“Terre Becker Murder Case Solved: Thomas Elliott Identified as Killer 50 Years Later”

– Westminster cold case murder solved
– Westminster murder case solved after nearly 50 years.

Accident – Death – Obituary News : WESTMINSTER, Colo. — In a tragic turn of events that has become all too common during this era, a hitch-hiking venture in 1975 turned into a brutal murder case that remained unsolved for nearly five decades. However, there is finally a breakthrough in the investigation, thanks to the application of genetic genealogy techniques by the Westminster Police Department.

The authorities in Westminster announced on Wednesday that they have identified the perpetrator who killed 20-year-old Terre Becker in 1975 as Thomas Elliott. Elliott, who took his own life in 1991 at the age of 41, was linked to a second murder after his body was exhumed in Las Vegas. This breakthrough comes as a result of the advancements in genetic genealogy that have revolutionized the field of forensic investigations.

The incident occurred on December 4, 1975, when Becker, a Casper native who had recently moved to the Denver area after graduating from high school, was hitchhiking to visit her incarcerated boyfriend at the Adams County Jail in Brighton. Tragically, this would be the last time anyone saw her alive.

Approximately two days after her disappearance, two motorcyclists stumbled upon Becker’s lifeless body in a field located in the vicinity of Lowell Boulevard and West 100th Avenue. Her body had been callously dumped in the field along with her clothing and personal belongings. The autopsy revealed that Becker had been sexually assaulted, and her cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation, according to the Westminster Police Department.

Following the discovery of her body, the Becker case gradually went cold due to a lack of substantial leads. However, in 2003, a breakthrough occurred when the Colorado Bureau of Investigation successfully extracted DNA from an unknown male found on a piece of evidence related to the rape. Despite running the DNA through the CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) database, no match was found at the time. It wasn’t until ten years later when Las Vegas police submitted DNA from a 1991 murder case that a match was finally made with the DNA from the 2003 submission. However, the crucial piece of information, the name associated with the DNA sample, was still missing.

Fast forward to 2023, and the unidentified male DNA found in both the Westminster and Las Vegas homicides has been identified as belonging to Thomas Elliott. The breakthrough came through the application of genetic genealogy, an investigative technique that measures the amount of shared DNA between two individuals. Elliott’s extensive criminal history, including multiple incarcerations, emerged during the investigation. Shortly after Becker’s murder, Elliott was convicted of burglary in Lakewood and served a six-year prison sentence. He was later imprisoned again in Las Vegas in 1981 for a crime involving a child. Elliott was eventually released in 1991, only to be subsequently linked to another rape and murder of a woman in Las Vegas.

Tragically, Becker’s immediate family is no longer alive to receive the news that their daughter’s killer has finally been identified, according to Westminster police. However, this breakthrough brings a sense of closure to the case and highlights the power of advancements in genetic genealogy as a tool for solving cold cases.

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1. “Westminster cold case murder solved”
2. “Cold case murder in Westminster solved after nearly 50 years”.