Fifty-two years to the day after a hunter discovered Melissa Ann Smith dead near Summit Park, Ted Bundy has officially been named her killer.
At a Tuesday press conference, local authorities attributed the breakthrough to new DNA analysis.
“This DNA evidence, when considered alongside evidence related to pattern, motive, means and opportunity, establishes that Ted Bundy was responsible for Melissa Ann Smith’s murder,” Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson said.
Olson said the state crime lab matched DNA found on Smith’s body to a sample found with another known Bundy victim, Laura Ann Aime, in July.
Active during the mid-1970s, Bundy confessed to 30 murders across the western U.S. and in Florida and is one of the most infamous serial killers and rapists in the nation’s history.
He was arrested three times and mounted two escapes in Colorado before Florida executed him in 1989.
Smith was the daughter of then-Midvale Police Chief Louis Smith. She went missing after leaving a Midvale pizza restaurant Oct. 18, 1974, and was found dead across the Summit County line nine days later.
Despite suspicion around Bundy, Summit County Sheriff Kacey Bates said the case remained unsolved.
“Although there was much speculation regarding a suspect at the time, a suspect was never named, and the case was never officially closed,” Bates said.
She said the late Lt. Alan Siddoway, who died of cancer earlier this month, was instrumental in resolving the Melissa Ann Smith case.
Over the past year, he worked closely with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, which The Salt Lake Tribune reports helped close the Laura Ann Aime case earlier this year.
Utah County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Mike Reynolds dedicated the Melissa Ann Smith case closure in Siddoway’s memory Tuesday.
“A quote often shared by Alan was by Voltaire: ‘To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth,’” Bates said. “After 50 years, we have reached a point that so many have worked toward.”
Smith’s family members were not present for the press conference. Summit County spokesperson Skyler Talbot said the closest relatives know the case has been resolved but live out of state.
There are additional victims Bundy confessed to kidnapping or killing whose bodies have never been found, such as Salt Lake County teen Nancy Wilcox.
Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office Detective Ben Pender continues to work that case. Tuesday he said closing the case of Melissa Ann Smith does not close the book on Ted Bundy.
