Recent breakthroughs in forensic science have enabled law enforcement officials in Utah to resolve a 52-year-old cold case involving the 1974 murder of a teenage girl. By employing a powerful computer program capable of reconstructing degraded DNA, investigators successfully attributed the crime to Ted Bundy, one of the nation's most notorious serial killers.
Scientists at the Utah Bureau of Forensic Services confirmed that Bundy was responsible for the death of Melissa Ann Smith, who was 17 years old at the time. This marks the second decades-old murder in the state linked to Bundy this year; in April, investigators in Utah County determined he had also killed Laura Ann Aime, another 17-year-old victim.
The body of Ms. Smith was discovered a few weeks prior to that of Ms. Aime. Although their cases were solved months apart, the resolution of one proved instrumental in solving the other. Before his execution in 1989, Bundy admitted to killing Ms. Aime, but it was not until this year that sophisticated new technology provided definitive proof connecting him to her murder.
The advanced technology used to close the Aime case subsequently provided investigators with new evidence necessary to re-examine the Smith case. Heather Mills, a forensic scientist manager at the Utah Bureau of Forensic Services, stated that the Laura Aime investigation was the key factor in solving the Melissa Smith case.
Sources: The New York Times Science.