Who murdered Teree Becker in 1975? In the winter of 1975, the life of 20-year-old Teree Becker was tragically cut short, leaving a mystery that would haunt Westminster, Colorado, for nearly five decades. A young white female, described by her family as a 'free spirit' who enjoyed painting and music, Teree was last seen on December 4, 1975. She had hitchhiked to the Adams County Jail in Brighton to visit her boyfriend, a detail that marked the last known moments of her life.
Her exact movements after leaving the jail remain unknown.
Two days later, on the morning of December 6, a couple riding motorcycles in a field near 100th Avenue and Lowell Boulevard made a grim discovery. Teree Becker's body, along with her clothing and personal items, had been left in the field. An autopsy would later reveal the brutal nature of her death; she had been sexually assaulted and died from asphyxiation. For years, the case remained cold, a painful open wound for her family and a frustrating puzzle for investigators. The Westminster Police Department revisited the case multiple times over the decades, but tangible leads were elusive.
A breakthrough finally came in 2003 when the Colorado Bureau of Investigation was able to extract a male DNA profile from evidence collected at the crime scene. The profile was entered into the national CODIS database, but no immediate match was found. The case stalled again until 2013, when a DNA profile submitted by the Las Vegas Metro Police Department in connection with a 1991 cold case matched the sample from the Becker case. This new evidence revealed that the same individual was responsible for both Teree's murder and the sexual assault and murder of a woman in Las Vegas.
With this crucial link established, investigators turned to the burgeoning field of genetic genealogy in 2018. This advanced technique eventually pointed them to a suspect: Thomas Martin Elliott. Elliott had an extensive criminal history, including a burglary conviction shortly before Teree's murder for which he served six years in prison. After his release, he was convicted of a crime against a child and sentenced to another ten years. Following his second release in 1991, he committed the murder in Las Vegas. However, justice in a courtroom was not to be. In October 1991, for reasons unknown, Thomas Martin Elliott committed suicide. In October 2023, authorities received consent to exhume Elliott's remains. By December 2023, DNA analysis confirmed that he was the man responsible for the murders of Teree Becker and the victim in Las Vegas, finally bringing a name to the perpetrator and a measure of closure to the families who had waited so long for answers.
