Colorado DNA Analyst Gets 10 Years for Manipulating Evidence in Hundreds of Cases

A former Colorado DNA analyst was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday for manipulating forensic evidence, misconduct that has forced authorities to review more than 1,000 criminal cases and has already reached the Colorado Supreme Court.

Yvonne “Missy” Woods, 66, spent nearly three decades as a forensic scientist with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Jefferson County District Judge Andrew Poland sentenced her after she pleaded guilty in June to cybercrime, first-degree perjury, attempting to influence a public servant and forgery.

Woods received 10 years for cybercrime, with shorter sentences on the other charges to run concurrently. Prosecutors originally charged her with 102 felonies for conduct dating from 2008 to 2023.

CBI ultimately identified problems in 1,045 cases Woods handled. The criminal prosecution focused on misconduct prosecutors said they could prove beyond a reasonable doubt, including manipulation of DNA data that produced false or misleading laboratory reports.

Investigators identified 52 reports containing false statements and another in which prosecutors said Woods used technically accurate language that appeared designed to discourage a detective from pursuing the DNA results.

Many of the cases involved reports stating that DNA was absent when testing had detected it. Thirty-two of the cases underlying the criminal charges involved women and children who reported sexual assault.

Prosecutors said Woods deleted values showing male DNA and then reported that none had been found. That ended opportunities for further testing, comparison and investigation in cases that often had not progressed far enough to identify a suspect.

Forty-one cases tied to the false or misleading reports never resulted in charges. Twelve involved criminal defendants, including three cases that went to trial. One ended in a conviction and two in acquittals.

Woods also admitted committing perjury during the first-degree murder trial that produced the conviction.

Investigators found her misconduct involved altering, deleting and concealing DNA data. They did not find evidence that she created false DNA identifications, false comparisons or false positive results, a distinction that narrows what prosecutors say occurred while leaving the reliability of her work under continuing review.

The scandal surfaced in September 2023, when a CBI intern reviewing an older sexual assault case discovered missing DNA data in a sample Woods had processed in 2018. CBI then requested an independent criminal investigation by the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation.

Records later showed that concerns about Woods had surfaced much earlier. A colleague questioned her work in 2014, and she was temporarily removed from DNA casework in 2018 after another concern involving data manipulation. She later returned to casework.

How CBI responded to those warnings is now part of a separate legal fight before Colorado’s highest court.

Weld County District Judge Vincente Vigil dismissed a child sexual assault prosecution against Daniel Lee Eatinger in August after finding that CBI’s handling of the Woods misconduct amounted to “outrageous government conduct,” a due process doctrine used in rare cases involving extreme government misconduct.

Woods performed DNA testing in Eatinger’s case, but prosecutors say a review found no manipulation in that testing. They also obtained additional DNA testing and argued that the results supported Woods’ original work.

Vigil focused more broadly on CBI’s response to warnings about Woods and concluded that the agency’s conduct justified dismissing the prosecution.

The Weld County District Attorney’s Office challenged that decision. On August 19, the Colorado Supreme Court ordered Vigil to explain why the dismissal should stand, putting the wider consequences of CBI’s handling of Woods before the state’s highest court. His response is due September 16.

The case could help determine how far the legal fallout from the Woods scandal reaches beyond prosecutions in which her DNA work was directly found to be compromised.

Colorado lawmakers have already responded. In 2025, Gov. Jared Polis signed the Forensic Science Integrity Act, requiring crime laboratories to report certain misconduct and notify parties in affected criminal cases. The law also created a process for defendants to challenge convictions when wrongful forensic conduct was material to their case.

Other convictions are already being revisited. Michael Clark, who spent more than 12 years in prison for murder, had his conviction vacated in 2025 after independent DNA testing produced results that differed from some of Woods’ conclusions. Juror misconduct and ineffective assistance of counsel also played a role in setting aside the conviction. Clark is awaiting a new trial.

At Tuesday’s sentencing, Poland described Woods’ actions as “intentional misconduct by a highly trained professional occupying a position of extraordinary trust.”

Woods apologized in court and said she had failed the responsibility entrusted to her as a forensic scientist.

Her sentencing closes the criminal prosecution against her as Colorado continues reviewing affected cases, retesting evidence, and litigating the consequences of her work.

A restitution hearing is scheduled for November 12.