A Denver jury on Tuesday found Ricky Dawson guilty in the 1996 slaying of Terri Turachak, finally closing a long cold case that investigators say reaches beyond Colorado. Turachak, 35, was discovered in her East 17th Avenue apartment on Oct. 5, 1996, and an autopsy found she had been strangled and suffered blunt-force trauma to the head. The guilty verdict follows years of DNA testing and renewed detective work that eventually pointed to a man already serving time in Florida.
The jury returned its verdict this week, as reported by 9News. Prosecutors told jurors that DNA and other forensic evidence placed Dawson inside Turachak’s apartment, while defense attorneys argued that the same evidence could reflect some other form of contact rather than proof that he killed her.
DNA testing reopened a cold trail
According to investigators, a CODIS hit in 2004 flagged DNA from the Turachak crime scene, and later rounds of testing corroborated the match, which eventually led prosecutors to file charges in early 2023. A news release from the Denver District Attorney’s Office says Dawson was extradited from Florida that year to face first-degree murder counts in Denver.
Investigators say the evidence ties him across states
San Francisco investigators reopened a 1992 homicide after autopsy swabs were retested and matched Dawson’s profile, the San Francisco Police Department wrote in a January 15, 2025, news release. Local reporting and the Denver cold-case project note that Dawson was already serving a 25-year sentence in Florida after pleading guilty in a 2001 homicide and that investigators have also linked his DNA to a 2000 Seattle killing.
Family reaction
Family members said the conviction brought long-sought closure. Turachak’s daughter told KRDO the family had hoped for answers for years and urged anyone with information to come forward.
What’s next
Prosecutors say Dawson faces a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole if he is sentenced, and court activity is scheduled later this spring, according to 9News. Officials added that Dawson will remain in Colorado custody while legal steps continue and could be transported to San Francisco after the Denver case concludes; the San Francisco Police Department has asked anyone with information about the 1992 killing to call 1-415-575-4444, per the department’s news release.
