Utah authorities link Ted Bundy to 1974 murder via DNA

🗞️ Story file #1029

Utah authorities link Ted Bundy to 1974 murder via DNA

Oct 27, 4 PM ET to Oct 28, 6 AM ET

17outlets carried it
🫏7 · 5 · 5🐘left · center · right
14 hourson the front pages
17front pages at once, at its peak
2 minof TV captions
6radio newscasts
19people retold it online

👣 How this story traveled: from the front pages that broke it, out through TV, radio and the shows, into what people retold and what fact-checkers examined, and on into the saga it is part of. Everything here is matched to the story by our tools, so a link can be wrong; the trackers' pages say how each is made.

Oct 27, 4 PM ETfirst on a front page: HuffPost
Oct 27, 5 PM ETfirst on the radio: NPR News Now
Oct 27, 11 PM ETfirst on TV: BBC News
Oct 28, 12 AM ETpeak: on 17 front pages
Oct 28, 5 AM ETretold online by 19 people

the front pages that ran it, hour by hour

Front pages carrying it at each hourly run, Oct 27, 4 PM to Oct 28, 6 AM ET (peak 17), by the outlets' lean: left · center · right

Who carried it and when: each outlet in the order it picked the story up, a bar for each headline from when we first saw it on the front page to when we last did, in the outlet's lean color (dashed: not rated); a dot marks a new headline. Beneath, its captions on TV, the radio newscasts that carried it (bigger: the lead) and when people were found retelling it. Hover for details.

📌 linked by aggregators: Google News

🗣️ only one side says: 🫏 serial killer ted 🫏 cold case

✏️ 6 outlets ran more than one headline on it (reworded, or a follow-up)

BBC (2 wordings): “Utah police link serial killer Ted Bundy to teenage girl's murder after 52 years” → “Serial killer Ted Bundy linked to teenage girl's murder after 52 years”
NBC News (2 wordings): “Utah authorities are connecting Ted Bundy to another 1970s homicide” → “Serial killer Ted Bundy linked to 1974 murder of Utah teenager”
News Nation (2 wordings): “Ted Bundy linked to 1974 death of Melissa Ann Smith” → “Ted Bundy linked to cold case of 17-year-old killed 52 years ago”
The Guardian (2 wordings): “Serial killer Ted Bundy linked through DNA to 1974 murder of Utah girl” → “DNA links serial killer Ted Bundy to 1974 murder of Utah girl”
USA Today (3 wordings): “Serial killer Ted Bundy linked to murder of 17-year-old girl in Utah, more than 50 years after her body was found” → “Serial killer Ted Bundy linked to murder of police chief's teen daughter”
Washington Examiner (2 wordings): “Utah officials tie Ted Bundy to 1974 murder of 17-year-old Melissa Smith” → “Utah officials tie Ted Bundy to 1974 murder of 17-year-old”

Every outlet's first headline (17), left to right by AllSides rating