45-Year-Old Cold Case Solved but No Justice for Family
By: Josie Klakström
Tags: Christmas, Short Read, True Crime, Cold Case, Murder

45-Year-Old Cold Case Solved but No Justice for Family

In 1975, Grand Junction in Mesa County, Colorado was hit with an onslaught of murders and was quickly dubbed The Killing Season. This December, one of those cases was finally closed.

Deborah Tomlinson via denver.cbslocal.com

45 years ago, shortly after Christmas, 19-year-old Deborah Tomlinson was found in her apartment. A student at Mesa College, she was discovered by the manager of her Grand Junction apartment complex, lying in the bathtub. The manager thought there was something wrong when she saw Deborah’s bedroom window and screen wide open, which was odd given the time of year.

The autopsy showed that Deborah had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death. She also had a large cut on her forehead from what police believed was an injury from her fighting back during her attack.

Witnesses gave police a description of the person they’d seen wandering around the area during the time Deborah was attacked, and a bulletin was issued to help track down the man. He was described as being in his 20s or early 30s, 5’5” to 5’8” tall with dark wavy hair. He had a small build and wore dark-rimmed glasses.

Officers interviewed Deborah’s family and friends but turned up “nothing productive” in the leads found during the case. The investigation quickly went cold after exhausting every tip and witness statement they got.

Article in The Daily Sentinel, 14th January 1976 via newspapers.com

Sadly, Deborah Tomlinson’s murder was just another sad statistic to add to the terrible year Grand Junction was having. There had been another 11 homicides and Deborah’s case would be added to that growing pile, now dubbed “The Killing Season” by officers. The community wasn’t sure if Deborah’s murderer would ever be caught.

Newspaper article via The Daily Sentinel

In 2019, Deborah’s case was officially reopened and detectives began back at the beginning, combing through reports written by their predecessors. The investigation gained momentum and brought in high-ranking officers, who wanted to help solve the case. Corporal Brandon Ludwig returned to help the investigation, telling The Daily Sentinel that he would work on the case for “as long as it takes, as long as there are leads to follow up on.”

Investigators soon realised that the 1975 team were inexperienced and there wasn’t a lot of organisation to the original case;

“Some of these investigators that worked the case, this was their first homicide ever. They had never worked a homicide.” — Detective Sergeant Sean Crocker.

However, this December, Deborah Tomlinson’s killer was given a name. Through evidence left at the scene, the team were able to pull DNA from the samples and send them to Parabon NanoLabs, the DNA technology company based in Virginia, for examination. As with many cold cases, CODIS was used to create a familial profile which in turn led them to Jimmy Dean Duncan.

Duncan was born in April 1946 and was 26 at the time of Deborah’s murder. He was in the Grand Junction area when she was murdered but was not originally a suspect in her death. He had been in trouble with the law previously, having been involved in a shooting in Florida and a separate robbery.

“Solving these types of cases I very important to our detectives and our agency, and while not every case is solve, we are proud of the hard work put forth by those who helped provide answers to the victim’s family and our community in as many cases as possible.” — Grand Junction Police Chief Doug Shoemaker.

Unfortunately, Duncan died in 1987. His cause of death is unknown but his family agreed to DNA testing to ensure that Duncan was indeed Deborah’s murderer.

Deborah’s father, Jim now 82 said; “I was beginning to wonder if the case was going to outlive me or not. It’s the kind of thing that never goes out of your mind. It’s been there for 45 years.”

Parabon NanoLabs also helped solve the disappearance and murders of Jessica Baggen and Jennifer Watkins.

It begs the question; who will be caught next?