Denver Police haven’t confirmed that the shockingly public slayings of Justin O’Donnell and Deon Rudd in northeast Denver on Friday were gang-related. But Reverend Leon Kelly, the veteran activist behind Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives, sees gang connections in this terrible act and many others that have happened in Five…
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation maintains a website focused on convicted sex offenders in the state — including those whose current whereabouts are unknown, because they’ve failed to register with authorities. We’ve collected photos and identifying information for twenty such creeps. If you recognize any of them, phone the CBI…
Denver’s new crime lab smells like fresh paint and virgin plastic. Some of the office furniture is still wrapped in it, or stacked in boxes. But all of the major stuff — the lab benches, the fingerprint examination tables, the walk-in freezer and the test-firing range — is in place,…
Update: The shooting on Friday that killed Justin O’Donnell and Deon Rudd stirred controversy in part because the former’s body was left in view of a large throng for hours. Denver Police spokesman Detective John White stresses that no disrespect was intended — and he hints that the investigative work…
Fewer than two weeks have passed since the third anniversary of the Mile High Murder archive — and since that time, there have been at least seven homicides in the metro area, including four over the Friday-Monday Memorial Day weekend. The latest involves gunfire outside the duRozz Restaurant & Lounge…
As if the Friday murders of Justin O’Donnell and Deon Rudd, plus the Saturday slaying of Richard Nack, didn’t create enough bloodshed for the Memorial Day weekend, yet another homicide took place in Aurora late last night. The victim has not yet been identified, by the sickening circumstances have been…
John stings, or undercover operations where a cop — usually a female cop — poses as a prostitute to catch men willing to pay for sex, are more rare than stings in which the roles are reversed. This week, the Denver police announced the arrests of 29 people as the…
Update below: In October 2010, Denver Policeman Hector Paez was booked on a sexual assault charge for allegedly coercing a woman to perform oral sex on him to avoid going to jail. Last September, a mistrial was declared in his case, which is slated for this winter. But his accuser…
Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, aka Jihad Jamie, put Leadville in the national spotlight a couple of years back when she was arrested as part of a terror plot. Also gaining unwanted attention: Christine and George Mott, her mother and stepfather, who later wound up with custody of Jamie’s then-six-year-old son. Now, the…
The arrest affidavit pertaining to Father Charles Robert Manning, an ex-Catholic priest in Colorado Springs who’s been busted on suspicion of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, is currently sealed. But comments from a woman who says she reported Manning to authorities suggest…
The Denver Police Department has released the training bulletin that details how officers should approach violations of the city’s new urban camping ban. Before the ordinance goes into effect May 29, officers are partnering with homeless outreach workers to prepare a department-wide response that de-prioritizes the status of homeless individuals…
In February, we told you about the arrest of former Basalt High school basketball coach Lauren Redfern, accused of having sex with a student. Now, however, a plea deal is reportedly in the works for a reduced charge that would keep her off the sex-offender registry. Was the age of…
As of last year, there were more than 1,500 unsolved homicides in Colorado as tracked by Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons. On numerous entries, the group’s website includes photos and personal stories of victims. Below are ten from the Denver area. See them below, arranged from the most…
Yoga instructor Joan Zalk saved herself a few steps by running a chihuahua named Cooper from the window of a moving car. But the cost of this not-quite-brilliant idea, documented in a police report on view below, was high: an arrest and, ultimately, a guilty plea to misdemeanor animal cruelty…
Update: The Wheat Ridge Police Department has now identified the principals in a Sunday murder suicide at the Wheatridge Manor nursing home as Donald Schaffer, 66, and Joyce Schaffer, 69, who’d been living at the facility for ten months. The couple were married for 43 years — and their loved…
Guy Cruz is no longer a probation officer for the 4th Judicial District, and neither he is a high school tennis coach, the next gig he took up. But the Pueblo resident is in big trouble for allegedly threatening a parolee with jail or a loss of access to her…
Hate crime, attention-getting fraud or something else entirely? That’s the question surrounding the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office decision to charge partners Aimee Whitchurch and Christel Conklin with painting “Kill the Gay” on their residence and then reporting it to authorities as a potential act of retaliation against them — because…
Yesterday marked the three-year anniversary of our Mile High Murder archive — and on that day, the first murder in year four took place. The victim was the owner of a store on East 64th, who died in what appears to be a robbery attempt…
In most instances, breaking and entering involves a thief smashing a window or kicking in a door. But Michael Vidal and three compatriots are accused of taking B&E to the next level — by gaining access to a building into an exterior wall with a stolen car and taking loot…
On May 17, 2009, The Latest Word launched Mile High Murder, an archive devoted to the most serious Denver-area crimes. Today, on MHM’s third anniversary, we’ve culled interactive graphics from crime scene locations or videos connected to the 49 cases that wound up in this repository this past year. While…
OneRepublic drummer Eddie Fisher likely didn’t have “humiliating mug shot” on his rock star bucket list. But he posed for one anyhow this week owing to his bust on suspicion of assault and more related to an incident involving his model girlfriend, Lonnie Weygant, aka Loni Rae. Yesterday, he pleaded…
9News broke the story last night of a group of burglars who broke into Riverside Wellness early Monday morning, walking out with a whopping $8 in cash and leaving hundreds of live marijuana plants just weeks from maturity untouched. It wasn’t exactly the work of criminal masterminds…
