It started as a missing person’s case.
The parents and family of Jennifer Sue “Jenny” Larsen desperately sought clues in her inexplicable disappearance.
Jennifer Sue “Jenny” Larson
Larsen was a reliable 21-year-old Metropolitan State College student who had a summer job working at the same plant that her father Earl worked at.
Her father told reporters of the Rocky Mountain News that he was nervous when she didn’t show up for work. When he went to her condominium and discovered that her cats had not been watered it confirmed his worst fears. She loved animals.
She was last seen at about 3 a.m. on Aug. 10, 1995 leaving the home of friends on the 17300 block of East Layton Drive in Aurora.
Aurora police put out bulletins seeking information about the girl, who was 5-feet-8, 125 pounds, with hazel eyes and long brown hair and who sometimes wore glasses with metal rims.
They offered descriptions of her car, a red, two-door 1995 Toyota Tercel with Colorado license plate PAN-6380.
Her car was found abandoned in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the 400 block of South Memphis Street, about a mile from her southeast Aurora condo, according to an article by former Denver Post reporter Marilyn Robinson.
The car was unlocked. The keys were on the floor. Police also found her shoes and socks in the car, which apparently had been there for more than a week, Robinson reported.
Police intensified their search thereafter and asked for the public’s help in locating the pretty young college student.
Her father Earl Larson was beginning to lose hope. He told Robinson he was preparing for the worst possible outcome.
The last time he had seen his daughter was about 3:30 p.m. the day before she went missing as he was leaving his job at the Chrysler warehouse near Interstate 70 and Peoria Street.
Jenny was just arriving for her shift. She had been working there for a summer job. They always checked in with her.
Nearly two months later, a farmer was plowing his field southeast of Strasburg when he found a skeleton lying on its back. It was a half mile north of Quincy Avenue on Arapahoe County Road 161.
Jennifer’s decayed remains were found on the edge of a sunflower field southeast of Strasburg, about 10 feet from a barbed wire fence. She was face down in the dirt. Small animals and insects had fed on the body. There were no clothing near her remains. What was left of her body weighed 40 pounds. Her skin was mummified.
A large clump of her scalp hair was mixed with dirt, mold and plants. A necklace with a tear-drop shaped metal pendant with a floral design had been found in the hair.
Coroner Dr. Michael Dobersen determined that the cause of death was “homicidal violence of undetermined etiology.” The manner of death was homicide.
A dentist used dental x-rays to identify her remains, according to Dobersen’s autopsy report.
Then Capt. Grayson Robinson said the evidence suggested that whoever her killer was had murdered her elsewhere and dumped the body in the field of sunflowers. Robinson has since been elected sheriff, but the case remains unsolved.
Arapahoe County sheriff’s investigator Bruce Isaacson, who was assigned the case in 1995, is the cold case investigator on the case.
Jenny’s remains were cremated and later layed to rest in Kenosha, Wis., where she grew up.
Contact information: The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office can be reached at 303-795-4711. Denver Post reporter Kirk Mitchell at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kmitchellDP