Who murdered Dellmer Betts in 1986?
On a Sunday morning in late April of 1986, the quiet landscape of Jefferson County, Colorado, offered a grim discovery to a group of hikers. There, in a drainage ditch along Highway 6, lay the body of a young man, later identified as 29-year-old Dellmer Betts. A white male, Betts was found roughly four and a half miles west of Highway 58, his life abruptly ended in what investigators would classify as a homicide. At the time of his death, he was dressed in blue jeans, a blue T-shirt, and a pair of bright orange socks.
Just two days before his body was found, on Friday, April 25, 1986, Betts was last seen alive at a home near 34th and Lawrence in Denver, where he had been staying temporarily. He had recently been released from prison, having served time for a narcotics violation. Known to be both a user and seller of drugs, his life was one that skirted the edges of the law. When he was discovered, a significant personal item was missing: his brown briefcase, a detail that has never been resolved.
Decades have passed since Dellmer Betts's untimely death, yet the case remains unsolved, a cold file in the records of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. Despite investigations, no suspects have ever been publicly named, and no arrests have been made in connection with his murder. The circumstances surrounding his final moments and the identity of the person or people responsible for his death are still unknown, leaving a lingering mystery in the Rocky Mountain foothills. The case continues to be open, with law enforcement still seeking any information that might finally bring a resolution to this long-unanswered crime.
