Utah’s new – Utah says new genotyping technology in 2023 finally produced a full Ted Bundy DNA profile from samples tied to Laura Ann Aime’s 1974 killing—an update investigators hope could help compare evidence across other cold cases linked to Bundy.
When Utah investigators dug into evidence from the 1970s, the DNA didn’t just sit untouched for decades—it couldn’t fully speak for itself. Samples were degraded, mixed, and only produced partial results that state labs couldn’t reliably match to the FBI’s CODIS database.
That changed in 2023, when the Utah crime lab began using new genotyping technology, allowing investigators to reconstruct a full DNA profile that could be entered into CODIS. The breakthrough came after Utah compared that reconstructed profile to a complete DNA profile of Ted Bundy in Florida.
Now, Utah has what it calls a full Bundy DNA profile—ready for comparison against evidence from other cases. And investigators say it arrives at a tense, consequential moment as a long-sought answer is closing in on one of the most enduring cold cases in the state.
Last week. investigators announced they closed a more than 50-year-old cold case involving the killing of Utah teen Laura Ann Aime. who was found dead in American Fork Canyon in 1974.. The DNA profile for Bundy was pieced together from samples collected from Aime’s body at the time. Amy Newman. director of the Utah Bureau of Forensic Services. said.
For Detective Ben Pender, who leads the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office cold case unit, the significance is bigger than one name. “Maybe even cases that we’re not aware of that are Bundy cases,” Pender said. “I think it is significant.”
Before Bundy was executed in Florida in 1989, he confessed to killing at least 30 young women, including eight in Utah.. Some of their bodies have never been found.. Utah investigators point to four known cold cases in the state that Bundy is said to be involved in. according to the Utah Department of Public Safety’s cold case database and a department spokesperson.
One of those cases is the killing of Nancy Wilcox, a 16-year-old cheerleader from Salt Lake County. Wilcox went missing in 1974, and Pender said her body was never found. Pender said Bundy confessed to killing Wilcox, but investigators have never been able to independently confirm it.
Bundy told authorities to search near Capitol Reef National Park, Pender said, but those efforts came up empty. Pender believes the confession may have been used to buy time—one reason, he said, a confession alone wasn’t enough to close the case.
Utah’s cold cases also include Susan Curtis. a 15-year-old who disappeared in 1975 while attending a youth conference at Brigham Young University in Provo. according to the state cold case database.. Her body also was never found.. Without physical evidence to compare against the new DNA profile. investigators say those cases can’t be resolved with the new tool.
Still. the technology may help with other killings long believed to be tied to Bundy—cases where investigators have physical evidence to test.. Two additional Utah cold cases believed to be connected to Bundy include the killing of Melissa Smith. who disappeared in October 1974 and was later found dead in Summit Park. and the killing of Deborah Smith. whose body was found near Salt Lake City International Airport in 1976. according to a DPS spokesperson. Stephanie Dinsmore.
Newman said the shift isn’t limited to Bundy either. While the reconstructed profile is now usable for cross-case comparisons, the new genotyping technology could also help solve other cases not connected to the serial killer.
Dinsmore said there are 444 unsolved cases in Utah, including 258 homicides, 146 missing persons, and 40 unidentified human remains—plus more that may not yet be logged in the database. And Newman said DNA can do more than point investigators toward a suspect.
“One of the cool things about DNA is it exonerates people as much as it might convict somebody,” Newman said. “DNA doesn’t have a side.”
For Utah, the next question is no longer whether the evidence exists—it’s what the rebuilt DNA profile will match as investigators step into a new round of comparisons, case by case, decades after the first samples were collected.
Utah cold cases Ted Bundy DNA profile CODIS Utah Bureau of Forensic Services Laura Ann Aime Nancy Wilcox Susan Curtis Melissa Smith Deborah Smith