DNA links Ted Bundy to the 1974 murder of a Utah police chief's daughter, 17, more than 50 years on

Melissa Ann Smith, the 17-year-old daughter of Midvale police chief Louis Smith, disappeared on 18 October 1974 after an evening spent at a pizza parlour and a Murray restaurant. Her naked, battered body was found nine days later by a deer hunter in Summit Park, Utah. Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson said the killing bore hallmarks of Bundy's 'pattern, motive, means and opportunity', while Sheriff Kacey Bates confirmed the case is now officially closed after more than half a century.

The breakthrough traces back to a blood sample taken from Bundy after his 1978 arrest, which came to light in Florida in 2011 and was later added to the FBI's national DNA database.

Forensic scientists tied Smith's case to Bundy's DNA after first linking him to the similar 1974 murder of Laura Ann Aime in Utah County last April.

A cold-case detective has cautioned that Bundy may have claimed additional victims who have never been identified, with DNA now the primary means of cracking cold cases.