A Weld judge has ruled there is probable cause for the first-degree murder charges in the case against James Dye, 65, the man arrested and charged for the 1979 unsolved homicide of a 29-year-old woman in Weld County.
In March 2021, Dye was criminally charged by the Weld County District Attorney’s Office with two counts of first-degree murder for the homicide of Evelyn Kay Day.
This case dates back to November 1979 when Kay never came home after her shift at Aims Community College. Coworkers found Day dead the following day in her vehicle on the side of the road near their place of work.
Investigators reported Kay had been beaten and sexually assaulted. She was strangled by her belt in the trunk of her vehicle, causing her neck, thyroid cartilage and hyoid bone to fracture. The cause of death was asphyxia by ligature strangulation, according to the 1979 coroner’s report.
In 2020, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation re-amplified the extracted DNA to find DNA from the crime scene linked to Dye. The Weld County Sheriff’s Office announced his arrest the following year in March.
Dye appeared in person Monday morning for a status conference before Weld Judge Marcelo Kopcow to determine there is probable cause to proceed to trial following a lengthy preliminary hearing.
The preliminary hearing for Dye wrapped up in December 2021 with Deputy District Attorney Steve Wrenn relying heavily on the DNA evidence in this case, compared to Dye’s defense team who argued Kay’s husband, Charles “Chuck” Day, as an alternate suspect.
Charles remained the main suspect in his wife’s cold case until Dye became a suspect in 2021. As leverage in the defense attorney’s argument, the team highlighted alleged marital problems, affairs and domestic violence issues between Kay and Charles.
Additionally, coworkers accused Charles of making jokes about Kay’s death the day of her disappearance. He allegedly even stated she “was worth more dead than alive” while referencing her life insurance.
Charles later used Kay’s life insurance money to buy his own franchise, defense attorneys emphasized. Despite his suspicious behavior and statements, the extracted DNA excluded Charles as a collaborator in the crimes.
Through the DNA testing, CBI lab agent Missy Woods determined it was much more likely the DNA was Day and Dye’s, rather than Day and an unknown person. Day’s finger clippings samples showed it was 17 trillion times more likely to be her and Dye’s DNA, according to Woods’ testimony during the preliminary hearing.
Maria Hawkins, Dye’s wife in 1979 reported to a detective in 2020 that she informed her brother that Dye came home the night of Kay’s death with knowledge about the homicide and that he was invested in the news coverage.
In 1979, Dye was a student at Aims Community College, Day’s place of work during the time of her murder. An investigation into Dye revealed he had a criminal history of sexual assault prior to Kay’s death, including arrests for sexual assault on a child.
Dye has an arraignment hearing scheduled for 10 a.m. April 28 in Weld District Court.
Source: Read Full Article