Colorado Man Rescued In 1982 Snowstorm Linked To Murder Of 2 Women On Same Day

A man who was rescued from the top of Guanella Pass in the Colorado mountains during a snowdrift in 1982 has been accused of killing two women on the same day.

Annette Kay Schnee, 21, and Barbara Jo Oberholtzer, 29, were last seen alive when they were hitchhiking separately in the Breckenridge area on Jan. 6, 1982. According to the sheriff's office, the two women were shot.

On the same day, Alan Lee Phillips, now 70, was rescued from the Guanella Pass. A Colorado Sheriff, who was on a commercial flight, saw Phillips flashing an SOS signal with the headlights of his car on the Pass. He was then rescued by Dave Montoya, a fire chief in Clear Creek County at the time.

Initially, police did not find any connection between the rescue and the murders. However, earlier this year, forensic genealogists were able to connect Phillips to the death of the two women after the DNA collected from the murder scenes matched with his on a genetic genealogy database.

"It was a stroke of timing and good luck," Det. Sgt. Wendy Kipple of the Park County Sheriff's Office said as per NBC News. "I'm working this case in a time we have technical resources and advances in technology."

The genealogist has gone through 12000 people's profiles to find a match.

"The forensic genealogy injected more excitement and new life into the case. We had pretty much exhausted every avenue and investigative lead up to that point," Kipple said further. "Then work began of verifying whether or not he, was in fact, our suspect and had the most likely means and opportunity to commit the crimes."

At the time of his arrest, Phillips, a retired mechanic and the father of three, lived just 20 miles from the Pass. He now faces kidnapping and assault charges.

"He got his mercy, he got saved, he got his life saved, he didn't die up there, but he did bad things before that and he's got to pay for them," 9News quoted Montoya as saying.

Park County Sheriff's Office said that the two women were not connected. Officials said the motive behind the murders is still unknown.

According to officials, Oberholzer's body was found on the summit of Hoosier Pass the day after her disappearance while Schnee's body was found in a "rural area" in Park County after six months of search.

Phillips is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 13. Investigators are asking anyone with information about Phillips to call the case's tip line at 720-248-8378.