After nearly 50 years of uncertainty, the killer of Teree Becker has finally been identified, police in Colorado announced on Wednesday. Becker, a 20-year-old woman, was last seen on December 4, 1975, hitchhiking to visit her boyfriend at the Adams County Jail in Brighton, Colorado. Two days later, her body and personal belongings were found dumped in a field. An autopsy revealed that she had been raped and died of asphyxiation, but her killer was never found.
The case saw a breakthrough in 2003 when the Colorado Bureau of Investigation was able to extract an unknown male’s DNA from evidence collected in connection with Becker’s rape. Although the man’s profile was entered into a DNA database, there were no matches. However, in 2013, the DNA profile matched a case in Las Vegas involving the rape and murder of a woman in her apartment in 1991.
After five years of using genetic genealogy, the Colorado Bureau of Research, in collaboration with a genetic DNA laboratory and a genealogy company, managed to identify a suspect. In October, the body of Thomas Martin Elliott was exhumed, and after a thorough analysis, it was determined that he was the unknown male who killed both Becker and the Las Vegas woman. Elliott had been in and out of jail for various crimes, including robbery and a crime against a minor, and he committed suicide in 1991 shortly after the Las Vegas homicide.
Westminster police said they hope that identifying Becker’s killer will bring closure to her family and friends. Becker, who grew up in Wyoming and moved to the Denver metro area after high school, was described by her family as a “free spirit” who “would carry on a conversation with anyone.”
After nearly half a century, the mystery surrounding Becker’s death has finally been resolved, offering some solace to her loved ones.