Pender, a detective with the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview Wednesday.
Ted Bundy had previously confessed to 28 murders in total, but investigators estimate he could be responsible for hundreds of murders. (Bettmann Archives via Getty Images)
Pender, a 35-year law enforcement veteran assigned to the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office’s unsolved homicide and missing persons unit, said investigators plan to preserve evidence that helped solve Smith’s murder so it can potentially be used in other cases.
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“We’re going to preserve that evidence and we’re going to use it in cases that we think might be related to see if we can’t resolve not only our case, but anyone else’s case that might have a case with Bundy,” Pender said.
Smith’s body was discovered by hunters on October 27, 1974, in a wooded area near the border of Summit and Salt Lake counties.
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Ted Bundy sits in a courtroom in Miami, Florida on July 13, 1979. (Bettmann Archives via Getty Images)
“These cases that are not solved are, in my opinion, for a reason and because they are extremely difficult to solve,” Pender said.
Although investigators had long suspected Bundy, the similarities between Smith’s murder and his other crimes were not enough to definitively link him to his death.
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Investigators needed evidence establishing that Bundy was responsible rather than relying on a similar method of operation, Pender said.
“DNA isn’t always the answer, but it’s certainly a piece that’s often missing in these cases and that, along with everything else in the case, will perhaps put things together,” Pender said.
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Laura Ann Aime, 17, was identified as a victim of notorious killer Ted Bundy after her disappearance and was later found dead in Utah in 1974. (Utah Department of Public Safety)
The break investigators needed finally came from the Aimé case.
Aime disappeared after leaving a Halloween party to buy cigarettes on October 31, 1974. Her body was discovered by hikers near American Fork Canyon a few days later, and investigators determined that she had been raped, strangled and murdered.
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Bundy was considered the prime suspect for decades, but authorities lacked evidence conclusively linking him to the murder.
Investigators eventually developed a DNA profile from evidence in Aime’s case that was linked to Bundy. The remaining evidence from his case then gave investigators the opportunity to compare it with the preserved evidence from Smith’s murder.
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Ted Bundy rests his head on his fist as he listens to attorneys argue the merits of his case during pretrial hearings in Bundy’s murder of two Florida State University students. (Getty Images)
Pender said investigators preserved reports and evidence from the initial investigation into Smith, including evidence collected during his autopsy.
Utah County investigators contacted Summit County after the breakthrough in the Aime case to determine if the remaining evidence could help solve Smith’s murder. Summit County then turned to Pender because Salt Lake County had preserved evidence from the 1974 investigation.
Investigators worked with the Utah Bureau of Forensic Services to compare DNA evidence from the two cases and determine matching profiles.
The DNA results, combined with evidence implicating Bundy’s pattern, motive, means and opportunity, led authorities to conclude that Bundy killed Smith and officially close his case on Tuesday, 52 years to the day after his body was discovered.
This breakthrough would not have been possible without the evidence preserved by investigators for more than five decades.
Ted Bundy steps forward and waves to a television camera as his indictment for the murders of FSU students Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman is read at the Leon County Jail. (Getty Images)
“It’s extremely important in all of these cases to preserve the evidence,” Pender said. “In all homicide cases, we keep that evidence forever.”
“We never get rid of it, even if a case is solved or resolved, and we don’t get rid of it for that reason,” he added.
But Pender cautioned that solving a decades-old murder through DNA doesn’t mean investigators can simply run every unsolved murder potentially linked to Bundy through a database.
Each case is different. Some have DNA evidence, some don’t, and evidence collected decades ago may have been degraded, processed before investigators understood the importance of preserving DNA or contain genetic material from multiple people.
“At the time, DNA didn’t exist, so no one knew anything about it,” Pender said.
Advances in forensic technology continue to provide investigators with new opportunities to examine old evidence, but the limitations of each case remain.
The image of Ted Bundy on a television screen on the lawn of the Florida State Prison. (Getty Images)
Pender said his caseload includes 34 unsolved homicides and 14 missing adult persons cases in which investigators suspect foul play. He emphasized that these cases would not be linked to Bundy, with one notable exception.
Nancy Wilcox is still missing, and Pender said Bundy confessed to killing her. His body was never found, preventing investigators from closing the case based solely on his confession.
Smith’s case, Pender said Tuesday, “does not close the book on Ted Bundy.”
Investigators plan to continue working on Wilcox’s disappearance and preserve Bundy’s evidence for any other cases in which it may prove useful.
Other cases potentially linked to Bundy could also provide new answers through DNA, Pender said.
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“I think it’s definitely possible,” Pender said. “It just depends on what information other agencies have in their particular case.”
Pender stressed that cooperation between law enforcement agencies was key to solving Smith’s murder, with Summit, Salt Lake and Utah counties working alongside the state crime lab.
“It’s more about the victim, right? It’s about the victim, it’s about the family, it’s about the community, it’s about solving the case,” Pender said.
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Ted Bundy, left, with Leon County sheriff’s officers in this undated file photo. (Tallahassee Democrat/IMAGN)
Bundy killed at least 30 women and girls in several states during the 1970s, although investigators have long suspected that the true number of his victims may be higher.
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He confessed to dozens of murders before his death, including crimes previously unknown to police, but not all of the murders attributed to him have been independently confirmed.
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Bundy was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of two Florida State University students in 1979 and was sentenced to death again the following year for the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl.
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He was executed in the electric chair in Florida in 1989.
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Ted Bundy in custody, February 18, 1978. (IMAGINE)
Nearly four decades later, Pender said it’s still important for investigators to prove what crimes Bundy actually committed rather than simply attributing the unsolved murders to one of America’s most notorious serial killers.
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“It’s very important that we always be sure who we suspect, or have accused, or have confirmed is that person, no matter how many murders or murders Ted Bundy committed,” Pender said. “It’s still important that we connect them in the right way, and we don’t just… blame anything on Ted Bundy that we’re not entirely sure about.”
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“We don’t want to accuse the wrong person of something that they may not be involved in,” he added.
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