A DNA breakthrough has solved the 52-year-old murder of a Utah police chief's teenage daughter, and the cold-case detective who helped crack it says serial killer Ted Bundy could have other victims that investigators are not aware of. Melissa Ann Smith, 17, daughter of then-Midvale Police Chief Louis Smith, was found dead in 1974. For decades investigators suspected Bundy but lacked the evidence needed to tie him definitively to her killing.
The case changed in July, when DNA evidence from the killing of another 17-year-old Utah girl, Laura Ann Aime, was matched to Bundy. That match allowed investigators to compare evidence preserved from Smith's case for more than half a century. Investigators determined the profiles matched, and combined with evidence involving Bundy's pattern, motive, means and opportunity, authorities concluded Bundy killed Smith and formally closed her case on Tuesday, 52 years to the day after her body was found.
Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office Detective Ben Pender, a 35-year law enforcement veteran assigned to the unsolved homicide and missing person unit, told Fox News Digital in an interview that the case may not be the only one. « There may be more victims out there that we're not even aware of, and I think there's always been that speculation », he said. Pender said investigators plan to keep the evidence that helped solve Smith's murder so it can be used in other cases they believe may be connected. « We're gonna hold on to this evidence, and we're gonna utilize it in cases that we believe may be connected to see if we can't resolve not only our case, but anybody else who may have a case with Bundy », he said.
Smith's body was discovered by hunters on Oct. 27, 1974, in a wooded area near the border of Summit and Salt Lake counties. Investigators had long noted similarities between her killing and Bundy's other crimes, but those similarities were not enough to establish responsibility. Pender said investigators needed evidence proving Bundy was responsible rather than relying on a similar method of operation. « DNA is not always the answer, but it definitely is a piece that's missing a lot of times in these cases that, with everything else with the case, will maybe bring that together », he said.
The break investigators needed came from the Aime case. Aime vanished after leaving a Halloween party to buy cigarettes on Oct. 31, 1974. Her body was discovered by hikers near American Fork Canyon days later, and investigators determined she had been raped, strangled and murdered. Bundy was considered the prime suspect in her killing for decades, but authorities lacked evidence conclusively linking him to it. Investigators eventually developed a DNA profile from evidence in Aime's case that matched Bundy. The remaining evidence from her case then gave investigators the chance to compare it with material preserved from Smith's killing.
Pender said investigators had retained reports and evidence from the original Smith investigation, including material collected during her postmortem examination. After the Aime breakthrough, Utah County investigators contacted Summit County to see whether the remaining evidence could help resolve Smith's murder. Summit County then turned to Pender because Salt Lake County had maintained evidence from the 1974 investigation. Investigators worked with the Utah Bureau of Forensic Services to compare DNA from the two cases.
Pender stressed the importance of keeping evidence in homicide cases. « It's extremely important, in all of these cases, to preserve the evidence », he said. « We, in all homicide cases, we maintain that evidence forever ». He added that evidence is kept even after a case is resolved, for exactly this reason.
Pender cautioned, however, that solving one decades-old murder does not mean every unsolved killing potentially connected to Bundy can simply be run through a database. Each case is different. Some have DNA evidence and others do not, and evidence collected decades ago may have degraded, been handled before investigators understood the importance of preserving DNA, or contain genetic material from multiple people. « Back then DNA wasn't a thing, so nobody knew of it », Pender said.
Pender said his caseload includes 34 unsolved homicides and 14 adult missing person cases in which investigators suspect foul play. He stressed that those cases are not believed to be connected to Bundy, with one notable exception. Nancy Wilcox remains missing, and Pender said Bundy confessed to killing her. Her body has never been recovered, which has prevented investigators from closing the case based solely on his confession.