Weld County DA seeks CBI documents as forensic scientist investigation calls cold case into question
DENVER (KDVR) — The Weld County District Attorney’s Office issued a demand to the Colorado Bureau of Investigations for documents in what was once the county’s second-oldest cold case.
The demand is because Yvonne Woods, a former CBI forensic scientist who is under investigation for mishandling forensic data in dozens of cases, may have impacted about 65 criminal cases out of Weld County. CBI said the former state forensic scientist manipulated data in 652 cases between 2008 and 2023.
CBI: Former scientist manipulated data in over 600 cases
Woods worked in CBI’s forensic services division for 29 years, according to CBI, and left the position in November 2023. She was subject to an internal affairs investigation in addition to a criminal investigation for the anomalies in her work, which cost the state millions.
The case the Weld County DA is demanding information about was filed in 2021 after DNA testing showed a profile match belonging to Kansas resident James Herman Dye, now 67. Dye was charged in the 1979 death of Evelyn Kay Day, who was 29 at the time of her murder.
Coworkers found Day in the back of her station wagon, strangled by the belt of her overcoat in unincorporated Weld County. Investigators found she had been beaten and sexually assaulted.
After a detective was assigned to the case in Spring 2020, the agency pushed to compare the DNA collected at the crime scene to national DNA networks. The DNA allegedly linked Dye to the scene.
Over 2K criminal cases could be affected by ex-state scientist’s DNA work
Dye had a criminal history of sexual assault in Weld County around the time of the murder, including multiple arrests for sexual assault on a child, according to the arrest affidavit.
Dye previously entered a plea of not guilty in the case, but that was withdrawn, and his trial was vacated in July 2023 as the Colorado Supreme Court considered an appeal filed by the public defender’s office.
He is scheduled to appear in court for a status conference on March 29.
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