After more than 50 years with no clear answers, the death of a Utah teenager has now been definitively linked to one of America’s most prolific serial killers.
In 1974, 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime disappeared on Halloween night after leaving a party alone. Searchers found her body about a month later. She had been bound, severely beaten and strangled.
Investigators had long suspected infamous serial killer Ted Bundy had killed her, but until now, they couldn’t prove it.
What we know about Bundy’s crimes
Bundy was convicted of three murders in Florida in 1977 and executed there in 1989.
Before his death, Bundy confessed to killing 30 women, including Aime, but law enforcement has long believed he murdered more than 100 people.
Bundy has been linked to killings in not just Utah and Florida, but Washington state, Colorado, Idaho, California, Vermont, and Pennsylvania dating back as early as 1969.
Bundy was first arrested in August 1975, after police found incriminating evidence in his vehicle during a traffic stop, including rope, handcuffs and a ski mask.
In 1976, he was found guilty of kidnapping and assaulting a Utah teen who had managed to get away. Bundy was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and while still behind bars he was charged in connection with the earlier death of a nursing student in Colorado.
In 1977, he was brought to Aspen for a hearing in that case, where he escaped custody by climbing out a second-story courthouse window while left alone. About a week later, he was caught, but he escaped again six months later by breaking through the jail’s ceiling.
After that, Bundy ended up in Tallahassee, Florida. On Jan. 15, 1978, he bludgeoned two women to death with a large branch the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University.
Less than a month later, he abducted, sexually assaulted and killed12-year-old Kimberly Leach in Lake City, Florida. Leach is believed to be his last victim.
New DNA link
Investigators in Utah had preserved the evidence from Aime’s case and even 50 years later, forensic analysts were able to recover some usable DNA samples.
Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said the state crime lab got new technology in 2023 that allows investigators to extract DNA from samples even if they are small, degraded from age or contain DNA from multiple people.
When they submitted the sample to a national law enforcement database, it came back a match to Bundy.
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Bundy would often wear a fake cast or use crutches to appear vulnerable and lure in victims.
“Although Bundy did claim that he committed the murder of Laura, the confession he gave was deemed to be not enough evidence to close the case,” Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith said during a new conference Wednesday.
He added, “We can now say without a doubt that Theodore Ted Bundy did in fact murder Laura Ann Aime in the fall of 1974, and that law enforcement now has DNA testing results that are compatible with the latest DNA testing standards. This will make any future DNA test comparison easier for those law enforcement agencies who still have open cases involving Bundy.”
‘It’s really quite amazing’
Aime’s sister, Michelle Impala, thanked Utah authorities for being “so passionate” and not giving up on her sister’s case.
“It’s really quite amazing that people even are still interested in Laura’s case, but I appreciate it,” she said during the news conference Wednesday.
Impala, now 64, remembered her sister as fun and outgoing.
“I was 12 when Laura died. She was 17. We were really close. We shared a room. We rode horses together. She was very passionate about animals,” Impala said. “She took me everywhere, as a 12-year-old that was pretty cool to hang out with my older sister.”
Impala said her sister and parents would be happy to know that the case is now officially closed.