New twist in ‘Ted Bundy’ case changes everything
A jaw-dropping new twist in a grisly 51 year old ‘Ted Bundy’ murder case has changed everything police thought they knew. WARNING: Distressing
There has been an unbelievable twist in a grisly 51 year old murder case that nobody saw coming.
In March 1973, the half-naked body of Ann Woodward was found brutally murdered on the floor inside the pub that she owned with her husband.
The 46-year-old mother was discovered lying between two pool tables at the bar. Her pants had been taken off and her shirt had been unbuttoned.
Her right trouser leg was tied into a knot and had been used to strangle her, detectives concluded.
The gruesome murder has haunted the small US desert town of Moab, Utah for over half a century.
Police were never able to find Ann’s killer, but they believed they knew who did it.
It has been widely accepted that serial killer Ted Bundy likely murdered the mother during his deadly killing sprees back in the 70s.
Bundy admitted to the rapes and murders of multiple women in the area around the time of Ann’s death.
While the killer admitted to thirty murders, his real victim count is unknown. Experts have long believed that the true number of women he murdered was much higher.
Over time, Bundy has been linked to many other killings across the USA. However, police have not been able to prove them due to a lack of evidence.
Bundy was arrested in Utah in August 1975 and eventually executed in 1989 at the age of 42.
He remained the prime suspect in Ann’s case for decades and police assumed she was just another one of his countless unnamed victims.
But now, a huge twist has changed everything they thought they knew.
Finding a killer
In 2006, the former Moab police chief reopened Ann’s murder case to try and find her killer.
But as the years went on, they were still no closer. That was until a pivotal break in the case in September 2023.
Detective Jeremy Drexler went to one of the department’s storage units and located two boxes of evidence collected from the initial investigation.
Inside was the pair of pants that the mother had been wearing on the night of her murder, along with other bits of evidence.
In addition were hairs pulled from a potential suspect back in 1973.
Douglas Keith Chudomelka, along with 25 other men, had been of interest to police after the crime.
However, there has never been enough evidence to move foreward in the case.
Back then, there was no way to test DNA, but forward-thinking Moab Police Chief Melvin Dalton decided to take evidence anyway, both from the victim and potential suspects, including Chudomelka.
It was almost as if he knew one day it could be used to help break the case once the right technology came along.
The evidence consisted of hairs pulled from the suspect’s body, including from his belly button, chest, pubic area, and head. Camel cigarette butts that were found in an ashtray were also preserved.
It was this incredible work that would help break the case 51 years later.
The evidence boxes were delivered to the crime lab in November 2023.
When the results came back at the end of May 2024, they confirmed that a substantial amount of Chudomelka’s DNA was on the inside of Ann’s pants and on all of the buttons of her shirt.
Detective Drexler stated that this amount of evidence was enough to confirm that he was responsible for the murder of Ann Woodward in those early morning hours of March 2, 1973.
Chudomelka was born in Nebraska but came to Utah for a brief stint in Moab to work at the mine, officials said. He was 36 when he committed the unthinkable crime.
Investigators found out that he had a violent history, with criminal records in Alabama, California, Iowa, and Nebraska.
He was not well known to his victim. Drexler theorizes that Chudomelka had struck up a game of poker with the mother while visiting the couple’s bar.
He may have been angry at her for beating him, but says it could have also simply been a crime of opportunity rather than rage.
Police know without a doubt that the pair had played cards, and that Chudomelka drank beer and smoked cigarettes that night.
It is believed he likely also sexually assaulted Ann before strangling her to death.
Reopening the case
Chudomelka was first brought in as a suspect when witnesses spotted his mid-1960s Ford sedan parked next to Woodward’s truck on March 1, 1973. The victim was killed between 1.40am and 2.30am March 2.
When interviewed, he denied being at the bar on the morning of the woman’s murder but instead insisted that he spent the night drinking at a nearby tavern.
Complicating the investigation, the man’s girlfriend, a woman named Joyce, told police that he was home at 2am.
Chudomelka was arrested on a domestic violence charge later that year on July 3, 1973.
Possibly out of heated revenge, Joyce told cops that he had been the one who killed Ann Woodward and agreed to speak to officials about the murder.
However, she later recanted and told police he came home at 4.10am and not 2.00am as she originally claimed.
With no new leads, the case went cold.
Even after reopening the investigation in 2006, Joyce still did not want to talk about the incident decades later.
“This case hinged on the hair Dalton pulled in 1973,” Drexler said.
“I have no idea how he knew that we would be able to do that today. Dalton made this case very easy for us in that aspect.”
The box of evidence was not easy to locate. It was moved from the evidence room and placed in another building but it was eventually found 50 years and six months later.
In today’s world, DNA evidence is used to solve cold cases all over the world, bringing suspects to justice decades after crimes have occurred.
It has also helped exonerate innocent people who have been incarcerated for crimes they did not commit.
Chudomelka passed away in 2002 at the age of 67 without ever paying for his crime.
“I hope today brings some closure to the family,” County Lawyer Stephen Stocks said.
“I truly believe had this been presented to a jury, Chudomelka would have been found guilty beyond reasonable doubt for the murder of Ann Woodward.”
jasmine.kazlauskas@news.com.au
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