But the isn’t part of a traditional true-crime production. It’s a video created by the to promote the agency’s new podcast, a four-episode look into an unsolved 2016 homicide that investigators hope will spur new tips in the cold case.

Aurora’s foray into the true-crime genre is an unusual approach for Colorado police departments — while a handful of agencies have produced podcasts, the shows typically include straightforward sessions designed to on the basics of policing or offer .

The Aurora police podcast is intentionally framed to feel like a true-crime show, said Joe Moylan, spokesman for the department. The genre is known for retelling the stories of real violent crimes and packaging the evidence and facts of the case in an air of mystery, relying on sensationalism, morbid curiosity and storytelling techniques to keep listeners engaged.

“We’re trying to tap into that audience,” Moylan said. “It����ap a very popular genre; there have been a lot of instances recently where a tip from a podcast has helped solve a case.”

The police-produced podcast is, in some ways, part of a long tradition of law enforcement seeking to connect directly with residents, particularly on social media. But the reality of the true-crime genre also means a police-produced podcast raises questions about ethics and the use of public resources, said Kelly McBride, senior vice president at , a Florida nonprofit focused on media ethics.

“Most of the time when a true-crime podcast jumps in to solve a cold case, it����ap because the police have failed,” she said. “They are the police. They have all the investigative tools available to them, including the ability to just tell their story. So why create a form of entertainment around it?”

Moylan said the hope is that the unusual approach will generate more attention on the case than traditional methods of sharing information. The police department has for years sought tips on the 2016 killing of Chelsea Yasser, but none have yet panned out.

“My best days at work are when I push out a news release or we kick something out on social media and we find out after the fact that a member of the public saw it, we got a good tip on it, we made an arrest and we solved the case,” he said. “If doing something a little bit different generates some interest, and we are able to get that final piece of the puzzle and solve this case, it would definitely be a cool thing to be a small part of that.”

A criticism of the true-crime genre — and mainstream media — has been the tendency for podcasters and journalists to focus on sensational, high-profile murder cases, often with white female victims, said Michael Tracey, professor emeritus in the at the .

“Whenever I lecture about JonBenét Ramsey, I point out that 804 children under the age of 12 were murdered in America in 1996 and you heard about just one,” he said, adding later that it remains to be seen how Aurora police handle their podcast.

“Is it done professionally and ethically with a real aim at solving a crime?” he asked. “If it is only the dead white girl syndrome, that raises some serious issues.”

‘Just a unique homicide’

Aurora’s podcast will focus on the 2016 killing of 21-year-old Yasser, who was stabbed to death in the parking lot of a Burlington Coat Factory. The case was chosen for the podcast because investigators think it is solvable, Moylan said.

Yasser was stabbed inside a minivan in the store’s parking lot, and the attack was captured on . Police have long focused on identifying the driver of that van and hope the podcast will bring in new tips, Moylan said.

“We decided on this one because it is just a unique homicide in the fact it was captured on video, for the most part, and we still don’t have any idea who did it,” he said.

The episodes will cover the day of the killing, the victim, early investigative efforts and more recent cold-case investigative efforts, Moylan said.

Tracey said the police department’s approach is a “clever idea.”

“Podcasts are just an emergent form of communicating. It’s how the technology has evolved and is being used,” he said, adding that the video trailer for the podcast suggests police are on the right track. “The Aurora podcast is clearly an effort to use this new medium to engage with this new world with a legitimate end of solving a really nasty crime. To me, that is laudable.”

Listeners of all podcasts — including podcasts produced by police — should consider the source and think critically about what motivated the podcaster, McBride said. She noted that the Aurora Police Department has a “horrible” reputation nationwide in the wake of high-profile use-of-force incidents like the death of Elijah McClain.

The podcast, she said, is a “roundabout” and labor-intensive way of investigating the cold case.

“It makes me wonder if that is what their real motivation is, or if they are trying to change the narrative about the department, which is nationally known for a couple of notorious incidents,” she said.

She noted that investigative material made public through the podcast should also be made public to anyone who wants it.

“Officials are not supposed to play favorites with public records requests,” she said. “If they are making something public, they are supposed to make it public — and they can’t make it public just for themselves.”

Moylan expected the department would release additional materials about the Yasser case. He noted that the podcast — “The White Whale — The Chelsea Yasser Story,” launching June 29 — relied on staff time and resources and did not have any extra production budget.

‘The podcast got them hooked’

Police agencies producing their own true-crime podcasts is not unprecedented.

The New York Police Department has published a , exploring both notorious closed cases and unsolved homicides. The Newport Beach Police Department, in California, published a true-crime podcast in 2018 to try to track down a fugitive who was wanted for murder.

That podcast, dubbed included six 15-minute episodes. The police department launched it alongside a website where podcast listeners could leave tips about the fugitive and photos related to the case.

“The podcast got them hooked on it, and then they would go to the website and they could see what he looked like,” said Jennifer Manzella, a longtime employee at Newport Beach Police Department who spearheaded the project.

That received 1.2 million views between the podcast’s launch in September 2018 and the end of the year, she said. The man was arrested in 2019 after someone tipped off police that he was in Mexico, Manzella said.

She couldn’t say for sure that the podcast reached the tipster, but credited the effort for boosting publicity around the case and generating mainstream media coverage.

“The podcast worked hugely in their favor in that (the fugitive) knew we were actively looking for him,” she said. “He was in the news again, all the sudden. And his face was all over the place. He had to move more frequently.”

Manzella said her team intentionally gave the podcast a generic name so that they could use it on other cases in the future, but the agency has not yet produced another season. No other case has been the right fit, she said.

“It is much easier to justify spending a lot of staff time and resources on doing something that can’t be accomplished in any other way, or was an extraordinary need for the department,” she said. “In this case, finding (the suspect) was worth that additional push… There hasn’t been a parallel case where the assistance of the community would have had the same impact for us.”

The Denver Police Department has rolled out a over the last several months to try to educate Spanish-speaking residents on policing after discovering that some residents were afraid to attend police educational and outreach events in person during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, spokesman Doug Schepman said.

The agency also publishes that feature interviews with investigators and victims’ families, though the series lacks the hallmarks of the true-crime genre.

Arash Ghaemi has wondered for 18 years what happened to his mother after she disappeared from a Wheat Ridge motel.

So Ghaemi, an artificial intelligence developer and entrepreneur, turned his profession into his passion.

“What if I can get the case files and run it through AI?” he said of the police investigation into his mother’s disappearance. “Maybe it will show me something and make the connections. If I could build it to solve my mom’s case, I could likely build it to solve other cases.”

Ghaemi launched , an AI program that searches cold-case files to generate new leads for investigators, last year.

So far, the AI platform is in the hands of a few private investigators who are using it to chase leads on behalf of families searching for missing loved ones. Ghaemi hopes one day the program will have its big break in solving a case, and maybe — just maybe — it will help figure out what happened to his mother, , when she disappeared in 2007.

Ghaemi, who goes by “Ash,” on Tuesday met with investigators, information-technology staff and commanders at the to show off his AI tool and to ask for an update on his mother’s case.

For now, Wheat Ridge police say CrimeOwl is too unproven to use in the department’s investigations, including Shaida Ghaemi’s disappearance.

And they are tight-lipped about her case.

“We were really happy to meet with Ash. It����ap part of our philosophy of relationship policing,” said Alex Rose, a Wheat Ridge police spokesman. “It was a twofold meeting to explain what we could about the case and to give some professional insight on the AI tool so it can become more widespread and of use to agencies across the country.”

‘Still trying to make sense of it’

When Arash Ghaemi was growing up, his mother was almost too good a mother, he said, describing her as “almost overbearing” in taking care of him and his older sister.

But when Arash was 17, his parents divorced, and everything changed.

Shaida Ghaemi became distant from her children. She left home a lot.

“It was weird,” he said. “She went from always needing to be in contact with me and my sister to she could take it or leave it.”

Shaida Ghaemi did not have a permanent home and did not have a job, her son, now 40, said. She traveled between Colorado and Maryland, where her parents lived.

In 2007 — five years after the divorce — she moved into the American Motel in Wheat Ridge with her boyfriend, Jude Peters.

“I am still trying to make sense of it,” he said of the changes in his mother’s behavior.

Arash Ghaemi was a 22-year-old server at a Red Robin restaurant in Highlands Ranch when his grandfather called from Maryland on a September night and told him they were unable to reach his mother. He asked his grandson to call the police.

Shaida Ghaemi, then 44, was last seen on Sept. 9, 2007, by Peters. Drops of her blood were found in their motel room. At the time, Peters it was menstrual blood and that Ghaemi often left for months at a time.

Wheat Ridge police still consider her disappearance a missing-person case, and there is no “clear indication of foul play,” Rose said. “Jude is not considered a person of interest in this investigation at this time,” Rose said of Peters.

“They still don’t know where she’s at and they don’t have any trace of her,” Ghaemi said.

‘True value’ of AI

Artificial intelligence is gaining ground as a law enforcement tool. Multiple police departments across Colorado are using the technology, most commonly for converting body-worn camera footage into written crime reports. It’s also being used to track license plates and to scan people’s faces.

The Wheat Ridge Police Department uses to help write police reports, based on their body-worn camera footage.

“Our officers know they’re accountable for every single word,” Rose said. “It gives them a who, what, when and where and can save them time, but it����ap not a substitution for good police work.”

Ghaemi launched CrimeOwl about six months ago. He is also developing AI programs for the dental industry and a new sports statistics program that could eventually be used by the NBA.

He programmed CrimeOwl to sort through all of the documents in a case file and build a map of the people connected to the missing person, such as partners, family, close friends and neighbors. The AI also creates a timeline of events leading to the disappearance or death and then maps all of the geographic locations connected to the crime, he said.

The platform has a chat function so investigators can ask the AI to sift through files to find answers to their questions.

While CrimeOwl was designed to help with missing-persons cases, Ghaemi said he hopes it can be used to solve other crimes.

No police departments have bought the product so far.

Ghaemi, who lives in Miami, said he tested CrimeOwl on a solved cold case in Florida and, after uploading the police case file into his program, the AI created a list of credible suspects within 30 minutes, he said. Police confirmed it had identified the actual perpetrator, he said.

“It took me 30 minutes to do what it could have taken them weeks or months to do,” Ghaemi said. “That����ap the true value here.”

Not ready for police use

CrimeOwl, however, is not ready for active law enforcement investigations, Rose said.

The CrimeOwl platform would need to be secure so no one could tamper with the evidence once it is uploaded, Rose said. It would need to receive various certifications before any law enforcement agency used it, he said.

It would also need to be vetted by lawyers so any leads it generated would hold up at trial, he said.

“There are a lot of details and a lot of hypotheticals that would need to be heavily vetted for AI technology in a real-world police setting,” Rose said.

Still, Wheat Ridge police are intrigued by Ghaemi’s AI tool and were more than willing to offer advice and expertise, he said.

“We’re always going to applaud somebody who is trying to use technology to find ways to help,” Rose said.

Ghaemi said the Wheat Ridge investigators declined to hand over his mother’s case file because of the security concerns. He had wanted to upload those documents into CrimeOwl to see if it could generate new leads.

Police officials also told him that if they used CrimeOwl to identify a suspect, that person’s defense attorney would likely argue bias since the AI platform was built by the missing woman’s son, Ghaemi said.

“My stance is it has been 18 years. You guys have passed it on to other investigators. It����ap not solving the case,” he said. “I’m willing to take that risk.”

Ghaemi hopes to overcome the legal barriers and law enforcement skepticism before his new company folds under financial pressure. He said CrimeOwl has a revenue stream, but it loses money every month.

“I built this thing with a mission in mind at first,” he said. “I didn’t really know how it would work or if it would work or if I would go broke. Even if it’s not me and CrimeOwl went broke tomorrow and we had to shutter the doors, I just want investigators to use AI to solve these cold cases.”

Nearly 40 years after a woman was found dead on the side of a road in Douglas County, investigators have identified a suspect: one of Colorado’s “most prolific serial killers.”

A passing driver found body down an embankment in the 3500 block of South Perry Park Road, south of Sedalia in rural Douglas County, on April 1, 1987, .

Fischer, who was 31 at the time of her death, had been sexually assaulted and strangled, investigators said.

Back then, Douglas County detectives investigated multiple acquaintances with whom Fischer had been staying in the weeks leading up to her death and several “serial offenders” active in the Denver area, but no arrests were made, Sheriff Darren Weekly said in a .

Now, 38 years later, the killer has been identified as Vincent Darrell Groves, Weekly said.

“Groves is considered to be one of Colorado’s most prolific serial killers,” Weekly said. “Through DNA and investigative leads, he is believed to be responsible for at least 12 homicides … and, again, there is probably a lot more victims out there that law enforcement has yet to connect the dots on.”

Groves primarily targeted vulnerable women between 1978 and 1988, and was known to victimize hitchhikers. He was convicted of murder in 1982, but spent less than 5 years in prison before being released, Weekly said.

Fischer was last seen alive walking north on Monaco Parkway toward Leetsdale Drive in Denver on the evening of March 31, 1987. It����ap unknown where or how she may have met Groves, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office crime lab forensic supervisor Michele Kennedy said during Tuesday’s news conference.

Kennedy said Groves has long been considered a suspect in this case, but other people were also under investigation and detectives needed the DNA profile to be confident.

Groves died in prison in 1996.

“While Groves cannot be held accountable in a courtroom due to his death, today we are able to finally provide answers and resolution to Rhonda’s family and her friends,” Weekly said. “This case underscores our dedication at the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office to solving these cold cases and embracing new technologies.”

Douglas County investigators tested other evidence for DNA in 2017, including items found with Fischer’s body and swabs taken from her orifices, but couldn’t find any leads, crime lab forensic analyst Shane Williams said.

This year, in February, the sheriff’s office’s cold case team reviewed the evidence again and decided to test one last piece: paper bags placed over Fischer’s hands at the crime scene.

Coroner officers typically bag the hands of victims to preserve any trace evidence, like skin cells, on the hands or under the fingernails, Williams said.

Skin cells on Fischer’s hands — including her own and Groves’ — transferred to the inside of the paper bags, he said.

The medical examiner didn’t put the bags on specifically to preserve the DNA, which wasn’t a common science at the time, but the process had the fortunate side effect of safeguarding the evidence investigators would use to solve the case decades later.

“Obtaining a DNA profile from paper bags nearly 40 years old is exceptionally rare,” Weekly said.

The DNA found on the bags matched evidence from three 1979 homicides committed by Groves in Denver. The match, which Weekly said investigators received in October, was made in the Combined DNA Index System, a national DNA database maintained by the FBI.

Douglas County detectives have solved seven cold cases in the last seven years, which Weekly called “exceptional on any scale.” As of Tuesday morning, 35 of the county’s cold cases remained unsolved.

“We will continue to prioritize cold cases,” Weekly said. “As science evolves, so does our ability to uncover the truth. Our commitment to these investigations — and to the families who await answers — will never waver.”

When Long did not show up for the concert her sister started posting on Facebook to ask if anyone had seen Maggie.

But Maggie would be found dead in her family’s burned home. Guns, ammunition and other property were missing.

The Park County Sheriff’s Office continues searching for clues in the cold case, hoping the eighth anniversary of Long’s killing will inspire someone to come forward with new information. A $75,000 reward is being offered.

“We believe someone knows something that could help solve this case and bring a measure of justice to Maggie’s family and the Bailey community,” Park County Sheriff Tom McGraw said in a news release from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. “It could take just one person to help our investigation and we are determined to bring a resolution to one of Colorado’s most high-profile cold cases.

Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to Long’s house at 7 p.m., Dec. 1, 2017, because of a house fire at 3763 County Road 43 in Bailey. Someone had called 911 to report that people were inside the residence causing damage, according to the .

After firefighters extinguished the fire Long’s remains were discovered inside. The El Paso County coroner ruled her death a homicide.

Investigators believe Long fought with the people inside her home before the fire started, the FBI has reported. The suspects stole a Beretta handgun, an assault rifle, 2,000 rounds of ammunition, a green safe and jade figurines.

The Park County Sheriff’s Office has released . In 2021, the FBI said its investigators were looking into the homicide as a possible hate crime.

Anyone with information on Long’s death is asked to call the Maggie Long Task Force tip line at 303-239-4243 or to email maggie.long.tips@state.co.us. Those providing tips can remain anonymous.

Her remains were exhumed from Linn Grove Cemetery in April 2022, and usable DNA was collected and sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which identified her as Leadbeater on Dec. 3, 2024.

Her skeletal remains were found on the bank of the St. Vrain River west of Platteville on Nov. 19, 1973, .

The sheriff’s office hopes a classmate, friend, neighbor or acquaintance will recognize her and come forward with information about her life prior to her disappearance, the agency said in the release.

Sheriff’s office detectives contacted six Los Angeles-area law enforcement agencies, and none had any record of Leadbeater being reported missing or as a runaway, according to the release.

Anyone with information on Leadbeater, or the circumstances surrounding her death, can contact Cold Case Detective Byron Kastilahn at 970-400-2827 or BKastilahn@Weld.Gov. People can also call the county’s tip line at 970-304-6464 or email CrimeTips@Weld.Gov.

Mark Stanley Personette, 80, was convicted this month of murdering Marissa Harvey in 1978, Brooke Jenkins announced.

“At long last, justice has been delivered, and Mr. Personette is being held accountable for this horrific crime,” Jenkins said in a statement. “I would like to thank the survivor and the victim’s family for never losing hope and remaining steadfast in their commitment to seeing justice done.”

Personette is facing seven years to life in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 17.

Authorities arrested Personette in Colorado in 2021 in relation to Harvey’s death during a joint operation by San Francisco Police, the FBI and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s office.

Harvey, who was 15, was visiting her sister in San Francisco when she was killed. The teenager went to Golden Gate Park to ride a horse on March 27, 1978, and never returned, according to the news release.

Surfers founder Harvey’s body the next day in the underbrush at the city’s . The teenager was strangled with a ligature, causing her death, and an autopsy showed Harvey had been sexually assaulted, according to the district attorney’s office.

The case went cold, until San Francisco police reopened the investigation in 2020.

Authorities discovered male DNA on Harvey’s sweater, jeans and a piece of dried gum stuck to her back in the early 2000s, but it wasn’t until 2021 that investigators used genealogy to identify Personette as a potential suspect, according to the news release.

Authorities were able to match Personette’s DNA to that found on Harvey by using trash — personal hygiene items — that he dumped in a Walmart parking lot in Denver more than 15 miles from his house, the district attorney’s office said, adding that Personette separated personal hygiene items from his other trash.

Investigators also found Personette had maps of San Francisco from the 1970s and a set of California license plates with a 1979 registration sticker, despite his assertions that he had not been in the city, according to the news release.

“After nearly half a century, this verdict brought long-overdue justice for 15-year-old Marissa Harvey,” said Assistant District Attorney Katherine Wells in a statement.

The Jack County Sheriff’s Office and Texas Rangers discovered the remains of Roberta “Berta” Mumma in a remote area in Jack County more than 40 years ago. Mumma’s identity was unknown until 2024 when she was identified using DNA analysis and advanced forensic analysis, according to a Colorado Bureau of Investigation news release issued Friday.

Mumma was 25 at the time of her death. The Jack County Sheriff’s Office and Texas Rangers are investigating the cold case. Mumma may have been in Colorado — particularly, Denver or Boulder, the news release said. The Texas Rangers want to talk with anyone who knew Mumma when she was in Colorado, Tennessee or Texas.

“Furthermore, authorities urge anyone with information about Roberta “Berta” Mumma or the circumstances surrounding her death to come forward,” the release read. “The smallest detail could be crucial in solving this case and bringing closure to Roberta “Berta” Mumma’s loved ones.”

For more information or to provide tips, contact Texas Ranger Michael Schraub at 940-549-0549 michael.schraub@dps.texas.gov or Jack County Sheriff’s Office at 940-567-2161 or chauger@jackcounty.texas.gov.

Robert McClain was arrested Monday by the Dubuque Police Department in connection with the 2003 murder of Rosa Arguello. McClain was charged with homicide. Arrangements are underway for McClain’s extradition to Colorado, police said.

Arguello’s body was found in a ditch in October 2003 with a dozen stab wounds.

Dubuque Police were informed that McClain may be involved in a Colorado homicide cold case and worked with the Thornton Police Department to investigate.

“We are grateful for our partners at Dubuque PD and will continue to work closely with the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office to pursue justice for Rosa and her family,” Thornton Police Chief Jim Baird stated in a news release.

The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday there is enough evidence to support that Louis Jess Locicero, who was 32 at the time, murdered Patterson.

Though some aspects of the case remain unconfirmed, there is now significant evidence to indicate Locicero committed the crime, according to a news release.

But, officials say, Locicero died in 2024.

“This is why the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office spends time investigating cold cases like this, to see if something was missed and to see if, with new technology, new leads can be found,” Detective Don Dillard said in the news release. “The sheriff’s office wants the families to know their loved ones have not been forgotten.”

On Sept. 29, 1975, Boulder County deputies were dispatched to a report of a deceased male in the 4500 block of Broadway in the Boulder area, according to the news release. Upon arrival, deputies found Patterson, a clerk at the Cascade Service Station, dead in a restroom at the gas station with a fatal stab wound to his chest.

Two unfired .30 caliber cartridges were also found on the floor of the bathroom near Patterson’s body, according to the news release. Officials said the cash register was found open and that the cash was missing, indicating that robbery was likely the motive.

The sheriff’s office also said the cartridges bore extractor marks and indications of “light hits” on the primers.

The investigation led to Locicero, a suspect with an alleged criminal history, including robbery, burglary, drug and weapon charges, according to the news release. The sheriff’s office said he was staying at a nearby hotel, in the 4500 block of Broadway in the Boulder area, around the time of the murder.

Officials said key evidence found in Locicero’s motel room pointed to his involvement in the murder, including a .30 caliber M1 carbine firearm, a knife that matched Patterson’s wound and fibers from Patterson’s shirt found on the knife and in the sheath and hairs found on Locicero’s boots.

Detectives interviewed Locicero along with others and ultimately arrested Locicero in 1975, but he was released for unknown reasons prior to charges being filed, according to the news release.

“In our jurisdiction, we work very closely with law enforcement to secure justice for victims and our community,” Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said in the news release. “As this investigation by the sheriff’s (office) demonstrates, the quest for justice is something we will always pursue. I’m very grateful to the sheriff’s office for continuing to investigate this tragic murder and using new technology to provide answers for the victim’s family and our community. Our office reviewed this investigation, and with this new evidence, we would have been able to file charges in this case.”

According to a letter from the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office, Locicero was released three days after his arrest and records do not contain information as to the reason for his release.

Officials said that although detectives have followed leads over the decades, they had been unable to develop new leads after reviewing evidence and interviewing potential witnesses — until recently.

Despite previous challenges in definitively connecting Locicero’s firearm to the crime, a breakthrough in the case recently occurred, according to the news release. The sheriff’s office was evaluating the Ballistics IQ device from Evidence IQ, which linked the cartridges found at the murder scene and cartridges found in Locicero’s nearby hotel room to a single firearm — Locicero’s .30 caliber M1 carbine.

Officials said evidentiary items were later sent to Ballistics IQ for evaluation, which ultimately confirmed these findings. This evidence now conclusively links Locicero’s weapon to the crime scene, according to the release.

“I take pride in the work of those in our agency and the reality that our agency is willing to be a champion for technology and its involvement in solving cases, particularly cold cases, bringing closure to those who have had to wait,” Cmdr. Jeff Pelletier said in the new release. “I’d also like to thank the team at Evidence IQ for their willingness to be part of closing this case and performing expert analysis in such a timely fashion.”

A judge overturned the conviction in a 1994 Boulder murder case Friday because of flawed DNA testing by disgraced Colorado Bureau of Investigation scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods.

It’s the first case to be thrown out since the CBI beginning in 2023 discovered hundreds of criminal investigations in which Woods cut corners in her DNA testing — a scandal that has cost Colorado millions of dollars already and shaken the state’s criminal justice system.

Boulder District Court Judge Nancy Woodruff Salomone vacated the first-degree murder conviction of 49-year-old Michael Clark, who has been serving a sentence of life without parole since being convicted in 2012 in the cold-case shooting death of Boulder city employee Marty Grisham.

A hearing is scheduled for June 6 at which Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty is expected to announce whether or not he will retry Clark on charges stemming from the 1994 killing.

“This is a really good day,” said Adam Frank, Clark’s attorney. “Michael Clark’s conviction is gone.”

Dougherty had filed a motion late Friday afternoon asking the judge to vacate Clark’s conviction because Woods’ interpretation of the DNA testing in the Grisham case is now in question after an independent lab retested crime scene evidence.

“Based on those results, as well as the significant claims of juror misconduct and ineffective assistance of counsel, our office determined that the conviction must be vacated,” Doughtery said in a statement. “It is the right thing to do, after considering all three issues. In light of the charges in this case, we will carefully and thoroughly analyze all the evidence to determine the right and just outcome.”

The juror misconduct claim involved the discovery that one of the jurors ignored the judge’s instructions and visited the crime scene during the trial, according to the DA’s motion.

With the conviction vacated, Clark’s $100,000 bail is reinstated, according to prosecutors. He is expected to be transferred to the Boulder County Jail from the Fremont Correctional Facility on Monday, and is eligible to be released if he posts bail. He is married and has three children.

“We want to get him home to them as soon as humanly possible,” Frank said.

Inside the investigation of a CBI scientist’s years of misconduct: “God forbid we have someone in prison that shouldn’t be”

Clark was always a suspect in the 1994 killing, but investigators only had circumstantial evidence at the time. It was Woods' DNA testing of a Carmex lip balm container found at the scene that led investigators to finally charge Clark in the cold case in 2012.

Doughtery's motion to vacate said an independent lab retested Woods' original analysis and created a new sample from the Carmex container. It was testing of that new sample that found new results that could statistically exclude Clark.

"There could be a number of reasons for these results, including the advances in DNA technology," the DA's motion stated. "Regardless of the reason, this is new evidence."

Grisham, who worked as the city of Boulder's information services director, was shot four times on the night of Nov. 1, 1994, after he answered a knock at his apartment door. The killer fled before Grisham's girlfriend could see him.

The killing was a cold case for nearly two decades before Boulder police reopened it in 2009. In 2011, Woods took DNA samples from the Carmex container and determined they excluded 99.4% of the world’s male population, but could include Clark.

Clark was charged with first-degree murder and convicted by a jury in 2012.

He already had brought up the DNA testing in an appeal of his murder conviction, saying his defense lawyer never hired another DNA expert to challenge Woods' conclusions.

Then the CBI discovered in 2023 that Woods had mishandled hundreds of DNA samples and covered up her shortcuts by altering, deleting or omitting data from lab work -- skipping protocols that are in place to ensure accurate results.

Woods was charged with 102 felonies in January. That case is pending.

Her shoddy work has rattled Colorado's justice system. While Clark becomes the first person to successfully challenge a conviction, others are expected to follow.

The CBI estimates Woods’ misconduct has already cost the agency more than $11 million, a figure that includes state funds allocated to pay for re-testing and compensate district attorneys’ offices across Colorado to address wrongful-conviction claims tied to Woods' work.