Home Invasion
It was every homeowner's nightmare: an intruder in a ski mask, a scuffle, gunshots, a death, and an escaped perpetrator. 
Early in the morning of November 21, 1985, Roger Dean of Lone Tree, Colorado, encountered an invader in his garage. The suspect proceeded to force Mr. Dean back inside and upstairs to a bedroom, where he tied him up. Then the suspect found Mrs. Dean in another bedroom and tied her up. During that time, Mr. Dean was able to free himself and tried to flee the home. However, the suspect caught up to him and they scuffled again in the garage. Mr. Dean managed to pull the ski mask off the man. A gun was pulled and Mr. Dean was shot several times and the intruder fled. Mr. Dean was treated but died at the hospital. In the surprise of it all, the perpetrator left behind a backpack in a bedroom. That gave the police two pieces of evidence to work with - the ski mask and the backpack. When they came upon the scene, however, they were not sure that there was only one suspect or that the two pieces of evidence belonged to the same person.
There were hairs left on the ski mask that were processed in 2003. And in 2005, the inside of the mask was swabbed and a DNA profile was found and entered into CODIS, but there were no matches. In 2018 the M-Vac™ was used on the straps of the backpack. In 2020, that sample was compared to the DNA from the mask and they matched. This tied both pieces of evidence to a single suspect. Also in 2018, they used DNA genealogy and traced the DNA to the parents of the suspect, Michael Jefferson. Finally, in 2021, detectives were able to obtain Jefferson's DNA from a water bottle he had used which tied him to the suspect DNA from the evidence. He was arrested that year and brought into custody. Mr. Jefferson pled guilty in a plea bargain in August 2024. In January 2025 he was sentenced to 32 years in prison for the murder.
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Sources:
Individual correspondence with case investigator