Ted Bundy linked to another teenage girl's murder almost four decades after execution

Ted Bundy has been linked to another murder almost 40 years after he was executed.

The serial killer is responsible for killing dozens of women and girls in several states throughout the 1970s, while many more escaped or survived with injuries.

Bundy was executed in Florida in 1989 for the 1978 murders of two women at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University.

However, nearly 40 decades on, authorities in Utah say they have uncovered another one of his victims - 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith in 1974, a death that had long been listed as a cold case.

Smith went missing in October 1974 with a hunter finding her naked body days later.

The prosecutor in Summit County, Utah, said investigators are satisfied that Bundy was responsible for killing Smith in 1974.

“This case demonstrates the importance of preserving evidence, even when decades have passed,” said the Salt Lake county sheriff, Rosie Rivera, on Tuesday (27 October).

Police say they are ‘satisfied’ Ted Bundy is responsible for the 1974 killing of Melissa Ann Smith (Utah Department of Public Safety)

“We have the ability to take a look at these cases again and again.”

The latest of Bundy’s confirmed victims comes just months after officials confirmed that he was also responsible for the 1974 killing of Laura Ann Aime. Aime, who was 17, was last seen at a Halloween party in October before being found dead the following month.

After he was convicted, Bundy confessed to the killing of Aime, alongside several others, but it wasn’t until April this year that he was definitively linked to her murder.

Mike Reynolds, a sergeant with the Utah county sheriff’s office, said: “The voices and cherished memories of Melissa Ann Smith and Laura Ann Aime and others involved in these cases ring louder than the hate and sedition of the one that took their lives.

“With every case closure may we stomp the memory of Ted Bundy out.”

Bundy was executed in 1989 (Getty)

Bundy confessed to 28 murders but is believed to be responsible for many more.

Back in April, a detective from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, said the DNA profile used to link Bundy to the murder of Aime had been shared with other departments, with the hope that it could lead to closing more cases.

Bundy is one of the US’s most infamous serial killers and was known to approach women in public places where he would attempt to earn their trust by faking an injury or tricking them into believing he was an authority figure.

He would then lure his victims to his car and take them to a secluded spot to kill them.

In 1975, Bundy was arrested for kidnap and sentenced to 15 years in jail, but he escaped from prison in 1977 after jumping from a window.

He was recaptured by cops but managed to escape again during which time he continued with his killing spree until he was finally caught in 1978.

Bundy was given three death sentences across two trials and was executed via electric chair in January 1989.

Although he was killed 37 years ago, his death tally continues to rise thanks to advancements in DNA testing.