More than half a century after a teenage girl vanished following a Halloween party, authorities say they have finally closed the case — and confirmed what they long suspected about Ted Bundy.
According to the New York Post, investigators in Utah County announced Wednesday that Bundy “without a shadow of doubt” murdered 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime in 1974, bringing long-awaited answers to a case that remained unresolved for decades.
Laura was last seen leaving a Halloween gathering before her body was discovered less than a month later by two college students hiking in American Fork Canyon, per the Salt Lake Tribune.
Authorities said the teen’s body showed signs of prolonged abuse. She had been bound, severely beaten, and ultimately strangled with a nylon stocking. Investigators noted the brutality aligned with Bundy’s known methods.
Despite Bundy’s prior admission of responsibility, officials did not immediately close the case.
According to the sheriff’s office, Bundy “verbally acknowledged his culpability” before his execution, but investigators held off on formally attributing the crime to him.
They instead kept the case open “until investigators could prove, without a shadow of doubt, that Bundy was the composer of these heinous crimes to Laura.”
That confirmation finally came decades later.
In 2025, the Utah Bureau of Forensic Services re-examined the evidence using updated forensic techniques. Officials said the results “were magnificent” and “confirmed irrefutably” that DNA recovered from the victim matched Bundy.
For Laura’s family, the findings bring a measure of closure.
Her younger sister, Michelle Impala, told The Salt Lake Tribune that Laura would be “really happy to know” her killer had finally been identified.
Family members remembered Laura as “one who found joy in everything she did,” someone who spread “abundant compassion” — even using her own money to buy treats for her siblings simply to see them smile.
Bundy had moved to Salt Lake City in 1974 to attend law school at the University of Utah, placing him near where Laura disappeared.
By then, he had already killed multiple victims across several states. Investigators later tied him to at least six murders in Utah alone, including Laura’s.
Bundy was executed in Florida in 1989, after confessing to dozens of killings nationwide.
Even so, authorities have long believed the true number of his victims may be far higher.
With the latest forensic confirmation, one more chapter in his long trail of violence has now been formally closed.
