Nevada law enforcement officials announced Wednesday the closure of two cold cases after advancements in DNA technology linked a man to murders in both Las Vegas and Westminster, Colorado, nearly 16 years apart.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said during a press conference that in May 1991, officers responded to reports of a suspicious death inside an apartment on the 1000 block of Monroe Avenue.
The officers met with a friend and a relative of 31-year-old Sherrie Bridgewater, who had just found her dead inside her apartment.
The homicide division took over the case because of the suspicious nature of how Bridgewater’s body was found, and an autopsy found she was sexually assaulted and murdered by strangulation. The homicide investigation team worked the case "relentlessly" over the years to solve the case, but unfortunately, it remained unsolved.
In 2013, the department submitted a sexual assault kit obtained during the investigation for DNA examination. The DNA exam allowed detectives to develop a suspect profile of the person believed to have killed Bridgewater, though they could not put a name with the DNA profile.
After entering the profile, detectives received a hit in the CODIS database that linked them to a second unsolved murder in Westminster, Colorado from December 1975.
Detectives with the LVMPD immediately began collaborating with the Westminster PD, where they learned a woman named Teree Becker was found dead in a field. An autopsy conducted on Becker discovered she was sexually assaulted and died by strangulation.
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Both agencies had the same suspect profile, but at that time, the technology was not available to identify who the suspect was unless they obtained DNA from the suspect.
In 2018, both agencies worked together to submit the cases for forensic genealogy, in which the DNA from the suspect was sent to a lab and then to a company in Denver, Colorado. Four years later, in 2022, detectives were able to identify the suspect as Thomas Martin Elliott.
The investigation conducted by both police agencies placed Elliott in Colorado at the time of Becker’s murder in Westminster, Colorado, and in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1991, at the time of Bridgewater’s murder.
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In November 1991, Elliott was pronounced dead by a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Las Vegas. He was later buried at a local cemetery in Las Vegas.
While Elliott was identified as the suspect, detectives were not 100% sure until they were able to obtain DNA from his body.
With the cost of exhuming a body being pricey, both police agencies worked together and approached the Vegas Justice League to help fund the exhumation of Elliott to obtain DNA.
Elliott’s remains were exhumed in October 2023, and detectives were able to obtain tissue and bone samples which were submitted to a lab. While at the lab, a DNA sample was extracted and compared to both cases. The results were both 100% matches, police said.
