He Was Rescued from a Snowstorm the Night 2 Women Were Killed — Decades Later, the Chilling Truth About Him Emerged

On the same night two women were killed near Breckenridge, Colorado, in January 1982, rescuers pulled a stranded miner from a snowdrift during a blizzard. Decades later, DNA evidence revealed that the driver, Alan Lee Phillips, was the man responsible for the murders, according to CBS’ 48 Hours.

On January 6, 1982, both women were hitchhiking separately after work in the busy ski town, according to 48 Hours. Annette Schnee, 21, was last seen around 4:45 p.m. leaving a drugstore with medication. At 6:21 p.m., Barbara “Bobbie Jo” Oberholtzer, 29, called her husband from a pub to say she had found a ride. Witnesses spotted her again at about 7:50 p.m. before she disappeared.

The next day, searchers found Oberholtzer’s belongings scattered along the roadside near Hoosier Pass — including her blue backpack, a bloody glove, and a tissue. That afternoon, her body was discovered in a snowbank. She had been shot, and investigators found zip ties on one wrist, according to 48 Hours.

Police also recovered a brass key ring her husband had made for her as a form of self-defense, along with a single orange bootie sock. At the time, the sock didn’t seem to connect to anything.

Two days later, Schnee was reported missing by a co-worker. On July 3, 1982, a young boy fishing discovered her body face-down in a stream about 20 miles south of Breckenridge. She had been shot in the back, and her clothing was in disarray.

During her autopsy, investigators noticed an orange bootie sock on her foot — a match to the one found at Oberholtzer’s scene — officially linking the two murders, according to the state cold-case database and 48 Hours.

Schnee’s sister, Cindy French, later said: “Mom would just say, ‘I just wanna know why, how.’ And nobody can give it to me. Nobody knows why or how.”

On the same night the murders occurred, rescuers answered a call about a pickup truck stuck in a snowdrift on a mountain pass outside Breckenridge. The driver was Alan Lee Phillips, according to 48 Hours.

He had signaled SOS in Morse code using his truck’s headlights, which a sheriff on a passing commercial flight spotted and reported. Local fire chief Dave Montoya rescued him and noticed a large bruise on his face. Phillips claimed he had fallen while wandering in the snow, according to CBS. Investigators later determined that Oberholtzer had likely struck him with the brass key ring while fighting back.

For decades, the case went unsolved. Then, in early 2020, Park County Detective Sgt. Wendy Kipple turned to genetic genealogy, submitting DNA from Oberholtzer’s belongings to United Data Connect, according to 48 Hours.

A genealogist identified two possible suspects with the last name Phillips. Only Alan Phillips lived in Colorado. Detectives secretly collected his DNA from discarded trash, including a napkin with saliva from a Sonic Drive-In bag, and confirmed it matched the blood found on Oberholtzer’s belongings.

Further testing on the orange bootie sock also linked him to Schnee, 48 Hours reported.

Phillips was arrested on February 24, 2021. On September 15, 2022, a jury found him guilty after about five hours of deliberation. He was sentenced on November 7, 2022, to two consecutive life terms.

Phillips later died by suicide at Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in Ordway, Colorado, according to CBS News Colorado.