BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — DNA evidence has identified a man believed to be the person responsible for the rape and murder of a Denver woman in 1970, a Colorado sheriff’s office said
The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said DNA evidence found on the body of 23-year-old Betty Lee Jones matched the man believed to be the attacker, The Daily Camera reports.
Paul Leroy Martin died in June 2019 and his body was exhumed to make a positive DNA match.
Martin had no known link to Jones, but his family believed he drove a car similar to one Jones was seen getting into following an argument with her husband in March 1970.
The mother of two had been bound, sexually assaulted, strangled, and shot when she was found the next day near the Boulder and Jefferson county border.
The case was reopened in 2006 and the DNA evidence was submitted to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation without finding any matches.
Private laboratory Bode Technologies received the DNA in 2019 and used genealogy to identify Martin.
A probable cause statement was submitted to the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office May 26 and a murder charge would have been filed if Martin was alive, authorities said.