New DNA evidence closes in on a decades-old case

Ted Bundy has now been connected to another murder, more than 50 years after the crime.

The Utah County Sheriff’s Office says new DNA testing has confirmed that Bundy was responsible for the death of Laura Ann Aime, who was 17 when she was killed in 1974. Investigators reexamined evidence from the case and found that semen swabbed from Aime’s body matched Bundy’s DNA profile in a Florida database.

The result adds another killing to Bundy’s already grim record. Before his execution in 1989, he had confessed to murdering 30 women in Utah, Idaho, Colorado and Florida.

At an April 1 news conference, Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Reynolds described Aime as someone the community would not forget.

“Laura Aime is the quintessential daughter of Utah County,” Reynolds said. “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.”

What happened in 1974

According to the sheriff’s office, Aime disappeared on Halloween night in 1974. Witnesses said she left a party in Utah County on her own and went to a convenience store, but she never came back.

Nearly a month later, her body was found beside a highway in American Fork Canyon.

Investigators said the scene was brutal. In the department’s release, officials wrote that her body was found bound, severely beaten and unclothed. They also said a nylon stocking had been used to strangle her and was a major factor in her death.

Authorities believed the body had been placed at the roadside deliberately. They also said Aime was likely kept alive for several days or more after she was abducted.

Why investigators suspected Bundy for years

The case fit Bundy’s known pattern closely enough that investigators had long considered him a likely suspect. He was known for using charm to lure victims before abducting, raping and killing them, which is one of those details that makes the entire story worse every time you read it.

At the time of Aime’s death, Bundy was studying law at the University of Utah. According to the sheriff’s office, he also verbally acknowledged responsibility in the days before his execution in Florida. Even so, the case stayed open until authorities could prove it scientifically.

That proof came in 2025, when the sheriff’s office revisited several cold cases and used newer forensic methods to process evidence from Aime’s file.

The department said the results left little room for argument.

“The results were magnificent,” the office said in its release, “as they confirmed irrefutably that DNA evidence recovered from Laura’s body verified the existence of DNA belonging to Bundy.”

Remembering Laura Aime

While the DNA result provides long-awaited confirmation, it does not change what Aime’s family has lived with for more than five decades.

Authorities said they want her story remembered not only for the crime, but for who she was.

The sheriff’s office described Aime as a tall, beautiful, outgoing free spirit who loved the outdoors. She enjoyed horseback riding, hunting and spending time with her siblings.

Her family also remembered her as someone who found joy in small things and cared deeply about the people around her.

Her younger siblings told stories of her warmth and generosity, including one in which she used her own money to buy candy for them because she liked seeing how happy it made them.

The case may finally be solved, but for Aime’s family, the human cost remains the part that DNA cannot fix.