While repeatedly stabbing Tangie Lynn Sims, her killer cut himself and left his blood drops in an Aurora alley in the fall of 1996. Twenty three years later, the blood helped police and other forensic experts solve the case.

It wasn’t easy though.

Before identifying Wesley Backman as the 25-year-old woman’s killer, Aurora police detectives Steve Conner and Michael Prince crisscrossed the country tracking clues. By the time they identified Backman, he already was dead, according to an Aurora Police Department news release.

Aurora police worked with United Data Connect, a Denver-based laboratory, to use DNA from the scene and genealogical research to connect Backman to the crime.

“The excellent work done by the original investigators, the incredible determination of Agents Conner and Prince, as well as the amazing work done by UDCL allowed Tangie’s family to finally obtain some solace and closure,” the news release said.

Sims’ murder rattled Aurora residents and led to an intense investigation just to determine who the victim had been, according to Denver Post newspaper articles at the time.

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A woman was walking her children to school on the morning of Oct. 24, 1996, when she saw something terrible, one Denver Post article said. The bloody body of a young woman with long blond hair was lying on the ground in an alley in the 1200 block of Iola Street.

After reaching out to local newspaper and TV reporters and asking them to publicize the murder, witnesses came forward and police were able to identify the victim as Sims, the article said. She had grown up in Chattanooga, Tenn. She had attended a Baptist church and had worked at a Bojangles’ Famous Chicken ‘n Biscuits restaurant as a cook, the Denver Post article said.

Sims had been severely beaten and stabbed to death, a police investigation at the time determined. She last was seen alive walking toward a semitrailer, McCoy’s news release said. The killer had cut himself during the attack and left blood drops at the scene. The blood was collected.

After a lengthy, thorough investigation, Aurora detectives were not able to identify a suspect and Sims’ case went cold, according to the news release.

Years later, Conner and Prince picked up the investigation and followed leads created by new technological advances and techniques. In 2019, advancements in DNA testing combined with genealogical research led to a break in the case.

Forensic genealogist Joan Hanlon of United Data Connect was able to identify the killer’s family, the news release said. More work was needed. The DNA led to the killer’s family tree but not directly to him. Conner and Prince traveled from state to state in search of family members.

Finally, one of the relatives they found donated DNA for a comparison with the killer’s DNA, the news release said. A blood match was made between the unidentified relative and Backman, who was born in 1955. But Backman died in 2008.

The detectives looked for other clues to corroborate their theory that Backman was the killer. They learned that Backman had been an over-the-road truck driver and had lived across the country including in Aurora. Sims had last been seen walking toward a semitrailer.

Conner and Prince are working with other detectives across the country to see if Backman had other victims.