Today, JonBenet Ramsey would be 22. There’s a good chance the former child beauty queen would have just finished college by now. Instead, the nation wonders who could have killed her and left her body in the basement of her home on Christmas night or the next morning. Some believe her own parents were involved, but a growing number of experts believe an intruder who was a sexual sadist abused and murdered the young girl.

LINK: Interactive Timeline of the JonBenet Ramsey case

Read Kirk Mitchell’s series on the still-unsolved case of JonBenet Ramsey’s death.

PART ONE: Boulder detectives still seek answers in JonBenét Ramsey case

PART TWO: Boulder detective Smit questioned JonBenet Ramsey past investigation

PART THREE: Additional timeline of JonBenet Ramsey case.

Courtesy of Denver Police Department

James Holman, 35

The similarities between the murders sent chills through Denver’s gay community.

Four gay men were stabbed to death in Central Denver in 1992. Police were investigating whether they were all hate crimes committed by the same killer.

Several leaders within the gay community proclaimed their fears that someone was targeting gays in bars, going to their hotels and murdering them.

They worried that the anti-gay-rights Amendment 2, which was passed in November of 1992 may have stirred emotions. Reports of violence against gays and lesbians had increased ninefold in 1992 over 1991.

They complained that Denver police were not investigating the murders as aggressively as other cases because the victims were gay.

Since then only one of the murders has been solved.

The first man killed was James Leroy Holman, 35. He was stabbed in his apartment on the 500 block of East 11th Avenue on Feb. 13, according to news accounts.

His body was discovered wearing only a pair of socks.

Courtesy of Denver Police Department

Anthony Carr, 33

That night he had been at the 22 Club with a Hispanic man.

On July 17, Benjamin Zesch, 71, of Virginia. The father of three sons was vising Denver on a business trip.

He was a house guest in a Capitol Hill townhouse before his body was found in a room at the Royal Host Motel on East Colfax Avenue.

Earlier in the evening he had been seen leaving Mike’s Bar on South Broadway with a younger man.

Neighbors of Zesch’s Royal Host Motel later told police they heard a struggle at about 8 p.m. They saw a white man with straight, light brown hair leaving the room.

Hotel employees later found his body.

Margarito “Max” Gomez was known to let people down on their luck stay at his victorian home at 2601 Champa St. that he had subdivided into several apartments.

Courtesy of Denver Police Department

Margarito "Max" Gomez, 77

“He was always trying to help people,’’ Max’s son Floranzo Gomez, 42, told a Rocky Mountain News reporter in 1997. “He even bonded some of them out of jail when money was short.’’

Max, then 77, had his share of bad run ins with tenants as well.

In April of 1996, police arrested one man at the house for investigation of felony menacing after he struck Gomez in the face with his fist and pulled a knife.

Alex Jameson retired from the Lakewood Police Department in the early 2000s after many years of hunting down killers.

In the first few years of retirement he loved traveling with his wife to places like Bermuda, but he also missed being a detective.

He was so good at what he did that when Lakewood police officials organized a cold case unit they asked him if he’d be interested in coming back on a part-time basis to try and solve some of the cases.

That was in 2008.

Since then Jameson and fellow cold case investigator Michelle Stone-Principato, who has since been promoted to sergeant, tracked down dusty files of unsolved homicide cases and began interviewing witnesses from crimes going back decades.

They tracked down evidence and organized misplaced reports scattered in various files in storage and in old filing cabinets. They created large “murder books” that organized investigative files in chronological order. They reviewed which cases had a good chance of being solved with advances in technology.

The investigative partners sent clothing to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, hoping that they would get hits that could identify suspects. Their efforts have led to some discoveries.

In September of 2010, Jameson, Stone-Principato and several Aurora detectives announced a connection to two 1984 cold cases that authorities had long believed were connected.

The same killer who used a hammer to kill Patricia Louise Smith, 50, in Lakewood on Jan. 10, 1984, had used a different hammer to kill Bruce and Debra Bennett and their 7-year-old daughter, Melissa, six days later in Aurora.

DNA tied the two cases together. The information was fed into the FBI’s national DNA database searching for the killer. No hits have yet been made.

An average of twice a year between 1975 and 1995, the nude body of a young girl or woman appeared along rural roads and fields encircling Denver. Many were teen-agers.

Most of the murders were never solved, and a new effort is underway by a loose-knit group of cold case detectives from around the metro area who are trying to find the answers in the decades-old killings.

Those detectives have submitted evidence from various cases the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for DNA testing, hoping new technology might identify a prolific killer — or killers.

The work is driven by a simple belief: That anywhere between four and up to a half-dozen serial killers were stalking Denver-area streets between 1975 and 1995, according to detectives, murdering an untold number of women. Some investigators believe the number of victims may be as few as 17 — or as many as 38.

Authorities believe convicted serial killer Vincent Groves, who died in prison, was responsible for as many as 11 murders.

The following are 27 cases not believed to be connected to Groves. All but two are unsolved. Many of the following cases have links to cold case profiles:

Kirk Mitchell, The Denver Post

Melanie Suzanne Cooley

Read Cold Cases blog profile about Melanie Cooley’s case
____________________________________________________

Courtesy Aurora Police Department

Rebecca Kellison

Rebecca Kellison
Age: 21
Occupation: beauty college student
When disappeared: June 19, 1976
Where last seen: Denver
Cause of death: Unknown
Unusual circumstances: Her clothing and identification were found in an Adams County field but her body was never discovered.
Read Cold Cases blog profile on Rebecca Kellison’s case.
____________________________________________________

Courtesy Adams County Sheriff's Office

Gayle Noelle Page

Gayle Noelle Page
Age: 15
Occupation: unknown
When disappeared: Aug. 26, 1976
When found: Sept. 5, 1976
Where body found: near 100th Avenue and Highway 2, just west of the railroad tracks
Cause of death: Shot in head

____________________________________________________

Courtesy Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office

Kimberly Jean Grabin

Kimberly Jean Grabin
Age: 16
Occupation: Run away
When disappeared: July 23, 1979
When found: Aug. 18, 1979
Where last seen: On Capitol Hill in Denver
Where body found: 1/4 mile S. of I-70 and E. of gun club rd.
Cause of death: Strangulation
Unusual circumstances: body found nude and posed with legs spread apart.
Read Cold Cases blog profile about Kimberly Grabin’s case.

____________________________________________________

Courtesy Jefferson County Sheriff's Office

Linda Hutchings

Linda Hutchings
Age: 17
Occupation: high school student
When disappeared: Aug. 15, 1979
When found: Sept. 1, 1979
Where last seen: Boyfriend’s Lakewood home
Where body found: Indiana and W. 82nd Ave.
Cause of death: Beaten
Unusual circumstances: body found nude

Read Cold Cases blog profile about Linda Hutchings’ case.

____________________________________________________

Courtesy Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office

Stephanie Ann Bauman

Stephanie Ann Bauman
Age: 15
Occupation: Run away
When disappeared: Oct. 27, 1980
When found: Oct. 28, 1980
Where last seen: Aurora
Where body found: County Rd. 173 and U.S. 36
Cause of death: Hypothermia
Unusual circumstances: body found nude, posed with legs spread apart

Read Cold Cases blog profile about Stephanie Bauman’s case.

____________________________________________________

Jefferson County Sheriff's Office

Jeannie Moore

Jeannie Moore
Age: 18
Occupation: Gas station attendant
When disappeared: Aug. 25, 1981
When found: Aug. 28, 1981
Where last seen: 48th Ave. and Harlan St.
Where body found: Genesee Park
Cause of death: Bludgeoned in head
Unusual circumstances: body found partially clothed

Read Cold Cases profile about Jeannie Moore case.

____________________________________________________

Courtesy Adams County Sheriff's Office

Sabrina Judish

Sabrina Judish
Age: 12
Occupation: Student at Adams Middle School
When disappeared: June 18, 1983
When found: May 18, 1984
Where last seen: 7515 Brighton Rd.
Where body found: E. 64th Ave. and Powhatton Rd.
Cause of death: Skeletonized, undetermined
Unusual circumstances: found wearing only t-shirt after she disappeared from YMCA summer camp

____________________________________________________

Courtesy of Jefferson County Sheriff's Office

Tracy Lynn Wooden

Tracy Lynn Wooden
Age: 16
Occupation: Student
When disappeared: Aug. 11, 1985
When found: Aug. 12, 1985
Where last seen: Denver General Hospital
Where body found: Alley behind Fox Supply Co. at 2229 Blake St.
Cause of death: Strangled
Unusual circumstances: body found wearing only a blouse and bra pushed up over her breasts

Read Cold Cases blog profile of Tracy Wooden case.

____________________________________________________

Colorado Bureau of Investigation

Lillian Olguin

Lillian Olguin
Age: 27
Occupation: Unknown
When disappeared: Oct. 17, 1985
When found: Dec. 28, 1985
Where last seen: Denver
Where body found: Clear Creek in Adams County
Cause of death: undetermined, can’t rule out drowning
Unusual circumstances: body found nude
____________________________________________________

Aurora Police Department

Donna Wayne

Donna Sue Wayne
Age: 18
Occupation: High School student
When disappeared: June 13, 1986
When found: July 16, 1986
Where last seen: Shagnasties bar on 400 block of Havana in Aurora
Where body found: mile N. of Smith Rd., W. of Piccadilly Rd.
Cause of death: Strangled
Unusual condition: body fourn nude, posed with legs spread apart

____________________________________________________

Courtesy Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office

Karolyn Walker

Karolyn Walker
Age: 18
Occupation: Worked at Domino’s pizza.
When disappeared: July 2, 1987
When found: July 5, 1987
Where last seen: boyfriend’s apartment at Mississippi and Navajo
Where body found: ditch near I-70 and Colfax Ave.
Cause of death: Strangle
Unusual circumstances: body found nude, posed with legs spread apart
____________________________________________________

Courtesy Jefferson County Sheriff's Office

Shannon Rose MacLean

Shannon Rose MacLean
Age: 19
Occupation: unavailable
When disappeared: April 29, 1988
When found: July 17, 1988
Where last seen: 5200 block of East Yale
Where body found: Highway 285 and Surrey Rd.
Cause of death: Body too deteriorated to determine cause
Special Circumstances: She was hitchhiking and her body was found nude

____________________________________________________

Families of Victims of Homicide and Missing Persons

Jessica Arredondo

Jessica Arredondo
Age: 21
Occupation: U.S. West clerk
When disappeared: Nov. 25, 1988
When found: Nov. 26, 1988
Where last seen: E. 7th Ave. and Jackson St., Denver
Where body found: Along Highway 36 between Lyons and Estes Park
Cause of death: Beating, possibly leaped from car
Unusual circumstances: body found nude

Read Cold Cases profile on Jessica Arredondo’s case.

____________________________________________________

Courtesy of Jefferson County Sheriff's Office

Jessica Caudill

Jessica Lynn Caudill
Age: 15
Occupation: run away high school student
When disappeared: March 13, 1990
When found: April 14, 1990
Where last seen: Father’s home in Tennessee
Where body found: N. side of Highway 58 near Boyd St. exit
Cause of death: Strangled
Unusual circumstances: Body found nude in prone position

Read Cold Cases blog about Jessica Caudill case.
____________________________________________________

Courtesy of Families of Victims of Homicide and Missing Persons

Lea Lobmeyer

Lea Lobmeyer
Age: 30
Occupation: Call girl/College student
When disappeared: 2 a.m., July 22, 1992
When found: 5:30 a.m., July 22, 1992
Where last seen: 9240 W. 49th Ave.
Where body found: W. 42nd Avenue and Julian
Cause of death: Strangled
Special Circumstances: Partially nude, wearing blouse with brassiere pulled up above breasts.

Read Cold Cases blog about Lea Lobmeyer’s case.

____________________________________________________

Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office

Jennifer Sue Larson

Jennifer Sue Larson
Age: 21
Occupation: Metro State College student
When disappeared: Aug. 10, 1995
When found: Oct. 4, 1995
Where last seen: 17300 block of E. Layton Dr., Aurora
Where body found: In a sunflower field 9 miles southeast of Strasburg
Cause of death: Undetermined

Read Cold Cases blog on Jennifer Larson’s case.
____________________________________________________
Other women, mostly prostitutes found beginning in 1979. In several cases suspects have been identified. In one case suspect was convicted.

____________________________________________________

Sheila Birl
Age: 19
Occupation: Prostitute
When disappeared: Oct. 23, 1979
When found: Oct. 25, 1979
Where last seen: 1480 Valentia, Denver
Where body found: Interstate-76 and Weld County Road 51 near Hudson
Cause of death: She was beaten in the head, official cause undetermined, possible overdose.
Unusual circumstances: Last seen by pimp in Denver. Body found nude.
____________________________________________________

Cynthia Boyd
Age: 19
Occupation: Prostitute
When disappeared: unknown
When found: Feb. 21, 1980
Where last seen: 3830 Elizabeth, Denver
Where body found: 88th Avenue and Tower Road, near DIA
Cause of death: Strangled
Unusual circumstances: body was found nude with ligature marks on neck
____________________________________________________

Courtesy Tara-Marie Rabb

Yvonne Rabb

Name: Yvonne Rabb
Age: 29
Occupation: prostitute
When disappeared: Nov. 14, 1981
When found: Nov. 15, 1981
Where last seen: Five Points, Denver
Where body found: In ditch near Weld County Rds. 8 and 11
Cause of death: Shot in back of head with shotgun
Unusual circumstances: body found partially nude

Read Cold Cases blog on Yvonne Rabb case.

____________________________________________________

Courtesy Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Rhonda Fisher

Rhonda Fisher
Age: 30
Occupation: Seamstress/prostitute
When disappeared: Unavailable
When found: April 1, 1987
Where last seen: 1418 Adams St., Denver
Where body found: Perry Park Rd., Douglas County
Cause of death: Beaten/strangled, possibly with a small cord
Unusual circumstancs: found nude
____________________________________________________
Faye Johnson
Age: 23
Occupation: Prostitution
When disappeared: Early Jan. 29, 1988
When found: Jan. 29, 1988
Where last seen: Colfax Avenue, Denver
Where body found: East 6th Ave. and Manilla Rd.
Cause of death: Strangulation
Unusual circumstances: body found nude. Last seen getting into stranger’s car. Suspected link to serial killer Vincent Groves
____________________________________________________

Robin Nelson
Age: 25
Occupation:
When disappeared: June 8, 1988
When found: June 12, 1988
Where last seen: Denver
Where body found: Weld County, south of Weld County Rd. 8
Manor of death: possible cocaine overdose
Unusual circumstances: body found nude
____________________________________________________

Courtesy Jefferson County Sheriff's Office

Lanell Williams

Lanell Williams
Age: 28
Occupation: prostitute
When disappeared: Oct. 12, 1989
When found: Oct. 14, 1989
Where last seen: Aurora
Where body found: Off Highway 6, about 9/10ths of mile W. of Highway 58
Manor of death: Strangled
Unusual circumstances: She was dressed in clothes she hadn’t been wearing when last seen by mother.

Read Cold Cases blog about Lanell Williams’ case.

____________________________________________________

Jefferson County Sheriff's Office

Lisa Kay Kelly

Lisa Kay Kelly
Age: 33
Occupation: prostitute
When disappeared: September 1988
When found: March 24, 1989
Where last seen: Aurora
Where body found: Clear Creek Canyon
Manor of death: Strangled

Read Cold Cases blog about Lisa Kay Kelly’s case.

____________________________________________________

Jefferson County Sheriff's Office

Sharon Stone

Sharon Kay Stone
Age: 46
Occupation: hotel maid
When disappeared:
When found: July 28, 1989
Where last seen: Colfax Ave in Denver
Where body found: Golden Gate Canyon Rd., ½ mile W. of Highway 93
Cause of death: Undetermined
Unusual circumstances: body was nude

Read Cold Cases blog about Sharon Stone’s case.

____________________________________________________

Courtesy Denver Police Department

Valerie Meeks

Valerie Meeks
Age: 36
Occupation: Prostitute
When disappeared: July 3, 1991
When found: July 17, 1991
Where last seen: Aurora, along Colfax Avenue
Where body found: County roads 4 and 5, near Erie
Cause of death: Suffocated with plastic bag over head
Unusual circumstances: Her body was Nude

Read Cold Cases blog about Valerie Meeks’ case.

When fire broke out at the Santa Rita Apartments at 1170 Logan Street in Denver on Nov. 2, 1983 Kevin Landon and Lori Ann Seipp panicked.

Kevin Landon, 24 (Courtesy Denver Police Department)

While other residents of the three-story apartment building climbed out of windows or fled outside, the young disabled couple huddled in their kitchen.

Landon, 24, and Seipp, 23, were mentally disabled and each had physical impairments as well.

“‘Lori would be unable to jump off a chair, let alone out a second-floor window,’” her mother, Judy Le Doux, told arson investigators later.

When Margarita Nene searched for her brother Crespin Nene-Perez no one answered his apartment door in Englewood.

[/media-credit] Bonny Lee Baker, 47,
Courtesy: Denver Police Department

A week later she started to clean out his car, a 1985 Mercury, which was parked near the apartment, when she made a frightening discovery.

In the back seat she found something very suspicious. There was hair and blood all over the seat.

A lot of blood.

Abigail “Abby” Blagg’s smile with two front teeth missing could light up a room.

Abigail “Abby” Blagg, 6

It’s been 11 years now since anyone has seen Abby, who had freckles, a pug nose and short sandy blond hair.

She lived in a nice home in a cul-de-sac at 2253 Pine Terrace Court in the Redlands Mesa neighborhood in Mesa County near Grand Junction. The Blaggs were renting.

Her folks, Michael and Jennifer Blagg, had moved from Simpsonville, South Carolina 10 months earlier. They had also lived in Texas, California and Arizona over the course of 10 years. Neighbors would say they were reclusive but a model family, nonetheless.

Michael, 38, a former Navy lieutenant commander and helicopter pilot and nuclear engineer, was an operations manager at AMETEK Inc., which manufactures truck gauges. He was known to dashed out of his office if he was needed at home.

Jennifer, 34, was a stay-at-home mom, who volunteered at Abby’s school, Bookcliff Christian School, collected rocks and jewelry and took Jazzercise classes three days a week.

Abby was a first grader. On the Tuesday she went missing, she didn’t go to school. A parent called the front office. It was an excused absence. Abby had always been really good at her studies.

Sheri Lynn Espinoza grew up fast in Delta.

Sheri Espinoza, 22
Courtesy Families of Victims of Homicide and Missing Persons

When she was in the first year of high school, her mother Lucy suffered a severe back injury at the Chevron convenience store where she worked. Lucy had three ruptured discs in her spinal cord.

“She quit school to take care of me,” Lucy Espinoza, 59, of LaSalle said. “I couldn’t walk.”

Every day Sheri Espinoza would dress, bathe and feed her mother. She helped her mom get to the bathroom, cleaned the house and made dinner.

When Lucy had medical appointments in Grand Junction, the 13-year-old girl would even drive her mother 40 miles to her doctor’s office.

Delta law enforcement officers knew their predicament and wouldn’t pull the girl over when they saw her driving her mother around, Lucy Espinoza said. She was too young to have a driver’s license.

“She had a lot of responsibility,” Lucy Espinoza said.

Sheri Espinoza was her youngest living child. One younger daughter had died shortly after birth and an older daughter, Sheila Ann, had fallen off a counter while working at a sugar beet farm and died, Lucy Espinoza said.

It would take years before Lucy Espinoza got the medical treatment she needed to get her back on her feet.

It was like partnerships formed in the nineteenth century by fortune seekers rushing to streambeds and mountain sides of Colorado in a search for golden flakes or nuggets.

But this union had a twist. This was no wild, gold-panning proposition that might or might not succeed.

David Caffey, then 42, was virtually guaranteeing $25,000 in gems, gold and crystals to two men he met while working as a carpenter in Florida.

Family members recall the enthusiasm of one of the Caffey’s partners, Raymond Collins, 47. The carpenter, who had three deformed fingers and had worked for Quality Framing for nine years, was heading west to strike it rich and change his life.

Ray Collins, 57

For years, Collins had been travelling to different states including North Carolina and Arkansas hunting for gems. Collins, a twice-divorced father of three, had a small gem-stone polishing machine.

In 1986, Collins met Caffey, who worked for Desmon Construction, at a building site in Dundee, Fl., Caffey would later tell an insurance investigator.

They became friends almost from the first day they spoke about mining rubies in the Carolinas, he would say. He had already been planning a trip to Colorado and offered Collins a chance to come with him.

Caffey said he had paid $50,000 to lease a mining claim on Mt. Antero near Poncho Springs, Co., where the highest quality aquamarine had been found in the U.S.

Caffey told Collins that on previous trips he had found an abundance of aquamarine and gold nuggets, said Chaffee County investigator Andrew Rohrich.

Caffey’s brother-in-law, who lived in Denver, would later tell authorities that around 1983 he had accompanied Caffey on a gem-hunting trip to Mt. Antero. They searched for a few hours and when they didn’t find any aquamarine they drove back to Denver empty-handed.

Caffey predicted to Collins that over a three-month period of time they could expect to find $25,000 worth of the gem.

That summer in late June, Collins’ brother, Troy Collins, said he travelled from Muscle Shoals, Al. where he lived to West Palm Beach, Fl. for a family reunion. While he was staying with his brother, Caffey came over to his house.

After her husband Carl Dowerman died five years earlier, Lena Dowerman became the new manager of an apartment building at 30 Bayaud Ave.

Lena Dowerman, 71
Courtesy Denver Police Department

The 71-year-old woman, who did not have children, was born in 1899 and lived alone. She knew how dangerous her neighborhood could be.

Ten years before her husband’s death in 1965 he was assaulted by two teens not far from their doorstep.

The first teen approached him on the corner of Broadway and Bayaud just after he had walked out of his front door and asked him for a nickel. He began to walk away and another teen asked him for matches. Both teens then shoved him to the ground, beat him, rifled through his pockets and stole three quarters.

They ran away.

Susan Teer is haunted by the sound of her daughters screaming for her to save them.

“‘Mommy, mommy,’” yelled Cherelle Lucille Morehouse, 8, Teer recalled.

[media-credit id=183 align="alignleft" width="188"] Cherelle “Cher” Lucille Morehouse, 8
Photo courtesy of Susan Teer

But there was no way she could get to Cherelle or Skyann, her 3-year-old younger sister.

The little girls were in their bedroom crying.

The fire melted the metal walls and engulfed the trailer she shared with her daughters and boyfriend Dennis Engen, 55, in space 434 at Redwood Estates, 9595 North Pecos, in Thornton.

Teer suffered six broken ribs while escaping from the other side of the trailer but couldn’t get to her girls.

They breathed fire into their lungs and went silent.

It was in the early morning hours of Dec. 16, 1984, nine days from Christmas. Both her daughters died.

It’s a puzzle who would shoot the 57-year-old pastry chef, grandmother, picnicker and arrowhead-hunter.

Melba Jean Ginther, 57
Courtesy Colorado Bureau of Investigation

And how it happened was even more bizarre.

Melba Jean Ginther was shot in the back of the head by a high-powered rifle from very close range – execution style.

Her skirt had been lifted and her panties torn, according to a press report.

It was a busy night.

In an active family that always seemed to be going in different directions at the same time, the four members were doing different things.

That night Jonelle Renee Matthews’ mother Gloria was flying out of state to spend time with her father over the holidays.

Jonelle Matthews, 12, of Greeley
Denver Post archives

Her sister Jennifer, then 16, was playing basketball for Greeley Central High School.

Jonelle’s father, Jim Matthews, the principal of Platte Valley Elementary School in Kersey, first took her to a fast food restaurant for a quick hamburger before driving her to Franklin Middle School. He then drove to the high school to catch Jennifer’s basketball game.

Jonelle got on a bus with classmates who were part of a choir. They traveled together to a nursing home to sing Christmas carols. Jonelle loved to sing. She was also on a choir at her church.

After the concert was over, Jonelle caught a ride home with her friend Deanna Ross and her father Russell Ross. The Rosses noticed that the garage door had been left open.

The cryptic messages were drawn in snow near Zapata Falls, just south of Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Angelica Sandoval

“Help. Danger. Call Cops. Angel loves Lariah.”

Along with the words, there were arrows pointing to where Angelica Sandoval may have been taken while held captive.

The discovery gave her family momentary hope they soon would find the mother of 1-year-old Lariah.

But the 21-year-old Alamosa woman, who was 4-feet-11 and weighed 105 pounds, remains missing since she vanished Feb. 23, 2011 just days before she was to testify in a burglary
case.

Xavier Walker used to crack his older sister Brandis Patterson up.

Kirk Mitchell, The Denver Post

Xavier Walker, 16
Courtesy of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation

There was that time when he told her the only way he could get his big head in a football helmet was to slather grease all over his hair. The way he described it, she could picture him straining to pull the helmet on. She laughed and laughed.

Xavier was somewhat of a jokester.

“He made people laugh,” Brandis said.

Xavier could draw Daffy Duck and other Disney characters in such hilarious detail in his special drawing pad.

Xavier would pull the pad out and show Brandis, who was two years older. He kept drew elaborate drawings of super heroes of his own invention with bulging muscles.

Tim Masters was a 15-year-old sophomore at Fort Collins High School when he spotted something that didn’t look real on his way to his bus stop.

Peggy Hettrick, 37
Courtesy Fort Collins Police

He walked up to within six feet of the woman’s body that lay on her back in a field about 100 feet from the 3800 block of South Landings Drive. Her bra, blouse and black coat had been pushed up above her breasts; her panties and bluejeans had been pulled down to her knees.

It was also only 100 feet from the trailer where Masters lived with his father. To Masters, it looked more like a mannequin. It was very real though.

It was the body of 37-year-old Peggy Lee Hettrick.

Hettrick was a college dropout and aspiring writer who was known for wearing fanciful hats while she worked as manager of the accessories department in the old Fashion Bar clothing store. An avid cook, she packed lunches of shrimp and avocado. She was writing a book. Her half-written, neatly typed novel about diamond smugglers was in a drawer in her apartment.

Shortly after graduating from Green Mountain High School in Lakewood Peter Glaser was to have started automotive college.

Peter Glaser, 18

“Cars were his life,” his mother Christa told a reporter. “He knew so much.”

But 30 years ago, Peter Glaser was shot in an apparent robbery and never had a chance to go to the school.

His case wasn’t considered a homicide though until he died in 2003, 21 years after he was shot.

The reason it was reclassified was that the shot in 1982 led directly to Glaser’s death.

He had been in a vegetative state most of his life.

On the night of Sept. 17, 1982, Glaser, 18, was working at Phillips and Andersons Lakewood Tire and Wheel, 6321 W. Alameda Ave.

Coworkers went out for pizza. When they returned to the shop just before midnight they found Glaser on the floor beside a lift.

His head was bloody and the coworkers at first believed that he had been in an industrial type accident. That’s the way his injury was viewed at first.

But when a spent shell casing was discovered behind a tire, the investigation went in a completely different direction.

X-rays three days later confirmed that he had been shot.

A bag of money was missing from the office, leading police to believe he had been shot
during a robbery.

The next month, police learned that the same type of weapon used to shoot Glaser, a .38-caliber semiautomatic, had been fired during a street robbery in Aurora, according to an article by former Denver Post reporter Marilyn Robinson.

The victim in that shooting reported he had been shot at twice by a man wearing a ski mask, a green Army fatigue jacket, blue jeans and dark boots. Because the gunman was about 35 feet away, he couldn’t provide a better description.

Tests by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation showed the two casings recovered in Aurora had been fired from the same weapon used to shoot Glaser, Lakewood Detective Alex Jameson told Robinson.

Alonzo Rufus Witherspoon was a well-respected church deacon at Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church in Denver and had served in the military. He was 65.

Alonzo Rufus Witherspoon, 65

Clementus Cletus Williams, the son of parents both serving prison terms, was out on bail on a robbery arrest of a grocery store in Aurora. He was 15.

Witherspoon had been known for counseling kids like Williams at his church. But on Sept. 13, 2000, he and Williams allegedly clashed in a brief road rage incident on 29th Avenue and Adams Street.

Witherspoon was shot to death in an apparant road rage incident.

Authorities believed so strongly that Williams was responsible that they arrested him and then-district attorney Bill Ritter charged him as an adult with first degree murder.

But Williams was not found guilty of murder, nor was he acquitted. He didn’t even have a trial at all.

His mother pictured him in a lot of ways.

Glenn Taylor, 16
Courtesy of Denver Police Department

Playing violin. Going to college. Practicing medicine or law.

But Josie Davis didn’t imagine her 16-year-old son Glenn Taylor lying on a street bleeding to death.

The Manuel High School junior was taking college level classes and getting good grades.

He was enrolled in Metropolitan State College of Denver’s Upward Bound program. The program for low-income kids required him to attend classes after school twice a week and attend summer school.

He took challenging classes: zoology, geometry, history and American literature.

Taylor was a well-rounded youth.

He played guitar, piano, viola. He was a member of the school’s wrestling team and was active in Junior ROTC. He loved to play football.

Although Taylor didn’t know exactly what profession he would persue he was certain college was in his future.

“He showed so much promise,” educator Charles Maldonado told former Denver Post reporter Marilyn Robinson. “I thought I had a young attorney here.”

Sometimes he spoke of getting a law degree so he could focus on issues affecting African-Americans. He’d get into lengthy conversations with friends about the problems posed by gangs and drugs.

That night, Sept. 27, 1994 – just after midnight – Taylor was standing outside his home at East 25th Avenue and Race Street west of City Park Golf Course with his 14-year-old sister and a neighbor. They were chatting.

Then someone drove down the street in a large, beige-colorado older model car.

According to one media account, the same car had been driven through the neighborhood about a minute earlier. When it returned to the neighborhood it had its headlights out.

Gang signs were flashed. It didn’t matter apparently that Taylor, his sister and friend had never been involved in gangs in any way.