DENVER — A former Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) forensic scientist accused of mishandling DNA and impacting more than 1,000 cases has been charged with 102 felonies.
Yvonne "Missy" Woods turned herself into the Jefferson County Jail on Wednesday afternoon and has been charged with 48 counts of attempting to influence a public servant, 52 counts of forgery of a government-issued document, one count of perjury and one count of cybercrime with damage of more than $1 million. The cybercrime charge is a Class 2 felony, while the others are Class 4 and 5 felonies.
The First Judicial District Attorney's Office said the counts are in connection with 58 instances of alleged criminal misconduct between 2008 and 2023.
Her cash-only bond was set at $50,000. Woods is expected in court on Thursday.
Scripps News Denver reached out to CBI, which said they do not have a comment, per protocol.
Just Tuesday, CBI announced it had hired an out-of-state firm to look into how it handles forensics — this was in response to the Woods investigation, the agency confirmed.
So far, the state has allocated about $7.4 million to CBI to address the fallout of the investigation, Scripps News Denver Investigates found. Of that, CBI has spent more than $67,000 so far: more than $58,000 on DNA retesting in 37 cases requested by local district attorneys, and more than $8,000 reimbursed to district attorneys conducting post-conviction reviews involving cases Woods handled.
This incident first became public knowledge in November 2023, when CBI issued a press release to announce that Woods was facing a criminal investigation after authorities discovered anomalies in her work as part of DNA testing in the lab. At the time, Woods had worked at CBI for 29 years.
According to her arrest affidavit, a CBI intern had been assigned to a project and noted "specific data was missing" and brought their concern to management. An internal investigation then launched, and CBI began reviewing Woods' work.
Lisa Yoshida, CBI laboratory director for the Arvada CBI Laboratory, noted more instances of deleted and altered data in Woods' workbooks, and noted the majority of the data was in "low-level DNA samples," the affidavit reads.
The discrepancies found in her work, as outlined in the affidavit, included:
- Some of Woods' cases were listed as having a certain value for part of the DNA extraction process, but the actual number was missing. Once that DNA is extracted, it is assigned a "quantification value" automatically. A scientist would need to manually delete it.
- Several instances where Woods manipulated data "by lowering the quantification value to make it appear that either no DNA was present, or the amount of DNA located was too minimal to be amplified."
- Woods appeared to have re-ran entire batches of DNA through equipment, but did not provide documentation about doing this process. The tests had values on the first round, but were manipulated when it was processed a second time.
- Woods deleted specific values on sexual assault DNA samples, indicating no male DNA was found on the sample, which was not accurate.
Once a scientist finishes analyzing a DNA batch, their workbook is submitted for a "technical review," the affidavit reads, and officials at CBI said had it not been for that review, most of the discrepancies in Woods' work would not have been found.
A forensic scientist who worked with Woods found that Woods purposefully deleted specific values in the DNA testing "'in order to skip the 'amping' of that particular sample," the affidavit reads. When that forensic scientist told Woods that she would not sign off on the review and explained what she had found, "Analyst Woods didn't say anything and had a 'befuddled' look on her face," the document reads.
Another forensic scientist reported that she had noticed inconsistencies with Woods' work back in March 2014. That person's manager instructed Woods to correct the errors, and she "did not ask any questions or provide any explanation as to why the data was missing when confronted," the affidavit reads.
Woods left the agency earlier in November 2023, just before CBI's announcement about the anomalies.
CBI announced that day in 2023 that they had started an internal affairs investigation in September 2023. The results from that were completed and publicly shared in March 2024. The report reads that Woods altered, manipulated or deleted data in DNA testing in hundreds of cases. She omitted material facts in official criminal justice records, tampered with DNA testing results by omitting some results, and violated CBI’s Code of Conduct and CBI laboratory policies, CBI reported, adding that the manipulations appear to have been intentional, but no motive was named.
In April 2024, Woods interviewed with investigators with her attorney. She said she was placed on administrative leave in 2018 for "manipulation or alteration of quantitation data," and she reviewed her own work, was unable to explain why the error happened, and agreed with her manager's findings, the affidavit reads. "It was a rush batch and I was trying to get data out, and that's how it happened," she said. When investigators noted that deletions in the data "were more than likely not accidental," Woods agreed, the affidavit continues.
When asked why she deleted those values, she replied, "I don't have a reason, and I especially don't have a good reason," the document reads. She confirmed the data from 2018 was manipulated or deleted, adding "I would imagine they did indicate that it was purposely."
Woods recalled this happening again in 2023 and stated to investigators, "That's kind of where it started and it was like, oh, OK, and so I just started trying to think of what I've been doing and why I was doing it."
As first reported by Scripps News Denver in December 2024, CBI finished its review of all cases Woods was involved at the end of 2024 and found 1,003 impacted cases.
Scripps News Denver took a deep dive into how much retesting will cost, the backlogs caused as a result, and more in our video below:
During a presentation to the Colorado Joint Budget Committee on Dec. 13, CBI Director Chris Schaefer acknowledged the agency is dealing with a severe backlog, Scripps News Denver Investigates reported earlier this month. Both DNA evidence cases and sexual assault tests are experiencing delays.
“Based on our former scientist and her misgivings, we are experiencing a backlog. This is the driving factor for that," Schaefer said.
Denver7 Investigates
How an investigation into a former CBI scientist caused a ripple effect
On Jan. 16, prosecutors and others argued in court that Woods' alleged actions played a major part in the sentencing of a man in connection with a cold case homicide out of Douglas County. Vital DNA from the 1985 shooting scene in Douglas County had landed in Woods' hands.
Defense attorney Michael Faye confirmed to Denver7 last fall that Woods was the primary analyst on this case for the DNA and serology, and that his client's case was "listed by CBI as having anomalies in Ms. Woods' work on the case." He also confirmed that the alleged manipulations were one of the factors in the plea deal that was ultimately offered, greatly reducing the prison time for the defendant.
The prosecution in the case stressed that if the case against the defendant had gone to trial instead of a plea agreement, Woods' alleged manipulation of DNA could have put a conviction in jeopardy. In court that day, 23rd District Attorney George Brauchler added that the "great irony" in that case was that the DNA should have been enough for a conviction.
"But the person who processed it was so flawed and broken — and her name is Missy Woods — that she presented such a risk that we already had to bake in extra mercy for him," he said. "We had to put him into a position where no matter what this court says today, he could be paroled in his mid-70s. And that is awful."
Learn more about this case and how prosecutors say it was impacted by Woods in the video below:
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