In August 2020, Douglas County investigators identified cold case remains found near the Rainbow Falls campground in the Pike-San Isabel National Forest in June 1993 as those of Becky Redecker.
After the case went cold with few leads, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office reopened the case in 2020. Investigators said identification was difficult, but genetic genealogy testing after a July 2020 tip made it possible. The cold case team partnered with United Data Connect and Crimestoppers, according to statements made during a press conference by former Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock, who has since retired. Spurlock noted he was a deputy at the start of the investigation into Redecker’s remains.
The cold case joins numerous others in the past few years that have gained new leads or closures due to modern DNA technology and genetic genealogy testing. While Redecker’s cause of death is still undetermined, the identification of her remains was 27 years in the making.
Investigators said Redecker may have been homeless at the time of her death and provided a rough timeline of her life at a press conference in the hope of turning up more leads.
Investigators said between 1985 and 1988 Redecker lived in Manitou Springs, Colorado, and from 1988 to 1989 in Divide, Colorado. In 1989, Redecker lived at a group home in Colorado Springs before moving to a group home in Denver from 1990 to 1991. In 1992, she lived in Black Forest, Green Mountain Falls and Woodland Park before her disappearance and the June 1993 discovery of her remains. Redecker was 20 years old at the time of her death.
Investigators said they believed Redecker attended Coronado High School in Colorado Springs in 1989 and went to Manual High School in Denver for roughly one year.
Anyone with information about Redecker or her death is encouraged to report it to Crimestoppers or to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office at 303-660-7528 or [email protected]. Crimestoppers offered a $10,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest.