The grim tally of Ted Bundy’s victims continues to expand, nearly four decades after the notorious serial killer’s execution.
Advanced DNA testing has now definitively linked him to the unsolved 1974 death of a Utah teenager, a local sheriff confirmed this week.
Utah County sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Reynolds said that the creation of Bundy’s full DNA profile is expected to bring another cold case “close to closure” imminently.
Bundy’s violent rampage spanned at least four years, leaving a trail of devastation that included the murders of at least 30 women and girls, alongside numerous others who narrowly escaped or survived severe injuries.
Bundy is one of several prolific serial killers in United States history; others, such as Gary Ridgway, Samuel Little, and Donald Harvey, are believed to have claimed even more lives.
His 1979 trial garnered widespread public fascination, partly due to his perceived charm and handsome appearance. Here is what to know about Bundy and his crimes.
It’s unknown when Bundy first began his attacks, but the deaths linked to him began in Washington state in 1974. He had grown up in Tacoma, Washington, and many of his earliest known violent crimes happened around Seattle.
An 18-year-old University of Washington student was sleeping in her home near the Seattle campus in January 1974 when someone broke in and attacked her, leaving her with a fractured skull. She survived but with permanent injuries. Bundy was believed to be responsible for the crime, which fit a pattern he established in later years, often breaking into young women’s homes, bludgeoning and sexually assaulting them, and either leaving them to die or dumping their bodies elsewhere.
The next month, Lynda Ann Healy, another University of Washington student, vanished from her home. A small bit of blood was found on her bedding, and her remains were found the next year on Taylor Mountain, a remote area outside a neighboring city. The remains of some of Bundy’s other victims were also found at the same site.
Over the next few months, other women were also abducted from Washington state and Oregon. In some of the cases, witnesses saw the women talking to a man who was wearing an arm sling.
By October, teen girls in Utah were also vanishing. The body of 17-year-old Melissa Anne Smith was found on a hillside in Summit Park, Utah, and her head had been beaten with a crowbar.
Carol DaRonch, an 18-year-old, was snatched by Bundy when he claimed to be a police officer investigating car break-ins. But she survived by jumping out of his car after he tried to handcuff her. DaRonch’s testimony would later be instrumental in putting Bundy behind bars.
Bundy continued killing throughout the next year in Utah, Colorado and Idaho.
Bundy was arrested for the first time in connection with the disappearances August 1975, when police pulled him over and found incriminating items including rope, handcuffs and a ski mask, in his vehicle.
