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 notorious serial killer Ted Bundy could have other victims investigators do not even know about.
Melissa Ann Smith, 17, the daughter of then-Midvale Police Chief Louis Smith, was found dead in 1974. For decades, investigators suspected Bundy but lacked the evidence needed to definitively tie him to her murder.
That changed in July, when DNA evidence in the killing of another 17-year-old Utah girl, Laura Ann Aime, was matched to Bundy, allowing investigators to compare evidence preserved from Smith’s case for more than half a century.
POTENTIAL MICHIGAN SERIAL KILLER MAY HAVE LEFT BEHIND VALUABLE EVIDENCE, FORMER FBI PROFILER SAYS
“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 Fox News Digital 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 person unit, said investigators plan to preserve the evidence that helped solve Smith’s murder so it can potentially be used in other cases.
FORMER CHICAGO POLICE DETECTIVE LINKED BY DNA TO 8-YEAR-OLD GIRL’S COLD-CASE MURDER, POLICE SAY
“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.
Smith’s body was discovered by hunters on Oct. 27, 1974, in a wooded area near the border of Summit and Salt Lake counties.
COLD CASE BREAKTHROUGH SOLVES TEEN KILLING AFTER SUSPECT LIVED FREE FOR DECADES: ‘BETTER BE AFRAID’
“These cases that are unsolved are unsolved, in my opinion, for a reason, and because they are extremely difficult to solve,” Pender said.
Although investigators had long suspected Bundy, similarities between Smith’s killing and his other crimes were not enough to definitively tie him to her death.
FORENSIC GENEALOGY UNMASKS COLD CASE SUSPECT AS STRANGLER, SEXUAL PREDATOR DECADES LATER: OFFICIALS
Investigators needed evidence establishing that Bundy was responsible rather than relying on a similar method of operation, 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.
COVERT DNA SAMPLE FROM COLORADO MAN’S TRASH REVIVES 44-YEAR-OLD TEXAS MURDER CASE: REPORT
The break investigators needed ultimately 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.
DETECTIVE SUSPECTED IN GIRL’S MURDER MAY HAVE KILLED OTHERS, FORMER INVESTIGATOR FEARS
Bundy was considered the prime suspect for decades, but authorities lacked evidence conclusively tying him to the killing.
Investigators eventually developed a DNA profile from evidence in Aime’s case that was linked to Bundy. Remaining evidence from her case then gave investigators an opportunity to compare it with evidence preserved from Smith’s killing.
NEW CALIFORNIA LAW EXPANDS DNA TOOLS FOR MISSING PERSONS INVESTIGATIONS
Pender said investigators had retained reports and evidence from the original Smith investigation, including evidence 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.
FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X
“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.
SIGN UP TO GET THE LATEST TRUE CRIME NEWS
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.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM THE FOX TRUE CRIME HUB
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.
LISTEN TO THE NEW ‘CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO’ PODCAST
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.