DNA links 1974 unsolved death of Utah teen Laura Aime to serial killer Ted Bundy
New DNA testing has definitively linked the 1974 death of 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime to serial killer Ted Bundy, Utah sheriff's office confirms.
Cold case closed: DNA places Ted Bundy at 1974 murder of Utah teenager
New DNA testing has definitively connected the unsolved 1974 death of a Utah teenager to serial killer Ted Bundy, the Utah County Sheriff's Office announced Wednesday, pbs.org reports.
Laura Ann Aime, 17, vanished on Halloween night 51 years ago after leaving a party alone to walk to a nearby convenience store. Roughly a month later, hikers discovered her body on a highway embankment in American Fork Canyon. She was bound, unclothed and had been beaten. Investigators said the evidence suggested she had likely been kept alive for several days following her abduction.
Suspicion had long fallen on Bundy. Police said he verbally acknowledged his role in Aime's death in the lead-up to his execution in Florida in January 1989. The case nonetheless remained open, pending definitive proof.
"Laura Aime is the quintessential daughter of Utah County," Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Mike Reynolds said at a news conference. "We felt the pain the family feels when she was taken. We felt the pain that you felt this whole entire time, and we've had the desire to deliver to you some type of healing."
Aime's family remembered her as a free spirit who loved the outdoors and found joy in everything around her.
Bundy's trail of killings across multiple states
Bundy is considered one of the most prolific serial killers in American history, with at least 30 women and girls' deaths attributed to him across several states during the 1970s. His victims were targeted in sorority houses, parks and other locations, sending shockwaves across the country. Public fascination with his case was fuelled in part by his reputation for charm and good looks.
By 1974, young women — many of them college students — had begun disappearing in Washington state. Bundy subsequently relocated to Salt Lake City, where he continued killing in Utah, Idaho and Colorado. At the time of Aime's death, he was enrolled in the law programme at the University of Utah.
He was first arrested in August 1975 after police pulled him over and found rope, handcuffs and a ski mask in his vehicle. The following year, he was convicted of kidnapping and assaulting a Utah teenager who had escaped his attack, and sentenced to 15 years in prison. While incarcerated, he was charged in connection with the death of a nursing student and transferred to Aspen, Colorado for a hearing.
Two escapes and a final arrest in Florida
In 1977, Bundy escaped from the Aspen courthouse by climbing out of a second-storey window during a period when he was left unsupervised. He was recaptured about a week later but broke free a second time six months afterwards, this time forcing his way through the ceiling of a jail cell.
He eventually made his way to Tallahassee, Florida. On 15 January 1978, he broke into the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University, killing two women with a large branch and seriously injuring two others. He then attacked a woman at a nearby residence.
Less than a month later, Bundy abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered 12-year-old Kimberly Leach in Lake City, Florida — believed to be his final victim. He was arrested in Pensacola after being stopped while driving a stolen vehicle.
Bundy was executed in Florida in 1989. The confirmation of his link to Aime's death, more than five decades on, closes one of the last formally open chapters of his documented killings.
Source: Irish Independent