The Ted Bundy Murder That Took 50 Years to Prove
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What happened to Laura Ann Aime on Halloween in 1974?
More than 50 years after she vanished without a trace, a teenage girl's murder has finally been solved. And the man responsible? One of the most notorious serial killers in American history, Ted Bundy. Laura Ann Amy was just 17 years old when she left a Halloween party in Utah in 1974, telling friends she was stepping out to buy cigarettes. She never came back. Her body was found weeks later, but for decades, her case remained officially unsolved, despite Bundy confessing to her murder before his execution. Now, in a major forensic breakthrough, DNA evidence has finally confirmed what many long suspected, and it's raising a chilling possibility. If this case took more than half a century to close, how many more victims could still be out there?
To take us through this, from the new DNA breakthrough to what it reveals about Bundy's crimes, I'm joined by Daily Mail's senior crime correspondent, Rachel Sharp, who's been reporting on the story. This is The Trial USA. I'm Kayla Brantley. We'll be back in just a moment.
Rachel, Ted Bundy is one of America's most prolific serial killers. He was known for being very handsome.
How did Ted Bundy's confession impact the investigation?
And because of that handsome charm, he attracted women that he would then murder. Can you walk us through Ted Bundy's profile? Who exactly was he and what do we know?
Yeah, so as you mentioned, he is one of the most notorious serial killers in American history. What we know about his reign of terror, some of it still remains a mystery. He claimed on his deathbed that he had murdered 30 women across around seven states. However, investigators believe that number is probably far higher. And the actual confirmed victims is a lot lower. The only victims he was actually convicted of and definitively tied to when he was alive were victims between 1974 and 1978 across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Utah. So the scope of the murders is absolutely huge, and we might never really know how many victims he really did prey on and kill.
But one thing that we do know is that he confessed to at least 30 murders, and one of those... murders is Laura and Amy, which is, you know, the subject of this episode. How did he confess to that specific murder on his deathbed in 1989 when he was executed? What did he exactly say?
Yeah, so it was the night before his execution date when he was about to be sent to the electric chair. He'd sat on death row for years after finally being convicted of murder for murder of a little girl, actually, in Florida. And it's largely seen as a way to kind of delay the execution that he opened up and spilled everything and claimed that he had killed 30 women, including obviously Laura and Amy. But at the time that obviously other than his confession, there obviously wasn't a lot of evidence to actually prove whether he was telling the truth. You know, some of that information could have been a red herring. Some of it could have been just a delay tactic. So obviously investigators didn't then just plow ahead and say, OK, case closed.
He's responsible for all of these crimes.
So, Rachel, can you walk us through the night in 1974 when Laura and Amy disappeared?
Yeah. She was a 17 year old girl. She'd grown up on a farm with her younger sisters and her parents. And just before her murder, she had actually gotten into a little bit of trouble and her sister said that she'd actually ran away. So at the time that she went missing, she was actually staying with friends.
What forensic breakthrough confirmed Bundy as Laura's killer?
And that is quite important because that delayed how quickly people began looking for her. So it was the night of Halloween and she was at a friend's house at a Halloween party, like a lot of 17-year-old girls obviously would be at that time. And she told friends she was leaving to go and buy some cigarettes and she just never returned. And as I say, it took a little while before she was reported missing and searched for because she was staying with friends at the time. And it would be a month before her body would then turn up.
What were the circumstances under which her body was discovered?
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