Jeannie Moore's Killer Was Caught After 38 Years Due To DNA Testing Funded By Crimestoppers.

Jeannie Marie Moore

She was loving and kind in all her ways. She was sincere and true in her heart and mind and she has left behind beautiful memories.

Jeannie was born on September 16th, 1962 in Colorado. She had six siblings.

At 7:10 a.m., Jeannie left her home near W. 48th Ave. and Depew Street on the morning of Aug. 25th, 1981 to go to work at the Tenneco gas station at the 1300 block of Wadsworth Boulevard. She was wearing blue jeans and a peach-colored sweater. She was carrying a brown leather purse with a mushroom design and a blue bandanna for a strap. She was hitchhiking when witnesses watched her get into an older Ford Galaxy or LTD red in color. The door had to be assisted and then opened by the driver.

Jeannie's manager called her mother when she did not arrive to work on time. Her body would be found five days later in Genesee Park, and an autopsy showed that she was killed by several blows to the head.

In May of this year, investigators took another look at the case. They submitted the DNA profile to United Data Connect with funding from Crime Stoppers, and the company submitted the profile to two genealogy database companies, then analyzed the results to lead to Donald Steven Perea. 

Perea had been out on bond in a separate sex assault case for “a violent rape” when he killed Jeannie. Court records show he was charged with first-degree sex assault and second-degree kidnapping in that case.

He was sentenced to prison from 1982 to 1985. Court records show he had an assault charge dismissed in 1990, that he got a traffic ticket in Pueblo County in 1991, that he pleaded guilty to assault in Pueblo in 1999.

He died in May 2012 at age 54 from health issues in Pueblo and would have been 23 years old when he raped and killed Jeannie.

Jeannie's parents died a few years ago, but her siblings are alive and well. While they would prefer their sister's killer to be behind bars, they are at least glad that after all these years there is some closure in her case. Her family mourns the loss of Jeannie everyday.