James Raymond Taylor, Crime Scene DNA ID'd him as Killer of Margaret Beck, Flying G Ranch,CO,1963. Arrest Warrant Issued. His whereabouts is unknown.

Truly_Mysterious

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Prime Suspect Details:

JRT 1963.jpg
(Photo: James Raymond Taylor in a 1961)

Name: James Raymond Taylor
D.O.B: December 22, 1939
Vital Status: Unknown
Residences:
Edgewater - Colorado in early 1960s
Las Vegas - Nevada in 1970's
(Whereabouts Unknown, 1976 to present)
Occupation:Television Repair Man

Arrest Warrant: For the Rape and Murder of Margaret 'Peggy' Beck, at Flying G Ranch,CO, August 18, 1963



Quote from The Denver Post - DNA testing identifies suspect in 1963 cold case of 16-year-old killed at Colorado Girl Scouts camp
Colorado Bureau of Investigation say they know who sexually assaulted and killed 16-year-old Margaret “Peggy” Beck in her Girl Scouts tent in 1963, but they don’t know where the suspect is or if he’s even still alive.

Advances in DNA technology allowed Jefferson County investigators to crack the 56-year-old cold case and identify James Raymond Taylor as a suspect in Beck’s killing.

Investigators believe the case is the oldest to ever be solved using genealogical testing where DNA found at the scene is compared to more than a million samples in a public database. The process allows investigators to find people who might be related to a suspect and narrow their search.

That’s exactly how investigators pinpointed Taylor as a suspect. His family has cooperated, Investigator Elias Alberti said Thursday. But they hadn’t seen Taylor since the 1970s. Taylor, who would be 80 years old now, was last known to be in Las Vegas in 1976, Alberti said.


“We have spent several months searching for James Taylor, with no luck,” Alberti said. “We have no idea where he’s at.”

Investigators aren’t sure whether Taylor knew Beck, or how he came to the Girl Scouts camp.

Beck was a student at Denver’s North High School and lived with her parents and three sisters in Edgewater. She joined the Girl Scouts when she was 9 years old and was thrilled to be a counselor at the Flying G Ranch Girl Scouts Camp near Deckers in the summer of 1963, Alberti said.

Taylor also lived in Edgewater in the early 1960s and worked as a TV repairman. He was married at the time. It’s possible that Taylor knew of the Girl Scouts camp because he went in the area to test HAM radios that he built, Alberti said.

Nobody heard or saw anything the night Beck was killed in her tent, Alberti said. Beck’s tentmate was ill and in the infirmary that night, so Beck was sleeping alone. The tentmate discovered Beck’s body the following morning when Beck didn’t show up for breakfast.

An extensive investigation at the time did not reveal a suspect, Alberti said.

Law enforcement collected scrapings from under Beck’s fingernails and submitted them for DNA testing, according to previous Denver Post reporting. Investigators created a DNA profile from the evidence in 2007 and submitted it to a national database, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

A more comprehensive DNA profile was created in June 2019, and investigators were able to identify the suspect through genealogical research by partnering with Denver-based United Data Connect.

LINKS: Daily Mail , Denver Post , Jeffco.us - LEA 2020 report.pdf.
VIDEO PRESS CONFERENCE : Jefferson County Sheriff's Office Press Conference
MURDER VICTIM: Websleuths Thread, co-margaret-peggy-beck-16-jefferson-co-18-aug-1963.114360/
 
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Las Vegas Newpaper Articles revealing James Raymond Taylor's Criminal History



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Las Vegas REVIEW-JOURNAL Tuesday, Feb 29, 1972 Las Vegas, NV Page: 6
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Las_Vegas_Sun_1972-02-29_3.png
Las Vegas SUN Tuesday, Feb 29, 1972 Las Vegas, NV Page: 3
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Las_Vegas_Sun_1974-11-10_7.png
Las Vegas SUN Sunday, Nov 10, 1974 Las Vegas, NV Page: 7
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Las_Vegas_Review-Journal_1974-11-11_1.png
Las Vegas REVIEW-JOURNAL Monday, Nov 11, 1974 Las Vegas, NV Page: 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Las_Vegas_Review-Journal_1974-11-11_12.png
Las Vegas REVIEW-JOURNAL Monday, Nov 11, 1974 Las Vegas, NV Page: 12
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Unfortunately, this was all I could find from months of research and no prison records so far. I've even checked on BeenVerified.com with no luck, and looked up the address records for his 1974 Las Vegas home, but they didn't go back far enough.

The trouble is James Taylor was such a common name back then and there was even more than one James R. Taylor that lived in Colorado in the 1960's. So many of the articles have a different Taylors and we can only say it's the correct Taylor if we can verify him somehow.

For instance, I verified that it was the correct Taylor in the article i've posted from the article below, because it has his full name James Raymond Taylor, Correct Age 32 in 1972, and states his occupation was a television repairman. I then used the address 5241 San Anselmos to verify that the other articles were definitely him.
Las_Vegas_Sun_1972-02-29_3b.jpg

There was even a different James Taylor who was being convicted in Las Vegas 1974 for murdering Vicki Price, but his full name was James Fairbanks Taylor who eventually when to prison, caused a racist riot in prison where some other prisoners got killed. After that Fairbanks was given the death penalty.

Also, there was the singer/songwriter James Taylor who was flooding the Las Vegas newspapers at the time just add to the mix.
 
The press release of James Raymond Taylor's only photo/print - I don't understand why the police released such a poor photo/print of Taylor. Especially if they want the public’s help to locate him. Surely his family must have better photos of him they could share.
JRT 1963.jpg


Anyway hears some of my attempts to try and enhance this photo/print:-
James Raymond Taylor (2).pngcold-case-suspect-DeNoiseAI-low-light.jpg



1663995506334.png

jrtavcdonec merge attempt 2.png
jrtavcdonegsb.png
jrtavcdonecb.png
 

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Unfortunately, this was all I could find from months of research and no prison records so far. I've even checked on BeenVerified.com with no luck, and looked up the address records for his 1974 Las Vegas home, but they didn't go back far enough.

The trouble is James Taylor was such a common name back then and there was even more than one James R. Taylor that lived in Colorado in the 1960's. So many of the articles have a different Taylors and we can only say it's the correct Taylor if we can verify him somehow.

For instance, I verified that it was the correct Taylor in the article i've posted from the article below, because it has his full name James Raymond Taylor, Correct Age 32 in 1972, and states his occupation was a television repairman. I then used the address 5241 San Anselmos to verify that the other articles were definitely him.
View attachment 368343

There was even a different James Taylor who was being convicted in Las Vegas 1974 for murdering Vicki Price, but his full name was James Fairbanks Taylor who eventually when to prison, caused a racist riot in prison where some other prisoners got killed. After that Fairbanks was given the death penalty.

Also, there was the singer/songwriter James Taylor who was flooding the Las Vegas newspapers at the time just add to the mix.

I ran into the same problem in my search. James Taylor was a common name and yes, James Taylor was very popular then.

Court and prison records probably aren't available now, or at least are on microfilm somewhere.

He sounds like a very dangerous guy. I hope he did end up in jail for a while. I'll take another look this weekend on Ancestry.com
 
I saw this guy on Ancestry too, but if you then take James B Taylor's death date "3 Apr 1978" and add that in the ancestry search it comes up with the this record, stating this guy was "Non-white" (see below):-
View attachment 368812
I saw that immediately after I posted my comment. Then I found a James F Taylor with the same DOB so I edited my comment again. :D So I just gave up and deleted the whole thing. Then I felt bad for leaving a “DBM” and added what I did. Hahaha
 
I saw that immediately after I posted my comment. Then I found a James F Taylor with the same DOB so I edited my comment again. :D So I just gave up and deleted the whole thing. Then I felt bad for leaving a “DBM” and added what I did. Hahaha
That's ok, I've been led to the wrong guy more times than I wish to remember with this one. It's insain how many James Taylors there are in the US:). Almost as many as John Smith I would think. We must be crazy trying to fine someone with such a common name:rolleyes:
 
That's ok, I've been led to the wrong guy more times than I wish to remember with this one. It's insain how many James Taylors there are in the US:). Almost as many as John Smith I would think. We must be crazy trying to fine someone with such a common name:rolleyes:
Touché.

I’m not sure if you saw this on the PRH thread, but I personally think it should be looked into!

 
Touché.

I’m not sure if you saw this on the PRH thread, but I personally think it should be looked into!

That looks like an interesting post. I will read through it later when I have time, but I see where your going with this. There is a possibility that James Raymond Taylor changed his name and if that's the case then I'm not sure how we would verify that.
 

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Thank you for finding and sharing! (I was looking at the wrong school) His right ear looks quite distinct and I don't think it would change unless he had pinning surgery later on. jmo
 

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