DNA links Ted Bundy to Melissa Ann Smith's 1974 Utah murder

Melissa Ann Smith was 17 when she was killed in Utah in 1974. Her death remained a cold case for more than half a century, according to CBS Top Stories.

A hunter discovered her body in the woods. Authorities would announce the DNA connection to Ted Bundy exactly 52 years after that discovery, South China Morning Post reported.

Smith's body was discovered on October 27, 1974, based on the anniversary described in South China Morning Post. The case remained unresolved long after Bundy's death in 1989.

The route to the new finding involved both advances in forensic science and recent developments in a similar case, officials told New York Times. The supplied coverage does not detail that other case or explain its precise contribution.

On October 27, 2026, Associated Press reported that the Summit County sheriff and county attorney planned a news conference about another decades-old homicide linked to Bundy.

Authorities then announced that DNA connected Bundy to Smith's death. BBC News reported that investigators used advanced DNA technology to solve the case, while Vg described an old autopsy sample as the source of evidence pointing to Bundy.

The Summit County prosecutor said investigators were satisfied that Bundy was responsible for killing Smith, according to Global News. That is the central change: authorities now identify a killer in a case long listed as unsolved.

Bundy has been dead since 1989, South China Morning Post reported. The finding therefore provides an official answer about responsibility rather than setting up a prosecution of him.