Utah links Ted Bundy to 1974 murder of 17-year-old through DNA evidence

A 1974 cold case closes

Utah authorities announced on Tuesday, 27 October 2026, that DNA evidence links Ted Bundy to the 1974 murder of a 17-year-old girl. Hunters found her body on 27 October 1974 in the mountains of Utah, and the killing had remained unsolved for decades. Her family had lived in painful uncertainty while the file sat among unsolved cold cases. Officials said the breakthrough came through a second 1974 killing, that of another 17-year-old, which Utah officials had identified in April as a Bundy victim. The announcement came 52 years after the body was found.

How the DNA link was made

Laboratories re-tested biological traces kept from the original investigations, and advanced DNA analysis produced a profile that investigators matched to Bundy. According to 20 Minuten, the first match came from the second 1974 case, where DNA matched Bundy's profile directly. Forensic experts then compared further DNA markers from that case with traces secured on the body of the girl found by hunters, and those matched too. The markers were Y-STR, inherited through the male line, so they can also match male relatives, which is why investigators weighed the crime pattern and the circumstances before concluding Bundy was responsible. TVP instead frames the confirmed killing as the murder of the girl identified in April, so the accounts differ on which 1974 case the DNA result settled first.

Officials respond

Sgt Mike Reynolds of Utah County said at a press conference on Tuesday that more Bundy cases were still being examined in the state. He spoke about the effect each closed case has on the memory of the killer.

“With every case closure may we stomp the memory of Ted Bundy out.”

Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said the result should tell families of other cold cases that there is hope. She credited detectives for keeping the evidence for decades and said forensic work keeps improving.

“Every single day forensics is changing and we have the ability to take a look at these cases again and again.”

Investigators are also still looking into the disappearances of other young women, including one case linked to Bundy. The family of the 1974 victim was informed before the public announcement.

Bundy's record and open files

Bundy was executed in Florida in 1989 after being convicted of murdering two women at a sorority house. Before his death he confessed to killing two other teenage girls in Utah, and he has been linked to at least 30 murders across the United States. Not all of the crimes he confessed to in his final days could be confirmed. He was first arrested in 1975 for kidnapping a woman and sentenced to 15 years, but in 1977 he escaped by jumping out of a prison library window. He was recaptured after eight days, escaped again and was not caught until 1978.

In April, the director of Utah's Bureau of Forensic Services told the Salt Lake Tribune that the state had 444 unsolved death investigations, including 258 homicides.

Unsolved death investigations444

Of which homicides258

Unsolved death investigations

444 cases

Of which homicides

258 cases

Data from the article text

Investigators say more Bundy cases are still under examination in Utah.