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Colorado Cold Case Solved After 50 Years Thanks to Breakthrough DNA Technology · Murder Files Unsealed

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Deep Dive. Today. We're going to take
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  you on this journey kind of through a case that's well,
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  it's tragic and hopeful at the same time. The story
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  of Terree Becker.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a story that you know, really shows how
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  far we've come with forensic science, especially DNA technology and genealogy,
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  and how how they're being used now to solve these
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  crimes that we thought were unsolvable.
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  Speaker 1: Right, Okay, so listeners, picture this December nineteen seventy five.
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  We've got Terree, this young woman. She loves painting, music,
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  she just loved life, and she was hitchhiking to see
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  her boyfriend in Brighton, Colorado, when she was a free spirit.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the kind of person who could make friends anywhere.
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  But she never made it.
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  Speaker 1: Oh wow.
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  Speaker 2: Two days after she was last seen, Terree's body was found.
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  It was in a field just outside of Denver.
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  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.
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  Speaker 2: And in this discovery it really shook the community and
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  of course, you know, launched a huge homicide investigation.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just awful. It's hard to imagine what her
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  family and friends were going through that not knowing and
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  from the investigation, what did they did? They figure out
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  what happened to her.
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  Speaker 2: So the autopsy it showed that she had been raped
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  and murdered, and they determined the cause of death was asphyxiation.
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  Speaker 1: Oh gosh.
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  Speaker 2: But even with all their effort, the investigators, they just
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  couldn't get a lead. The case went cold, and for
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  decades there's family and friends, they were left with nothing
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  but questions.
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  Speaker 1: Really, it's just it's almost it's unbearable to think about.
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  But then you know, years later, there's this new possibility
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  with DNA technology.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah it was.
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  Speaker 1: It was still pretty new at the time for criminal investigations,
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  but in two thousand and three it gave a little
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  bit of hope for Terre's case.
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  Speaker 2: That's right, Yeah, Yeah, they were finally able to test
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  a sample from the crime scene and get this, they
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  got a hit. Wow, an unknown male DNA profile. After
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  all those years, finally a lead. But you know, it
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  wasn't going to be easy.
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  Speaker 1: It's like so close yet so far away. At the
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  same time, what happened Did they ever find a match?
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  Speaker 2: It took ten years, ten more years. Yeah, in twenty thirteen,
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  that same de profile from Trees case matched a profile
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  from a nineteen ninety one Murderah, Yeah, an unsolved murder
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  of a woman in Las Vegas. Wow.
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  Speaker 1: So two murders years apart linked by this single DNA profile.
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  That's that's chilling. But they still didn't have a name
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  for the profile. So how did they finally find out
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  who Terre's killer was?
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  Speaker 2: This is where it gets really interesting. They used a
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  brand new technique, genetic genealogy.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, I think a lot of our listeners have probably
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  heard of this, it's been in the news. But for
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  those who aren't familiar, can you explain how it works?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Imagine like building a family tree, but instead of
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  using old photos and records, you're using DNA. It maps
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  out family connections and identifies potential relatives. Okay, and it
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  all starts with a DNA sample from a crime scene,
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  just like in Tree's case. Investigators they take that DNA
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  profile and then they compare it to profiles in you
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  know those public genealogy databases.
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  Speaker 1: Right right, So those are the databases where people upload
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  their DNA voluntarily usually trace their ancestry or sometimes defind
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  relatives exactly.
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  Speaker 2: And what's amazing is that even a partial match can
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  be a big break in the case. Let's say they
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  find a match between the crime scene DNA and let's
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  say someone who shares a great great grandparent with the
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  unknown perpetrator, that distant relative. That's place to start.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, I see. So they basically start building a family
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  tree from that one match, working their way through different branches,
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  generation after generation until they like zero in on a suspect.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. Yeah, and that's what they did for Terry's case. Wow.
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  Starting in twenty eighteen, investigators working with these specialized labs,
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  they started this huge process. It's amazing. Can you imagine
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  the work, going through years of records, birth certificates, death certificates,
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  probably even old newspapers, and all because of a hunch
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  and a DNA match.
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  Speaker 1: It's incredible. It sounds like something you'd see in a movie.
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  Speaker 2: It really does, right, But this was real, and for
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  Jeri's family it was everything. Yeah. After five years, five
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  long years of putting this complex puzzle together, they finally
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  they got a hit. They had a name, Thomas Martin Elliott.
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  Speaker 1: Thomas Martin Elliott after all this time, a name that
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  must have been an incredibly emotional moment for everyone, especially
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  for Terre's family. Oh.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, But this was just the beginning. What they were
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  about to find out about Thomas Martin Elliott. It was
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  truly disturbing.
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  Speaker 1: So they finally get this name after decades, Thomas Martin Elliott.
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  And then you're telling me it's not over. There's more.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. As investigators started digging into Elliott's past, well it
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  became clear this wasn't just a one time thing. This
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  guy he had a long history, a long history of crime,
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  a criminal behavior. He was in and out of prison
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  for a good part of his life.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so what are we talking about here, what kind
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  of criminal history.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it wasn't just like petty theft or anything. His
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  crimes they really show someone who was okay with violence,
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  someone who didn't care about the law. Even before there's murder.
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  Before nineteen seventy five, Elliot had already been in prison
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  years for burglary in Lakewood, Colorado.
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  Speaker 1: Six years. I mean, you'd think that would be enough,
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  right to make someone think twice, You.
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  Speaker 2: Would think, yeah, you really would, But it didn't work
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  out that way with Elliott. Just a year after he
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  got out, he was in trouble again, and this time
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  it was much much worse. This time it was a
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  horrible crime against a child.
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  Speaker 1: God, it's just it's heartbreaking, you know, to think about
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  the pain he caused, not just Terry and her family,
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  but other people too. It makes you think, could something
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  have been done? Was there a way to, I don't know,
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  stop it before it happened.
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  Speaker 2: That's the question, isn't it. In cases like this you
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  always wonder. But for Elliott, it gets worse. After he
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  served time for that crime, the one against a child,
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  he got out, he was released in Las Vegas in
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  nineteen ninety one, and then not long after that, he
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  committed the murder that would eventually connect him back to Tiri.
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  He raped and murdered a woman in her apartment.
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  Speaker 1: So this other murder in Las Vegas it was like
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  the missing piece, the key to his past to Terree.
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  It's awful, but it's what led investigators to the truth.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a tough thing to process. That nineteen ninety
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  one case, as horrible as it was, it gave Terre's
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  family some answers. And what makes it even more unbelievable
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  is at Elliott he died in October nineteen ninety one,
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  not long after that murder in Las Vegas.
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  Speaker 1: He died, so he was never like officially held responsible
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  for Terree.
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  Speaker 2: No, he took his own life.
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  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 2: And while that meant his you know, his reign of
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  terror was over, it also meant that he'd never have
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  to face a trial for what he did to Terry.
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  He'd never have to answer for his crimes. It's just well,
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  it's really difficult for the people who loved her.
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  Speaker 1: I bet it's one of those things where you don't
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  know how to feel. He's gone, the man who did
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  these terrible things, but there's no trial. Terre's family can't
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  confront him, you know, I can't see him held accountable.
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  I don't know if he can even call it closure.
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  Speaker 2: No, you're right, it's it's not satisfying, not really. But
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  even without a trial, even with Elliott gone, the fact
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  that they found out who he was after all those years,
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  it's still a big deal. It shows what happens when
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  people don't give up. The investigators who work this case,
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  they never forgot about Tore. And of course it shows
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  just how powerful forensic science can be.
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  Speaker 1: It really makes you wonder how many other cold cases
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  are out there just waiting for that one clue, right,
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  the one thing that could change everything. Tore's story really
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  shows us what we can do now. We can solve
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  these crimes even once from decades ago. But and this
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  is a big butt with this new technology, we have
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  to think about, you know, the ethics of it all.
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  Speaker 2: One hundred percent. And one of the trickiest things to
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  think about with GenEx genealogy is consent or those genealogy databases. Yeah,
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  millions of people put their DNA info out there, but
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  they never agreed to have it used for a criminal investigation.
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  Speaker 1: It's kind of like, we're using this amazing technology, these
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  huge databases, and yeah, we're solving these awful crimes and
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  helping families get some answers after years of waiting. But
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  it's also, like you said, complicated this whole privacy thing
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  and whether people have really agreed to all this.
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  Speaker 2: It is and it gets even more I don't know, messy.
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  I guess when you bring in familial DNA matching.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so what is that exactly?
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  Speaker 3: Familial DNA matching, Well, basically it means investigators could find
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  a suspect not because their DNA is an exact match
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  to the crime scene, but because it's really close to
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  a family member's DNA.
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  Speaker 2: Someone who's in one of those databases.
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  Speaker 1: So someone's like third cousin uploads their DNA to find
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  out about their ancestors, and then suddenly their whole family
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  is connected to a crime even though they had no idea.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a possibility. And while it's been really helpful
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  for solving crimes, it brings up a whole bunch of
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  ethical issues, like what if they find a suspect through
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  familial DNA but that person is innocent. Their life is
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  totally turned upside down just because of a DNA link
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  to something they had nothing to do with.
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  Speaker 1: It's a tough one for sure. You've got the potential
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  to close these cases that have been open for years,
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  even decades, but you're also getting into this gray area
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  with privacy right.
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  Speaker 2: There's no easy solution but to re Becker's story, and
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  there are so many others. It shows us that these
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  tools they're here to stay. We can't ignore the ethical.
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  Speaker 1: Questions, definitely, not with any new technology, especially something that's big.
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  We have to make sure we're using it the right way.
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  It's something we all have to think about. Where do
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  we draw the line, What can we do to protect
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  people exactly?
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  Speaker 2: We have to find that balance the power to solve
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  crimes and the rights of every person. It's not simple,
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  but it's important.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we've talked about a lot today, haven't we, From
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  the details of what happened to Tierri Becker to this
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  whole world of genetic genealogy and the ethical questions that
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  brings up. So what are like the big takeaways you
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  hope our listeners are thinking about.
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  Speaker 2: I think for me, it's that idea of not giving up.
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  The people who love to read, the investigators, they never
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  stopped looking for answers, no matter how much time passed,
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  And with things like genetic genealogy, we're in a whole
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  new world. Now we can solve crimes and ways we
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  never could before, but we have to be really careful,
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  really thoughtful about how we do it.
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  Speaker 1: It's true Trei's case. It reminds that even after all
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  those years, the truth can come out. It's a story
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  of hope, of fighting for justice, and of how science
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  is changing everything. And to everyone listening, if you want
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  to learn more, I mean, really dig into this world
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  of genetic genealogy, the good, the bad, the whole ethical debate.
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  We encourage you to do it. It's a fascinating topic
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  and until next time, keep asking questions and stay curious.