Newlywed Murder Solved 50 Years Later
In 2020, Colorado investigators announced they had solved the 1970 rape and murder of 23-year-old Betty Lee Jones over 50 years after the case went cold, crediting the use of genetic genealogy.
Domestic Bliss Interrupted
Betty Jones, a newlywed mother of two, was last seen alive on March 8, 1970, in front of her Denver, Colorado home. She had been arguing with her husband of nine days, Robert Ray Jones, when Betty got out of the car and flagged down a blue sedan that was passing by on the street.
What Happened to Betty Jones?
The next day, Betty's body was found on Highway 128 on the side of an embankment, near the Boulder County line. She had been restrained, sexually assaulted, strangled, and shot. Shortly after this, the case went cold with the police unable to solve the murder.
In 2006, with new technology on their side, law enforcement reopened the case and sent DNA evidence to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation with hopes of getting a positive hit on the evidence. It was not a match for any profiles in the national database, and the case went cold again.
A Break in the Case
But then in 2019, the Boulder County Sheriff's Office submitted the DNA evidence to a private lab called Bode Technologies, and a profile was developed. From there, the FBI's Genetic Genealogy Team helped develop a family tree. Taking up where the FBI team left off, the CBI was led to a possible suspect, Paul Leroy Martin, who had died that year.
Investigators exhumed Martin's body and sent a biological sample to the CBI Lab. On April 24, 2020, the CBI Forensic Sciences Biological Unit notified the Boulder County Sheriff's Office that the sample collected from Betty Jones' body and Paul L. Martin was a match. According to Martin's relatives, there was no known link between the two, but Martin did drive a blue Plymouth Fury sedan like the one Betty got in. Investigators said if Martin had been alive today, he would have been arrested and prosecuted for the murder of Betty Jones.
After more than half a century, the brutal murder of Betty Lee Jones has finally been solved. This is not the first or last cold case in the state of Colorado to be solved by generic genealogy. This new technology, while not able to bring back the victims, can provide closure for families and friends of the victims of violent crimes.
References: 1970 Rape And Murder Of Betty Lee Jones Solved Using Genetic Genealogy | Police Crack 50-Year-Old Cold Case Murder Of Colorado Newlywed
