The double slaying of two young women hitchhiking near Breckenridge has haunted the small mountain town for nearly 40 years. After decades of non-stop searching, officials announced Wednesday that they have finally made an arrest.

Alan Lee Phillips, 70, was arrested on Feb. 24 and charged with two counts each of first-degree kidnapping, first-degree assault and first-degree murder.

Annette Schnee, 21, and Barbara Jo Oberholtzer, 29, were both last seen outside of Breckenridge on Jan. 6, 1982. The two women both worked in Breckenridge, although they had no apparent connection aside from their alleged killer. 

Oberholtzer was last seen at 7:50 p.m. leaving the Village Pub. She was having drinks with coworkers and was planning to hitchhike toward the Hoosier Pass to her home in Alma, where she lived with her husband and daughter.

When Oberholtzer never made it home, her husband and a group of friends went looking for her. They discovered her body the next day off the highway to Hoosier Pass and down an embankment of snow. She had been shot in the chest and had a pair of zip ties on one wrist.

Schnee was last seen at 4:45 p.m. leaving a pharmacy in Breckenridge. Investigators assume she was hitchhiking home as she was known to do. Schnee was scheduled to work a shift at the Flip Side Bar at 8 p.m., but she never showed for work.

Schnee’s body was found nearly six months later on July 3. A young boy discovered her fully clothed in a creek in rural Park County while fishing with his father. She had been shot in the back, the cold weather preserving her body for months.

Officials have continued to work the case for four decades, following leads reported all over the country, but it never resulted in an arrest.

The murders gained national attention over the years, being featured in an episode of “Unsolved Mysteries” in 1992, a psychic Discovery Channel program in the mid-2000s and an episode of “Investigation Discovery” in 2019.

Investigators partnered with Metro Denver Crime Stoppers and United Data Connect in 2020, a company that uses DNA to solve cold cases.

“You think about these two young, beautiful women that you’ve seen pictures of lying in the snow, after being shot in the darkness, by themselves, dying; basically freezing to death. It would make you not give up like Charlie didn’t,” said Mitch Morrissey, a co-founder of United Data Connect and former Denver district attorney, He was referring to Charlie McCormick, a former Denver homicide detective and private investigator who has studied the two cases for decades. 

“And it makes you want to answer the question of who would do such a horrible thing to somebody.”

McCormick said he has had difficulty “defining” his emotions about the case apparently being solved, saying it feels “like a new beginning.” He added the case has kept going over the years because there were always threads to follow up on. 

“This case has kept going because … there was always something to do that, as a good investigator, or a professional investigator, you couldn’t ignore.”

Using forensic genealogy, United Data Connect connected Phillips to the murders with DNA from the crime scenes and connecting it through family tree data services. Phillips was identified six weeks ago and officials worked to investigate and conduct surveillance on him up until his arrest last week.

Phillips is currently being held without bail in Park County. He is expected in court on Friday and Monday.

Police said Phillips is a semi-retired mechanic living in Dumont in Clear Creek County. He has three children from a former marriage and never left Colorado.

During the initial investigation, police said they believed the killer was a local due to the remote location where Schnee’s body was hidden.

Park County Sheriff Tom McGraw said that although some people don’t stay in the area where they commit crimes, he wasn’t surprised at the revelation Phillips still lived close by. He added Phillips has lived in other areas of Colorado since the murders. 

Officials declined to identify the specific piece of evidence that provided DNA linking Phillips to the crimes. 

Denver7 reported that Phillips was previously arrested on burglary and assault charges in 1973, though the cases were purged in 2002. Police said Phillips had not been involved in any serious crimes on record.

Officials are currently looking into other unsolved murders that Phillips may have committed.

“I would say this: In 38, years of law enforcement, for myself, anybody that can commit a crime like this — of killing these two beautiful women –I think could have the tendency to commit other violent acts,” McGraw said.

If Phillips is found guilty, Crime Stoppers will have solved eight cases, including six murders, in 15 months using genetic genealogy.

With this solved there would also be only one unsolved murder within Park County, down from four in 2019. The remaining unsolved murder is that of 17-year-old Maggie Long, who was killed in her Bailey home in 2017.

Anyone with more information regarding the murders of Schnee and Oberholtzer is asked to call the Colorado Bureau of Investigation tip line at 720-248-8378.

Agencies that assisted in the investigation include the Park County Sheriff’s Office, Metro Denver Crime Stoppers, United Data Connect, 11th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office.

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