DENVER (KDVR) — “Their voices may now be silent . . . those who may know the truth are not,” the Colorado Bureau of Investigation shared as a part of its mission as it works to assist in bringing justice to cold case tragedies.
There are hundreds of unsolved homicide cases, long-term missing person cases, and unidentified remains cases in our state where at least three years have passed since the crime happened.
The Colorado cold case task force created a list of those cases dating back to 1970. The Problem Solvers are working to highlight cold cases in our state each week.
Murder of Marilee Burt
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation and Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office are working to solve the cold case murder of Marilee Burt from February 27, 1970.
The CBI said Burt was walking to her home in Columbine Valley after a basketball game at Goddard Middle School but she never made it home.
Witnesses told investigators that they saw Burt walk through Berry Drive, Bowles Avenue, and Middlefield Road.
During the investigation detectives learned that Burt was last seen talking to someone in a vehicle that stopped on South Middlefield Road.
The next day, a Jefferson County road crew found Burt’s unclothed body in Deer Creek Canyon, several miles away from where she was last seen, and contacted law enforcement. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death.
Years after Burt’s murder, investigators were able to create a DNA profile using evidence that was collected at the scene. The DNA hasn’t yet yielded a match for the killer in local or federal databases.
In 2021, the reward in Burt’s murder was increased to up to $30,000 for information leading to an arrest in the case.
If you have information about this case, please contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867 or submit a tip online.
Highlighting cold cases in Colorado
Here are some of the other cases we’ve highlighted:
- Cold case: Who murdered this young mom in 1985?
- Cold case: What happened to this woman who disappeared in 1990?
- Cold case: Who killed this 10-year-old boy in 1991?
- Cold case: Who murdered Stephanie Bauman 42 years ago?
- Cold case: Who murdered Jennifer Larsen 27 years ago?
- Cold case: Who shot David Williams to death in 2005?
- Cold case: Who murdered Maggie Long 1,651 days ago?
- Cold case: What happened to Elizabeth Miller 40 years ago?
- Cold case: Who kidnapped Christopher Abeyta 35 years ago?
- Cold case: Who killed JonBenét Ramsey 25 years ago?
- Cold case: Who killed Jessica Bejarano 15 years ago
- Cold case: Where is Terri Ackerman?
- Cold case: Who killed Richard Elliott at a grocery store 23 years ago?
- ‘Don’t ever give up hope’: Cold case: Who killed Edward Steinbach?
- Cold Case: Who killed Denise Davenport 37 years ago?
- Cold case: Who murdered James O’Neal Johnson 23 years ago?
- Cold case: Where is Jennifer Lynn Marcum?
- Cold case: Who murdered Daniel Lell in Aurora in 2013?
- Missing: Highlighting the search for people missing in Colorado
- 18 people remain unidentified in Denver since 1970
If you ever have a cold case you would like us to feature, please fill out this form or send an email to dara.bitler@digital-staging.kdvr.com-
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System shows there are over 20,000 open missing persons cases in the United States and over 300 in Colorado.