Children playing near a drainage ditch behind a Pepsi-Cola Company building on 38th Avenue and Arkins Court in Denver came across a shocking scene that morning. It was Dec. 14, 1980.
The kids found the nude body of a young woman. She was lying in about 2 ½ feet of water.
The coroner’s officer released a statement later that day that the victim was a young woman with blue eyes and brown hair. She was 5-feet-4 and weighed 145 pounds.
She wore braces.
Denver Police DepartmentJulie Marchese, 18
The woman had been shot in the side of the head – execution style.
That day Salvador Marchese, who had been a military police officer in the U.S. Air Force before retiring and working in security, got a call at work.
The woman in the ditch was his missing 18-year-old daughter Julie Anne Marchese.
Julie had been missing a few days by that time.
It wasn’t that unusual.