Last September, the Colorado Department of Health and Environment issued an alert suggesting that spice, inaccurately but popularly known as synthetic marijuana, could well be more dangerous to kids than the real thing. Yet despite the January 1 start of recreational pot sales in Colorado, spice continues to be available…
We recently told you about the role DNA played in the arrest and subsequent guilty plea of Alfred Flores in a 2011 head-shot murder. Turns out DNA also proved key in an even older crime: a 2001 sex assault for which Eddie Simon was busted more than a dozen years…
Last week, Alison Michelle Ernst hurled a shoe at Hillary Clinton while the latter spoke at an event in Las Vegas. Afterward, the press found a tie between Ernst and the case against Aurora theater shooter James Holmes, and it’s legit. However, major outlets such as the Associated Press are…
The little things often prevent a murderer from getting away with his crime, as Alfred Flores understands all too well. As we noted in a November 2012 post, one of the key bits of evidence implicating him in the slaying of 27-year-old Manuel Martinez was a piece of chewing gum…
As we’ve been reporting, hit-and-runs aplenty have taken place in Denver and Boulder of late, several with fatal consequences. But yesterday (when a storm system rolled into the area) saw an unprecedented number of such crashes: four in less than 24 hours, with two resulting in deaths. Look below to…
On May 17, 2012, one day after we marked the three-year anniversary of our Mile High Murder archive, a man robbing a Commerce City jewelry store fatally shot its owner, Bernardo Saenz, and fled, prompting a citywide manhunt and media blitz. Just shy of two years later, Anton Valdez has…
Thus far, we don’t know why 21-year-old Taria Wilhite-Moore sports prominent facial wounds in her booking photo or how these injuries may or may not tie-in to the first-degree murder charge on which she was busted. But there are at least two undisputed facts about the case: Eddie Johnson, 25,…
Update: Last week, we told you about the baseball bat beating of Boulder’s Aaron Tuneberg; see our previous coverage below. Now, unfortunately, Tuneberg has died from his injuries. As a result, the charges against Austin Holford, seen here, and Luke Pelham, a pair of eighteen-year-olds previously arrested for the assault,…
According to the Denver coroner’s office, eight homicides took place in the city during the first quarter of 2014. That pace is slower than in 2013, when there were 22 homicides during the first six months of the year. But that does little to ease the pain for the loved…
Update: It’s déjà vu all over again. Earlier this month, we reported about the reported stabbing of Zachary Meints, a former youth hockey coach who pleaded guilty to Internet sexual exploitation a couple of years back after he was caught sending explicit texts to teen players. See our previous coverage…
There are two ways to look at the Rocky Mountain Safe Street Task Force’s decision to dub a wanted bank robber the “Good Grammar Bandit.” Either he’s proof that our much-criticized education system is doing a better job of turning out literate graduates than is generally acknowledged or evidence of…
Should the trial of Aurora theater shooter James Holmes be held in Arapahoe County, where the crime occurred? No, say Holmes’s attorneys. In a motion made public this week (and on view below), they request a change of venue, arguing that the citizens of Arapahoe County have a “unique and…
Charles Wingate was once a Colorado Springs city councilman, as well as a prominent, respected member of the community. Now, however, Wingate must rebuild his life and his reputation from the ground up. He’s been sentenced for misdemeanor child abuse after his naked, autistic thirteen-year-old son was found living in…
In the immediate wake of a tragedy, donations often pour in. That was certainly the case with the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, after which people from all over the country donated millions of dollars for the victims. But that money has since been disbursed — and not every victim benefited…
Ashleigh Padilla is incredibly photogenic, as the gorgeous portraits on her Facebook page attest. But perhaps her best known image is a mug shot snapped after her arrest for allegedly funding a shopping spree with a customer’s debit card. Padilla’s pic is only one of the memorable images from the…
Three months ago yesterday, RaeLyn Gonzales, fifty, and her eighteen-month-old grandson, Fabian Gonzales, were brutally stabbed to death in Adams County. Since then, no arrests have been made and precious little information has been released about the investigation. But the Gonzales family has no intention of letting the deaths of…
Yesterday saw whipsaw reversals in the case of Meghan McKeon, a Steamboat Springs mom whose three-year-old son, Austin Davis, died under highly suspicious circumstances. First, McKeon was cleared of three misdemeanor accusations against her, to the horror of at least one court observer. But the dismissal was swiftly followed by…
Few of the police impersonators we’ve written about over the years have been as frightening and violent as the one described by the Aurora Police Department. Example? The man in question allegedly yanked the woman by the hair while trying to take control of her car. And he would have…
How easily can vulnerable teen girls be forced into the world of prostitution? An arrest affidavit in the case of a thirteen-year-old dubbed “Bunny” tells the tale in disturbing detail. The latest chapter? Five people, including alleged ringleader Socrates “Chrome” Packer, have now pleaded guilty to crimes that include human…
Update: Yesterday, we told you about the arrest of 41-year-old Timothy Baca for allegedly killing his mother and then wounding two police officers as they tried to take him into custody; see our previous coverage below. Now, more details are emerging about the crime itself, with Baca quoted in a…
Those critical of marijuana legalization in general and the annual 4/20 rally at Denver’s Civic Center Park in particular may be tempted to use the cold-case bust of Joseph Baca as an example of weed’s evil. After all, Baca is accused of sexually assaulting a fourteen-year-old at a post-smoke-out party…
From the beginning, Timothy Baca, 41, was the prime suspect in the apparent murder of his mother, 65-year-old Bernice Medina. And police only had to use the most basic detective skills in order to track him down. Yet taking him into custody wasn’t easy, since he had a knife in…
