On Friday, November 27, a gunman identified as Robert Dear, 57, killed three people and injured an additional nine others during an attack at a Planned Parenthood branch in Colorado Springs. In the days since then, we’ve learned the identities of the three people who died at Dear’s hand: Garrett…
It’s no secret that President Barack Obama’s pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay has been mired in political maneuvering and posturing of all sorts. What’s surprising, though, is the strange and vehement alliance that’s emerged in opposition to the long-contemplated move of remaining Gitmo detainees to American soil…
Time is running out for anyone interested in joining the largest-ever class of recruits for Denver Deputy Sheriff positions; applications close at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday. By early this week, more than 1,000 people had applied for 100 open positions – an unprecedented number of potential recruits, with whom the Denver…
It’s long been established that the United States incarcerates its citizens at a higher rate than any other country; roughly 716 people out of every 100,000 residents are behind bars in this country. But a new report from the Prison Policy Initiative highlights some less well-known but possibly more startling numbers…
Paris Belle Williams was born this past February and died in June. The following month, the little girl’s parents, Lossie Thomas and Patrick Williams, who’d moved to Avon from the Los Angeles area, were arrested on suspicion of numerous charges, including child abuse resulting in death. Now, the pair have…
Earlier this month, we shared selections from Metro Denver Crime Stoppers’ most wanted list, only to find out after publication that the roster hadn’t been updated for months— a discovery that has prompted multiple updates to our item. Fortunately, Colorado’s Most Wanted Sex Offenders list is hot off the cyber-press…
Yesterday, a homeless shelter called the Lawrence Street Community Center opened with a great deal of hoopla, including an appearance by Denver mayor Michael Hancock, after months of wrangling between the Denver Rescue Mission and the Ballpark Neighborhood Association. But less than 24 hours later, the attention shifted to another shelter…
When Uber first moved into the Denver-area market, local taxi companies implied that the service wasn’t as safe as traditional cabs. Since then, however, we’ve only reported about a couple of Uber-related crimes so far this year. One involved a driver as an alleged criminal; Gerald Montgomery was arrested on…
A family disturbance yesterday afternoon reportedly led to a SWAT team standoff followed by a gun battle. A man described by the Denver Police Department as a robbery suspect was killed in the exchange. Meanwhile, two Denver police officers have been placed of leave — standard procedure following a shooting. The…
A manhunt is underway for three-to-four robbers who executed a bank heist while wearing masks of the sort associated with the movie Scream, then allegedly took part in a carjacking and assault that resulted in two people being shot. As noted by Fox31, the robbery took place around 10:40 a.m…
This week, as highlighted in a moving story from the Charlotte Observer, Chancellor Lee Adams celebrated his sixteenth birthday. In most circumstances, such an achievement wouldn’t be headline news. But for Chancellor, the fact that he not only survived but is thriving despite living with the challenges of cerebral palsy…
If you missed the exclusive Barbara Walters sitdown with John Ramsey to discuss the 1996 murder of his six-year-old daughter JonBenet, don’t feel too bad. The program, part of a series entitled Barbara Walters Presents American Scandals, aired a couple of weeks ago in a particular corner of basic-cable hell…
In recent years, Michael Contreras has played guitar for a Fort Collins death-metal band called Make It Till Mourning. Now, he stands accused of having tried to cause the death of his own mother. And he’s said to have been bummed he didn’t succeed. Here’s a publicity photo of Make…
It seems absurd that a crime in which the guilty party received a sentence in excess of two centuries would receive no media coverage until after the conviction. But that appears to be the case with 33-year-old Jana Bergman, who was given a 208-year jolt for abusing an at-risk adult,…
The grief expressed by Tracy Fernow on Facebook after learning about the murder of 24-year-old Glendale resident Guled Abdullahi Ige is absolutely heartbreaking. The posts include this one: “THEY KILLED MY HUSBAND PLEASE GOD NO NO NO NO NO NO.” As for the identity of Ige’s killers, no suspects have been…
The recent attacks in Paris have raised concerns about indiscriminate terrorism across the globe, including here in Colorado. Witness the social-media backlash against Governor John Hickenlooper’s announcement that Colorado is open to accepting some Syrian refugees. But the incidents have also brought out more than their share of moronic behavior…
In a matter of days, Commerce City Police Officer Kevin Lord has gone from being an object of sympathy to a professional pariah. Why? His superiors at the Commerce City Police Department say that Lord — an eight-year veteran of the CCPD with more than twenty years of law-enforcement experience…
A search is on in Colorado Springs for a man who allegedly climbed through the bedroom window of a nine-year-old girl and attempted to sexually assault her. The suspect reportedly pulled down the child’s underwear before her screams alerted her parents and caused him to flee. Both the man’s approach to the…
Rachel Aboytes was a relatively obscure rap musician in life. She had performed a few gigs around Denver and was known primarily for having appeared in the music video for “Southsiders,”a Spanglish rap about gang life, that has received a couple million views online. But Rachel, who went by the…
“Dam that’s a cold ass honkey!!! ” a friend posted about a photo shared on Kirk Boyd’s Facebook page. The line was clearly intended in good-natured fashion. But since then, Boyd has been accused of attempted murder and arrested after a police chase that shut down an entire neighborhood. Boyd’s…
Since June 2014, we’ve been reporting about the bizarre and tragic story of Haley Stanfield. The previous month, Stanfield’s baby, Logan Borchik, died — and she was subsequently arrested for allegedly trying to hire Logan’s dad to kill her then-current boyfriend, who she apparently blamed for the child’s passing. Then,…
“The Demon Dog,” our current cover story, focuses on the life and work of author James Ellroy, whose bestselling, high-octane novels evoke a long-vanished Los Angeles of the 1940s and 1950s and present artfully fictionalized treatment of some of that city’s most notorious crimes, including the Black Dahlia case. Ellroy…
