Denver Crime Lab retests cases involving former Colorado Bureau of Investigation DNA Analyst Missy Woods
Denver analysts have been retesting cases involving former Colorado Bureau of Investigation DNA Analyst Missy Woods, who was sentenced to prison this week for manipulating and mishandling evidence.
Woods pleaded guilty in June to charges of attempting to influence a public servant, perjury, forgery, and cybercrime, and admitted to manipulating evidence in hundreds of cases going back to 1994. In February, the CBI said it launched an investigation into over 1,000 cases in which she had some sort of involvement.
On Saturday, the Denver Police Department said those investigations identified 27 sexual assault cases in Denver that were affected by Woods. Three of those cases were classified as high-risk, and the Denver Crime Lab retested those results as well as 10 other cases of sexual assault in Denver.
The DPD said testing in 11 of those cases produced CODIS-eligible DNA profiles. That means the genetic information can be entered into the FBI's program that supports criminal justice DNA databases, the Combined DNA Index System. Six of the 11 cases provided possible leads for suspects or other investigations.
The DPD explained that it can't comment on active cases, stating, "As all 13 retested cases remain the subject of active criminal investigations or proceedings, DCL and the Denver Police Department are unable to disclose case-specific information. The DCL's final reports on the findings of the full retesting of these 13 cases will be presented to the Denver District Attorney's Office once completed."
