Year in Review: The Ten Biggest Crime Stories of 2021

During 2021, a slew of Colorado crimes received a great deal of local, national and sometimes even global attention – an indication not just of the offenses’ shocking nature, but of the fascination that far-flung news organizations have had with the state since six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was found dead in her Boulder home on December 26, 1996, setting off a media frenzy whose echoes still resonate a quarter-century later.

And sadly, the hits just keep on coming: We’d finished our list of the ten biggest crime stories of 2021 and sent the Year in Review issue to press when word came of the horrific December 27 killing spree that left five people dead in Lakewood and Denver.

Here’s our roster up until that point, with the crimes in chronological order:

Lafayette nursing home murder
Early on February 3, police in Lafayette arrested 95-year-old Okey Payne on suspicion of shooting and killing Ricardo Medina-Rojas, an employee at the assisted-living facility where the elderly man was a resident. Payne, who thought staffers had been stealing from him, allegedly asked Medina-Rojas, “Where’s my $200?” In response, Payne said, Medina-Rojas “mumbled something,” after which he pointed a gun at the staffer’s head and fired. Payne was the oldest Coloradan to be busted for homicide in decades and, to the surprise of no one, was found incompetent to stand trial in August.

Kelsie Schelling verdict
Denver’s Kelsie Schelling, 21, vanished on February 4, 2013, after heading to Pueblo to meet with Donthe Lucas, her boyfriend, after discovering she was pregnant. Her body’s whereabouts remain unknown, but thanks to the doggedness of Laura Saxton, Schelling’s mother, the case wasn’t forgotten, and in December 2017, Lucas was formally charged with her killing. On March 8, more than three years later, a jury found Lucas guilty. But while this verdict was important for Saxton, so, too, is finally being able to lay Schelling to rest. “I want my girl home,” she said.

Boulder King Soopers shooting
On March 22, a man later identified as Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa walked into a Boulder King Soopers armed with an AR-15 and opened fire. By the time Alissa was taken into custody, ten people had been slain, including Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley. The horrendous act stunned Boulder residents and led to renewed calls for stronger gun-control measures across the country. In December, Alissa was found incompetent to stand trial; he was ordered to receive treatment at the Pueblo-based Colorado Mental Health Institute.

Tragic fate of Suzanne Morphew
On May 5, just five days shy of a year since his wife had disappeared after going on a bike ride near Maysville, Barry Morphew was charged with first-degree murder, even though Suzanne Morphew’s body had not been found. The crime quickly became a national obsession, in part because of details shared in an affidavit maintaining that “Barry knowingly destroyed evidence that his relationship with Suzanne was deteriorating and that he was involved in her disappearance and homicide.” A trial date has been set for May 3, 2022.

Olde Town Arvada shooting
Metro Denver came to a halt on the afternoon of June 21, when news broke about a shooting in one of the least likely locations imaginable: Olde Town Arvada, near the community’s beautiful library. Three people were killed in the violent act, including Arvada Police Officer Gordon Beesley, shooter Ronald Troyke and good Samaritan Johnny Hurley, who killed Troyke before becoming a victim of friendly fire. In November, prosecutors decided not to file charges against Arvada officer Kraig Brownlow for firing the shot that killed Hurley, determining that his actions, while heartbreaking, weren’t criminal.

Mark Redwine’s guilty verdict
On the afternoon of July 16, a jury found Mark Redwine guilty of second-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death in regard to his thirteen-year-old son, Dylan Redwine, who disappeared in 2012 near Durango. The determination took place more than eight years after the last time the teen was seen alive, and during that period, the elder Redwine repeatedly declared his innocence in every venue he could, including an episode of Dr. Phil. In October, Mark Redwine, who’d finally been arrested in 2017, was sentenced to 48 years in prison.

Crime spree and murder of Shmuel Silverberg
Eighteen-year-old student Shmuel Silverberg was found dead near the Yeshiva Toras Chaim Talmudical Seminary of Denver on August 17. Denver police soon determined that he’d been among the victims of an hours-long crime spree that included vehicle break-ins, a carjacking, an assault that left victim Thomas Young paralyzed, and more. By the end of the month, five young men between the ages of eighteen and 21 – Isaiah Freeman, Seth Larhode, Aden Sides, Noah Loepp-Hall and Samuel Fussell – had been arrested for the various offenses.

Longmont postal worker killing
On October 13, Longmont postal worker Jason Schaefer was gunned down in broad daylight in a driveway near some mailboxes. Law enforcement officials soon arrested 26-year-old Devan Schreiner, who’d recently been fired from her post office job. She was also Schaefer’s former significant other and the mother of his child, and the arrest affidavit in the case quotes the Longmont postmaster posing this question upon arriving at the scene of the shooting: “Did the baby mama do it?”

Fourteen Aurora youths shot in two weeks
Early on November 28, five people between the ages of sixteen and twenty were shot on the 1500 block of Dayton Street in Aurora. The incident followed the shooting of six teens on November 15 in Nome Park, near the campus of Aurora Central High School, and the November 19 wounding of three teens in the parking lot of Aurora’s Hinkley High School. The bloodshed, which has led to several arrests, inspired community leaders in Aurora to redouble their efforts to quell youth violence in the city.

The truck stops here
The incident was horrendous: In April 2019, a truck heading down Interstate 70 lost control by Colorado Mills Parkway and plowed into cars on the highway. The accident cost the lives of four people. Trucker Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, an immigrant from Cuba based in Houston, finally went on trial in October; although he testified that his brakes had failed, he was still convicted on 27 of 41 counts. On December 13, Judge Bruce Jones sentenced him to 110 years in prison – a stint largely dictated by mandatory sentencing laws. Within days of the sentence, close to five million people had signed a change.org petition asking for clemency; direct appeals had also been made to Governor Jared Polis. A resentencing hearing for Aguilera-Mederos is now set for January 13 in district court in Jefferson County.