Lanell Williams, 28, was found dead in Clear Creek Canyon in autumn 1989 after two Colorado School of Mines students panning for gold discovered her body. She had last been seen after dropping off milk at her mother’s home. An autopsy determined Williams had been strangled.

The case went cold for years as leads dwindled, but investigators later used advances in DNA technology to develop a crucial link. In May 2006 authorities arrested 47-year-old Billy Edwin Reid while he was in the Denver County jail on unrelated charges; he was charged in Williams’s killing along with other serious counts. Reports later connected Reid to another woman found in the Jefferson County foothills.

The long investigation and the role of forensic DNA were central to moving this case toward resolution. Did anyone in Clear Creek Canyon or the Jefferson County foothills know Lanell or see anything unusual in 1989?