Colorado crime lab analyst accused of allegedly changing reports of sexual assault cases | Colorado
Authorities have charged a former Colorado crime lab analyst with more than 100 criminal counts against her, saying she changed reports in a sexual assault case.
On Tuesday, Colorado District Attorney Alexis King announced that Yvonne “Missy” Woods was indicted on 102 counts ranging from 2008 to 2023. Among the 58 alleged crimes were state Bureau of Investigation laboratory analysts.
The charges against Woods include cybercrime, first-degree perjury, attempting to influence a public servant and forgery.
According to investigators, Woods allegedly changed and deleted quantitation values, re-batched the entire DNA batch multiple times without any documentation and hid possible contamination.
Additionally, in more than 30 sexual assault cases, Woods is accused of removing specific values from samples and submitting them to institutions that reported the presence of small amounts of male DNA or possible contamination, and reported “no males found” DNA” and other possible contamination. Troubleshooting and retesting is required.
Woods' alleged misconduct was first revealed in September 2024 when an intern at the Bureau of Investigation worked on a project that involved reviewing quantitative data from vestibule swabs in historical sexual assault cases.
According to authorities, the intern discovered a sample in which the male cycle threshold (CT) value was stated – but no male quantitative value was listed. Authorities added that the specific sample missing the quantitative value was processed by Woods in 2018.
After eliminating the possibility of instrument or quantification kit error, an internal investigation of Woods' DNA workbook was conducted.
The bureau's management eventually discovered similar discrepancies within Woods' workbooks, including changes or deletions of data related to key parts of the quality control process, authorities said.
According to the affidavit reviewed by NBC, investigators asked Woods “what would be the benefit of deleting or manipulating the data, and she quickly responded: 'Being able to report the case.'”
The affidavit added that Woods “agreed” when asked whether he deleted the data to “simply move a particular case forward quickly to avoid having to do additional work.”
Colorado's Bureau of Investigation estimates the financial costs related to Woods' alleged misconduct to be $11,071,486 through the end of 2024.
King said in a statement Tuesday that her office remains “committed to reviewing all affected cases within our jurisdiction on behalf of defendants and involved victims.”