Thirteen previously closed Denver sexual assault cases have been reopened after the city’s crime lab retested DNA evidence once analyzed by former Colorado Bureau of Investigation forensic analyst Yvonne Woods.
A police spokesperson told The Denver Gazette the once-closed cases are now being actively reinvestigated, although no arrests have been made so far.
Woods, 66, who goes by the name Missy, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Sept. 8 for altering and deleting data in criminal cases in a scandal that is expected to impact the state’s judicial system for many years to come.
She admitted that, if she thought a case would probably not result in prosecution, she would fraudulently report there was either no DNA detected or too little to warrant further analysis to save time.
Scores of cases across the region were then closed, according to the indictment against her and testimony at her sentencing.