Investigators in Utah say they've linked serial killer Ted Bundy to the murder of a second teenage girl this year, using the same DNA breakthrough that closed another of his cold cases just months ago.

The Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification lists 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith as a Bundy victim on its official cold case registry. Smith vanished on October 18, 1974, while walking home from a pizza restaurant in Midvale; her body was later found bludgeoned, discovered by deer hunters in Summit Park.

How the DNA Case Came Together

According to CBS News's account of the investigation, a DNA profile recovered from evidence collected during Smith's original autopsy closely matched Bundy's genetic profile. That full DNA sample traces back to a blood vial drawn during Bundy's 1978 arrest in Florida, rediscovered in 2011 and entered into the FBI's national database years later.

Utah County Sgt. Mike Reynolds, whose agency closed the case of 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime earlier this year using the same Bundy DNA profile, said investigators used Smith's case to cross-check the forensic match — tying the two 1974 killings together through the same evidence trail. The Summit County Sheriff's Office, which has jurisdiction over where Smith's remains were found, leads the active case.

"WITH EVERY CASE CLOSURE, MAY WE STOMP THE MEMORY OF TED BUNDY OUT."

That's how Reynolds described investigators' thinking to CBS News. Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera, whose office also assisted, said the case "demonstrates the importance of preserving evidence" across five decades — long enough that modern DNA testing could finally close it.

Bundy's Growing Body Count

Bundy moved to Salt Lake City in September 1974 and began a killing spree across Utah, Idaho and Colorado before his eventual capture. He was executed in Florida in 1989 for the 1978 murders at Florida State University's Chi Omega sorority house, but his full victim count has continued to grow as DNA technology improves — NBC4's coverage notes Smith's case is the second Utah cold case resolved against him this year alone, with investigators now testing his profile against still more unsolved 1970s killings.

Officials say they've contacted Smith's next of kin, none of whom still live in the area. No new charges are possible since Bundy has been dead since 1989, but closing the case allows the state to formally close the file and gives the family long-delayed confirmation of what happened.

What's Next

Investigators say Bundy's DNA profile remains active in ongoing comparisons against other unsolved Utah-area cases from the mid-1970s, meaning more closures could follow in the coming months.