Roxanne Colley was a 21-year-old Black woman from Kansas City, Missouri, working as a legal secretary for the IRS and planning further education when she stopped answering calls in mid-August 1999. After three days with no word, a friend checked her Askew Avenue home near Swope Park and found the back window broken and Colley’s body inside. Investigators determined she had been raped, beaten, and her throat slashed; the medical examiner documented semen on her leg and collected swabs for testing.

The Kansas City Regional Crime Laboratory later developed a DNA profile from that semen, but entry into the lab system was delayed until April 20, 2001. A state database search produced a match in early June 2001 to Daniel O. Jones; a crime lab report dated June 7, 2001, identifies the semen as a genetic match to Jones. Accounts say Jones had forced his way into Colley’s apartment, restrained and sexually assaulted her, and killed her with a knife before slashing her throat. Some records list August 14, 1999, as the date of death while others center on August 16, 1999, for the discovery and reporting of the crime.

If anyone knew Roxanne, her routines, or saw signs of a broken-back-patio-window in mid-August 1999, please share what was seen or heard.