Police say they cracked 51-year-old Moab murder case [Video]

When Moab Police Detective Jeremy Drexler first started working one of Moab’s more high-profile cold cases — the murder of Ann Woodward on March 2, 1973, at Woody’s Tavern — he thought infamous serial killer Ted Bundy was his primary suspect.

Leslie Ann Estes, the eldest child and last remaining sibling of Ann and Leslie “Woody” Woodward, hugs Moab Police Detective Jeremy Drexler at the conclusion of Friday’s press conference. Photos by Doug McMurdo

After all, Bundy committed one of his many murders in Utah at around that time and a thorough investigation yielded no local suspects, at least any they could prove a case against. But Drexler went where the facts took him: To the Nebraska grave of Doug Chudomelka, who rented a Walnut Lane trailer for $100 a month as he worked for the Rio Algom Mine from the early to mid-1970s.

Chudomelka, a man with a history of violence, died at …