Fifty-two years after Laura Ann Aime disappeared from a Halloween party and was found dead in an American Fork Canyon ravine — bound, beaten, and unclothed — her family finally has an official answer. On Wednesday, April 1, 2026, the Utah County Sheriff's Office announced that new DNA testing has definitively linked her killing to Theodore "Ted" Bundy, one of the most prolific serial killers in American history. The case is now closed.
The Case That Stayed Open for Half a Century
Laura Ann Aime was 17 years old when she left a party alone on Halloween night, 1974, in Lehi, Utah. She was reported missing shortly after. About a month later, her body was found on the side of a highway in American Fork Canyon, approximately 25 miles south of Salt Lake City. She had been bound, beaten, and left without clothing, according to AP's reporting from the April 1 press conference.
Investigators long suspected Bundy. Bundy himself told police he had killed Aime before his execution by electric chair in Florida in January 1989 — but he did so without providing corroborating details, according to AP. Without physical evidence that could withstand modern forensic scrutiny, the case remained officially open. The suspect was identified. The proof was not definitive.
At the time of Aime's killing, Bundy was a law student at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City — roughly 30 miles from the canyon where her body was found. He was in the midst of what authorities would later conclude was a murder spree that began in Washington state in early 1974 and expanded across Utah, Idaho, and Colorado.
How New Technology Solved It
The breakthrough came not from new evidence but from new tools applied to old evidence. Investigators had carefully preserved the physical materials from Aime's case for decades. The question was whether any biological material in that collection could still yield usable DNA after more than 50 years.
Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason told reporters Wednesday that the state crime lab acquired new technology in 2023 that allows forensic analysts to extract DNA from samples that are small, degraded from age, or contain genetic material from multiple individuals — conditions that had previously made analysis inconclusive or impossible. Forensic analysts identified portions of the preserved evidence most likely to yield a usable sample, and the new equipment worked.
"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," Mason said, according to AP. Analysts isolated a single male DNA profile and submitted it to a national law enforcement database. It matched Bundy's DNA.
Sgt. Mike Reynolds of the Utah County Sheriff's Office confirmed the findings at the press conference. "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," Reynolds said, as quoted by the New York Times.
The Family Speaks
Aime's sister, Michelle Impala, attended Wednesday's press conference. She was 12 years old when her older sister was killed. Despite the five-year age gap, she told reporters they were close — they shared a bedroom on their family's farm in Fairview, Utah, about 50 miles southeast of Provo.
"It's really quite amazing that people are even still interested in Laura's case," Impala said at the press conference, according to AP. "Know I speak for my family when I thank you, and thank you media, too, for even caring."
Impala recalled riding horses with her sister and watching Aime feed her horse red licorice nibs. "When she died, he would not eat those anymore," she said.
Reynolds addressed the family directly in his remarks. "Laura Aime is the quintessential daughter of Utah County," he said. "We felt the pain the family feels when she was taken. We felt the pain that you felt this whole entire time, and we've had the desire to deliver to you some type of healing."
Who Was Ted Bundy — and How Many Did He Kill?
Ted Bundy was linked to the deaths of at least 30 women and girls across multiple states during the 1970s, according to AP. Investigators and researchers have long believed the actual number may be higher. His victims were disproportionately young women, often college students. His killings took place in sorority houses, parks, and campgrounds across Washington, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, and Florida.
Bundy was first arrested in August 1975 in Utah after police pulled him over and discovered rope, handcuffs, and a ski mask in his vehicle. He was convicted of kidnapping and assaulting a Utah teenager who survived. While imprisoned, he was charged in connection with the killing of a nursing student in Colorado, escaped custody twice — once through a courthouse window in Aspen, once through a jail ceiling — and eventually made his way to Tallahassee, Florida.
On January 15, 1978, Bundy entered the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University and killed two women while injuring two more. He then attacked another woman at a nearby house. Less than a month later, he abducted, sexually assaulted, and murdered 12-year-old Kimberly Leach in Lake City, Florida, believed to be his last victim. He was arrested days later and was executed by electric chair on January 24, 1989.
Implications for Other Unsolved Cases
Wednesday's announcement carries significance beyond the Aime family's closure. Mason said the validated DNA profile can now be submitted by other law enforcement agencies that have long suspected Bundy in additional unsolved killings. Bundy made vague confessions to numerous additional murders before his execution, but many lacked physical evidence strong enough to officially close the cases.
"More families could get similar closure," Mason said, according to AP.
The development also illustrates how rapidly advancing forensic DNA technology is reopening cold cases previously considered permanently unsolvable — not just in the Bundy catalog but across American criminal history. The same class of technology has been used in recent years to identify suspects in decades-old killings through distant familial DNA matches found in genealogy databases, a method known as genetic genealogy.
Laura Ann Aime's case is now officially closed. After 52 years, her family has the certainty that investigators promised but could not previously deliver — a DNA match that, in the words of the Utah County Sheriff's Office, removes all doubt.