The last time anyone recalled seeing Audrey Elizabeth Hurtado was in Buena Vista on the evening of Thursday, July 27, 1977.
Audrey Elizabeth Hurtado, 17
Witnesses said she was walking with a young man described as 5-feet, 8-inches tall with a medium build and wearing a light brown afro-style haircut.
He appeared to be in his early 20s.
Hurtado had met the young man at a Buena Vista park that evening.
The 17-year-old girl lived in Cokedale, just west of Trinidad and 183 miles southeast of Buena Vista.
At first, police believed Hurtado had run away from home. Although she had been reported as missing there hadn’t been a search by authorities.
But when her body was discovered late Saturday morning, July 29, in a wooded field on the outskirts of Buena Vista, the case immediately became a homicide investigation.
She had been stabbed numerous times in the arms, chest and stomach.
Hurtado’s body was fulled clothed.
The next day, Sunday, July 30, 1977, Deputy District Attorney Doug Anderson said the prime suspect was this unidentified man seen with Hurtado on Thursday evening.
She was seen with him in the afternoon and then in the evening someone saw her taking a walk with the young man.
“It may be nothing; it may be something,” Anderson was quoted as saying in an Associated Press article that appeared in The Denver Post on Aug. 1, 1977.
Anyone with information that could held solve Hurtado’s case is asked to call the Buena Vista Police Department at (719) 395-8654.
Denver Post staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-954-1206 or twitter.com/kmitchelldp. Mitchell’s book “The Spin Doctor” is available now from New Horizon Press.