Bundy's confirmed victim count rises to 31 with new DNA match

Summit County Sheriff Kacey Bates announced Tuesday that law enforcement has identified 17-year-old Melissa Anne Smith as a victim of serial killer Ted Bundy. This identification brings the confirmed number of women and girls killed by Bundy to at least 31. Several other individuals survived his attacks or escaped with serious injuries.

The confirmation comes months after a nearby Utah county used Bundy's DNA to solve a separate cold case. The same DNA profile that matched evidence from the Laura Ann Aime case was forwarded to the Summit County Sheriff's Office. Detectives found that profile matched evidence recovered from Smith's body.

Bundy's rampage of violence spanned at least four years. While he is dead, the tally of his victims continues to grow as forensic technology improves. In April, Utah law enforcement confirmed that Bundy killed 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime more than 50 years ago. Aime went missing on Halloween night in 1974 and her body was found a month later on a highway. Authorities believe she was kept alive for several days after her abduction.

Bundy was not the only prolific serial killer in United States history. Gary Ridgway admitted to killing 49 people. Samuel Little killed more than 60 individuals. Donald Harvey pleaded guilty to killing 37 people. Despite these higher totals, Bundy remains one of the most well-known killers due to the public fascination surrounding his 1979 trial.

The deaths linked to Bundy began in Washington state in 1974. He grew up in Tacoma and many of his earliest crimes occurred around Seattle. In January 1974, an 18-year-old University of Washington student was attacked in her home near the campus. She survived with a fractured skull and permanent injuries. The next month, fellow student Lynda Ann Healy vanished from her home. Her remains were found the following year on Taylor Mountain, a remote area where the remains of other Bundy victims were also discovered.

By October 1974, teen girls in Utah were also disappearing. Smith's body was found on a hillside in Summit Park, Utah. Her head had been beaten with a crowbar. Around this time, 18-year-old Carol DaRonch was snatched by Bundy after he claimed to be a police officer investigating car break-ins. She survived by jumping from his car when he attempted to handcuff her. Her testimony later helped secure his conviction.

Police arrested Bundy for the first time in August 1975 after finding rope, handcuffs, and a ski mask in his vehicle. He was found guilty of kidnapping and assaulting DaRonch in 1976 and sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 1977, he escaped custody in Aspen, Colorado, by climbing out a second-story courthouse window. He was caught a week later but escaped again six months later by breaking through a jail ceiling.

After his second escape, Bundy fled to Florida. On Jan. 15, 1978, he entered the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University. He bludgeoned two women to death with a large branch and injured two others. He then injured another sleeping woman in a nearby house. In early February 1978, he abducted, assaulted, and killed 12-year-old Kimberly Leach in Lake City, Florida. He was arrested in Pensacola while driving a stolen vehicle.

Bundy's 1979 trial drew widespread attention because of his self-assured demeanor. A teenage spectator told an Associated Press reporter that Bundy had a kind of magnetism. Judge Edward Cowart called him a bright young man who would have made a good lawyer. Cowart also described the crimes as extremely wicked, shockingly evil, and vile, and sentenced Bundy to death.

Bundy was executed by electric chair in Florida on Jan. 24, 1989. In his final days, he gave a series of confessions to crimes previously unknown to police. Not all of those cases have been confirmed.