Colorado man sentenced in 1985 cold case after DNA evidence connected him to murder

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) – The man behind a 1985 murder case that ran cold for decades was handed down a maximum sentence on Thursday after investigators tied him to the case through DNA evidence.

In a courtroom on Jan. 16, a Douglas County judge sentenced 67-year-old Michael Jefferson to 32 years behind bars for the 1985 home invasion murder of Roger Dean after Jefferson took a plea deal for the crime.

Authorities say that in November of 1985, Roger Dean and his wife Doris were inside their Lone Tree home when an intruder in a ski mask broke in and held Dean at gunpoint, forcing him to tie up his wife. The masked man reportedly demanded $30,000 from the couple's savings account before getting into an altercation with Dean, ultimately shooting and killing him.

It took detectives more than 35 years to link Jefferson to Dean's murder. Jefferson was arrested back in 2021 when detectives were able to match his DNA with that on evidence left at the crime scene.

According to our Denver news partners, in 2003, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation developed a DNA profile on the suspect using hair found on a ski mask left at the crime scene and entered it into a national database – but there were no hits.

15 years later, following advancements in DNA technology, a new analysis was made; and in 2020, an investigator used the DNA sample to identify the individuals who were likely the suspect's parents. Jefferson was one of the parent's two sons.

Investigators then discovered Jefferson had lived in Colorado the year Dean was killed and had a criminal history in Denver, leading them to monitor his whereabouts.

According to an affidavit, soon after, two deputies boarded a cross-country flight with Jefferson and retrieved a water bottle he discarded. Tests ran on the water bottle concluded that his DNA matched the samples left on the ski mask back in 1985.

Jefferson was subsequently arrested in Los Angeles before being extradited back to Colorado in April 2021, where he faced charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping.

Jefferson's case is also linked to Yvonne "Missy" Woods, a former DNA scientist for the CBI found to have manipulated data in over 1,000 cases. Woods was the primary DNA analyst on the case.

READ MORE: Colorado Bureau of Investigation investigation finds former DNA scientist altered data

According to our Denver news partners, the anomalies discovered in Wood's work back in October 2023 were part of the reason Jefferson ended up taking a plea deal in the case.