Ms. Barker, a 29 year old, was last seen on April 7, 1982 leaving her residence, 11340 Goodson Road, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Updated: 8:10 AM MST February 24, 2023. Other potential suspect leads were investigated as well, but no suspect was identified. Francisco Felix-Ochoa, a 33 year old, was last seen on May 31, 2009. . His mother was brutally murdered in her home near Palmer Park nearly nine years ago, but the case was never solved. Learn more about this case at colorado.gov. Read the initial story at gazette.com. Read the initial report at gazette.com. Several bloggers offer thoughtful insights into the Midwest ax murders. The autopsy revealed Sicola had been strangled. He was convicted for the Florida murders, sentenced to death, and executed in Old Sparky (the electric chair) on January 24, 1989. He seems to have stayed inside the house for quite some time, filling a bowl with water andsome later reports saidwashing his bloody hands in it. Her death was ruled a homicide. Might these killings be linked to nine other similar crimes? Date Murdered: 02/27/1970. That did not stop many localsincluding Ross Moore and Joe Stillinger, father of the two Stillinger girlsfrom believing in Joness guilt. Richard Paul Martinez, 40 - May 6th - Unsolved. ['b._setAllowHash', false], The El Paso County Coroner at the time, Dr. David Bowerman, reported that the victim died as result of blunt force trauma to the head. You can review our Community Guidelines by clicking here. ['_trackPageview'], She had been reported missing on August 7, 1989. Before Smithsonian.com, Dash authored the award-winning blog A Blast From the Past. Many townspeople were certain he used his considerable influence to have the case against him quashed. Investigators also attempted to use the DNA evidence collected at autopsy but were unable to due to the poor quality of the sample. Christmas Eve cold case remains unsolved 10 years later. Ross found a key on his chain that opened the front door, but barely entered the house before he came rushing out again, calling for Villiscas marshal, Hank Horton. Terms of Use DOUGLAS COUNTY - A young woman's body was found in an unmarked campsite in Rainbow Falls, northwest of Colorado Springs on June 15, 1993. According to the Colorado Springs Police Department, after investigators analyzed evidence collected from Allens residence and interviewed his family and friends, it was determined that he was heavily involved in drugs.. POLL: How will the Rockies fare this season in the NL West. The El Paso County Coroners Office completed the autopsy of the deceased adult female and she was positively identified as Jennifer Watkins. That set in train a sequence of events that destroyed what little hope there may have been of gathering useful evidence from the crime scene. Daily Briefing Ricky Lane Allen was 36 years old at the time he was murdered. Read the initial story from gazette.com. Randolph L LeBeau Age: 36 Incident Date: July 13, 1995 Colorado Springs Police Department responded to a call of a person slumped over the steering wheel of a running vehicle. Michael Whitmon Johnson Age: 41 Incident Date: June 17, 1991 Johnson was discovered with multiple stab wounds in a field in the 2800 block of International Circle. Using DNA evidence recovered from the pants of Jennifer Watkins, Parabon produced trait predictions for the associated person of interest (POI). KRDO NewsChannel 13 is committed to providing a forum for civil and constructive conversation. Press Esc to cancel. Two DNA profiles, other than the victims, were developed from the evidence items submitted for analysis. ); Agency: Colorado Springs Police Department. He might have vanished back into his own home nearby; equally, given a head start of up to five hours in a town at which nearly 30 trains called every day, he might easily have made good his escape. Pikes Peak Area Crime Stoppers is asking for the publics help finding the following people for whom felony arrest warrants have been issued. "For Colorado Springs Police Department, it's our only unsolved triple murder, and not only that, but there are two children involved, so the case itself is pretty traumatic," Colorado Springs . `Slay utterly came to my mind, and I picked up the axe, went into the house and killed them. This he later recanted, and the couple who claimed to have spoken to him on the morning after murders changed their story. His mother, Joanne Brownlee, was 72 years old and had gone blind from glaucoma when she didn't show up to a family gathering in January of 2013. Once again, there is no evidence that Herman, 11; Katherine, 10; Boyd, 7; or Paul, 5, woke before they died. If you would like to share a story idea, please submit it here. ['_setAllowLinker', true], Mr. Bennington, a 26 year old, was last seen on December 23, 1981 in Woodland Park, Colorado. Read the initial story at gazette.com. According to Project: Cold Case, there are around 2,931 unsolved murders in Colorado dating from 1980 to 2019. The 1910s Ax Murders: An Overview of the McClaughry Theory. Emporia State University Research Seminar, July 2006; Nick Kowalczyk. She may have been killed in her Fountain home. COURTESY OF COLORADO SPRINGS POLICE DEPARTMENT Watkins, of Fountain, was found dead Nov. 8, 1999, at Memorial Hospital, where she was a member of the kitchen staff. On Wednesday, CSPD announced to the public the case has been solved. The high schoolers' murder remains unsolved more than two decades later. Williams (who became the first to examine the bodies and estimate a time of death). The man accused in the 2021 mass shooting at a King Soopers in Boulder has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, a recent court filing confirmed. Rodney D Kirschenman Age: 24 Incident Date: February 17, 1991 Kirschenman was found deceased by a security guard of a local business. With the new lead generated by Parabon, Cold Case Unit detectives used traditional investigative best practices to follow-up on this information. Biological samples were taken from several possible suspects and all of these individuals had been cleared due to their respective DNA not matching the two unknown DNA samples. As far as McClaughry was concerned, the slaughter culminated in December 1912 with the brutal murders of Mary Wilson and her daughter Georgia Moore in Columbia, Missouri. Some pieces of evidence fit patterns, but others do not. During the course of the investigation multiple employees and contractors working at Memorial Hospital were interviewed by detectives. MURDERED 53 YEARS AGO TODAY. For the Villisca case, The 1912 Villisca Axe Murders Blog is a good place to start, and there was also occasional coverage at CLEWS. Ms. Barker has never been located. . There were things about Kelly that made him seem an implausible suspectnot least that he stood only 5-foot-2 and weighed 119 poundsbut in other ways he fit the bill. If you have any information on any of the Sheriffs Office unsolved cases, please contact Dispatch at (719) 390-5555 and ask for Investigations or call the Sheriff's Office Tip Line at 719-520-6666. The Charley Project Keith Reinhard Keith Reinhard, 49, disappeared from Silver Plume, Colorado in 1988. Perhaps, as one student of the murders posits, for the same reason that the Villisca murderer took such great pains to cover the faces of his victims, and then went around the murder house carefully draping torn clothing and cloths over all the mirrors and all the windows: because he feared that his dead victims were somehow conscious of his presence. ['b._link'], The simple truth was that there was no sign of the murderers whereabouts. The pattern, first pointed out in 1913 by Special Agent Matthew McClaughry of the Justice Departments Bureau of Investigation (forerunner of the FBI), began with the murder of a family of six in Colorado Springs in September 1911 and continued with two further incidents in Monmouth (where the murder weapon was actually a pipe) and in Ellsworth, Kansas. Why bother to muffle a phone that was highly unlikely to ring at one in the morning? According to the network, Kenda has solved 356 homicide cases and has a 92 percent solve rate. Today, we will take a look at five of these disturbing unsolved mysteries that happened right here in the Centennial State: 1. His name was Lyn George Jacklin Kelly, and he was an English immigrant, a preacher and a known sexual deviant with well-recorded mental problems. A suspect allegedly connected to several armed robberies in Colorado Springs was arrested Thursday afternoon after accelerating into civilian . The U.S. murder rate jumped by 30% from 2019 to 2020, an increase . On June 28, 2001, his body was found in a landfill in southeastern El Paso County. On October 14, 2012 the El Paso County Sheriff's Office received a phone call from Paul Nichols in Chicago, Illinois who wished to report his daughter, Kara Nichols, as a Missing Person. Investigation soon made plain that there were links between Lyn Kelly and the Moore family. Genetic Genealogy uses advanced DNA testing in combination with innovative genetic analysis, sophisticated identification techniques, and traditional genealogical methods to establish the relationship between an individual and his/her ancestors. FOHVAMP | Families of Colorado Murder Victims and Missing Persons. After a closer look inside her home, they found her body stuffed in the crawlspace of her home. Details. In news that will either excite or scare, the series has featured cases from Colorado over 40 times. "How did it happen? The Colorado Cold Case Database features unsolved homicides, missing person, and unidentified person cases to assist law enforcement agencies in the development of information, which can lead to the identification, and arrest of any person (s) who may have committed any crime described on this page. It was determined from the investigation that Carter had returned from his residence the night of December 22, 2009 and was acting odd. Read the initial story at gazette.com. (Courtesy of Parabon Labs) . Colorado Bureau of Investigation She was driving a white/blue blazer, Colorado license plates UA-6471. Multiple items of evidence were sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for analysis. Thomas Raymond Kinslow Age: 20 Incident Date: November 22, 2005 Colorado Springs police officers arrived at the 3900 block of Constitution Avenue and found Kinslow lying in the middle of the street a short distance from his residence. The victim was wearing a teal colored uniform smock, a purple blouse, and black pants. . The person of interest was identified as Ricky Severt. Edgar Epperly, the leading authority on the murders, reports that the town quickly split along religious lines, the Methodists insisting on Joness innocence and the Moores Presbyterian congregation convinced of his guilt. Further investigation revealed Ricky Severt was killed in a traffic accident on November 2, 2001, on Hwy. She had injuries to her head and was half-naked wearing . Anyone with information regarding the unsolved murder of Ricky Lane Allen is encouraged to contact the Colorado Springs Police Department at (719) 444-7000. Read the initial report at gazette.com. In September 2020, CBI conducted analysis of the DNA and determined that the percentage of the population that can be excluded as a contributor to the DNA collected in this case is 99.99994%. The co-worker and another individual discovered him in an upstairs bedroom. Listen in and help us solve these unsolved murders. DPD said officers . She was last seen on 04/30/ 2015 at a hotel located at 430 W Garden of the Gods Road in Colorado Springs. Unsolved murders are an source of intense frustration for investigators and surviving loved ones. For others, though, there was a far strongerand far stranger candidate for the ax man. Read the initial story at gazette.com. Just as significant, perhaps, four of the casesPaolo, Villisca, Rainier and a solitary murder that took place in Mount Pleasant, Iowafeatured killers who covered their victims faces, three murderers had washed at the scene, and at least five of the killers had lingered in the murder house. He was later found deceased behind the building. . Any member of Colorado law enforcement that would like access to the ViCAP Program should contact Investigative Analyst Audrey Simkins who acts as the state Law Enforcement Manager and ViCAP Liaison for agencies in Colorado. ['b._trackPageview'] Case: 82-3202 Perhaps the strongest evidence that both Jones and Kelly were most likely innocent came not from Villisca itself but from other communities in the Midwest, where, in 1911 and 1912, a bizarre chain of ax murders seemed to suggest that a transient serial killer was at work. How, for example, might a stranger to Villisca have so uneeringly located Joe and Sarah Moores bedroom by low lamp light, ignoring the childrens rooms until the adults were safely dead? Villisca: The True Account of the Unsolved Mass Murder That Stunned The Nation. Date Of Birth: 07/10/1942. The 75-year-old and his team. DENVER, Colo. (KRDO) - A man currently serving time in Florida now faces first-degree murder charges for the killing of a Colorado woman in 1996. Learn more about this case at colorado.gov. It was determined by crime scene analysts and detectives that the crime scene was staged, making it appear that Allen had committed suicide when, in fact, he was murdered. Homicide Hunter has aired on ID since 2011. Karen Kay Johns Age: 45 Incident Date: May 21, 1991 Johns was discovered in Monument Valley Park with a gunshot wound and was apparently in her vehicle at the time of the shooting. United States, 2739 East Las Vegas Street With little left to tie him firmly to the killings, the first grand jury to hear Kellys case hung 11-1 in favor of refusing to indict him, and a second panel freed him. LITTLETON Police believe they have solved the 2004 murder of Rhonda Holland, which happened at her family's gift shop in downtown Littleton. On October 1, 2020, this case was sent to the Forth Judicial District Attorneys Office for review. Family photo via Colorado Springs Police Department More than two decades after the slaying of. Beth H. Klingensmith. Monique LaSuer Age: 26 Incident Date: August 30, 2000 Employees of the Best Western Palmer House found LaSuer deceased. El Paso County Coroner reported Whitcher died as a result of blunt force trauma. Shortly after midnight on June 10, 1912one hundred years ago this weeka stranger hefting an ax lifted the latch on the back door of a two-story timber house in the little Iowa town of Villisca. Payroll records showed that had been working several hundred miles away in Illinois at the time of the murders, and he was released for lack of evidence. But Moore had left in 1907dismayed, perhaps, by his bosss insistence on hours of 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., six days a weekand set himself up as a head-to-head rival, taking the valuable John Deere account with him. Read the initial story at gazette.com. The forensic investigation reflects the remains had been in place from one to four years. About this Case: Linda J. Barker, a 29 year old female, was last seen leaving her residence, located near the 11300 block of Goodson Road, Colorado Springs, Colorado on April 7, 1982. Colorado Springs police detectives worked with an online database called GEDmatch to develop a DNA profile of the suspect in Darlene Krashoc's death. Both parents admitted to claiming the boys were still living with them and have been arrested on theft charges. Christmas is a time for celebrating family and friends, but for the friends and family of Margaret Sweet, who was murdered on Christmas Eve . The autopsy revealed Mr. Romisch had been shot multiple times. The coroner believed she died from "homicidal violence." Similarly, the fact that the victims died asleep in their beds was likely a consequence of the choice of weapon; an ax is nearly useless against a mobile target. He had been in the town on the night of the murders and freely admitted that he had left on a dawn train just before the bodies were discovered. It took time for the case against Kelly to get anywhere, but in 1917 another grand jury finally assembled to hear the evidence linking him with Lenas murder. Contests & Promotions, 2023, Pikes Peak Television, Inc. Colorado Springs, CO, USA, Pedro Pascal appears delighted that Sarah Michelle Gellar remembers working with him on Buffy, Alex Murdaughs defense set to deliver closing arguments in his murder trial. Familial DNA was collected from surviving relatives of the suspect Ricky Severt. Renan Garcia-Leon Age: 43 Incident Date: August 9, 2008 Colorado Springs Police Department responded to the parking lot of El Dorado Apartments and found Leon sitting in the driver seat of his vehicle, unconscious and bleeding from two apparent stab wounds. These default values were used because age and BMI cannot be determined from DNA. Colorado Springs, CO 80906 Despite everything that's happened, David hopes to one day reconnect with his sister. On November 3, 1986, at 11:13 a.m., The El Paso County Sheriffs Office responded to human remains being found 4 miles west of Interstate 25, in the Midway Ranch area. The El Paso County Sheriff's Office provided an update in the ongoing investigation into a Feb. 5 shooting that left two juveniles dead and th, Authorities are cracking down on trespassing and camping complaints among the homeless population in southeast Colorado Springs as camp clean, Attorneys representing a man accused of shooting and killing his roommate with a cross bow in El Paso County told the court on Wednesday that , One man is dead early Wednesday morning following a fatal officer-involved shooting near North Mesa Elementary School in East Pueblo County Tu, A suspect from San Jose California was arrested on 7 outstanding warrants for sexual assault in north Colorado Springs Tuesday night, accordin, New details have emerged in an investigation into the deputy-involved shooting of an armed barricaded suspect that kept a neighborhood south o, A Colorado corrections officer employed at the Fremont Correctional Prison in Canon City has been arrested along with dozens of others as part, Penrose Library and Mobile Library services will resume regular operation on Wednesday, March 1, following closures prompted by initial screen, The judge presiding over the case of Matthew Barton, a former Manitou Springs High School teacher and soccer coach accused of sexually assault. 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