New court documents reveal costs of DNA analyst’s alleged misconduct

DENVER — A former DNA analyst currently under criminal investigation earned more than half a million dollars in overtime from 2007 through 2023, according to Weld County court records. Those records say the overtime was paid entirely by taxpayers.

Colorado plans to spend more than $7 million extra after the Colorado Bureau of Investigation discovered that Yvonne “Missy” Woods tampered with and deleted data, impacting more than 650 cases across the state. The funds will cover re-examination of evidence and possible reimbursements for post-conviction review and retrial costs.

There is no evidence that Woods’ misconduct influenced the murder trial of James Dye, who is accused of killing Evelyn Kay Day in 1979, court documents say. But because there are now doubts about Woods’ credibility, the trial has been postponed until April 2025. Prosecutors have asked for the evidence to be re-examined.

RELATED TOPIC: Defense attorneys demand more information after investigation finds DNA analyst tampered with data in over 650 cases

Questions about who killed Kay Day in 1979 remained unanswered for more than 40 years. She was beaten and strangled to death near Aims Community College in Weld County.

Then the case took a turn. DNA scientist Woods helped officers arrest James Dye in 2021. He has a criminal history in several states. Day’s murder was one of the county’s oldest unsolved cases. At the time of his arrest, family members said they believed Dye was capable of murder.

Day worked as a supervisor in a business lab at Aims Community College and was last seen alive by a student around 10 p.m. in late 1979. Investigators recovered DNA from her body and found that it did not match that of her husband.

The unsolved case was reopened in May 2020.

RELATED TOPIC: DNA testing helped solve 40-year-old cold case. Analyst who examined evidence is now under investigation

Prosecutors in the case against James Dye said there was no evidence in court documents that Woods’ misconduct had any impact on the case.

Given the questions raised by the investigation into her conduct, prosecutors requested a new review of the evidence by another analyst, according to court documents. Dye’s trial is not yet pending, and now the trial has been delayed even further following the investigation into Woods.

The purpose of the re-examination is to determine whether or not Dye’s DNA matches the unsolved murder case and to bring in another analyst who can provide independent results “without being burdened by the Fifth Amendment,” the documents state. If prosecutors were to call Woods to the stand, she could invoke the Fifth Amendment.

District attorneys said in court documents that Woods “abused the public trust” and “perhaps committed hundreds of criminal offenses” in the process. Investigators in South Dakota are still looking into whether Woods violated laws there. That investigation will be turned over to the district attorney in Jefferson County, Colorado, who will decide whether to file charges.

According to court documents, the 29-year veteran of the CBI was considered a “golden child” who was very popular with management, partly because Woods handled so many cases.

During an internal investigation, a colleague stated that she was one of the top-performing scientists.

According to court documents in the Dye case, Woods worked so much that she earned more than half a million dollars in overtime from 2007 to 2023, funded entirely by taxpayers.

RELATED: Colleagues raised concerns about DNA scientist’s work years before criminal investigation, motion says

The internal investigation found that a colleague accused Woods of data manipulation in 2018. Woods was removed from casework and reinstated after the review. The CBI said the results of the 2018 review were never shared with the agency’s former director. The CBI has launched an additional investigation to examine how the complaint was handled in 2018.

James Dye’s lawyers said in court documents that the CBI allowed Woods to continue working on the most serious cases despite knowing her scam could explode like a powder keg at any time.

RELATED TOPICS: Colorado public defenders call for more transparency in DNA scientist investigation

“Following the discovery of Woods’ actions in tampering with DNA analysis data in 2023, the CBI is meticulously reviewing all of its testing protocols,” CBI Director Chris Schaefer said in a statement in June 2024. “Not only is Woods’ caseload being reviewed, but we are also reviewing the results of all current and past DNA scientists to ensure the integrity of the lab.”

RECOMMENDED VIDEOS: Investigations & Crime