Utah investigators have officially named Ted Bundy as the killer of Melissa Ann Smith, a 17-year-old from Midvale whose death went unsolved for more than half a century.

Summit County Sheriff Kacey Bates and County Attorney Margaret Olson announced the closure of the case at a news conference in Park City on Tuesday. The announcement came 52 years to the day after a deer hunter found Smith's body in Summit Park, a neighborhood in the mountains outside Park City.

Bates said there had been plenty of speculation about a suspect over the years but no one was ever formally named and the case had stayed open.

How DNA closed the case

Smith was the daughter of Midvale's police chief, Louis Smith. She was last seen on the night of Oct. 18, 1974, after leaving a friend at a pizza place in Midvale. Her body was found nine days later.

In April, Utah authorities linked Bundy to the killing of another teenager, Laura Ann Aime, using DNA. On July 14, analysts compared genetic evidence from the Aime case with evidence saved from Smith's body and found a match. Olson said that result, together with evidence of pattern, motive, means and opportunity, led investigators to their conclusion.

The breakthroughs were made possible by newer genotyping methods that Utah's state crime lab adopted in 2023. The technology can build complete DNA profiles from old or mixed samples that earlier tests could not read, letting investigators compare Utah evidence against Bundy's full profile on file in Florida.

More cases still open

Investigators first looked at Bundy as a possible suspect in Smith's death in 1976, while he was serving time in Utah for a kidnapping. He later escaped custody in Colorado, killed more women in Florida and was executed there in 1989 after confessing to at least 30 murders.

Utah officials have said three more cold cases are believed to be tied to Bundy: Nancy Wilcox, Susan Curtis and Deborah Smith. Melissa Smith's parents and sister have all died, but investigators said closing the case still matters to her family and to the community that never forgot her.