Utah to close decades-old case linking Ted Bundy to 1970s killing

Utah authorities said they would close a decades-old Summit County homicide case after investigators linked serial killer Ted Bundy to the killing, with officials set to explain the findings at a news conference. The victim had not been publicly identified in the reports, though the case was widely suspected to involve 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith, who disappeared in 1974 and was found dead near Toll Canyon. The development followed Utah authorities’ April announcement that DNA evidence linked Bundy to the 1974 murder of Laura Ann Aime. Investigators have increasingly been able to confirm Bundy’s crimes through advances in DNA testing, although some of his late-life confessions remain unverified.