A 41-year-old Denver man has been charged with second-degree murder after blood-smeared coins and pants linked him to the 1995 stabbing death of a man found in the parking lot of Prairie Middle School.
Jimmie Joseph Crank was charged late last month in the Sept. 22, 1995, death of Michael Nilsson, 25, of Aurora, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
Nilsson was discovered at 6:44 a.m. lying on his back in the southeast parking lot of Prairie Middle School, 12600 E. Jewell Ave. A school resource officer found a wallet on his chest. A penny and three quarters were on the pavement near the right pocket of his faded jeans. A few cigarette butts were found on his right side.
He had been stabbed four times in the back, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed by Aurora cold case Detective Stephen Conner.
Nilsson’s brother, Steven Nilsson, had last seen him at 8 p.m. the night before when he drove him to the Buckingham Square movie theater.
Police determined that although Nilsson had no friends, he had several enemies. Police developed a list of around 40 suspects, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. But the case went cold.
Aurora police reopened the case in 2013. DNA tests were done on the cigarettes and the coins covered with blood. The DNA on the items did not match Nilsson but they did match the same unknown person.
The DNA was entered on a computerized list of DNA samples from Colorado offenders for comparison. It cleared 18 of the previous suspects who were on the database.
During the week of Aug. 18, 2014, DNA samples were taken of the remaining 22 suspects and all of them were also eliminated as possible suspects.
CBI supervisor Melissa Grass called Conner two years later in August of 2016 and told him that they had a DNA database hit on Crank.
Crank, who has several drug convictions, had been arrested on a felony narcotics job on May 27, 2016, the affidavit says. Crank, who was homeless, was on probation at the time.
Conner interviewed Crank at Aurora police headquarters on Sept. 12, 2016. Crank denied killing Nilsson but agreed to a buccal swab to obtain his DNA. A subsequent DNA test confirmed that Crank’s blood was found on the quarters where Nilsson’s body was found.
Conner interviewed Crank’s ex-wife, Malanie Eldridge of Oklahoma on Nov. 23. She told Conner that Crank often threatened to kill her in 1995 when they were still married. She also recalled an incident in which her husband told her about a bloody knife.
Another DNA test was performed in August of 2017 on Nilsson’s sweater, jacket and the jeans he was wearing when he was stabbed to death.
Blood found on Nilsson’s pants matched Crank’s blood.
