Twelve-year-old Kayleah Wilson set out from her family’s apartment in the 2800 block of 28th Street in Greeley on the afternoon of March 28, 2010 to walk to a friend’s birthday party.
Courtesy of Kayleah's familyKayleah Wilson, 12
She was wearing a white-and-pink shirt over a white tank top, blue jeans and white-and-red shoes. She was 5-feet-2 and weighed about 140 pounds.
The Brentwood Middle School sixth grader was supposed to meet a friend at the Greeley Mall and together they were going to walk to the birthday party. Kayleah never met her friend and didn’t show up for the birthday party.
The peculiar thing about 12-year-old Kayleah Wilson’s disappearance was that she vanished in broad daylight in a heavily traveled area in Greeley. She was last seen at 3:40 p.m.
The path she would have taken includes heavily traveled roadways. Police requested an Amber alert throughout Colorado. But none was issued because there was no evidence she was a runaway, nor was there any obvious indication of foul play initially.
The next day, police began canvassing the neighborhood, including an area south of the Greeley mall. The investigation became very intensive. Police reviewed videotape of the mall and from businesses in Greeley to see if they could spot the young girl captured on surveillance cameras. They couldn’t find any.
It wouldn’t be long before the FBI entered the search. The idea that someone had snatched a child off the street was terrifying. The potential was that this was a rare case of a stranger abduction. Somebody could be preying on children and could do it again.
Kayleah’s stepdad Jesse Wilson speculated that the girl may have gone to California to be with her natural father.
Volunteers searched for Kayleah, often scouring the city in the evenings and on weekends. There was no sign of the girl.
Members of the Laura Recovery Center for Missing Children out of Friendswood, Texas. organized a search one Saturday.
A $20,000 reward was offered for information leading to the suspect’s arrest.
Authorities followed up many leads including the one that she may have gone to California but it did not pan out. As time passed it became more and more apparent that she had not gone voluntarily. This was more likely a case in which someone kidnapped Kayleah.
Greeley Police Chief Jerry Garner asked people to consider the possibility that they might know whoever intercepted Kayleah that day. He pointed out a list of possible signs someone they knew could be involved including unusual disappearances of a relative or employee on the day the girl disappeared or an unexplained absence from work the next day.
The mystery of Kayleah’s disappearance became a national story.
An irrigation ditch “rider” discovered a badly decomposed body in shallow murky water near a water gate at about 6 a.m. on Wednesday May 19, nearly two months after Kayleah disappeared. By 10 a.m., a body was removed from the ditch. Authorities scoured the ditch searching for evidence.
Photo by Denver Post staff photographer RJ SangostiA team searches along ditch for clues after body found on May 19, 2010 in shallow water
People immediately thought of Kayleah. The body was discovered near 35th Avenue and 29th Street south of Sunset Memorial Cemetery and about a mile west of the Greeley Mall, which had been the focal point of a widescale search.
The body was found only a mile or so from where Kayleah was last seen.
The same area had been searched at least twice, including with dogs. Police were not certain whether someone had specifically searched the gate however. The possibility existed that someone dumped her body after Kayleah’s case became a high profile case.
A makeshift memorial near the ditch quickly formed. People left flowers, candles, stuffed animals and cards. A large crowd of people formed near the irrigation ditch. Many had helped over the past several weeks to search for Kayleah’s body. A large candlelight vigil was organized.
The coroner’s office confirmed that the body was Kayleah’s and that she had been murdered. April Wilson, Kayleah’s mother, was both upset and relieved that her daughter’s body was found.
The same day that the body had been found, Greeley police arrested Kayleah’s adult boyfriend for allegedly sexually assaulting her. No murder charge was filed but 18-year-old Robert Laurencio Montoya was considered a “person of interest.”
An arrest affidavit would reveal that Montoya admitted repeatedly having sex with the girl while he lived with the family in their apartment. But April Wilson kicked him out of her house and warned him not to return. He was later caught peeking in windows at Kayleah’s school. Kayleah called him a creepy stalker.
Colorado Department of CorrectionsMontoya was convicted the following year of sex assault and was sentenced 8 years to life in prison.
According to Colorado Department of Corrections records, Montoya is currently being housed at San Carlos Correctional Facility. The Pueblo prison is near the Colorado Mental Health Institute and is where inmates with mental health issues are kept.
He is eligible for parole in January of 2018.
No one has been charged in Kayleah’s murder.
Anyone with information about Kayleah’s murder is asked to contact Greeley police at 970-350-9600.
Denver Post reporter Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-954-1206. Follow him on Twitter @KmitchellDP for updates on Kayleah’s case or other cold cases.