Westminster police have solved the nearly five-decade-old cold-case murder of a 20-year-old woman, using genetic genealogy to identify the killer.
Thomas Elliott, who routinely spent time in and out of the prison system for various crimes before taking his own life in 1991, was identified as the murderer of 20-year-old Teree Becker, who had moved to the Denver area from Casper, Wyoming, shortly after graduating high school, according to a release from the Westminster Police Department and a Westminster cold case report.
The identification comes 48 years after Becker was found dead in a field near 100th Avenue and Lowell Boulevard on Dec. 6, 1975, two days after she had attempted to hitchhike to visit her boyfriend in Adams County Jail in Brighton, according to the release. Her autopsy revealed that she had been raped and had died of asphyxiation.
The identification concludes decades of investigation from multiple police departments. In 2003, a breakthrough occurred when the Colorado Bureau of Investigation extracted a piece of male DNA from evidence related to the rape, the release says.
But investigators could not find a match until 2013 when a sample submitted by the Las Vegas Metro Police Department for the rape and murder of a woman in her apartment there provided a genetic match. However, Las Vegas also could not identify a suspect in their case, according to the release.
In 2018, the case was submitted for genetic genealogy testing to identify a match through hereditary DNA analysis, the release says. After five years of testing, police identified Elliott as a match. Las Vegas police gained permission to exhume his body for their case in October 2023, and Elliott’s DNA was matched to that found in both homicides in December.
“We are thrilled we were able to solve this cold case and hopefully bring closure to the friends and family of Teree Becker,” the release states.
Becker’s family described her as being friendly and outgoing and enjoyed painting and listening to music.
Westminster Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.
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