The site where Ted Bundy dumped the remains of Melissa Smith

On October 18th, 1974, serial killer Ted Bundy abducted Melissa Anne Smith from Midvale, Utah.

Nine days later, two deer hunters discovered her naked remains on this hillside in Summit Park.

Smith had a man's blue nylon sock tied around her neck. An autopsy report showed that she had also sustained multiple head injuries.

Bundy had raped, beaten, and then strangled the high school student to death. Afterwards, he dragged her body down this hillside and dumped it face-down in some scrub oak.

This site is 23 miles away from the pizza parlor where Smith was last seen.

Bundy abducted the 17-year-old shortly after she left the parlor on West Center Street in Midvale at around 9.30 p.m. One unconfirmed report suggests that he may have been asking women in the area to assist him with a car issue.

Smith was the daughter of Midvale police chief Louis Smith. Her murder took place just sixteen days after Nancy Wilcox vanished from the nearby city of Holladay.

On the night of her disappearance, Smith was supposed to be staying at a friend's house. However, those plans fell through after her friend failed to answer the phone. After realizing that she had been stood up, she decided to leave the parlor and walk back to her home on Fern Drive.

Sadly, she never made it that far. At some point during her journey, it seems as though Bundy managed to intercept the teenager and snatch her off the street.

Photos

Photos of the site and other related images.

Crime scene

This is a Google Street View image of the location where Bundy dumped the body of Melissa Anne Smith.

On that October night in 1974, he pulled his Volkswagen Bug over at this section of the I-80.

After making sure that the coast was clear, he proceeded to drag her body down the side of the hill and then dump it in some scrub oak.

Nine days later, deer hunters happened across her nude remains.

Aerial image

The red circle in the aerial photograph above highlights the general area where her body was discovered.

Pizza parlor

That night, Smith met a friend at a pizza parlor called Pepperoni Pizza, which was situated at 100 West Center Street in Midvale.

She left at roughly 9.30 p.m.

In more recent times, the unit was home to Joe Morley's BBQ, which opened in 1984.

Morley's closed its doors in August 2021 after the strip mall was sold to a developer.

The property was demolished in 2022.

Fern Drive

At the time of her disappearance, Melissa Smith was living at 527 Fern Drive.

Coordinates: 40.604406, -111.905982

Google Maps

Route

This aerial image shows the most likely route that Smith was planning on taking that night.

After leaving the parlor, she walked west on West Center Street and then south on Oak Street.

At the end of Oak Street, she would have taken a right and walked underneath the overpass at Veterans Memorial Highway.

Shortly after the 17-year-old left the pizza parlor, a witness claimed that they heard a loud scream coming from the area around Midvale Elementary School. Therefore, it is possible that she never made it as far as the overpass.

Notably, Smith's makeup was intact, and her nails were undamaged. This suggests that there wasn't a struggle.

In other words, she was probably caught off guard.

If Bundy stuck to his favored M.O., then it is likely that he struck her over the back of the head with a crowbar. However, in order for that to work, he would have had to get her close enough to his vehicle.

To do this, he may have asked the teenager to help him start his car.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of conflicting witness reports in this case. We have no way of knowing if Smith was attacked as she was walking along the street or if Bundy somehow managed to lure her to his Volkswagen Bug. We also do not know the exact location where he approached her.

All we know for sure is that an innocent young girl left a pizza parlor at night and was later found brutally murdered on a hillside in Summit Park.