Ted Bundy DNA Link to Chief’s Daughter Raises New Victim Fears

A DNA discovery has brought closure to the 52-year-old murder of a Utah police chief’s teenage daughter. The detective who helped solve the cold case now believes notorious serial killer Ted Bundy may have had additional victims whose identities remain unknown.

Melissa Ann Smith was 17 when she was killed in 1974. Her father, Louis Smith, was then serving as chief of the Midvale Police Department. Investigators had suspected Bundy for decades, but they could not establish the forensic connection needed to officially link him to the crime.

The investigation shifted in July after DNA evidence from the murder of another 17-year-old Utah girl, Laura Ann Aime, was matched to Bundy. That breakthrough enabled authorities to test evidence preserved from Smith’s case for more than 50 years.

“There may be more victims out there that we’re not even aware of, and I think there’s always been that speculation,” Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office Detective Ben Pender told News Media in an exclusive interview Wednesday.

Pender, a 35-year law enforcement veteran assigned to the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office unsolved homicide and missing persons unit, said officials will safeguard the evidence that helped identify Smith’s killer. Investigators hope it could provide answers in other cases potentially connected to Bundy.

“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,” Pender said.

Hunters found Smith’s body on Oct. 27, 1974, in a wooded area near the boundary separating Summit and Salt Lake counties.

“These cases that are unsolved are unsolved, in my opinion, for a reason, and because they are extremely difficult to solve,” Pender said.

Authorities had long noted similarities between Smith’s murder and other crimes attributed to Bundy. But investigators said those patterns alone were not enough to prove he was responsible for her death.

What they needed was physical evidence that directly connected Bundy to Smith’s killing, rather than simply a comparable criminal method, Pender said.

“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,” Pender said.

The crucial lead came through the investigation into Aime’s death.

Aime disappeared on Oct. 31, 1974, after leaving a Halloween party to purchase cigarettes. Hikers later found her body near American Fork Canyon. Investigators determined that she had been raped, strangled and murdered.

Bundy remained the leading suspect for decades, but authorities did not have conclusive evidence tying him to Aime’s murder.

Eventually, investigators generated a DNA profile from evidence in Aime’s case and connected it to Bundy. Evidence that remained from her investigation then allowed authorities to compare it with material preserved from Smith’s murder.

Pender said investigators had maintained reports and physical evidence from the original Smith investigation, including material collected during her postmortem examination.

Utah County investigators reached out to Summit County after the breakthrough in the Aime case to determine 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 evidence from the two cases and determined the profiles matched.

The DNA findings, combined with evidence involving Bundy’s pattern, motive, means and opportunity, led authorities to conclude Bundy killed Smith and formally close her case Tuesday, 52 years to the day after her body was found.

The breakthrough would not have been possible without evidence preserved by investigators for more than five decades.

“It’s extremely important, in all of these cases, to preserve the evidence,” Pender said. “We, in all homicide cases, we maintain that evidence forever.”

“We don’t ever get rid of that, even if a case is resolved or solved, and we don’t get rid of it for this very reason,” he added.

But Pender cautioned that solving one decades-old murder through DNA does not mean investigators can simply run every unsolved killing potentially connected to Bundy through a database.

Each case is different. Some have DNA evidence while 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.

Advances in forensic technology continue to give investigators new opportunities to examine old evidence, but the limitations of individual cases remain.

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, 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 intend to continue working on Wilcox’s disappearance and preserve the Bundy evidence for any other cases in which it could prove useful.

Other cases potentially tied to Bundy could also yield new answers through DNA, Pender said.

“I think it’s definitely possible,” Pender said. “It just depends on what information other agencies maybe have in their particular cases.”

Pender emphasized that cooperation among law enforcement agencies was critical 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, the family, the community, it’s about resolving the case,” Pender said.

Bundy killed at least 30 women and girls across multiple states during the 1970s, though investigators have long suspected his true victim count could be higher.

He confessed to dozens of murders before his death, including crimes that had previously been unknown to police, but not every killing attributed to him has been independently confirmed.

Bundy was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering two Florida State University students in 1979 and received another death sentence the following year for the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl.

He was executed in Florida’s electric chair in 1989.

Nearly four decades later, Pender said it still matters that investigators prove which crimes Bundy actually committed rather than simply attributing unresolved murders to one of America’s most notorious serial killers.

“It is very important that we always make sure of who we are suspecting, or have accused, or have confirmed that it’s actually that person, regardless of the number of killings or murders that Ted Bundy committed,” Pender said. “It’s still important that we connect them the right way and we don’t just…throw everything on to Ted Bundy that we’re not quite sure of.”

“We don’t want to accuse the wrong person of something that they didn’t maybe have any involvement,” he added.