Ted Bundy DNA breakthrough could help crack some of America's oldest murder mysteries, criminologist reveals

A criminologist believes advances in DNA technology that linked serial killer Ted Bundy to another murder could help solve even the coldest of cases.Dr Angelo Brown said the testing that linked Bundy to the killing of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith in Utah could provide answers to some of the country's longest-running mysteries.Bundy was connected to Smith's 1974 death thanks to advancements in a process known as Y-chromosome Short Tandem Repeat (Y-STR) profiling.The breakthrough came months after the same DNA testing linked Bundy to the murder of 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime, who died just weeks after Smith.Brown, an assistant professor of criminology at Arkansas State University, said advances in the technology could help solve cases where DNA evidence was mixed or previously considered too degraded to yield results.'Their cases were helped by advancements in Y-STR profiling, which is DNA men inherit from their father and can be tracked through generations,' he explained.'Since Y-STR profiling targets the male Y chromosome, it can be very effective at isolating a male suspect's DNA from mixed biological samples, even 50 years ago or, theoretically, up to hundreds or thousands of years ago, if they have samples to match.'However, Brown warned that the technology has limitations and that the age of many cold cases could make securing convictions difficult. Authorities in Utah have determined that prolific serial killer Ted Bundy killed 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith in October 1974 The breakthrough in the case came when investigators were able to match DNA collected from Smith's body to Bundy's complete DNA profile in Florida'For most cold cases from 50 years ago, it likely won't be implemented to actually try and convict someone since the perpetrator is likely not alive anymore, and if they don’t have the suspect's DNA already, they would not be able to link a person to the crime, and the amount of cost, time, and resources for this investigation is often very high,' he said.'This doesn’t actually prove Bundy did the murders in an official manner since Bundy died back in the 80s, and one is innocent until proven guilty in the court of law; it does give a sense of closure.' Smith, the daughter of former Midvale Police Chief Louis S Smith, was first reported missing on October 18, 1974, after she failed to return home from a friend's.She left a friend at a pizza parlor in Midvale that night and was seen at a nearby restaurant shortly after, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.What happened to the teenager after she was spotted at the restaurant remains unclear, but her body was discovered in the woods nine days later by a deer hunterA year later, investigators were exploring a possible connection between Smith's murder and Bundy, who was then serving a prison sentence of one to 15 years in Utah for kidnapping a 17-year-old girl on November 8, 1974.He had also been named in a warrant for murder in the death of Caryn Campbell, a Michigan nurse who was killed while vacationing in Aspen, Colorado.But the serial killer was ultimately only convicted of murdering two sorority sisters at Florida State University and a 12-year-old girl in Florida. He was sentenced to death by electric chair and died in 1989. Assistant professor of criminology at Arkansas State University Dr Angelo Brown explained how the advancements in the testing which linked Bundy to Smith's murder could help solve other historic cold casesBundy ultimately confessed to killing at least 30 young women across Florida, Utah, Colorado, Idaho and Washington state, including victims whose murders had previously gone unsolvedHowever, not all of his confessions have been independently verified, and the remains of some alleged victims have never been found.Chief Smith resigned from the Midvale Police Department in 1980 and died in 1985. Smith's mother, Joan, died in 2024 and her sister, Jolene, died in 2014.The Summit County sheriff's office said it contacted Smith's remaining relatives about the findings.'This case demonstrates the importance of preserving evidence,' said Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera, whose department has also investigated homicides linked to Bundy.'We have to solve these cases to the best of our ability,' she said, explaining the importance of tapping science, even so many years later.'Nobody is just going to walk away and just blame everything on Ted Bundy, even though many cases have been that way. Here in the state of Utah, we take it very seriously.'