Body identified as Rock Springs man in 24-year-old cold case

WELD COUNTY, Colorado. — A 24-year-old cold case from Colorado has been solved after a body found in Greeley, Colorado, was discovered to be that of a missing man who was living in Rock Springs at the time of his disappearance.

The Weld County, Colorado, Sheriff's Office said that on Valentine's Day 2000, a Greeley man walking his dog came across human remains and as investigators worked to find identify the body, they eventually named the unidentified man, John Doe 2000. The body has now been identified as Christopher Scott Case of Rock Springs.

When the body was first discovered, WCSO deputies and investigators responded to the scene and investigated and found no evidence of foul play.

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According to WCSO, shortly after the man was found, his remains were sent to an anthropologist who determined that he was a white man, 35 to 50 years old and 5’4″ tall. . The man's weight could not be determined, and it was thought he may have had a tattoo on the center of his back. There was no indication of trauma, and no cause or manner of death could be determined due to the man's advanced state of decomposition. WCSO investigators have named the unidentified man found on Valentine's Day 2000 John Doe 2000.

In 2022, a forensic genetic genealogy was conducted with DNA from the remains of John Doe 2000, leading to relatives in Nevada, who voluntarily submitted their DNA to help solve this case.

In December 2023, WCSO Cold Case Detective Byron Kastilahn got the break he was waiting for when genetic genealogy test results came back, and John Doe 2000 was tentatively identified as Christopher Scott Case. Further genetic testing was conducted to confirm that the remains were indeed those of Christopher Case, and the test results confirmed this.

Before his death, Christopher lived in Rock Springs, Wyoming and was last seen by his half-brother in 1998 in Nevada.

“This case was as cold as it gets. There was no evidence other than human remains. Without forensic genetic genealogy, Christopher Case would never have been identified,” Kastilahn said.