Culture and Society
PUBLISHED
A 17-year-old girl who was brutally murdered in Utah in 1974 has finally been confirmed as a victim of the notorious serial killer Ted Bundy. Laura Ann Aime was abducted by the repeat offender after leaving a Halloween party, and despite Bundy admitting to the murder, police had been reluctant to accept his confession without solid forensic evidence.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Aime’s body was discovered near a highway in the American Fork Canyon by hikers on Thanksgiving, some three weeks after she had left a party to go to a nearby convenience store. According to a statement from the Utah County Sheriff’s office, the corpse was “observed to be bound, severely beaten, and with no clothing,” while also showing signs of having been strangled with a nylon stocking.
Theodore “Ted” Bundy is among the most infamous serial killers in American history, and is thought to have raped and murdered dozens of women between 1974 and 1978. During this time he also escaped from prison twice, before finally being put to death by the electric chair in 1989.
In the days prior to his execution, Bundy confessed to Aime’s murder, although his refusal to give any specific details about the crime led the authorities to reject his account and keep the case open. According to the Sheriff’s office, investigators were “unable to satisfactorily convict Bundy based upon the evidence in possession and with the available investigative sciences for the time.”
As a result, “the Sheriff’s Department elected to keep this case open until investigators could prove, without a shadow of doubt, that Bundy was the composer of these heinous crimes to Laura.”
More than half a century later, this irrefutable proof has finally been attained. Existing evidence from the original investigation was re-examined using “various forms of advanced forensic sciences and professionals,” ultimately corroborating the killer’s testimony.
“The results were magnificent as they confirmed irrefutably that DNA evidence recovered from Laura’s body verified the existence of DNA belonging to Bundy,” continues the statement.
Having begun his killing spree in Washington and Oregon in the Pacific Northwest, Bundy later murdered women in Idaho and Colorado, before assaulting Aime while studying law at the University of Utah. He later went on to kill again in Florida following his second prison escape.
“Bundy was believed to have acted alone and shared mental traits associated with a psychopathic serial killer who may have killed more than twenty people of various ages and gender,” explains the Sheriff’s office.
In total, Bundy actually confessed to around 30 murders, although despite evidence linking him to many of these cases, he was only ever convicted of three homicides. Yet as Aime joins the list of known victims, it’s now becoming clear that he really was guilty of the crimes he claims to have committed – and possibly many more besides.
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