Thirty-six years ago, Denver police found Edward Chase dead in his living room.

The 53-year-old man had been stabbed 11 times, beaten and strangled in his home at 1328 S. Acoma St. His hands were bound with cords from the home’s curtains, and it appeared he’d been strangled with a pipe, a purple bandana and a sock, according to newly filed court records that spell out how police this summer finally charged a suspect in the cold case.

On Jan. 12, 1988, officers found a knife, a pair of scissors and a bloody T-shirt near Chase’s body. Beer bottles sat by a TV, and when investigators hit the start button on the VCR, a pornographic video of two women having sex played. Investigators found a pack of Marlboro cigarettes in the trash, and .22-caliber ammunition in the house, but no gun.

Detectives who investigated the case quickly learned that Chase worked at Sachs-Lawlor, a sign company a half-mile down the road from his rented home. He got around on a bicycle and didn’t own a car, sometimes bumming rides to the grocery store from his coworkers, who considered him a “prompt and excellent” employee.

But his colleagues knew Chase as 40-year-old Edward Peterson, a false identity he’d been using “for some time,” according to court records.

The detectives spoke to Chase’s neighbors, including 18-year-old David Lucero, who lived in the house next door. He told police he’d talked with Chase from time to time over their shared fence, and that he’d last seen Chase a few days before he died, when the older man stopped by to borrow a pack of Marlboro cigarettes. He told detectives he thought Chase was gay, though Chase’s colleagues disputed that, saying he often spoke about women.

The detectives couldn’t build enough of a case to make any arrests, and the case went cold. When a detective interviewed Lucero again in 1992, he reiterated his earlier account.

Lucero faced a series of criminal charges between September 1988 and 2020. He was convicted of assaulting a police officer in 2010 and was sentenced to six years in prison. In 2020, he pleaded guilty to menacing and received a two-year prison sentence.

Through six criminal cases, he never said a word about the 1988 homicide.

Until last year.

In October 2023, Lucero talked with his parole officer. The parole officer made a note in Lucero’s file to follow up after Lucero discussed knowing about a homicide, but never did, according to the records.

That same year, Lucero called the Denver Police Department’s cold case unit and said he wanted to share information on a killing. But when a sergeant met with Lucero, who was at the time incarcerated in the Arapahoe County Jail, Lucero said he was too afraid to talk while behind bars.

The 1988 case stayed cold into 2024.

Finally, in July, Lucero, now 55, called the Denver District Attorney’s Office and arranged a meeting with investigators, telling them he wanted “protection” if he provided information on a homicide. The picked him up and drove him to their offices, sat him down in a private conference room, made sure he knew he was free to go at anytime. No one read him his rights.

Lucero confessed, according to court records.

He told the investigators he’d visited his neighbor in January of 1988 “on the darkest night” he ever remembered to drink beer and smoke cigarettes, and that Chase had put on a pornographic video. Lucero said he became concerned that Chase was going to try to have sex with him, so he hit the man with a pipe until he fell unconscious.

Lucero said he then searched the house for something to steal and pocketed a gun and cash. But Chase was “still moving,” so Lucero attacked him again, strangling the man until he died, according to court records. He didn’t mention stabbing Chase and couldn’t remember what he’d used to strangle the man, according to the records.

But he offered other details that matched the crime scene: whether the lights in the house were on or off, the size and shape of the pipe, the layout of the living room, and the video playing on the VCR.

Lucero told investigators he’d never told anyone about the killing and had “been holding it in all this time,” according to court records reviewed by The Denver Post. The records don’t say why Chase was using a fake identity.

Police charged Lucero with first-degree murder on Aug. 6, the same day officers collected his DNA to compare with DNA collected from the crime scene. Lucero is represented by the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender, which, as a policy, does not comment on active cases.

He was booked into the Denver jail on $1 million bail and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in November in Denver District Court.

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Thirty-six years ago, Denver police found Edward Chase dead in his living room.

The 53-year-old man had been stabbed 11 times, beaten and strangled in his home at 1328 S. Acoma St. His hands were bound with cords from the home’s curtains, and it appeared he’d been strangled with a pipe, a purple bandana and a sock, according to newly filed court records that spell out how police this summer finally charged a suspect in the cold case.

On Jan. 12, 1988, officers found a knife, a pair of scissors and a bloody T-shirt near Chase’s body. Beer bottles sat by a TV, and when investigators hit the start button on the VCR, a pornographic video of two women having sex played. Investigators found a pack of Marlboro cigarettes in the trash, and .22-caliber ammunition in the house, but no gun.

Detectives who investigated the case quickly learned that Chase worked at Sachs-Lawlor, a sign company a half-mile down the road from his rented home. He got around on a bicycle and didn’t own a car, sometimes bumming rides to the grocery store from his coworkers, who considered him a “prompt and excellent” employee.

But his colleagues knew Chase as 40-year-old Edward Peterson, a false identity he’d been using “for some time,” according to court records.

The detectives spoke to Chase’s neighbors, including 18-year-old David Lucero, who lived in the house next door. He told police he’d talked with Chase from time to time over their shared fence, and that he’d last seen Chase a few days before he died, when the older man stopped by to borrow a pack of Marlboro cigarettes. He told detectives he thought Chase was gay, though Chase’s colleagues disputed that, saying he often spoke about women.

The detectives couldn’t build enough of a case to make any arrests, and the case went cold. When a detective interviewed Lucero again in 1992, he reiterated his earlier account.

Lucero faced a series of criminal charges between September 1988 and 2020. He was convicted of assaulting a police officer in 2010 and was sentenced to six years in prison. In 2020, he pleaded guilty to menacing and received a two-year prison sentence.

Through six criminal cases, he never said a word about the 1988 homicide.

Until last year.

In October 2023, Lucero talked with his parole officer. The parole officer made a note in Lucero’s file to follow up after Lucero discussed knowing about a homicide, but never did, according to the records.

That same year, Lucero called the Denver Police Department’s cold case unit and said he wanted to share information on a killing. But when a sergeant met with Lucero, who was at the time incarcerated in the Arapahoe County Jail, Lucero said he was too afraid to talk while behind bars.

The 1988 case stayed cold into 2024.

Finally, in July, Lucero, now 55, called the Denver District Attorney’s Office and arranged a meeting with investigators, telling them he wanted “protection” if he provided information on a homicide. The picked him up and drove him to their offices, sat him down in a private conference room, made sure he knew he was free to go at anytime. No one read him his rights.

Lucero confessed, according to court records.

He told the investigators he’d visited his neighbor in January of 1988 “on the darkest night” he ever remembered to drink beer and smoke cigarettes, and that Chase had put on a pornographic video. Lucero said he became concerned that Chase was going to try to have sex with him, so he hit the man with a pipe until he fell unconscious.

Lucero said he then searched the house for something to steal and pocketed a gun and cash. But Chase was “still moving,” so Lucero attacked him again, strangling the man until he died, according to court records. He didn’t mention stabbing Chase and couldn’t remember what he’d used to strangle the man, according to the records.

But he offered other details that matched the crime scene: whether the lights in the house were on or off, the size and shape of the pipe, the layout of the living room, and the video playing on the VCR.

Lucero told investigators he’d never told anyone about the killing and had “been holding it in all this time,” according to court records reviewed by The Denver Post. The records don’t say why Chase was using a fake identity.

Police charged Lucero with first-degree murder on Aug. 6, the same day officers collected his DNA to compare with DNA collected from the crime scene. Lucero is represented by the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender, which, as a policy, does not comment on active cases.

He was booked into the Denver jail on $1 million bail and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in November in Denver District Court.

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Thirty-six years ago, Denver police found Edward Chase dead in his living room.

The 53-year-old man had been stabbed 11 times, beaten and strangled in his home at 1328 S. Acoma St. His hands were bound with cords from the home’s curtains, and it appeared he’d been strangled with a pipe, a purple bandana and a sock, according to newly filed court records that spell out how police this summer finally charged a suspect in the cold case.

On Jan. 12, 1988, officers found a knife, a pair of scissors and a bloody T-shirt near Chase’s body. Beer bottles sat by a TV, and when investigators hit the start button on the VCR, a pornographic video of two women having sex played. Investigators found a pack of Marlboro cigarettes in the trash, and .22-caliber ammunition in the house, but no gun.

Detectives who investigated the case quickly learned that Chase worked at Sachs-Lawlor, a sign company a half-mile down the road from his rented home. He got around on a bicycle and didn’t own a car, sometimes bumming rides to the grocery store from his coworkers, who considered him a “prompt and excellent” employee.

But his colleagues knew Chase as 40-year-old Edward Peterson, a false identity he’d been using “for some time,” according to court records.

The detectives spoke to Chase’s neighbors, including 18-year-old David Lucero, who lived in the house next door. He told police he’d talked with Chase from time to time over their shared fence, and that he’d last seen Chase a few days before he died, when the older man stopped by to borrow a pack of Marlboro cigarettes. He told detectives he thought Chase was gay, though Chase’s colleagues disputed that, saying he often spoke about women.

The detectives couldn’t build enough of a case to make any arrests, and the case went cold. When a detective interviewed Lucero again in 1992, he reiterated his earlier account.

Lucero faced a series of criminal charges between September 1988 and 2020. He was convicted of assaulting a police officer in 2010 and was sentenced to six years in prison. In 2020, he pleaded guilty to menacing and received a two-year prison sentence.

Through six criminal cases, he never said a word about the 1988 homicide.

Until last year.

In October 2023, Lucero talked with his parole officer. The parole officer made a note in Lucero’s file to follow up after Lucero discussed knowing about a homicide, but never did, according to the records.

That same year, Lucero called the Denver Police Department’s cold case unit and said he wanted to share information on a killing. But when a sergeant met with Lucero, who was at the time incarcerated in the Arapahoe County Jail, Lucero said he was too afraid to talk while behind bars.

The 1988 case stayed cold into 2024.

Finally, in July, Lucero, now 55, called the Denver District Attorney’s Office and arranged a meeting with investigators, telling them he wanted “protection” if he provided information on a homicide. The picked him up and drove him to their offices, sat him down in a private conference room, made sure he knew he was free to go at anytime. No one read him his rights.

Lucero confessed, according to court records.

He told the investigators he’d visited his neighbor in January of 1988 “on the darkest night” he ever remembered to drink beer and smoke cigarettes, and that Chase had put on a pornographic video. Lucero said he became concerned that Chase was going to try to have sex with him, so he hit the man with a pipe until he fell unconscious.

Lucero said he then searched the house for something to steal and pocketed a gun and cash. But Chase was “still moving,” so Lucero attacked him again, strangling the man until he died, according to court records. He didn’t mention stabbing Chase and couldn’t remember what he’d used to strangle the man, according to the records.

But he offered other details that matched the crime scene: whether the lights in the house were on or off, the size and shape of the pipe, the layout of the living room, and the video playing on the VCR.

Lucero told investigators he’d never told anyone about the killing and had “been holding it in all this time,” according to court records reviewed by The Denver Post. The records don’t say why Chase was using a fake identity.

Police charged Lucero with first-degree murder on Aug. 6, the same day officers collected his DNA to compare with DNA collected from the crime scene. Lucero is represented by the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender, which, as a policy, does not comment on active cases.

He was booked into the Denver jail on $1 million bail and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in November in Denver District Court.

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The search continues for the murderers of a 17-year-old girl who was found dead in the shell of her burnt-out home in Bailey seven years ago, according to state investigators.

Tipsters with information critical to the case or information leading to an arrest in Maggie Long’s death are still eligible for up to a $75,000 reward from state and federal authorities.

Maggie was supposed to go to a concert at Platte Valley High School on Dec. 1, 2017, but never showed up, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Local authorities said she was purposefully set on fire and burned alive in her family’s mountain community home.

“We believe someone knows something that could help solve this case and bring a measure of justice to Maggie’s family and the Bailey community,” Park County Sheriff Tom McGraw said in a news release. “It could take just one person to help our investigation and we are determined to bring a resolution to one of Colorado’s most high-profile cold cases.”

In a 911 call on the night of Maggie’s death, someone told Park County sheriff’s dispatchers that people were inside her home and causing damage.

Federal investigators, who are investigating the Asian American teenager’s death as a hate crime, said the 17-year-old went home to grab supplies for the concert and got into a fight with the people inside before the fire started.

Several items, including guns, a safe and jade figurines were stolen from the home on the night of Maggie’s death, federal investigators said.

Her death was ruled a homicide by the county coroner and authorities later released composite sketches of at least three men they believed were involved in her death. No arrests have been made.

Anyone with information related to the case is asked to reach out to the Maggie Long Task Force tip line at 303-239-4243 or email maggie.long.tips@state.co.us.

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A 67-year-old Louisiana man was sentenced to 32 years in prison on Thursday for conspiracy to commit murder in connection with a Lone Tree man’s 1985 shooting death during a home invasion.

Michael Shannel Jefferson was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder and kidnapping in 2021, 36 years after the death of Lone Tree businessman Roger Dean, 51, on Nov. 21, 1985.

Dean and his wife, D.J., were at home when an intruder broke in and forced Roger Dean to tie up his wife, according to previous reporting. D.J. Dean told police she heard scuffling and gunshots downstairs and found her husband’s body.

Jefferson was identified as a suspect after a crime analyst linked him to the case by comparing DNA found at the scene to the DNA of Jefferson’s deceased parents.

He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder in August. Two counts of murder and one count of kidnapping were dismissed as part of a plea agreement, according to court records.

In a statement, Dean’s daughter, Tamara Harney, thanked the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office for never giving up on her family.

“Jefferson has never taken any accountability for his actions. I’m pleased with the sentence and feel a sense of closure, but nothing can change the fact I’ve lived without a father for 39 years,” Harney said.

Jefferson maintains that he is not guilty and “took his fate into his own hands” by accepting the plea deal, his attorney Michael Faye said in a statement.

“He was not about to risk the rest of his life in prison at the hands of a system that he no longer had any faith in,” Faye said. “Nobody knows the injustices of our criminal justice system more than Mr. Jefferson and I cannot blame him for choosing this path, as difficult as it was.”

This is a developing story and may be updated.

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The search continues for the murderers of a 17-year-old girl who was found dead in the shell of her burnt-out home in Bailey seven years ago, according to state investigators.

Tipsters with information critical to the case or information leading to an arrest in Maggie Long’s death are still eligible for up to a $75,000 reward from state and federal authorities.

Maggie was supposed to go to a concert at Platte Valley High School on Dec. 1, 2017, but never showed up, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Local authorities said she was purposefully set on fire and burned alive in her family’s mountain community home.

“We believe someone knows something that could help solve this case and bring a measure of justice to Maggie’s family and the Bailey community,” Park County Sheriff Tom McGraw said in a news release. “It could take just one person to help our investigation and we are determined to bring a resolution to one of Colorado’s most high-profile cold cases.”

In a 911 call on the night of Maggie’s death, someone told Park County sheriff’s dispatchers that people were inside her home and causing damage.

Federal investigators, who are investigating the Asian American teenager’s death as a hate crime, said the 17-year-old went home to grab supplies for the concert and got into a fight with the people inside before the fire started.

Several items, including guns, a safe and jade figurines were stolen from the home on the night of Maggie’s death, federal investigators said.

Her death was ruled a homicide by the county coroner and authorities later released composite sketches of at least three men they believed were involved in her death. No arrests have been made.

Anyone with information related to the case is asked to reach out to the Maggie Long Task Force tip line at 303-239-4243 or email maggie.long.tips@state.co.us.

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The search continues for the murderers of a 17-year-old girl who was found dead in the shell of her burnt-out home in Bailey seven years ago, according to state investigators.

Tipsters with information critical to the case or information leading to an arrest in Maggie Long’s death are still eligible for up to a $75,000 reward from state and federal authorities.

Maggie was supposed to go to a concert at Platte Valley High School on Dec. 1, 2017, but never showed up, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Local authorities said she was purposefully set on fire and burned alive in her family’s mountain community home.

“We believe someone knows something that could help solve this case and bring a measure of justice to Maggie’s family and the Bailey community,” Park County Sheriff Tom McGraw said in a news release. “It could take just one person to help our investigation and we are determined to bring a resolution to one of Colorado’s most high-profile cold cases.”

In a 911 call on the night of Maggie’s death, someone told Park County sheriff’s dispatchers that people were inside her home and causing damage.

Federal investigators, who are investigating the Asian American teenager’s death as a hate crime, said the 17-year-old went home to grab supplies for the concert and got into a fight with the people inside before the fire started.

Several items, including guns, a safe and jade figurines were stolen from the home on the night of Maggie’s death, federal investigators said.

Her death was ruled a homicide by the county coroner and authorities later released composite sketches of at least three men they believed were involved in her death. No arrests have been made.

Anyone with information related to the case is asked to reach out to the Maggie Long Task Force tip line at 303-239-4243 or email maggie.long.tips@state.co.us.

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A judge overturned the conviction in a 1994 Boulder murder case Friday because of flawed DNA testing by disgraced Colorado Bureau of Investigation scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods.

It’s the first case to be thrown out since the CBI beginning in 2023 discovered hundreds of criminal investigations in which Woods cut corners in her DNA testing — a scandal that has cost Colorado millions of dollars already and shaken the state’s criminal justice system.

Boulder District Court Judge Nancy Woodruff Salomone vacated the first-degree murder conviction of 49-year-old Michael Clark, who has been serving a sentence of life without parole since being convicted in 2012 in the cold-case shooting death of Boulder city employee Marty Grisham.

A hearing is scheduled for June 6 at which Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty is expected to announce whether or not he will retry Clark on charges stemming from the 1994 killing.

“This is a really good day,” said Adam Frank, Clark’s attorney. “Michael Clark’s conviction is gone.”

Dougherty had filed a motion late Friday afternoon asking the judge to vacate Clark’s conviction because Woods’ interpretation of the DNA testing in the Grisham case is now in question after an independent lab retested crime scene evidence.

“Based on those results, as well as the significant claims of juror misconduct and ineffective assistance of counsel, our office determined that the conviction must be vacated,” Doughtery said in a statement. “It is the right thing to do, after considering all three issues. In light of the charges in this case, we will carefully and thoroughly analyze all the evidence to determine the right and just outcome.”

The juror misconduct claim involved the discovery that one of the jurors ignored the judge’s instructions and visited the crime scene during the trial, according to the DA’s motion.

With the conviction vacated, Clark’s $100,000 bail is reinstated, according to prosecutors. He is expected to be transferred to the Boulder County Jail from the Fremont Correctional Facility on Monday, and is eligible to be released if he posts bail. He is married and has three children.

“We want to get him home to them as soon as humanly possible,” Frank said.

Inside the investigation of a CBI scientist’s years of misconduct: “God forbid we have someone in prison that shouldn’t be”

Clark was always a suspect in the 1994, killing but investigators only had circumstantial evidence at the time. It was Woods' DNA testing of a Carmex lip balm container found at the scene that led investigators to finally charge Clark in the cold case in 2012.

Doughtery's motion to vacate said an independent lab retested Woods' original analysis and created a new sample from the Carmex container. It was testing of that new sample that found new results that could statistically exclude Clark.

"There could be a number of reasons for these results, including the advances in DNA technology," the DA's motion stated. "Regardless of the reason, this is new evidence."

Grisham, who worked as the city of Boulder's information services director, was shot four times on the night of Nov. 1, 1994, after he answered a knock at his apartment door. The killer fled before Grisham's girlfriend could see him.

The killing was a cold case for nearly two decades before Boulder police reopened it in 2009. In 2011, Woods took DNA samples from the Carmex container and determined they excluded 99.4% of the world’s male population, but could include Clark.

Clark was charged with first-degree murder and convicted by a jury in 2012.

He already had brought up the DNA testing in an appeal of his murder conviction, saying his defense lawyer never hired another DNA expert to challenge Woods' conclusions.

Then the CBI discovered in 2023 that Woods had mishandled hundreds of DNA samples and covered up her shortcuts by altering, deleting or omitting data from lab work -- skipping protocols that are in place to ensure accurate results.

Woods was charged with 102 felonies in January. That case is pending.

Her shoddy work has rattled Colorado's justice system. While Clark becomes the first person to successfully challenge a conviction, others are expected to follow.

The CBI estimates Woods’ misconduct has already cost the agency more than $11 million, a figure that includes state funds allocated to pay for re-testing and compensate district attorneys’ offices across Colorado to address wrongful-conviction claims tied to Woods' work.

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After nearly 50 years, investigators say they have identified the man who killed 20-year-old John Curtis Patterson at a north Boulder-area gas station in September 1975.

The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday there is enough evidence to support that Louis Jess Locicero, who was 32 at the time, murdered Patterson.

Though some aspects of the case remain unconfirmed, there is now significant evidence to indicate Locicero committed the crime, according to a news release.

But, officials say, Locicero died in 2024.

“This is why the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office spends time investigating cold cases like this, to see if something was missed and to see if, with new technology, new leads can be found,” Detective Don Dillard said in the news release. “The sheriff’s office wants the families to know their loved ones have not been forgotten.”

On Sept. 29, 1975, Boulder County deputies were dispatched to a report of a deceased male in the 4500 block of Broadway in the Boulder area, according to the news release. Upon arrival, deputies found Patterson, a clerk at the Cascade Service Station, dead in a restroom at the gas station with a fatal stab wound to his chest.

Two unfired .30 caliber cartridges were also found on the floor of the bathroom near Patterson’s body, according to the news release. Officials said the cash register was found open and that the cash was missing, indicating that robbery was likely the motive.

The sheriff’s office also said the cartridges bore extractor marks and indications of “light hits” on the primers.

The investigation led to Locicero, a suspect with an alleged criminal history, including robbery, burglary, drug and weapon charges, according to the news release. The sheriff’s office said he was staying at a nearby hotel, in the 4500 block of Broadway in the Boulder area, around the time of the murder.

Officials said key evidence found in Locicero’s motel room pointed to his involvement in the murder, including a .30 caliber M1 carbine firearm, a knife that matched Patterson’s wound and fibers from Patterson’s shirt found on the knife and in the sheath and hairs found on Locicero’s boots.

Detectives interviewed Locicero along with others and ultimately arrested Locicero in 1975, but he was released for unknown reasons prior to charges being filed, according to the news release.

“In our jurisdiction, we work very closely with law enforcement to secure justice for victims and our community,” Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said in the news release. “As this investigation by the sheriff’s (office) demonstrates, the quest for justice is something we will always pursue. I’m very grateful to the sheriff’s office for continuing to investigate this tragic murder and using new technology to provide answers for the victim’s family and our community. Our office reviewed this investigation, and with this new evidence, we would have been able to file charges in this case.”

According to a letter from the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office, Locicero was released three days after his arrest and records do not contain information as to the reason for his release.

Officials said that although detectives have followed leads over the decades, they had been unable to develop new leads after reviewing evidence and interviewing potential witnesses — until recently.

Despite previous challenges in definitively connecting Locicero’s firearm to the crime, a breakthrough in the case recently occurred, according to the news release. The sheriff’s office was evaluating the Ballistics IQ device from Evidence IQ, which linked the cartridges found at the murder scene and cartridges found in Locicero’s nearby hotel room to a single firearm — Locicero’s .30 caliber M1 carbine.

Officials said evidentiary items were later sent to Ballistics IQ for evaluation, which ultimately confirmed these findings. This evidence now conclusively links Locicero’s weapon to the crime scene, according to the release.

“I take pride in the work of those in our agency and the reality that our agency is willing to be a champion for technology and its involvement in solving cases, particularly cold cases, bringing closure to those who have had to wait,” Cmdr. Jeff Pelletier said in the new release. “I’d also like to thank the team at Evidence IQ for their willingness to be part of closing this case and performing expert analysis in such a timely fashion.”

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