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| Photo Credit: AP. |
DENVER (AP) — A Colorado man has been convicted of first-degree murder and other charges in the cold case slayings of two women whose bodies were found near the mountain resort town of Breckenridge in 1982.
Alan Lee
Phillips, 71, was arrested last year in the mountain hamlet of Dumont, west of
Denver, after local, state and federal authorities using DNA evidence
identified him as a suspect in the killings of Annette Schnee, 21, and Barbara
“Bobbi Jo” Oberholtzer, 29.
A Park
County jury in Fairplay deliberated for just five hours before convicting
Phillips of eight counts late Thursday, including first-degree murder after
deliberation and first-degree murder involving felony kidnapping and robbery,
Rob McCallum, a spokesman for the Colorado Judicial Department, said Friday.
Phillips
faces life in prison when he is sentenced at a hearing set for Nov. 7.
Local, state
and federal authorities used DNA testing to help identify Phillips as a
potential suspect. A miner and automobile mechanic, Phillips had lived in the
area over the past four decades. He was arrested in early 2021.
Authorities
said the two women, whose bodies were found in separate locations, had no
connection. Both were believed to be hitchhiking outside Breckenridge, a ski
resort town about 60 miles (96 kilometers) southwest of Denver, when they
disappeared on Jan. 6, 1982.
Friends and
family discovered Oberholtzer’s body the next day in a snow drift on the summit
of 11,542-foot (3,463-meter) Hoosier Pass, near Breckenridge, one day after she
disappeared. Schnee’s body was discovered six months later, fully clothed, by a
boy fishing in a creek in rural Park County. Both women had been shot.
Investigators
said Phillips was rescued the night that the women disappeared from the top of
nearby Guanella Pass when his truck got stuck during a snowstorm, KUSA-TV
reported. The victims did not know Phillips or each other.
“Bobbi Jo
was a fighter and is a hero. She fought back and because of that we were able
to get DNA evidence to convict Annette and Bobbi Jo’s killer after all this
time,” Linda Stanley, district attorney for the 11th Judicial District, said in
a statement.
“This
absolutely gives hope to people,” said Deputy District Attorney Mark Hurlbert,
who helped prosecute the case. “This case being so old, this (verdict) shows
there’s no case that can’t be solved.”
Phillips was
represented by the public defender’s office, which does not comment on cases.