A DNA breakthrough has solved the 52-year-old murder of a chief’s teenage daughter, and the cold-case detective who helped crack it says notorious serial killer Ted Bundy could have other victims investigators do not even know about.
Melissa Ann Smith, 17, the daughter of then-Midvale Police Chief Louis Smith, was found dead in 1974. For decades, investigators suspected Bundy but lacked the evidence needed to definitively tie him to her murder.
That changed in July, when DNA evidence in the killing of another 17-year-old Utah girl, Laura Ann Aime, was matched to Bundy, allowing investigators to compare evidence preserved from Smith’s case for more than half a century.
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“There may be more victims out there that we’re not even aware of, and I think there’s always been that speculation,” Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office Detective Ben Pender told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview Wednesday.
Pender, a 35-year law enforcement veteran assigned to the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office unsolved homicide and missing person unit, said investigators plan to preserve the evidence that helped solve Smith’s murder so it can potentially be used in other cases.
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“We’re gonna hold on to this evidence, and we’re gonna utilize it in cases that we believe may be connected to see if we can’t resolve not only our case, but anybody else who may have a case with Bundy,” Pender said.
Smith’s body was discovered by hunters on Oct. 27, 1974, in a wooded area near the border of Summit and Salt Lake counties.
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“These cases that are unsolved are unsolved, in my opinion, for a reason, and because they are extremely difficult to solve,” Pender said.
Although investigators had long suspected Bundy, similarities between Smith’s killing and his other crimes were not enough to definitively tie him to her death.
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Investigators needed evidence establishing that Bundy was responsible rather than relying on a similar method of operation, Pender said.
“DNA is not always the answer, but it definitely is a piece that’s missing a lot of times in these cases that, with everything else with the case, will maybe bring that together,” Pender said.
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The break investigators needed ultimately came from the Aime case.
Aime vanished after leaving a Halloween party to buy cigarettes on Oct. 31, 1974. Her body was discovered by hikers near Amer
