With the assistance of modern advancements in DNA technology, Westminster Police investigators were able to solve a nearly 50-year-old cold case murder.

On Dec. 6, 1975, two motorcyclists discovered the lifeless body of 20-year-old Denver resident Teree Becker in a field near the intersection of 100th avenue and Lowell Blvd, according to Westminster police. During the autopsy, it was determined Teree had been raped, and her cause of death was asphyxiation, police said.

In a profile from police, Becker was described by friends and family as a “free spirit.” She enjoyed painting and listening to music.  Her favorite bands were Three Dog Night and Steppenwolf. Her family said that she often lived life on the edge and never met a stranger.

Becker was last seen visiting a boyfriend who was incarcerated in the Adams County Detention Center on Dec. 4, 1975, two days prior to her body being found, according to police. She was reported to have hitchhiked to the detention center and probably caught a ride with an unknown person(s) after she left the detention center.

According to Westminster PD, police had worked and reworked the case over the next 28 years.

In 2003, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation was able to extract DNA from an unknown male originating from a piece of evidence which was collected related to the rape. The unknown male profile generated was entered into the CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) database, but no match was determined.

No further substantial leads were developed until another 10 years later. In 2013, an unknown DNA profile submitted by Las Vegas Metro Police Department matched the unknown DNA profile in Becker’s homicide through the CODIS system.  Las Vegas Metro Police Department was reviewing a 1991 Cold Case involving a female who had been found raped and murdered in her apartment.  Through the DNA link, it determined the suspect who murdered Teree Becker was also linked to the murder of the woman in Las Vegas.  Before the DNA breakthrough, Las Vegas Metro PD was also without a suspect in their case.

Over the following half-decade, collaborative efforts involving department research, the CBI, Parabon Nanolabs (a genetic DNA lab), and Solved By DNA (a Denver-based genealogy company) led to the ultimate identification of the suspect, Thomas Martin Elliott.

In October 2023, Las Vegas Metro PD obtained consent to exhume the body of Thomas Elliott based on the likelihood that Elliott was the suspect in both their case and the Westminster homicide. A Westminster PD detective and senior criminalist flew to Las Vegas to witness the exhumation of Elliott’s body. His bones were collected and submitted for analysis.

Last month, Elliott’s DNA was matched to the unknown male DNA in both the Westminster and Las Vegas homicides.  Westminster police have marked the Teree Becker Cold Case as solved.

One challenge in identifying and linking the DNA was the fact that Elliott was adopted by his mother’s second husband. His birth mother, Nancy West, had divorced his biological father, later to remarry.

According to Westminster Police, Thomas Elliott spent a large portion of his life in and out of the prison system.  Shortly before DNA evidence connected him to the murder of Teree, he was convicted on burglary charges and spent six years in prison.

While in prison, Elliott was moved throughout the Department of Corrections system and was ultimately released from prison in Las Vegas in 1981.

After his release, he received a 10-year sentence for committing a crime against a child.  He was again released in Las Vegas in 1991, becoming the primary suspect in the murder of the victim linked by DNA to Becker’s homicide. Not long after that homicide, Elliott committed suicide on October 30, 1991.  He was buried in the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery due to a short enlistment he had with the military.

Westminster PD expressed that it was “thrilled” to solve this cold case and hopefully bring closure to the friends and family of the victim, Teree Becker.

The department also said it would continue to review and investigate its nine remaining cold cases.