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3-year-old sees man who killed mom in Aurora home

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Shannon LeFree was only 3 1/2 years old when she saw a man in her home at 12900 East Baranmor Parkway.

She would later tell that she believes she had seen the man at a softball game shortly before that day. The young girl was only able to give a very vague description of the man.

He had entered the home on the afternoon of April 21, 1980 without leaving signs of a forced entry.

Shannon’s father, Stephen Dean LeFree, worked at a milk distribution business run by his father-in- and went to work early every day, said Aurora , who investigates cold cases.

He was a relief worker, who filled in for sick milk delivery workers. His wife, Ann, was a stay-at-home mom who was five months pregnant.

On this particular day he returned home at 3:15 p.m.

It was odd that the front door was open, he would tell Aurora homicide detectives.

He went into the home and found his daughter Shannon in her room.

As he searched the home he said he found his wife, Ann Francis LeFree, 25, in a bathroom.

She was lying on the floor, bleeding from the head and mouth, according to Aurora police records.


Two Denver kids kidnapped, molested and shot in head

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The two boys’ bodies were carefully laid side by side off of Tower Road, south of East 58th Avenue.

Steven Wicks, left, and Ronald DeFond III

, left, and
Denver Post archives

Steven Douglas Wicks, 11, lived in Hudson. His nephew, Ronald Lewis Defond, 7, lived in Denver on the 1400 block of Williams St. with his mother.

They had both been in the head.

The boys were fully clothed. There were no signs of a scuffle.

But their bodies were convulsing.

Denver street thugs fatally beat opera singer/broadway actress with golf clubs

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She had been an and actress.

, 53, had once acted in Broadway productions in including the 1964 play Funny Girl. She played the role of “Mrs. O’Malley.”

She had sung in . Her boyfriend when she lived in New York City was . She collected travel and .

Hariett Lawyer-Duvallo in 1970 while appearing in "Cabaret"

Hariett Lawyer-Duvallo in 1970 while appearing in “
Denver Post file photograph

She also had an acting role in the 1959 film “” starring Jimmy Stewart.

Raised by a physician who was the mayor of her town, Lawyer-Duvallo earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the University of Indiana. She also studied acting in Berlin.

Lawyer-Duvallo first visited Colorado in 1961 to perform at the Aspen Music Festival.

She moved from New York City to Denver in the summer of 1970, “because you can actually breathe here,” she told Denver Post reporter Glenn Giffin in July of 1970. It might have also had something to do with the fact that a burglar cleaned out her New York City apartment.

She starred as Frau Schneider in a theater production of “Cabaret” on Aug. 15, 1970 at Bonfils Theatre.

Westminster housewife disappeared on birthday party errand

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UPDATE: ’s investigator Cheryl Moore is asking that anyone who knows the identity of the following person call her at 303-271-5625.

Person of interest in murder of Nora Lois Coursey

Person of interest in murder of Nora Lois Coursey
Courtesy of Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office

According to Moore the picture is of a man considered a person of interest in the case.

Original blog:

Nora “Lois” Coursey had driven her 11-year-old daughter to a birthday party at 2811 S. Delaware St. in , arriving at 2:30 p.m.

When the other mother mentioned that she had forgotten to get birthday napkins, Lois Coursey insisted that she go to a nearby store to pick up forgotten birthday napkins.

She walked out the front door within 15 minutes after arriving.

The 30-year-old mother of four children ranging in age from 2 to 14 walked to the street where she had parked on that sunny afternoon wearing a pink blouse and a gray, pink and white full-lengthed skirt.

Nora "Lois" Coursey, 30

Nora “Lois” Coursey, 30
Courtesy Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office

She was in white high-heeled pumps and was carrying a white purse.

She wouldn’t have needed to carry a lot of money. Back then, you could buy two heads of lettuce for 19 cents, a pound of oranges for 9 cents and three pounds of hamburger for a dollar.

The pretty young woman climbed into her 1950 gray Hudson at about 3:30 p.m. and drove away on a 10-minute errand – never to return again.

Wealthy Denver developer killed day before move

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grew up in an impoverished home in Fremont, .

But he worked his way through college at the University of Kansas, where he also earned a degree in 1966, according to a Lawrence, Ka. Daily Journal-World article. For a time he lived a charmed life.

Steven E. Wickliff, 56

Steven E. Wickliff, 56
Courtesy Colorado Bureau of Investigation

He married Mimi Frink, who was in 1966, the daughter of Dr. Russell Frink.

Mimi Wickliff majored in theater and psychology at the University of Kansas and became an and model, according to a Lawrence Journal-World article.

She ran a dance school after graduating from KU. The couple had two children.

“Steve was a very likable, charismatic fellow,” said Dr. Mike Iseman of Denver, who grew up with Wickliff in Nebraska. “An excellent student, a fine athlete and a great sense of humor.”

He made millions developing skyscrappers, malls and shopping centers in the Denver metro area when he was partners with Bill Walters, according to several local news articles.

In 1979, the approved issuance of $9.5 million in industrial revenue bonds in support of a 497-room hotel and convention center near an office complex near Interstate-225 and Parker Road.

Wickliff and Walters were partners in the deal. It would become the Ramada Renaissance Hotel.

The partners developed 16 shopping centers and 10 office buildings in the metro area during the 1980s.

But in 1985, Wickliff and his wife divorced.

Wickliff would later tell a reporter that he was busy working long hours to put together real estate deals.

Denver wanted man has become media celebrity in Argentina

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It was an honor this week when Linda Shapley, Post’s director of newsroom operations, invited me to speak at a seminar with three authors I admire: , and Mark Obmascik.

The seminar is called Denver Post U: The Story Behind The Story .

The two-hour session beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 27 is free and it’s in the auditorium of The building, 101 W. Colfax Ave.

We’re going to talk about challenges we overcame to track down interesting details for our books.

I get to talk about the development of my newly released book, The Spin Doctor: Hero or Cold-blooded Killer, which was inspired by one of the blogs I wrote.

Cover of my newly released book The Spin Doctor: Hero or Cold-Blooded Killer http://www.newhorizonpressbooks.com/new/spindoctor.php

Cover of my newly released book The Spin Doctor: Hero or Cold-Blooded Killer

I word to the wise. There are only a limited number of tickets and the other three guys have written best sellers. One of Obmascik’s books, “The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession” was made into a major motion picture starring Jack Black and Steve Martin. So get your tickets online soon through the link above.

I wrote a cold case blog about the alleged murder of Nancy Sonnenfeld in November of 2009. Soon after, I began writing The Spin Doctor based on her cold case.

Nancy died of a gunshot wound to the head in her Denver home following a New Year’s Eve soiree in 2002.

Her husband, Kurt, then a spokesman for FEMA, called 911 claiming his wife just killed herself.

Police believe he staged the scene to look like a suicide. He is charged with first degree for allegedly killing Nancy.

Sonnenfeld, who had moved to Buenos Aires, before the charge was filed, denies the allegation and is fighting extradition.

He claims U.S. agents him for murder to silence him because his videotape of in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks reveals their complicity in the far-reaching conspiracy.

A lot has happened since that first blog in November of 2009.

In November, New Horizon Press released my first book, The Spin Doctor: Hero or Cold-Blooded killer? about the Sonnenfeld case.

Grand Junction woman disappears on bicycle ride

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was only a block from her home and two blocks from the Police Department headquarters when she on April 6, 1975.

Denise Oliverson, 24

Denise Oliverson, 24
Photo courtesy of Bureau of Investigation

The 24-year-old woman rode her bike under the 5th Street Viaduct, a railroad bridge, shortly after she was last seen.

Her parents soon reported that she was missing.

Railroad employees found Oliverson’s bike and shoes under a bridge. But it would take nearly 20 days before a connection was made between Oliverson’s belongings and her disappearance.

Grand Junction detectives James Fromm and Doug Rushing started investigating the strange disappearance only after Colorado Bureau of Investigation investigator Bob Perkins recognized that the missing person case was similar to several others in Colorado, , and .

Fromm said Perkins, who was based in an office in Montrose, was way ahead of his time in recognizing pattern murders that would later be called “serial” murders.

Back then different enforcement agencies rarely communicated and the idea that certain killers would prey on multiple victims was not considered that frequently, Fromm said.

But Perkins kept notes on similarities between cases.

The circumstances of Oliverson’s disappearance was remarkably similar to a number of missing person cases involving young women.

Caryn Campbell, 23

Caryn Campbell, 23

She had long, dark brown hair that was parted in the middle. She was thin and pretty at 5-feet-4. She weighed 105 pounds.

Oliverson looked like Caryn Campbell, 23, of Dearborn, Mich. Campbell had left a Snowmass restaurant on Jan. 12, 1975 to get a magazine from her hotel room when she disappeared.

Her nude, frozen body was found beside a road near Aspen on Feb. 17, 1975.

Campbell had severe trauma to the head and it appeared her hands had been tied behind her back. It also appeared that someone had thrown her body out of a car.

Founder of Denver school murdered with sister

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’s legacy goes back to the early 1910s when she founded a school that has come to be symbolic with helping kids and adults rise above poverty.

Photo of Emily Griffith, date unknown, copy by Lyn Alweis

Photo of Emily Griffith, date unknown, copy by Lyn Alweis
Courtesy Public Library Western History Department

Her name is nearly as recognizable in Denver today as it was in the first half of last century.

The mystery behind who really murdered her and her younger sister also lingers.

Emily Griffith was the founder of the , once called the . It has shepherded 1.6 million students to new careers over its 96-year history.

On the morning of June 18, 1947, she and her sister were shot to death in a cabin in Larimer County. The murders have never been solved.
Griffith began her teaching career in a sod school house in .

She was born on Feb. 10, 1880 in Cincinatti, Ohio. She graduated from Broken Bow, Neb. in 1895 and attended college in Nebraska and at the Denver Normal and Preparatory School. Her first teaching job was in 1898 at Central school.

She was an eighth grade teacher on the 24th Street School in 1913. Many of the students who attended the school came from impoversished homes.

It is what inspired her to establish the “Opportunity School,” according to an article in 1947 by former reporter Alex Murphree.

She recognized that the needs of the children in her class was great but the needs of their older siblings and parents were even greater.

Many didn’t know how to read or write. They had dropped out of school. Griffith first offered night classes for the parents so they could learn after work.

On Sept. 9, 1916 she opened the doors of the “Opportunity School.” It was a free school within the public Denver school system. The school offered trade education for barbers, bakers and plumbers.


Aurora woman killed in random shooting spree at motorcycle club

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“Hi Mr. Mitchell,

Angel Thomas, in upper left corner, daughter Tishauna, in lower right corner. Tribute in left lower corner says: There will alway be a part of you in her

, in upper left corner, daughter Tishauna, in lower right corner. Tribute in left lower corner says: There will alway be a part of you in her
Courtesy of Tishauna Thomas

“My name is Tishauna Thomas.

“I am 13 years old going on 14 years old next month!

“My mother Angel Thomas was murdered in 2009 at the bike club in aurora…Me without my mom is the worst pain ever…I really want to find who did this to my mom…I would do anything to help find my mom’s killer because anyone deserves to know who did such a tragic thing to their mom…Please help!! Have a nice day.”

Tishauna’s recent e-mail was stunning.

She matter-of-factly described the most agonizing event of her young life and yet the understated message was packed with emotion.

When Tishauna carries her backpack with textbooks each day to Silver Hills Middle School in the heaviest load the A-student carries is grief. She must somehow manage to study knowing that the person who her mother and “best friend” hasn’t been brought to justice.

Someone killed the Angel in her life.

“It’s not like my mother died of a natural cause. She was murdered,” Tishauna said.

Angel Thomas’ struck a chord with me in more than the way Tishauna had personalized it for me.

Three years ago I went to the scene of her mother’s murder.

Englewood girl beaten to death, dumped partially nude under bridge

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The 22-year-old man appeared disoriented.

Melissa Lou Chase, 17

, 17
Photo courtesy of Bureau of Investigation

He was walking back and forth on the 300 block of West Lehow Street in late Thursday night, Dec. 8, 1983.

Neighbors called police, who found the man around 11:30 p.m.

The man had reported his 17-year-old live-in girlfriend Melissa Lou Chase missing hours earlier.

He had walked into the Police Department headquarters and filed the missing person report at 8 p.m., according to an article in The Independent.

He led police to Chase’s partially clothed body. She was not wearing anything from the waist down.

Her body was on top of a foot of snow beneath the Lehow Bridge near South Delaware Street on the west bank of the Big Dry Creek.

In news reports of the day, the young man was never named.

He was only referred to as Chase’s boyfriend. Chase lived in an apartment with her boyfriend and his father at 4050 S. Bannock St.

According to some news reports her face was beyond recognition. Police indicated that it appeared she had been kicked in the head.

Littleton police questioned the man before releasing him.

The last time Chase had been seen alive was on Dec. 7, 1983 around 5:30 p.m., after she finished her shift at Phillips 66 service station at Union Avenue and Broadway.

18-year-old Lakewood woman stalked before shooting death

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That Friday morning, a 13-year-old girl ran to the window of her home.

Sandra JoAnn Rushing, 18

, 18
Courtesy Department

There was an unusual disturbance in the quiet Lakewood neighborhood where she lived near West Kentucky Drive and South Simms Street.

Someone had just slammed the gearshift on a blue 1970 AMC Rebel into reverse and floored the accelerator. The young teen-ager had heard tire wheels screeching.

The car careened backward and struck the curb on the south side of Kentucky. The driver overcorrected and – still going backward – the car struck the north curb of the street.

The car had gone nearly the entire block backward, zig-zagging all the way, almost to Simms.

Then the 13-year-old girl heard a loud blast from a large caliber hand gun. A bullet had pierced the blue car’s front windshield.

When the girl looked out the window of her home on West Kentucky Drive she saw a car spinning wildly in circles.

The car did three circles before it plowed over the south curb again and smashed into a stop sign.

The girl saw a man walking down the street after the was fired.

Two young girls walking on Briarwood Street saw another blue car with a man and a small boy stop near the crashed car. The man then sped away.

A motorcyclist, David Williams of Lakewood, stopped by the car and opened the door to look inside. A tiny black poodle leaped out of the car and ran away.

Williams saw a young woman slumped over in the passenger seat. Williams opened the door and entered the car. He pressed his palm against the woman’s neck, trying to stop bleeding from a bullet hole.

Denver newly-wed attacked, shot in apartment

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It was late at night when there was a noise at the apartment door of and his wife, Valerie.

Russell S. Clark, 24

Russell S. Clark, 24
Courtesy Department

Because of the hour on Jan. 15, 1983, Russell Clark quickly volunteered to go check the door at 1222 E. 16th Ave. – just in case something went wrong.

Neighbors later told police that they heard an argument next door at around 9 p.m.

There was a loud fight.

Valerie would tell police that a man she didn’t recognize burst into their small apartment and attacked her husband.

It was unclear whether Russell had opened the door or the man had broken into the apartment, according to police records.

Russell Clark fought back.

Valerie dashed around the fighting men and ran to a neighbor’s door to get help.

Police were called.

There was a gunshot.

Valerie ran back to her apartment to see if her husband was .

The door was shut. It was locked.

The neighbor followed her to her door. He kicked her door open.

The suspect had bolted.

Denver cabbie murdered in 1993 robbery

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The cab careened across a lawn on the 1100 block of .

Martin A. Miley, 38

Martin A. Miley, 38
Courtesy Police Department

It tore bark off of a tree and flattened a street sign. Neighbors heard a loud crash.

Only then did the Zone Cab stop.

Cab driver Martin A. Miley was found slumped over the steering wheel.

Police theorized at the time that the stole money from Miley following the crash and ran away, but neighbors did not see the suspect.

Police did not release the amount of money that had been taken in the .

“But cabdrivers who ‘work the bells,’ that is, pick up and deliver passengers from door to door, say it couldn’t have been very much,” Ensslin’s story says.

The 38-year-old cab driver was rushed to University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

He had a gunshot in the back of the head, according to news reports.

Miley had received a late-night dispatch to pick someone up on Glencoe Street.

It was the last known contact with him before he was , according to police records.

It was the evening of Dec. 6, 1993, 20 years ago.

Miley had only been working for the cab company for five months at the time and it was his first job as a taxi driver, according to a article.

Denver mother of four stabbed 40 times, beaten and lit on fire

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Grace Victoria “Vickie” Espinoza told a neighbor she was afraid for her life.

From right, Bonnie, Vickie, Robin, Kristy and Joy

From right, Bonnie, Vickie, Robin, Kristy and Joy
Courtesy of the Espinoza family

Vickie also told police she was being – perhaps to the point that she was considered a nuisance. She would call 911 and police would come, but they wouldn’t find anybody, he said.

“She was calling them all the time,” said Robert Espinoza, 71, Vickie’s ex-husband. “They thought she was a wacko.”

But she had a reason for fearing for her safety, he said.

Robert Espinoza said his ex-wife had been molested as a child and that her mother threw her out of her house. She had struggled with self-destructive thoughts at times.

Throughout her life Vickie had emotional problems and would self medicate with illegal drugs, Robert Espinoza said.

“She owed money for drugs,” he said. “I guess she knew somebody was going to kill her.”

But Vickie’s calls to police were so frequent that they believed she was crazy, Robert Espinoza said.

One time she told her daughters that a police officer had shoved her against her car and warned her never to call them again or he would arrest her for making false calls, Robert Espinoza said.

She was worried that it was over her property. She told neighborhood friends that someone had been watching her.

“She was always frightened,” one neighbor told a reporter at the time. “She had a real fear that something was going to happen to her.”

The 49-year-old woman was living alone in her house after divorcing Robert Espinoza.

Vickie wanted to sell the house on 46 Xavier St. so she could move into a townhome.

On the evening of March 31, 1996, and into the early morning hours of April 1, April Fool’s Day, Vickie called police.

They didn’t respond, Robert Espinoza said.

Aurora hit-and-run driver hits two boys, killing one

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Peter Rudyk had just started working nights as a busboy at The Emerald Isle restaurant in .

Childhood picture of Peter Rudyk, who was killed by hit-and-run driver

Childhood picture of Peter Rudyk, who was by driver
Photo courtesy of Families of Victims of Homicide and Missing Persons

The 16-year-old student wanted to help his mother make payments on her car.

Rudyk also wanted to buy a car of his own.

He usually would catch a ride home with friends but the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 14, 1983 was pleasant, according to news accounts at the time.

He and 16-year-old co-worker were walking home near Quincy Avenue’s intersection with Chambers Road when they were struck by a car.

They were thrown 30 feet in the air.

The accident happened at an unlighted section of a street where homes were under construction.

The driver didn’t hang around. He drove off. It was 12:30 a.m.

Baker survived with head and internal injuries. His leg was broken. He was in a coma.

Rudyk suffered massive head injuries. He was taken to Humana Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

During a funeral at Fairmont Mortuary, Peter’s father spoke.

“I don’t have a sense of vengeance (toward the driver),” Brian Rudyk said. “Maybe later on I’ll have some animosity. Not now. I want to make sure that no other kids are run down. It’s such a waste of life. I just can’t imagine anyone doing this. I hope the guilt and shame would bring the person to admit it.”

When Baker returned home in a leg cast he told correspondent Sally Hekkers that his friend’s death “hurts a lot.”

“I dislike the fact that he hit me and didn’t stop,” Baker said.


Arsonist kills Loveland man and 10-month-old adoptive son; wife escapes

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and his wife Gwendolyn “Joyce” Perry had an infant boy 10 months earlier in 1978.

Gwendolyn "Joyce" Perry, Walter Perry Jr., and Kimo

[media-credit name=" Daily Reporter-Herald" align="alignleft" width="270"][/media-credit] Gwendolyn “Joyce” Perry, Walter Perry Jr., and

It was about six years after the family moved from Las Vegas to Loveland and seven years after they had married.

Walter worked in construction and landscaping. The family was active at the Church of Christ. Walter and Joyce would often drive the church’s school bus. They taught Sunday School.

On May 29, 1978, an infant was born in . The Perrys adopted the child and named their adopted son Kimo.

Shortly after midnight on March 12, 1979, the couple was awakened by flames.

There were too many flames inside the home to get to a back bedroom where tiny Kimo was in his crib, so Walter and Gwendolyn escaped from the front of the home.

They ran around to the back of the home to see if there was a way to get to Kimo.

Walter Perry tried to rescue his son who was still inside the one-story home, but suffered severe burns in the process.

Neighbor Steve Montel awoke and saw a “glare” on the curtain, according to an account in the Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald.

Montel looked out the window and saw that the Perry home was on fire. He immediately called 911. It was 12:54 a.m.

Just then, she heard banging at the door.

“‘My husband. My baby,’” Gwendolyn screamed hysterically.

Gwendolyn explained that she had to drag her husband out of her house but she couldn’t reach her son who was in a back bedroom.

Montel dressed quickly and his wife Karolyn threw on a bathrobe.

Czechoslovakia neurologist who fled communist state gunned down in Denver clinic

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had been of amateur woman’s tennis in Czechoslovakia.

Dr. Zdenka Kalendovsky

[media-credit name="Courtesy Department" align="alignleft" width="155"][/media-credit] Dr. Zdenka Kalendovsky

She also was a brilliant doctor.

Kalendovsky became a world-renown research .

She was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, now the , in 1936. Brno is the second largest city in the country.

Kalendovsky studied medicine in her native country.

In 1968, Kalendovsky and her husband to be escaped oppression in the communist country.

She wound up in , where she was accepted at Cornell University Medical Center. While there she did postgraduate work for three years.

While living in New York City she married engineer Jiri Kalendovsky in 1971. The couple had a daughter, Mary.

Kalendovsky later moved to Colorado. The 40-year-old physician was living in Boulder with her husband and 2-year-old daughter.

While living in Boulder she became an assistant clinical professor at the Medical Center and was on the staff at a clinic at 701 E. Colfax Ave.

She was aclaimed for her research in several areas. She was looking at the cause of strokes in young people and the cause of .

A national research group gave the doctor an award for her research on the causes of migraine headaches.

Nevada prison escapee found in Denver garage

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That February, 18 years ago, Cynthia Anjanette Cullins drove to to spend a week with her family.

It was a special occasion. She was turning 24.

But it wasn’t the typical joyous time for the exuberant woman who was usually the life of the party.

Cynthia was sullen, tired and stressed out. She was on the run from the law at the time.

Cynthia had escaped from the , where she had been serving a four-year prison sentence on a drug conviction out of Las Vegas. Cynthia had been arrested four times on drug charges.

Cynthia had been working as an inmate firefighter at the minimum-security prison. It was a tough program and Cynthia had fled after she broke her arm, said her sister Tomika Messer, 35, of Las Vegas.

The work program was about 25 miles east of , Nev. on Aug. 30, 1994. But by the following winter she was reconsidering her life on the run.

“She was tired of that life,” Messer said. “She was ready to turn herself in so she could do right by her kids.”

At the time Cynthia had an 8-year-old daughter and two sons, ages 3 and 1.

That was the last time Messer would see her sister alive.

Cynthia was hiding out in at the time. She didn’t have the best of company.

Cynthia spent a lot of time with a member of the south-central Los Angeles street gang called the .

Messer acknowledged that her older sister was likely selling drugs on the street.

Several times a week she spoke with her sister up until March. At one point, Cynthia called from Kansas.

Decomposed remains of girl discovered under a Lakewood trailer in 1977

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The human remains were found under a trailer in a park at 8150 W. Colfax Ave. in Lakewood on Aug. 18, 1977 behind the Top Notch Motel.

The body was too to immediately tell who she was.

Lakewood detectives searched through stacks of missing persons reports.

The girls had run away from home, disappeared while hitchhiking or possibly had been kidnapped.

Detectives were only able to narrow the search to 20 girls whose descriptions generally matched that of the body.

Staff at the Jefferson County ’s Office compared dental records of missing girls. Detectives were also able to make fingerprints from the body.

The coroner, however, was not able to determine the cause of death.

The body had deteriorated too much.

But because of the circumstances, the girl’s death was considered a homicide.

Nearly two weeks passed before the identity of the murder victim was announced: Pamela Jean Bluemel.

Her dental records had helped in making the identification. It was confirmed with fingerprints.

It had been more than 16 years since the girl was born in July of 1961, but it was unclear whether she had ever made it to that milestone.

Pamela had last been seen at a double wedding reception in which two brothers married two sisters in Lakewood in December of 1976.

Denver diamond broker tied up and stabbed

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Joyce Olivero returned to her 15th floor apartment in the in Downtown in the evening of Aug. 11, 1983 to find her husband lying on the kitchen floor.

William Olivero, 40

[media-credit name="Courtesy of the Department " align="alignleft" width="212"][/media-credit] , 40

A pool of blood was spreading.

William A. Olivero, 40, was still bleeding from multiple wounds.

Her husband was tied up. He wasn’t breathing.

Joyce had been to her hairdresser for a 4:30 p.m. appointment and returned home just after 5 p.m.

Her husband owned a small jewelry shop with a partner in the , according to an article by now retired Denver Post staff writer Jim Kirksey.

Olivero’s partner would tell police that Olivero left his office around 4:30 p.m. that Thursday.

Neighbors of the Oliveros’ apartment at 1020 15th St. told detectives they heard a loud argument minutes later. The argument turned violent. There was a fight.

The witnesses had not seen anyone who seemed suspicious however.

Crime analysts fingerprinted the apartment and took blood samples.

There had been a violent struggle and it was possible that a suspect had left his blood in the apartment.

Police had found overturned furniture and broken glass in the apartment.

Friends told different stories to police.

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