Serial killer Ted Bundy's DNA profile to hit database at last

Ted Bundy in a 1980 mug shot.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla (Reuters) - Florida authorities will upload the DNA profile of deceased serial killer Ted Bundy into a national database on Friday with the hope it might help crack unsolved murders.

Bundy was executed in Florida in 1989 for the murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach, but had confessed to and been suspected of dozens more killings across the country.

The state has routinely received inquiries from cold case investigators looking for Bundy's DNA profile, said David Coffman, chief of forensic services for a Florida Department of Law Enforcement crime lab.

Until now, there wasn't a full profile available. But earlier this year, a clerk's office discovered two vials of Bundy's blood collected in 1978 as part of the investigation into Leach's death, Coffman said.

Testing of the blood sample revealed a complete DNA profile.

"We were very surprised that we were able to get a beautiful, full profile from a sample that was that old," Coffman told Reuters.

"We should be able to find cases, if they're out there, that could possibly match him as a perpetrator."

(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Jerry Norton)