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Utah authorities are expected to link notorious serial killer Ted Bundy to another decades-old homicide Tuesday, nearly 40 years after he was executed and months after DNA evidence linked him to the killing of a 17-year-old girl.
The Summit County Sheriff’s Office and county attorney are expected to identify the victim during a news conference Tuesday and reveal the evidence linking Bundy to the killing.
Officials are also expected to explain why investigators are closing the decades-old case.
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The victim’s identity has not been released, though the 1974 death of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith has long been listed as a cold case, The Associated Press reported.
Ted Bundy sits in a courtroom in Miami, Fla., July 13, 1979. (Bettmann Archive via Getty Images)
Tuesday’s announcement comes about six months after authorities in Utah County used DNA evidence to link Bundy to the 1974 killing of 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime.
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Aime vanished after leaving a Halloween party to buy cigarettes on Oct. 31, 1974. Her body was discovered by hikers near American Fork Canyon days later.
Investigators determined Aime had been raped, strangled and murdered.
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For decades, Bundy was considered the prime suspect in Aime’s death. He began studying law at the University of Utah just two months before she disappeared.
The case remained unsolved for 51 years until investigators with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office used new DNA technology to develop a male DNA profile from bodily fluids found on Aime’s remains.
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Theodore “Ted” Bundy is pictured after the murders of FSU coeds Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy, who were beaten and strangled at the Chi Omega House Jan. 15, 1978. (Getty Images)
The profile was entered into the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, which produced a match in Florida. Additional analysis ultimately linked the DNA to Bundy.
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“We bring this case to a closure and, more importantly, closure to the Aime family,” Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith said at an April news conference.
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The Utah County Sheriff’s Office later shared the DNA profile with other law enforcement agencies in hopes of identifying more of Bundy’s victims. Officials said at the time that they believed the breakthrough could help resolve another cold case, though they did not provide additional details.
Serial killer Ted Bundy’s digitally enhanced mugshot from Salt Lake County in 1975 (Alamy)
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Bundy killed at least 30 women and girls across multiple states during the 1970s, the AP reported.
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Ted Bundy in custody Feb. 18, 1978 (IMAGN)
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In his final days, Bundy confessed to a series of killings, including crimes that had previously been unknown to police, though not all of the cases have been confirmed.
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He has been linked to killings in Florida, Utah, Colorado, Oregon and Washington between 1974 and 1978.
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Serial killer Ted Bundy’s digitally enhanced photo from in his high school yearbook in 1965 (Alamy)
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Bundy was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering two Florida State University students in 1979 and received another death sentence the following year for the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl.
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He was executed in Florida’s electric chair in 1989.
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Fox News Digital’s Julia Bonavita and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
