Chiara Wuensch, a DNA Analyst, who worked for the Weld County Sheriff’s Office at the Northern Colorado Regional Forensic Lab for just over 10 years, was the subject of an internal investigation that began on Jan. 31, 2024. The internal investigation centered on Wuensch having anomalies in her case work. The findings of the internal investigation revealed Wuensch violated the Weld County Code for expectations of proper conduct, and the sheriff’s office standards of conduct policy for not cooperating with the agency’s internal investigation. Based on these findings, the sheriff's office terminated Wuensch's employment on Feb. 28, 2024.
The sheriff’s office intends to pursue criminal charges against Wuensch for the alleged anomalies in her case work, however those charges have yet to be determined as the criminal investigation is still ongoing.
The anomalies in Wuensch’s case work were brought to light due to a separate, active investigation, conducted by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into their own personnel. Due to the ongoing nature of CBI’s investigation, no further information is available at this time.
The anomalies discovered in Wuensch’s case work were limited, and how this will impact the criminal cases she worked on is yet to be determined by the criminal investigation.
“We hire people that we believe have the utmost integrity. No system is better than the people who work in it,” said Weld County Sheriff, Steve Reams.
The WCSO criminal investigation is still ongoing, and no further information will be released until its conclusion.
Republished courtesy of Weld County Sheriff's Office