Solved: DNA links Ted Bundy to teen girl's 1974 murder

Utah officials have announced they were closing a five-decade-old case after finding "definitive proof" that American serial killer Ted Bundy killed a 17-year-old Utah girl.

Laura Ann Aime went missing on the night of October 31, 1974, after leaving a party alone to make a purchase from a convenience store.

Her body was found by two college students on Thanksgiving Day that year, according to authorities, who added that her body was found tossed several metres from the highway near State Road 92 in the American Fork Canyon.

"Case evidence similarities indicated that the manner of abuse and the likely cause of death was comparable to the modus operandi of Theodore 'Ted' Bundy," the Utah County Sheriff's Office said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The Utah County Sheriff's office has definitive proof that Theodore 'Ted' Bundy murdered Laura Ann Aime in 1974," the statement said.

Bundy, who once bragged he killed at least 100 women, was executed in Florida in 1989 for the murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach after his arrest in 1978.

Bundy had acknowledged his culpability in disappearance and deaths of Aime and others ahead of his execution, the Utah County Sheriff's Office said. It said he had not elaborated nor provided details about his involvement.

The sheriff's office said it and the Utah County Attorney's Office declined to accept Bundy's verbal admission for Aime's death because the case at the time would not have resulted in a conviction due to "the evidence in possession and with the available investigative sciences for the time".

A recent examination and submission of evidence to the Utah Bureau of Forensic Services indicated that DNA pulled from Aime's body belonged to the serial killer, the sheriff's office said.

Bundy is believed to have carried out his crimes between 1974 and 1978. He admitted to killing 36 young women and was also linked to murders in the states of Washington, Oregon, Utah and Colorado.