Documents Released From 1999 Arapahoe Co. DA's Murder Case

CENTENNIAL, CO – Details were finally released last week of the cold case investigation into the 1999 death of Arapahoe County Deputy District Attorney Rebecca Bartee, after the man arrested in 2017 for killing her died in custody.

Robert Williams, age 71, a neighbor of Bartee in the Copper Terrace Apartments in the 6500 block of South Dayton Street, died of a chronic illness Aug. 21 after being held in jail for over a year waiting for a preliminary hearing. He had been receiving "end of life care" in the jail.

Now that Williams is dead, a judge unsealed the arrest affidavit that laid out the charges against him. Williams was arrested in August, 2017 and charged with the murder of Bartee.

Bartee had recently moved to Colorado to work for Arapahoe County when she did not appear for work on June 7, 1999. Sheriff's deputies found her body in her apartment bathtub, a glass of wine poured nearby. But an autopsy found she had no alcohol in her system. Later, police determined the killer had "staged the scene" to look as though Bartee had committed suicide, but she had probably been strangled according to reports.

According to the arrest affidavit, break came in the case last year, when a former roommate of Williams contacted CBS2 Investigator Brian Maas in 2017. The friend said Williams had a history of sexually harassing women in the building and he had intervened when Williams was speaking to Bartee inappropriately after she had just moved in. He also said Williams acted strange the day Bartee's body was found.

“I am not going to do die not letting that girl’s family know what happened,” the roommate told investigators. He also tipped police that Williams had a police record from Los Angeles where he had been convicted of strangling and killing a former girlfriend. That conviction was confirmed by Arapahoe County investigators, the affidavit said.

But the biggest piece of evidence was a single hair recovered in 1999 from Bartee's bathtub, which matched DNA collected from Williams, the affidavit said. In 1999, Williams was asked to contribute a DNA sample, and refused, the arrest affidavit said. After the case was reopened, in 2017, investigators collected Williams's DNA from a beverage can he threw in the garbage, then made an official match after obtaining a warrant to collect his DNA, the affidavit said. Williams was still living in the same apartment where his neighbor had been found dead 18 years before.

“It is tragic that after 18 years of waiting for an arrest in this case, the family and friends of Ms. Bartee will not have the opportunity to see the man charged with her murder stand trial and be held accountable for this brutal crime,” said Chris Wilcox, senior deputy DA.

Bartee was born in Topeka, Kansas and earned her law degree from University of Kansas. She had moved to Colorado only a few weeks before her death to accept the job of Assistant District Attorney in Arapahoe County running the child support recovery unit. Her sister Peggy Brockington remembered her as "the spark plug of our family." Bartee wrote to her sister shortly before her death, "You know, moving is hard, but I’m looking out my window at the mountains; life couldn’t be better." She left behind a 13-year-old daughter and six siblings.

Read the unsealed arrest affidavit here.

Image: Rebecca Bartee, family photo via the Arapahoe County DA's Office

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