DNA helps solve Colorado woman's cold case rape, murder after 50 years

Colorado investigators used DNA and genetic genealogy to solve the rape and murder of a 23-year-old Denver woman five decades ago.

Betty Jones was murdered in 1970, and investigators said Thursday that her killer was Paul Martin, a man who died last year.

Jones was last seen getting into a blue sedan following an argument with her husband of nine days, KUSA-TV reported.

“Martin has no known link to Betty Lee Jones, and a close family member, who was living during that time, said the Martin name was not familiar to her and she did not recall Betty dating anyone by that name,” the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

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“The name was not in any of the original reports or in the original officers’ notes,” according to the sheriff's office.

“Martin, according to his brother, did drive a blue, mid-to-late 1960s Plymouth Fury sedan,” it said.

Genetic genealogy in 2019 led investigators to the brother. He told them about an estranged brother -- Martin.

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Martin’s body was exhumed under a court order and a DNA test confirmed he was the man who killed Jones, according to the sheriff's office.

After the case was reopened in 2006, DNA ruled out as suspects Jones’ husband and five other men.

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Her husband, Robert Ray Jones, died in 2000.