Utah County Sheriff’s Office says definitive evidence confirms Ted Bundy murdered Utah County teen in 1974
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- Laura Ann Aime is pictured.
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- Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith is pictured Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Spanish Fork.
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- Michelle Impala, the sister of Laura Ann Aime, speaks at a news conference Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Spanish Fork.
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- From left, Utah County Sheriff’s Office Detective Stg. Mike Reynolds, Sheriff Mike Smith and Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason are shown at a news conference Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Spanish Fork.
Definitive evidence confirmed that the 1974 murder of Laura Ann Aime was committed by Ted Bundy, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office announced in a news conference Wednesday morning in Spanish Fork.
Aime, a Utah County native, was 17 when she went missing on Halloween night in 1974, and her body was found on Nov. 27 in American Fork Canyon.
Sheriff Mike Smith said that although Bundy claimed to have committed the murder, the confession was not sufficient evidence to close the case and rule out other parties. A renewed effort to solve the cold case came from Detective Sgt. Mike Reynolds and Detective Jacob Hall.
Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said the detectives worked with agency partners to extract forensic evidence from the case and confirm that the DNA matched Bundy’s.
“With that evidence and the full support of the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, we bring this case to a closure, and most importantly, we bring closure, hopefully, to the Aime family, who have endured over 50 years of the loss of their loved one,” Smith said.
Bundy, who died by the electric chair in 1989, confessed to the murder of 30 women and is linked to the murder of several Utah women between 1974 and 1975. Smith said if Bundy were still alive today, the sheriff’s office would have pursued the case to the “fullest extent” and pushed for capital punishment.
Michelle Impala, Aime’s sister, said she did not know the case was still open before the renewed investigation but that she was grateful to the authorities for finding conclusive evidence.
“I know that (Laura) would be happy to know that it’s been closed,” said Impala, who added that Bundy is “gnashing his teeth in hell.”
Finding the evidence
The path to closing the case began with a commitment from Reynolds and Hall to review every cold case in Utah County, according to Smith, who said investigators in 1974 did “a phenomenal job” in preserving evidence and that it remained in pristine condition.
Reynolds said he and Hall gathered evidence from the case, including body fluids left on Aime’s body, and presented it to the Utah State Forensic Bureau. The crime lab identified pieces of evidence that held the best potential to extract DNA and began working on them in the lab.
Through technology acquired by the state in 2023, the forensic team was able to extract DNA profiles that may be a small sample size, contain mixed profiles or are degraded in age, Mason said.
“Throughout that process, they were able to identify a single male DNA profile and submit that into our CODIS System,” he said. “CODIS is the Combined DNA Indexing System that is used nationwide.”
The state received a hit from Florida and identified the DNA profile the evidence matched, and it came back as a positive match to Bundy, Mason said.
Smith said law enforcement now has DNA testing results compatible with the latest DNA testing standards, which will make future DNA test comparisons easier for law enforcement agencies that still have open cases involving Bundy.
“Currently and under confidential circumstances, we believe that there is one case that is also going to be closed due to the evidence that we provided,” said Reynolds, who declined to specify which case but said it was not in Utah County. “The sheriff has given his resources and given the green light for us to do anything within our means to cooperate and share anything that we may have with other agencies.”
Remembering Laura
Wednesday’s news conference took place at the sheriff’s office in front of several of Laura’s relatives. Her sister, Impala, who was 12 at the time of Laura’s death, took a few minutes to thank the authorities and commemorate her sister who died nearly 52 years ago.
“Thank you to everybody that’s here for being here,” Impala said. “It’s really quite amazing that people are even still interested in Laura’s case. But I appreciate it.”
Impala said she was close to her big sister while growing up on a farm in Fairfield, and that Laura would take her with her wherever she went. She said Laura was fond of her horse, Arab, who she spent a lot of time working on, and would feed him red licorice, called nibs, as a treat.
“I thought she was fun because I was just a little kid just following her around,” Impala said. “But we had a lot in common. The love of animals and just being outside and doing the things that you do when you live on a farm full of animals.”
Reynolds expressed his appreciation to the Aime family for their willingness to share the type of person Laura was throughout the course of the investigation.
He said even 52 years later, no one had a bad thing to say about her. The favorite story he learned is how Laura would take care of her siblings, bringing them to the store and buying them candy with her own money.
“It’s just something that is hard to be seen and is simply love,” Reynolds said. “And it’s something that we need more of.”
