On sunny afternoons Karen Kay Johns often drove a few blocks from the offices of the American Red Cross for a quiet lunch near Monument Valley Park in Colorado Springs.
Kirk Mitchell, The Denver PostKaren Kay Johns, 45
She’d eat a sandwich and enjoy the scenery in the upscale neighborhood.
That’s what the 45-year-old charity worker, who lived in an East Colorado Springs apartment, was apparently doing on May 21, 1991 after parking along Culebra Avenue.
At 2 p.m. a gunshot rang out.
Parents watching their kids at a playground in the park saw a car rolling down a grassy hill towards them, according to an article by former Rocky Mountain News reporter Dick Foster.
Inside the car was Johns. She was rushed to a hospital, where she was soon pronounced dead.
At first, police believed Johns might have committed suicide. Three years earlier she had been divorced and her ex-husband had moved to Virginia, according to Foster’s story.
But as police continued to investigate, the facts didn’t support the self-inflicted gunshot theory.
First of all, the position of the large gunshot – behind the left ear – would have been a difficult shot for Johns to have made, former police Lt. Richard Resling had told Foster.
There was an even more telling fact – the gun was missing, according to a Denver Post article. Whoever shot Johns had fled.
The shooter had apparently snuck up behind Johns and shot her to death.
It’s possible that at the last minute Johns saw what was coming, frantically started her engine and was about to speed away when she was killed.
But she was apparently only able to get the car moving.
After she was shot the car rolled out of control, off of Culebra Avenue, over a concrete curb and into a tree.
It slowed temporarily but then built up speed as it rolled down the hill, startling witnesses, according to Colorado Springs cold case detectives.
Johns’ violent death in a picturesque area in broad daylight was baffling. Whoever shot Johns didn’t take her purse, so robbery apparently wasn’t the motive.
Johns’ coworkers were equally as perplexed.
The woman who helped people when fires ravaged their homes or flooding made their homes uninhabitable wasn’t your typical target for murder.
Police interviewed some of Johns’ co-workers who were at the park at the time of the shooting.
They spoke with many people who were at the park and others who weren’t there at the time but often visit.
Police had several leads but not that generated enough evidence to file charges.
Contact information: The Colorado Springs cold case unit can be reached by calling 719-444-7613
Follow Kirk Mitchell on Twitter for updates @kmitchellDP