‘We can now say, without a doubt’: Sheriff’s office confirms Ted Bundy as killer of 1974 victim
UPDATED: 10:55 AM
Posted: Apr 1, 2026 / 10:16 AM MDT
SPANISH FORK, Utah (ABC4) — The Utah County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed Ted Bundy to be the killer in the case of a teenager murdered in Utah County more than 50 years ago.
On Halloween night, more than 50 years ago, a family saw their loved one alive for the last time.
Laura Ann Aime, 17, was celebrating the holiday at a party in Utah County on Oct. 31, 1974. When she left, she reportedly told others at the party that she was going to buy a pack of cigarettes.
However, Aime never returned to the party or made it home that night.
“Laura didn’t live with the family at the time,” Aime’s niece, Tara Stucki, told ABC4.com last year. “She was kind of a free spirit and was off with friends at the time.”
On Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 11, 1974, Aime was found down an embankment just off American Fork Canyon Road by hikers. She was reportedly strangled, raped, and murdered.
While investigators have their beliefs, her homicide has remained truly unsolved for 51 years.
For the past few decades, investigators have believed that Aime was kidnapped and murdered by Bundy. He was studying law at the University of Utah at the time, and Aime is believed to have been his third victim in the Beehive State.
Aime’s niece, Stucki, stated that Bundy “approached [Aime] multiple times before” and “kind of stalked her before taking her.” However, when he confessed to several homicides in Utah, he struggled to remember whether Aime was among his victims.
Ted Bundy is one of the most notorious serial killers in history, attacking and murdering dozens of women across the western United States, striking in Utah, Washington, Florida, and Colorado. He was convicted of three murders and reportedly confessed to killing 30 women.
Shortly before Bundy’s 1989 execution in Florida, Detective Dennis Couch with the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office visited him and recorded the audio of their conversation. Bundy admitted to murdering two women in Utah: Nancy Wilcox, a 16-year-old student at Olympus High School who disappeared on Oct. 1, 1974, and Debra “Debbie” Kent, who disappeared from Viewmont High School on Nov. 8, 1974.
He reportedly could not remember meeting Aime when questioned about her. He said the same of the daughter of the Midvale Police chief, Melissa Smith, who was murdered in October 1974. Bundy outright denied killing another suspected victim, Nancy Baird, who disappeared from a gas station in July 1975 and was never found.
On the day of Bundy’s execution, Detective Couch received a call from the Raiford Prison warden in Florida, who stated that he also confessed to murdering a young girl named Susan Curtis. The 15-year-old had disappeared while attending a youth conference at Brigham Young University in 1975.
Marcos Ortiz contributed to this story with his years of dedicated reporting.
