For nearly four decades, investigators in Colorado searched for the person who s**ually assaulted and killed a 30-year-old woman found along a quiet stretch of rural highway south of Denver. Now, a small but carefully preserved piece of evidence — a pair of paper bags placed over the victim’s hands — has finally provided the answer: a DNA match to one of Colorado’s most notorious serial killers, officials announced Tuesday.
“Obtaining a viable DNA profile from paper bags nearly four decades old is exceptionally rare and underscores the extraordinary value of meticulous evidence preservation,” the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Rhonda Marie Fisher’s body was discovered on April 1, 1987, off a highway embankment near Sedalia, Colorado, according to the sheriff’s office. Fisher had been s**ually assaulted and strangled. She was last seen walking along a street in Denver, about 25 miles away.
For years, detectives chased leads involving acquaintances Fisher had stayed with in the weeks before her death, as well as several serial offenders active in the Denver metro area from the 1970s through the 1990s. Despite multiple renewed investigative efforts — including DNA testing in 2017 that did not produce a suspect — the case eventually went cold.
Earlier this year, however, the sheriff’s Cold Case Unit conducted a fresh, comprehensive review of all evidence. As part of that process, they decided to test two remaining items: the paper bags that had been placed over Fisher’s hands at the crime scene decades earlier.
“Those paper bags were saved and had not been touched for 40 years, and so the thought is that whatever skin cells were on her hands also transferred to the inside of those brown paper bags,” Shane Williams, one of the forensic scientists who worked on the case, said at a news conference Tuesday.
Williams noted that, at the time, no one could have anticipated how crucial those bags would become.
“DNA was not a science that was being focused on or even known of in 1987 … the coroner wouldn’t have been doing it for that purpose, but thankfully they did so that we could solve this case,” he said.
The new testing results pointed to one man: Vincent Darrell Groves, a convicted killer who died in prison in 1996 and has since been linked to multiple murders in the Denver area.
“Vincent Groves is considered one of Colorado’s most prolific serial killers. His violent criminal activity primarily targeted vulnerable women between 1978 and 1988,” the sheriff’s office said.
Investigators said they do not know how Groves came into contact with Fisher, and there is no indication the two knew each other. Groves had long been on their radar as a possible suspect, but as Michelle Kennedy, a crime analysis supervisor with the sheriff’s office, explained, there was another potential suspect as well.
“We needed the DNA confirmation to be sure,” Kennedy said.
Groves is believed to be responsible for at least a dozen homicides, as well as an attempted murder and a s*xual assault in the Denver area, according to the sheriff’s office, which added that the true number of victims may be higher.
Groves was first convicted of murder in 1982 but served fewer than five years, the sheriff’s office said. He was later convicted in the 1988 murder of a woman in Douglas County and another victim in a neighboring county that same year.
“While Vincent Groves cannot be held accountable in a court of law, we hope this long-awaited resolution brings answers and a measure of peace to Rhonda Fisher’s family and friends,” Sheriff Darren Weekly said.
Officials said Fisher’s parents and brother died before her killing was solved, but they were able to speak with one of her cousins, who was “very happy to have answers.”
“Rhonda Fisher was a mother, daughter, sister and friend,” Weekly added. “This case is a testament to our commitment to pursue justice for every victim – no matter how much time has passed.”
In recent years, law enforcement agencies across the United States have increasingly turned to advanced DNA tools — including genetic genealogy and DNA phenotyping, which can generate predictions about a suspect’s appearance — to breathe new life into long-dormant cold cases.
According to the Douglas County sheriff, Fisher’s case is the seventh cold homicide solved by the department in the last seven years, a milestone he credits to improvements in DNA technology and the determination to re-examine old evidence with fresh eyes.
