Westminster police have solved the almost five-decade-old cold-case homicide of a 20-year-old girl, utilizing genetic family tree to determine the killer.
Thomas Elliott, who routinely hung out out and in of the jail system for numerous crimes earlier than taking his personal life in 1991, was recognized because the assassin of 20-year-old Teree Becker, who had moved to the Denver space from Casper, Wyoming, shortly after graduating highschool, in accordance with a release from the Westminster Police Department and a Westminster cold case report.
The identification comes 48 years after Becker was discovered useless in a area close to a centesimal Avenue and Lowell Boulevard on Dec. 6, 1975, two days after she had tried to hitchhike to go to her boyfriend in Adams County Jail in Brighton, in accordance with the discharge. Her post-mortem revealed that she had been raped and had died of asphyxiation.
The identification concludes many years of investigation from a number of police departments. In 2003, a breakthrough occurred when the Colorado Bureau of Investigation extracted a chunk of male DNA from proof associated to the rape, the discharge says.
However investigators couldn’t discover a match till 2013 when a pattern submitted by the Las Vegas Metro Police Division for the rape and homicide of a girl in her residence there supplied a genetic match. Nonetheless, Las Vegas additionally couldn’t determine a suspect of their case, in accordance with the discharge.
In 2018, the case was submitted for genetic family tree testing to determine a match by way of hereditary DNA evaluation, the discharge says. After 5 years of testing, police recognized Elliott as a match. Las Vegas police gained permission to exhume his physique for his or her case in October 2023, and Elliott’s DNA was matched to that present in each homicides in December.
“We’re thrilled we had been in a position to clear up this chilly case and hopefully convey closure to the family and friends of Teree Becker,” the discharge states.
Becker’s household described her as being pleasant and outgoing and loved portray and listening to music.
Westminster Police didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon this story.
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