Former Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) forensic DNA analyst Yvonne “Missy” Woods drew a 10-year prison sentence from a judge on September 8, 2026. It is the biggest turn yet in a scandal trailing the killing of JonBenét Ramsey, six years old when she was murdered in 1996, a case that remains unsolved. Woods’ manipulation of evidence has forced prosecutors across the state to reopen closed cases.
The plea agreement Woods, 66, reached in June had exposed her to eight to 16 years; she admitted then to four felonies: cybercrime, perjury, forgery and attempting to influence a public servant. The judge ordered her sentences on the other three counts to run concurrently and tacked on three years of mandatory parole. That same deal wiped out 100 additional charges.
Nearly three decades of Woods’ career were spent at the CBI, which she left in 2023, retiring after being placed on administrative leave. Prosecutors say she falsified DNA results and stripped forensic records out of criminal cases going back to 2008, and her conduct was alleged to have touched as many as 1,045 cases. Her career workload topped 10,000 cases by the estimate of authorities, who found problems in about 10 percent of them. Woods had “accepted responsibility not only for individual acts of misconduct but for the full scope of criminal conduct that spanned decades,” District Attorney Alexis King said.
Fallout Across Colorado Cases
Retesting of DNA evidence tied to Woods’ work led Denver police to reopen 13 closed sexual-assault cases, the department has said. Of those retests, 11 produced profiles eligible for CODIS, and six turned up possible investigative leads.
One conviction has already come apart. Michael Clark had served more than 12 years behind bars in the 1994 fatal shooting of Marty Grisham in Boulder when a judge vacated his conviction in April 2025, because Woods had played a role in his 2012 trial. Adam Frank, Clark’s defense attorney, later asked to review Boulder police files covering the first 48 hours of the Ramsey investigation, his argument being that the same kinds of investigative mistakes had derailed both cases. In October 2025, a judge denied that request.
What the Boulder Review Found
Their review turned up no effect on evidence in the Ramsey investigation, Boulder police and the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office say. Woods’ documented criminal conduct runs from 2008 to 2023; JonBenét was killed in 1996. That original investigation took place while she worked at the CBI, though authorities have not said she personally handled evidence in the case.
An outside laboratory, rather than the state agency, received the key DNA evidence in the case, John Ramsey has said — a detail that gives it some insulation from the fallout now reshaping other Colorado prosecutions.
New Technology, Old Evidence
Investigators are going back through the evidence to identify what newer forensic methods might crack, authorities in Boulder say, and they are weighing advanced DNA testing at independent outside laboratories. Tips have prompted detectives to interview new people and circle back to others, collect fresh evidence, and run repeated tests on items in search of leads, the Boulder Police Department says. The department is also consulting with the Colorado Cold Case Review team.
The initial response contained critical mistakes that police have acknowledged: officers never secured the crime scene, and formal interviews with JonBenét’s parents were delayed. Investigators still insist the case can be solved. The Cold Case Review Panel was convened by Boulder police rather than the CBI, and the department partners with the FBI, the district attorney’s office, Colorado’s Department of Public Safety, the CBI and several outside forensic labs.
A Father Still Pressing for Answers
The sentencing landed in the middle of an argument John Ramsey, JonBenét’s 82-year-old father, has pressed for years. He told RadarOnline, “The police are not going to solve this the way they are doing it.” He added, “I believe getting the crime scene evidence into the hand of an outside DNA lab is step one.”
The man who killed his daughter is no mystery to Ramsey — he has simply never been named. Unidentified male DNA turned up on JonBenét’s underwear and long johns, but that profile has never been matched to a suspect. Ramsey has urged investigators to turn to forensic genetic genealogy, a technique that traces biological relatives through genealogical databases, and he has offered to help raise money for the testing. Rather than rely on conventional state resources, he wants Boulder to hire a specialized private laboratory.
Some physical evidence from the scene was sent for laboratory analysis while other items were left untested, Ramsey has said, and his family questioned that selective approach. The Boulder police chief told him more items from the scene would go out for testing, he has said, yet no update on the results ever reached the family. An appearance at a crime event in Royal Oak, Michigan, took him out of state on June 19, days before Woods entered her guilty plea.
The family’s Boulder house on the 700 block of 15th Street was where six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was reported missing on December 26, 1996. The basement of that house is where her body was found, and an autopsy gave the cause of death as strangulation. Detectives have since chased more than 21,016 tips, letters and emails, traveling to 19 states to interview more than 1,000 people. Nearly 30 years on, the case remains unsolved. Anyone with information is asked by Boulder police to call the tipline at 303-441-1974 or email BouldersMostWanted@bouldercolorado.gov.
