The Colorado Bureau of Investigation was alerted to problems with a longtime DNA scientist’s work as early as 2014, but allowed the analyst to keep working until an intern raised the alarm again last year and a subsequent investigation put nearly all of the scientist’s three decades of work in question, according to an internal report obtained Wednesday by The Denver Post.
Colleagues of Yvonne “Missy” Woods raised concern about the forensic scientist’s work in 2014, in 2018 and again in 2023, the internal investigation shows. She had a reputation among her colleagues of cutting corners “in order to be a top producer,” and worked significant amounts of overtime, according to the report.
CBI on Wednesday moved to release the report documenting its internal investigation after initially refusing to make the 94-page document public because of the ongoing criminal investigations into Woods.
The agency is reviewing its response to the earlier complaints about Woods’ work, CBI Director Chris Schaefer said in a statement Wednesday.
“…We acknowledge that it took too long to detect ongoing intentional manipulation of our lab system,” Schaefer said. “We are in the process of identifying an external vendor to conduct an organizational review to ensure that our forensic services procedures and systems adhere to CBI’s high standards.”
The agency has since found that Woods cut corners in much of her DNA testing and then covered up her shortcuts by altering, deleting or omitting data in her lab work. She also omitted relevant facts from criminal justice records and tampered with DNA testing by omitting some results, the bureau found.
Woods told investigators in 2018 that she was “overwhelmed” by the amount of work she was assigned, and managers determined the errors in her work at that time were “related to mental health,” according to the internal report. She was temporarily removed from casework, attended counseling and then returned to the job, though she was not allowed to work overtime for her first month back, according to the report.
In a statement Wednesday, Woods’ attorney, Ryan Brackley, said Woods maintains that she has never “created or falsely reported any inculpatory DNA matches or exclusions.”
A 29-year CBI employee, Woods retired in lieu of termination late last year after the agency discovered widespread problems in her work.
By March, the CBI had found problems in 652 of Woods’ cases between 2008 and 2023, and hadn’t yet finished a review of her cases between 1994 and 2008. CBI Director Chris Schaefer called her work an “unprecedented breach of trust.” The agency has not addressed how the errors in Woods’ DNA testing went unnoticed for decades.
The CBI this year requested $3 million from state legislators to retest 3,000 DNA samples through a third-party laboratory, and sought another $4.4 million to pay out to district attorney’s offices across Colorado to address claims by people who say they were wrongly convicted because of Woods’ work.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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