India, Oct. 28 -- Melissa Ann Smith's body was found by a deer hunter in a remote forested area near Utah's Park City on October 27, 1974. Nearly 52 years later, a DNA investigation made a breakthrough in the case, linking serial killer Ted Bundy to the murder conclusively.

17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith was the daughter of the then police chief of Midvale, a suburb south of Salt Lake City, Utah. She was last seen on the evening of October 18, 1974, after leaving a friend at a pizza parlor in Midvale. She was found dead with marks of torture and rape on her body.

Authorities long suspected Ted Bundy was behind the murder. But so far, there was no confirmed evidence linking Bundy to the death. Two days before Ted Bundy's execution on Octo...