DNA Evidence Closes 50-Year-Old Cold Case, Linking Ted Bundy to Murder of Utah Teen

Bundy verbally acknowledged his role in Laura's death in the days before his execution in 1989, but investigators at the time couldn't act on it.

Rudy Blalock

Published: 4/1/2026, 11:50:54 PM EDT

DNA Evidence Closes 50-Year-Old Cold Case, Linking Ted Bundy to Murder of Utah Teen — Accused murderer Ted Bundy attends the second day of jury selection in his murder trial in Miami, Fla., on June 27, 1979. (AP Photo)

Utah authorities have solved a five-decade-old cold case, announcing on Wednesday that DNA evidence definitively ties serial killer Theodore "Ted" Bundy to the 1974 murder of 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime.

Laura left a Halloween party alone on the night of Oct. 31, 1974, reportedly heading to a nearby convenience store, according to the Utah County Sheriff's Office. She never returned. Nearly a month later, on Thanksgiving Day, two college students hiking in American Fork Canyon stumbled upon her body, which had been discarded several feet from the highway near State Road 92. Investigators found she had been bound, severely beaten, stripped of her clothing, and strangled with a nylon stocking, authorities said in a press release.

Bundy verbally acknowledged his role in Laura's death in the days before his execution, but investigators at the time couldn't act on it.

"The Utah County Sheriff's Department and Utah County Attorney's Office both declined to accept Bundy's verbal accountability for Laura's homicide, as the open Utah County case was unable to satisfactorily convict Bundy based upon the evidence in possession and with the available investigative sciences for the time," according to the press release. Detectives kept the case open, determined not to close it without definitive proof.

That proof finally came more than 50 years later.

How This Case Was Solved

In 2025, as the 51st anniversary of Laura's disappearance approached, Cold Case Detective Jake Hall and Supervisor Sergeant Michael Reynolds flagged the case for review. Investigators reexamined evidence collected decades ago, this time submitting it to the Utah Bureau of Forensic Services for analysis using modern forensic technology.

"The results were magnificent as they confirmed irrefutably that DNA evidence recovered from Laura's body verified the existence of DNA belonging to Bundy," according to the Utah County Sheriff's Office press release.

"The Utah County Sheriff's Office has definitive proof that Theodore 'Ted' Bundy murdered Laura Ann Aime in 1974," the sheriff's office said in a statement.

Prior investigation had long pointed to Bundy. The manner in which Laura was abused and killed closely mirrored Bundy's known methods, and investigators noted that his other victims had been found discarded in northern Utah and across the western United States.

"Case evidence similarities indicated that the manner of abuse and the likely cause of death was comparable to the modus operandi of Theodore 'Ted' Bundy," the sheriff's office said.

Bundy, one of America's most notorious serial killers, was arrested in 1978 and executed in Florida on Jan. 24, 1989, for the murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach. He admitted to killing 36 young women and was linked to crimes across Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado and Florida, and once boasted of killing at least 100 women. Bundy was believed to have carried out his crimes between 1974 and 1978.

Laura's family remembered her as a warm and spirited teenager who loved the outdoors, riding horses and hunting, and who doted on her younger siblings. Her siblings recalled how she would spend her own money on candy simply to see the joy on their faces.

The Utah County Sheriff's Office officially closed the case on Wednesday, crediting the work of Detective Hall and Sgt. Reynolds, along with advances in forensic science that made the breakthrough possible.