Over 25 Years After Triple Murder, Westminster Police Are Breaking New Ground in Case

There are more than 1,400 unsolved cold-case murders open in Colorado. One in particular has haunted the Denver metro area for decades.

On February 7, 1999, nine-year-old Sarah Skiba, her father Paul Skiba and his employee Lorenzo Chivers disappeared from Paul's Westminster moving company. Physical evidence found at the business suggests that the victims were murdered, but despite decades of investigations across four law enforcement agencies, their bodies were never found and no arrests were made.

Now, nearly 26 years to the day after the trio went missing, police say they are making new progress on the case.

"We're looking at this as a brand-new case," says Detective Matt Calhoun of the Westminster Police Department, the lead investigator on the case. "We've made a lot of headway. I feel very optimistic. ...The biggest thing is we want to find Sarah and get her home to her family."

For the last year, police have conducted new DNA testing, re-interviewed people involved in the case and expanded the suspect scope beyond the original focus of the investigation. Now, they're appealing to the public to get the final pieces of the puzzle.

Authorities are offering a $10,000 reward for anyone who provides information leading to a break in the case, they announced on Wednesday, February 5.

Sarah’s mother, Michelle Russell, says she still has "a small amount of hope left" that she may one day find out what happened to her daughter.

“We have been searching for our dear Sarah, my only child, for 26 years now,” Russell says in a statement. “Her loss has not gotten any easier, and reliving the events every year is a heartbreaking way to remember her. ...What does that do to a mother, knowing that she does not know where her child is, and may never know?"

"Today I reach out with a plea: please come forward and say what you know about what happened," she continues. "Sarah deserves to be found. No child should be left out alone and unfound."

New Motives Discovered

Sarah accompanied Paul (age 38) and Lorenzo (age 36) on a moving job on February 7, 1999. The trio returned to Paul's moving and storage facility on the 7100 block of Raleigh Street at around 7 p.m., but they never made it home. Police later found a bullet hole in one of the moving trucks, traces of large amounts of blood inside a truck and on the ground, and other human DNA at the scene. Testing revealed that the blood and DNA were from Sarah and Paul.

"Our belief is that Paul and Sarah were killed on site there and transported in that truck," Calhoun explains. "Then they took Lorenzo to wherever they dumped the bodies and killed Lorenzo at the same spot or someplace along the way. ...He could have been forced to help move the bodies."

Detectives have largely agreed on that account of events since early in the investigation. However, the possible motive behind the murders has varied widely.

For years, the leading theory was that Paul got tangled up with dangerous people involved in narcotics, who killed Paul, Sarah and Lorenzo due to a drug dispute of some kind. Lorenzo's wife relayed that story to Westword in 2008, saying it came from a Thornton detective. (Thornton police originally investigated the case before it was taken over by Westminster; the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and Lakewood Police Department have also been involved.)

Calhoun says investigators believe Paul used and may have sold small amounts of marijuana and cocaine, but notes that drugs were "an easy target" for investigators. "I don't think that's the correct answer," he says.

"People hear 'drugs,' and they just assume that it has to have something to do with it," Calhoun adds. "That's what happened when Thornton took the case over: They went really deep down the rabbit hole of narcotics. That might be the right hole, but we're going in a couple of different directions, as well. That is not our primary focus."

Calhoun says "several" people had financial motives to kill Paul for both business and personal reasons. While he cannot discuss details of the investigation, Calhoun confirms that two people are still "definitely on our radar": Teresa and Tom Donovan.

Teresa was Paul's on-again-off-again girlfriend who recently had a son with Paul. In 2008, Paul's mother told Westword that he was planning to leave Teresa and fight for full custody of the baby. After Paul and Sarah died, Paul's life insurance and assets went to the child he shared with Teresa.

Tom is Teresa's brother, who Paul fired from his moving company months before his disappearance. One of Paul's friends told Westword that Tom threatened Paul after he was fired. Tom is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence for attempted first-degree murder for stabbing his mother five times in a 2011 attack.

"We're not taking anybody off the table," Calhoun says. "Things got kind of messy when [the original investigators] did this. They picked a direction they wanted to travel, and that's the only thing they looked at. We're trying to see a bigger picture. That's why we're redoing it."

DNA Breakthrough

Police are now re-interviewing everyone involved in the case, Calhoun says. They're also utilizing new technology to assist in the investigation. Radar is being used to search for the victims' bodies in nearby bodies of water, in addition to items missing from the moving truck that investigators believe were used to transport the bodies: a large moving ramp, blankets and straps.

Modern DNA-testing technology could make a big difference in the case. Weeks after the victims disappeared, Lorenzo's vehicle was found in an apartment complex parking lot several blocks from the moving business, and Paul's vehicle was found ten miles away in Denver. Calhoun says they're re-processing those vehicles, evidence from the crime scene and other objects.

And they recently got a new hit.

"We did get some DNA evidence that we're working pretty hard with," he says, noting that the discovery came within the last year. "In 1999, touch DNA was not a thing. ...Now, we have the equipment, we can take these vacuums with super fine mesh and actually vacuum up DNA from evidence from 1999."
While progress is finally being made, the clock is ticking. After 26 years, some of the people who investigators wanted to speak with have died. As have some of the victims' family members, including Paul's mother, Calhoun says.

"It adds a sense of urgency," he adds. "As people pass away, their information goes with them. We're making a pretty hard push for this one, and a lot of it is for that reason."

Police are asking the public to come forward with any information they have on what happened to Sarah, Paul and Lorenzo. They've made this plea before — including during the 25th anniversary of the deaths last year and at the State Capitol during Colorado Missing Persons Day on February 4 — but with the case ramping up and the increased reward money, they hope it will inspire someone with information to speak out.

"We just need one good person out there who knows where Sarah is or has a true idea of what happened to call us," Calhoun says. "Get your reward and think of bringing Sarah home to her family. They would be eternally grateful."

"Why would anyone want to kill her in cold blood? She was a child," Russell adds. "There is a small amount of hope left that I may one day find out what happened to my daughter, Sarah. But if society has shown me anything, it is that human life is not sacred and everyone lies. I wish it weren’t the case."

Until the murderer is brought to justice, Calhoun's work will continue.

"We work a lot of murders, but this is a nine-year-old girl and two honest, hardworking people who lost their lives. This is a big deal," he says. "These things never end until we find out who did it. Until that day, this case will stay open."

Anyone with information about what happened to Sarah, Paul and Lorenzo is urged to contact the Westminster Police Department at 303-658-4360. To remain anonymous, contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers online or by calling 720-913-7867. Tipsters are eligible for a $10,000 reward.