A Cold Case Frozen in Time

He tried to explain that the inside of a moving van was never spotless, but the big truck was clean — except for the blood on the door. And where had the bullet holes come from?

The police said somebody could have cut himself and left blood on the big truck, and the other truck could have been shot at somewhere else, while it was moving. Rich had to point out that the truck with the bullet holes didn't have a motor; he had yet to install it. "They were like the Keystone Kops," he says. "No one wanted to assume responsibility."

The discussion lasted long enough for Gordy Skiba and his father to arrive at the airport. Before she left to pick them up, Sharon called Bob Martinez, who joined the others at the lot about ten that night. It was like a reunion of Paul's friends, all walking around what could be a crime scene. And while they walked around, the police argued over which town had jurisdiction over the case. "I was like, 'Jesus Christ, it happened in Westminster, it's your jurisdiction. Do what you need to do,' and they couldn't see it that way," Bob remembers.

After midnight, a patrol car from Thornton showed up. Since a missing-persons report had already been filed in Thornton, Thornton would continue with the case, officers said. Finally, at nearly 3 a.m., the police took down everyone's information and told them to leave. Police would wait there until the trucks were towed out, taken as evidence. Sharon asked the officers to secure the gate when they left.

The next morning, the lot was wide open, with no crime tape.

The first news report about the case ran that day: Authorities were looking for a trio who'd disappeared a week before "in what may be a custody battle."

Gordy and his father started scouring the area, looking for Paul and Lorenzo's cars. They drove down every street and through every business and apartment-complex parking lot within a several-mile radius of Tuff Movers. Gordy also walked the neighborhood, looking for any signs of bodies having been dragged. He checked culverts, open fields and large sewer pipes being put in for new construction. Sharon, Jerry, Rich, Carol and Bob joined in the search.

After two days, Jerry found Lorenzo's car in a Westminster parking lot.

After a week of searching and waiting, Gordy finally went home, believing his brother was dead. The Denver Police Department located Paul's car a few days later at an apartment complex near South Federal and West Arkansas — with his personal belongings and Sarah's backpack full of beanie babies inside. Paul's usually tidy car had mud all over it but no fingerprints. Lorenzo's had been clean, too.

Sharon wanted to keep Paul's business afloat so that he'd have something to return to if he was still alive, and after a few weeks, she asked the Thornton police to return the trucks. One still had bits of scalp and hair stuck to the hood. "Do you normally give back a vehicle that still has evidence on it?" she asked.

The police came back for the truck, and this time the Colorado Bureau of Investigation took a look. Using luminol — which Rich had asked the cops to use weeks before — they found blood all over the back of the big truck and in the cab. The oil spill was covering more blood. DNA tests confirmed that it was Sarah's and Paul's blood, and investigators said there was enough to indicate that both Sarah and Paul had been fatally wounded.

In mid-March — five weeks after Paul, Sarah and Lorenzo disappeared — Thornton police and the CBI said they now had evidence suggesting foul play.

After Paul and Sarah disappeared, Sharon, Teresa and the baby lived together in Paul's house for a few weeks. Between Teresa's relatives and Sharon's friends, there were lots of visitors coming and going.

Verna and Butch Dreawves had driven up from Arizona to be with Sharon. Verna remembers sitting at the kitchen table, comforting her friend, while Teresa and her mother and siblings searched through Paul's things. "They were concerned about the life insurance, who was going to take over the business," Verna says. Paul had a $100,000 life-insurance policy on Sarah, and a smaller one with Sarah's and Sharon's names on it. There was nothing with Teresa's name.

Teresa and the baby finally left Paul's house in March, and Sharon changed the locks. But in April, Teresa went to court to argue that she should control Paul's assets.

As his next of kin, Sharon had already been appointed temporary conservator of Paul's estate so that she could pay Paul's bills — including the two mortgages on the house and the premiums to keep the life-insurance policies current — and run the business. At a hearing on April 16, 1999, the Adams County probate court discussed whether Sharon should remain conservator or Teresa's request should be granted — which would only happen if she could prove she was Paul's wife.

"I note here that we have more people in the courtroom than we usually have for murder trials," said Adams County District Court Judge Vincent C. Phelps Jr.