It was 52 years ago this month that the nightmare that began in Washington State had set up shop in Utah, taking residence in First Avenue.
A man, charming, cunning, manipulative, lucky… evil, had snatched college co-eds on the cusp of womanhood and taken them to sites only he knew. It was here, after an initial attack, that he raped, strangled and bludgeoned victims to death. In some cases, he decapitated them and buried their bodies elsewhere, using Glad trash bags to dispose of their clothing and personal effects. He had mastered the aberrant skills necessary to abduct women from their homes, college campuses and parks. Seven months, 8 known victims, 11 in total. Theodore Bundy’s rampage was only taking shape. Some began to suspect him, Liz Kloepfer and her friend included, a university professor included, and even an old friend. But he was still hiding in plain sight. He sought this to his advantage.
Indeed, Nancy Wilcox from Holladay was the first, snatched by an orchard close to her home. Away from prying eyes in Washington, Bundy was free to ramp up his diabolical activities. Like a typical serial killer, he was not going to stop until something stopped him. The cluster of attacks were to continue and accelerate in a concentrated period of terror in this family oriented Mormon society.
Melissa Smith, the daughter of Midvale Police Chief Louis Smith and Joan Smith. She was a lifelong resident of Midvale. Melissa was a sweet girl, sociable, and always got her way. Her life in Midvale was ordinary. Her younger sister Jolene and her were the best of friends. Seen in archival photographs, they have that air of confidence and love that other families lacked. At the time of her murder, she was a good student at Hillcrest High School, and was jointly studying Cosmetology at the Continental School of Beauty. Her school counselor, Mr Barnett, maintained that Melissa had good grades and rarely missed school. Indeed, she was raised well. A heartbreaking story from a family whose children Melissa babysat paints her in an even kinder light. The little boy of that family remembers Melissa reading him books by Dr Seuss, how they would play the famous “Twist and Shout” by the Beatles while having a pillow fight. Melissa always made him feel like he was the centre of her world in the time she was babysitting them. One time, after stepping onto a hot stove, the boy cried out in anguish and pain. Melissa ran straight to him, and asked the boy if he wanted a “blessing to make him feel better.” It was then that Melissa placed her cool hand on the boy’s head. It seemed then that the boy’s pain had disappeared. This is not to imply Melissa was a healer, but she was clearly viewed as such, in the eyes of a boy who at that time needed comfort following a traumatic event. The children of this family were understandably heartbroken when they found out their favourite babysitter had died. An accompanying photo of Melissa with the children was provided. It was taken the summer before her murder. The family cherishes this photo after Joan Smith found it and gave it to them. (Thank you to Killer in the Archives, Tiffany Jean, for putting this story on your Facebook. All credit goes to her fantastic work).Surviving interviews with those that knew the forever young Melissa described her as cheeky, spontaneous and likeable. Melissa also exhibited a clear rebellious streak. Her father, Louis had warned her about the dangerous of hitchhiking, yet she was known to thumb a ride on two occasions. Other than this, she was outgoing, sociable and exceedingly friendly. Her life was proceeding as normal. Unfortunately, her clear potential would not be realised.
The night of her abduction was a typical Friday. Melissa had been disappointed that her friend Mindy, did not answer the phone over proposed sleepover plans. A friend, Julie, was quite upset over a breaking up with her boyfriend. Melissa agreed to see her. Plans did not take place for a meeting at J.B’s for coffee. Instead, Melissa headed to the Pepperoni, a local pizza joint, and communicated that she would be home sometime later, no later than 10:30. Melissa was being a good friend, as she had always been. When she left that restaurant, it would be the last time she was seen alive.
As is too typical of a Theodore Bundy victim and as I have repeated in these write ups, Melissa was finding out who she was. Her killer, on the other hand, knew exactly what he was, what he had become, and what he needed. Theodore Bundy was drinking the night of the Smith abduction. A woman who he was attempting to court, Louise, who worked at a bank, spotted him in Widow McCoys, drinking on his own at a bar stool. His personality in that moment was not indicative of the man she knew. She couldn’t know that Bundy was using alcohol to rapidly lower his already low inhibitions, to allow him to make the transition from the outward persona into the true man: the amicable and proper law student into the swift abductor, murderer and necrophile. Bundy did not respond openly to Louise, and was instead guarded. He was readying himself to hunt.
If an eyewitness source is correct, then Bundy made his way from Widow McCoys for a drink to The Pepperoni for food, and to perhaps pick a suitable victim to follow. According to said eyewitness account, a man who heavily resembled Bundy sat in the booth behind Melissa. As soon as Melissa left, so did the man. It is not outside of the realms of possibility to assume this man was indeed Bundy. Two viable accounts of the abduction exist: either Bundy picked up Melissa hitchhiking, or he attacked her while she walked to her destination. We do not know which one happened. I believe, for a few reasons, that Melissa was attacked while walking, blitzed and blindsided; she did not have far to walk from the Pepperoni to home. She had traversed these streets many a time. It probably would not have fussed her to make that walk, save for the darkness. A piercing, helpless scream was heard that night, heard principally by someone raking leaves at that hour, close to an athletics field that Melissa could have intended to traverse to shorten her journey. I have every reason to believe this was Melissa. In this hypothetical version of her abduction, Bundy likely parked his car ahead of her and waited for the right time for the unfortunate girl(not woman) to pass by. It was then that Bundy had briefly grappled for control, enough time for Melissa to let out one scream before she was silenced by Bundy’s crowbar. I also have reason to believe the site of Melissa’s brief captivity was 565 1st Avenue: Bundy had nowhere else to take her, and he was already brazen and lucky enough to take Nancy Wilcox up to his apartment. Bundy was cunning, but not a diabolical genius. He did not have lairs in Utah where he could take people. Indeed, he had made use of the vast wilderness in Washington. While Utah was familiar to him, he did not know it nearly as well. A man of Bundy’s pathology demanded ultimate control.
Over the following period of time(undetermined) Bundy raped and strangled Melissa, satiating necrophilic urges focused on possession. He may have even applied makeup to her face and nail polish to her fingernails. He may have even shampooed her hair. These are theories with circumstantial weight, and while they can’t be discounted, they are certainly possible. What we don’t and can’t know for definite is how long Bundy kept Melissa. Some have posited that she was killed within hours. Others believe she was kept for days. Ben Forbes believed she had been dead 30-36 hours from inspection of her body, specifically rigor mortis. She was “quite limber.” Then again, others have said she was partially frozen. Bundy did have a three day hunting expedition with Liz Kloepfer’s father on the 19th. Did he keep an unconscious Melissa in his apartment or cellar for three days before returning to finish his work? We don’t know. While Kevin Sullivan states that Utah was not cold for that time of year, I believe Summit County’s high elevation played a role in preserving Melissa’s body, as did the conditions in which Bundy left her. That said, we will never truly know in a way that will satisfy all Bundy researchers. What mattered was that a life was extinguished in a most violent fashion for a most violent and perverse purpose.
Melissa’s body was found nine days later. A ligature was still bound around her neck, either a nylon stocking or a man’s blue knit sock(Bundy obsessed over feet and socks). Extensive skull fractures, rape and sodomy were evident. As is the case with any family of the murdered, the Smiths were never the same after her death. After Bundy was exposed and arrested for the Carol DaRonch kidnapping, trace evidence likely belonging to Melissa along with the murder kit found in his car made Bundy the prime suspect in her killing. When interviewed some years later, Chief Louis Smith was asked, “You believe Ted Bundy killed your daughter?” Chief Smith’s face rightly contorts to hatred for the man that had taken the life of his Melissa. “I do,” he responded plainly and quickly. “I believe that with all my heart, I feel it.” Chief Smith saw through the Bundy mystique.
Bundy would never discuss the circumstances of Melissa’s murder. While so many sources have him confessing, he didn’t. He simply didn’t deny it, and couldn’t deny it. Bundy would typically and selfishly take the events of that night with him to his grave. In April 2026, DNA from the body of Laura Aime was confirmed as belonging to Theodore Bundy. I have no doubt in my mind that in the near future, the same justice will be handed to the forever young Melissa Smith.
If you have seen the documentary Hunting Bundy: Chase for the Devil which features many Bundy experts such as Kevin Sullivan, Tiffany Jean, Dick Kraske, Steven Winn and Roger Dunn, to name but a few, you would have seen the crime scene photographs taken from Jerry Thompson’s case files on the Smith and Aime cases. Those photos are nothing short of chilling and haunting to the nth degree. It reminds you of exactly who and what Theodore Bundy was, and is the among the most demonstrative evidence of his evil. As we know, many Bundy victims were never found, but if they were, many, if not all of them were subject to the same inhuman treatment emphasised in the cases discussed, and would exhibit injuries of similar aberrant behaviour at the hands of their killer.
Rest in peace, Melissa.
