Crime & Police

Here are some of the most notable stories that Westword has run over the years dealing with Colorado’s most infamous unsolved homicide.

Today is the twentieth anniversary of the death of JonBenét Ramsey on December 26, 1996. Many of the issues that dominated local headlines this year — including homelessness, the rising cost of housing and a steady influx of transplants, and an increasingly crazy election — were all too easy to…

When 3-1-1 operators receive complaints about graffiti, they first ask the caller: Is the graffiti profane, hateful or racist? Sonja Jackson says she has had to ask that question a lot lately. The 3-1-1 operator with the city of Denver says she saw “an almost immediate uptick in the number…

Through an open records request, Westword  obtained records for fifteen years (2001-2016) on causes of death that the Colorado Department of Corrections submits to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Close to twenty percent of the deaths during that period were attributed to “end stage liver disease” or related illnesses.

Update: Last year, a series of bank robberies perpetrated by men wearing masks familiar from the movie Scream culminated in a massive manhunt for three suspects, one of whom wound up on the FBI’s ten most wanted list. All three of the suspects — Miguel Sanders, Tyrone Richardson and Myloh Mason —…

Attorneys who sued the U.S. Bureau of Prisons over alleged abuses of mentally ill inmates have reached a tentative settlement that could have a profound effect on how solitary confinement is used at the nation’s highest-security prison.

Update: In October, Tyrone Adair Jr., best known to members of the local hip-hop community as BossMan Goodie, was shot to death outside Cold Crush, a venue that was temporarily closed as a public nuisance after the incident; see our previous coverage below. Now, the Denver District Attorney’s Office has announced…

Early next year, Mitch Morrissey will end his term as Denver district attorney — an office he assumed in January 2005. Morrissey’s twelve years in office are among the most eventful of any DA in Denver’s history. Over that span, he earned national attention for his office’s use of DNA…

At least one cable channel is betting that the glut of JonBenét Ramsey specials three months ago hasn’t exhausted the public fascination with one of the nation’s most infamous unsolved homicides.

Comedian and Denver favorite T.J. Miller, who was born and raised in the Mile High, has had a busy past few days. Early Friday morning, according to TMZ, Miller, who is currently co-starring with Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston and plenty of other notables in Office Christmas Party, was arrested in…

Since February 2013, we’ve been reporting about the disappearance of Kelsie Jean Schelling, a onetime resident of Denver (she lived in the Larimer Square area) who vanished in Pueblo. She’d headed south to see her boyfriend shortly after learning she was pregnant. In the intervening three-years-plus, the case has gotten…

Thus far, Burke Ramsey, brother of JonBenét Ramsey, who was murdered in her Boulder home on December 25, 1996, nearly twenty years ago, hasn’t filed a promised lawsuit against CBS for a docuseries that essentially accused him of murder. But his attorney is shrugging off a dismissal motion from an expert…

Update: Earlier this fall, as we’ve reported (see our previous coverage below), Christopher Gebers was found guilty for his role in a 2015 crash that caused the death of Colorado State Patrol Cadet Taylor Thyfault, 21, and the serious injury of Trooper Clinton Rushing, 37. Now, Gebers has been handed a stunning…

The Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association has released its list of the ten most stolen cars in Colorado by make and model. But in a report entitled “Assessment of Motor Vehicle Thefts in Colorado 2015,” the organization also drills down into the prevalence of car theft across the state —…

Update: In September, Adrian Moya pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder in regard to a gun battle last December between him and a Northglenn police officer. Each of them were shot multiple times, but both survived — and in April, the officer, who’d been wearing a ballistic vest that likely saved…

For more than a year, numerous major Denver LGBTQ venues have received regular reports about crimes at or near their establishments and others like them across the Denver metro area. But while the data is drawn from Denver Police Department statistics, DPD representatives aren’t compiling or distributing it. The person…

Update: Last December, we reported about the arrest of Anthony Sena. As we reported, a months-long search conducted by the family of 77-year-old  victim Susan Hernandez had led straight to him — her own grandson. Our previous coverage has been incorporated into this post. At the time Sena was taken into…

Today’s Schmuck of the Week lesson: Schmuckiness can be stealthy. Take Kari Aaeng, a 54-year-old from Aspen who hardly fits the image of a chronic drunk driver. Which is precisely what she is. Aaeng was recently arrested for driving while just shy of four times over the legal intoxication limit…

In October 2014, Jack Jacquez was killed by James Ashby, a member of the Rocky Ford Police Department. Afterward, Ashby was charged with murder — a rare occurrence for a police officer whose actions had taken place while he was on the job. Yet the shooting didn’t get much national…

Update: In late January 2015, we reported about what may be the single most disturbing series of sexual assault allegations to ever appear in this space. Grand Junction’s Larry Church was accused of victimizing nine people between the ages of six and 21, seven of them minors. Our previous coverage has…

How in the hell did a suspect in a public urination case lead to a chase involving a Boulder deputy, a subsequent car crash and a brief standoff situation resolved following the deployment of a BearCat, an armored personnel carrier originally designed for military use? It’s complicated. The incident, which…

Update: A jury has acquitted Clarence Moses-El of all charges related to an August 1987 sexual assault. Moses-El consistently insisted that he was innocent of the charges against him, and another man, LC Jackson, confessed in a 2012 letter; see our previous coverage below. But Moses-El spent 28 years in prison…