Victim’s name: Janine Johler, 38
Where body found: In apple orchard near Glenwood Springs
Investigative agency: Garfield County Sheriff’s Office
Date missing: May 7, 2009
Suspect: none identified
The mystery began on a warm June 12, 2009 day in an apple orchard about five miles west of Glenwood Springs.
Janine Ann Johler, courtesy FBI.
A teen-age boy who worked for the orchard owned by Kirstie Steiner found something wrapped in plastic buried under a stack of branches.
A dismembered woman’s body was inside a tattered plastic bag.
It was obvious that animals had been tearing at the bag to get at the woman’s remains.
Not all of her remains were recovered at the dump site, according to a report by the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program.
The location where someone had dumped the body was about 20 feet off of Canyon Creek Road and about a quarter mile from Interstate 70.
A criminal investigation was begun. The Garfield County Sheriff’s Office scoured the orchard.
A long line of investigators walked through the orchard searching for clues.
The coroner’s office later determined with fingerprints that the body was that of an Aurora woman, Janine Ann Johler.
The 38-year-old woman hadn’t been seen for a little over a month.
Kirk Mitchell, The Denver PostJanine Ann Johler, courtesy of FBI
Her family reported her as a missing person on May 7, according to the FBI report.
Friends who knew Johler told investigators that she had a diminished mental capacity. She also had been in a car accident and was physically disabled as well. She had a limp.
In the years before her death, she had filed three requests for restraining orders against a man who was in jail at the time of Johler’s disappearance.
She had a minor criminal record, including a 2001 conviction for prostitution in Denver, according to court records.
The FBI, Aurora police department, Garfield Sheriff’s Office, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and Denver metro law enforcement continue to investigate the case.
Contact information: Garfield County Crime Stoppers can be reached at 970-945-0101 and Denver Metro Crime Stopper can be reached at 720-913-7867. Denver Post reporter Kirk Mitchell at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
