New DNA testing has definitively linked the unsolved death of a Utah teenager in 1974 to the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy, the local sheriff’s office said Wednesday.
Laura Ann Aime, 17, went missing Halloween night 51 years ago after she left a party alone to go to a convenience store. About a month later, her body was found on the side of a highway, bound, beaten and without clothing.
Investigators long suspected that Bundy was responsible — police said he verbally acknowledged his culpability leading up to his execution — but the case remained open until they could be sure. Bundy was one of the nation’s most prolific serial killers, with at least 30 women and girls’ deaths linked to him in several states in the 1970s. His murders — which occurred in sorority houses, parks and elsewhere — set the nation on edge. Bundy’s arrest drew widespread fascination, in part because many considered him to be charming and handsome.
At the time of Aime’s killing, Bundy was living in Salt Lake City and studying law at the University of Utah.
“Laura Aime is the quintessential daughter of Utah County. 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, we can’t really say closure,” Utah County sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Reynolds said in a news conference earlier Wednesday.
