Crime
Unsolved: 7 years after woman’s dismembered body found far from home, authorities hope for new leads
GARFIELD COUNTY, Colo. — It takes at least three hours for Sue Kleppen to make the drive from Aurora to a particular orchard nestled among towering mountains west of Glenwood Springs, Colo., but she keeps going back year after year.
The idyllic scenery of the western Rockies holds unsightly secrets for Kleppen; it’s where the dismembered remains of her 38-year-old daughter, Janine Johler, were found by a ranch hand cleaning up trash along the property on June 12, 2009. Continue reading
Woman and girl found dead inside home in Highlands Ranch; woman identified
HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. – A woman and a girl were found dead inside a Highlands Ranch home Monday morning, and authorities have spent the day investigating their deaths.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office says Cristi Benavides, 39, and a “juvenile female” were found dead at a home on Crestmore Way around 7:30 a.m. Monday.
Authorities said they believe Benavides was only living temporarily at the home.
The sheriff’s office says it does not believe there is a threat to the community, but has not released further information at this time.
But neighbors told Denver7 that the girl was Benavides‘ daughter and that the incident was a murder-suicide.
Northridge Elementary Principal James Hamilton sent a letter home to parents, students and staff of the school to inform them of the girl’s death. She was a fifth-grader at the school.
In part, the letter states the following:
The Northridge and Douglas County School District communities are saddened for this loss. Please keep the Benavides family in your thoughts.
We recognize that this information is hard to process and will impact everyone differently. There are resources available to help during this difficult time, but the most important thing is that we are here to support one other.
Our District Crisis Team is working with school mental health professionals at our school to ensure that both students and staff have the support needed during this sad time. Northridge staff will not be announcing this information to our students at school. However, we do anticipate that there may be discussion among some of our students in the next few days and our staff is prepared to address their questions and support them as needed.
As parents, you are the very best support system in meeting your child’s needs. Knowing what to say to your child is often difficult. When no other words come to mind, a hug and saying, “This is really hard for all of us,” may provide comfort. You can provide the best explanation that fits with your values and beliefs, knowing that other parents may share this information with their children and informal discussions may take place in and outside of school. You may wish to have a family discussion to talk briefly about loss of life and to acknowledge any feelings that may surface. If you need additional guidance in discussing this situation with your child, please see the attached suggestions from our District Crisis Team.
Please feel free to contact us directly if you have concerns about your child, or if you need any assistance in addressing this tragedy in our community.
For the Colorado Crisis Services reference guide click here .
For Tips for Kids please click here
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FBI joins investigation into threats left at Aurora immigration and refugee center
AURORA, Colo. – The Federal Bureau of Investigations on Friday joined an investigation into signs left at an Aurora community center Thursday morning that threatened to “blow up” refugees.
A spokesman for the Aurora Police Department confirmed Friday afternoon the FBI had joined the case, after the typewritten notes saying, “We’re gonna blow up all of you refugees,” were left at Mango House.
The community center helps refugees with medical and dental care, and provides citizenship classes to get them on the path toward citizenship and integration in American society.
One of the notes was left in the Mango House’s parking lot; another was left in a stairwell.
Employees at the center told Denver7 Thursday they were shocked by the notes.
“It makes me want to stand up stronger and say no. These people are kind and loving, and if you get to know them, you will get to love them, just like I do,” said Carolyn Anello, who founded the dental clinic at Mango House.
Aurora police said Thursday they were investigating the incident as a bias-motivated crime.
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Colorado officials say they’ll stand up to Trump’s immigration orders, but some Coloradans fearful
DENVER – President Donald Trump issued an executive order Wednesday that would strip all federal funding from cities and counties, including several in Colorado, that do not help federal agents target and deport people specifically for living in the U.S. illegally.
Another order signed Wednesday will affect visas and immigration from a handful of predominantly-Muslim nations in Africa and the Middle East that have large immigrant populations in the Denver area, and is causing further concern and questions among those groups. Continue reading
Trump’s pick for Air Force secretary, Heather Wilson, an Academy graduate and NM congresswoman
DENVER – President Donald Trump is planning to nominate Heather Wilson as Air Force Secretary.
The White House said Monday it would nominate Wilson, a graduate of the Air Force Academy and former New Mexico congresswoman, to the post.
Wilson served as New Mexico’s 1st congressional district representative from 1998 to 2009 and was the first female veteran elected to Congress. She currently serves as the President of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.
She was among the first women admitted to the Academy and eventually became a Vice Wing Commander before graduating as a Distinguished Graduate. She then was selected as a Rhodes Scholar and went to Oxford University.
She served in the Air Force until 1989 until she was picked to serve on National Security Council staff, and later founded a private defense company, Keystone International, and worked in the Gary Johnson administration before being elected to Congress.
While there, she served as chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence and was a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and also served on the House Armed Services Committee.
But she was at the center of a 2015 settlement involving Albuquerque, N.M-based Sandia Labs after she allegedly lobbied members of Congress and the Obama administration for an extension of the contract with the federal government.
She was also paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for consulting with three contractors involved in other federal laboratories, but no one could document her work, according to the Washington Post.
She denied lobbying for the Sandia Labs contract.
“Heather Wilson is going to make an outstanding Secretary of the Air Force. Her distinguished military service, high level of knowledge, and success in so many different fields gives me great confidence that she will lead our nation’s Air Force with the greatest competence and integrity,” President Trump said in a statement.
The same news release said Wilson plans “to strengthen American air and space power to keep the country safe.”
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DPD finds officers followed department policy in 2015 shooting of teen
DENVER – The Denver Police Department on Monday announced it had cleared the two officers in the 2015 shooting death of a teenage girl who was inside a stolen car at the time.
DPD announced that Officer Gabriel Jordan and Officer Daniel Greene had used “appropriate force” and followed department policy as it was written at the time.
The Denver District Attorney’s Office had already determined that the two would not face criminal charges in the shooting, which left 17-year-old Jessica Hernandez dead.
The case had been reviewed by the DA’s Office, as well as DPD Internal Affairs, the Office of the Independent Monitor and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
Hernandez was killed in an alleyway near the intersection of 25th and Niagara on the early morning of Jan. 26, 2015. Investigators said she was driving a stolen car toward two officers, who opened fire.
The department has since re-written its policy so as to not allow its officers to shoot at moving vehicles.
“After reviewing all of the facts and circumstances of the Jessica Hernandez case it has been determined that the officers’ actions do not warrant disciplinary action,” Denver Police Chief Robert C. White said, in part, in a statement to Denver7. “Nonetheless, this incident is a tragedy for all involved. Ms. Hernandez had her whole life in front of her and we mourn her loss with the family.”
Hernandez’s family also issued a statement Monday:
Today, the family of Jessica Hernandez received a call from Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, who expressed compassion as he conveyed the results of the Police Department’s internal affairs investigation. This call followed a productive face-to-face meeting on November 16, 2016, where the family and Denver officials, including the Mayor and Chief White, discussed their strong desire to bring positive change from such an inexplicable tragedy. The family has expressed to Mayor Hancock their appreciation for his willingness to grieve and pray with them.
Nevertheless, the Hernandez family will achieve justice for Jessie and continue to advocate for meaningful police reform. DPD’s changed policies on vehicle stops and shooting into moving vehicles will hopefully prevent future tragedies like the killing of Jessie and other members of the Denver community. The Hernandez family will continue to work with the community and Denver to try to bring about positive change and ensure that Jessie’s death was not in vain.
The Hernandez family holds out hope that no other family or community will have to experience their pain. They appreciate the compassion and support that the Denver community has shown as they still try to come to grips with this immense loss. Not a day goes by that they don’t think about and miss their beloved Jessie.
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Bill would require probable cause for police access to people’s prescription records
DENVER – A bill under consideration in the Colorado Legislature would make it harder for law enforcement agencies to gain access to Coloradans’ prescription drug information.
Senate Bill 32 would require Colorado law enforcement agencies and regulatory boards to have a judge or neutral third party approve a warrant backed by a sworn affidavit or testimony before they can access the state’s prescription drug monitoring program. The bill was proposed by Sen. Michael Merrifield, a Democrat from El Paso County.
The state’s program is aimed at mitigating the abuse or misuse of prescription drugs. Pharmacies and doctors are required to upload prescription information for all Schedule II-V drugs prescribed and distributed to patients into the program’s database each day. The bulk of prescription drugs fall under those categorizations.
In Colorado, the law currently requires the requesting agency or board to prove that the information is related to a specific “practitioner, patient or pharmacy” amid an ongoing “bona fide investigation.”
But Coloradans could still have their private information and past prescriptions shared with law enforcement agencies that fill out an administrative subpoena which does not go before independent court officials before it is issued by the agency.
As revealed by a five-month investigation last August by Denver7’s Washington bureau, Scripps News, Colorado was one of 31 states that allowed law enforcement and regulatory boards to access that private consumer information without probable cause.
The Scripps News investigation uncovered an incident in Utah in which local police investigating the theft of drugs from an ambulance accessed the private prescription records of all 480 employees of the United Fire Authority of Salt Lake County. None of the employees were suspects, no court approved the search and no probable cause ever existed that any of the employees were involved in the theft.
Two of the employees were eventually charged after police used the information they obtained, though their charges were not related to the theft and were eventually dropped altogether.
Utah auditors later found that warrantless access to the database “may have resulted in questionable use” of the database by other law enforcement agencies in more than half the sampled cases.
The Scripps News investigation found that in 2014-15 alone, law enforcement nationally had accessed at least 344,921 Americans’ prescription histories in the 31 states that don’t require a warrant or court order.
Utah has since changed its law to require warrants be approved before the information is released.
Sen. Merrifield told Scripps Monday that his bill is aimed at providing better protections for Coloradans, and simply requires law enforcement agencies and regulatory boards to establish probable cause for the search.
“We need to protect Coloradans’ constitutional right to privacy,” he said. “It simply isn’t right that any law enforcement official or regulator could access private health records without any form of judicial oversight. As technology advances, and these records become digitized, Colorado needs to make sure investigations into people’s prescription health records are done so with a judge’s approval, just like any investigation into any other personal database.”
The bill is scheduled for its first hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee Feb. 1.
Scripps News’ senior national investigative correspondent Mark Greenblatt contributed to this report.
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Woman convicted of forging ballot signatures for Senate candidate sentenced to probation
DENVER – The Colorado signature collector who pleaded guilty to two felony counts of forgery last November for turning in dozens of forged signatures on a petition for a U.S. Senate candidate was sentenced to probation and community service Friday in Denver.
Maureen Moss, 45, will be on probation for four years and will have to perform 250 hours of community service, a Denver District Court judge ruled Friday morning.
Moss was originally charged with 34 felony forgery counts after Denver7 uncovered 10 forged signatures and investigators at district attorney’s offices in Denver, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties confirmed there were 24 further instances.
The forged signatures were all put on a petition drive to get Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jon Keyser on June’s primary election ballot. He made the primary ballot, but took fourth in the primary, which was won by Darryl Glenn.
Court documents also revealed that Moss had an extensive criminal history regarding fraudulent and forged credit card usage.
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Ski Granby Ranch closes lift that caused fatal accident for ‘testing,’ says modification to blame
SKI GRANBY RANCH, Colo. – Ski Granby Ranch announced Friday the Quick Draw Express chairlift, which killed a Texas woman last month when it malfunctioned, would be closed Friday and Saturday while it is tested.
Kelly Huber, 40, of San Antonio died Dec. 29 when she was thrown from the lift along with her two children, who both survived.
The lift was closed for more than a week as state regulators investigated what caused the accident. On Jan. 9, the Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board released a report saying that a “rare dynamic event” occurred within the lift’s primary electrical drive and control system.
The board said weather, environmental factors, and human error on Huber’s behalf were not factors in the accident.
Ski Granby Ranch reopened the lift after the report, but could only operate it using its backup diesel engine and not the electrical system.
Resort operators were also asked to disconnect the electrical drive entirely, to run the lift at a slower pace and to increase the number of visual and mechanical inspections on the lift.
The safety board said in its report it reserves the right to slow or shut down the lift, and it also left room for the continuing investigation to grow.
Friday morning, Ski Granby Ranch posted a message on Instagram saying the lift would be closed while it is tested.
In a news release the ski resort sent out later Friday, the resort said it was hoping to reopen the lift under diesel power “as soon as possible” and that it had scheduled the installation of a new electric drive in the future.
It added that the “current tests are being done out of an abundance of caution.”
The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies said in a statement sent late Friday that the Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board reached the decision to not reopen the lift until it is “deemed safe for public operation as set forth in a Non-Disciplinary Operation Agreement.”
The ski area also said that an independent contractor was hired to make modifications to the lift before this current ski season, and that “the issue that likely caused the incident was the independent contractor’s modification to the lift’s electrical drive/control system.”
The contractor was not affiliated with the original lift manufacturer, and the resort said it has since “retained the original manufacturer of the lift to return the Quick Draw Express Lift to safe operating condition [sic] under electrical power.”
It said the rest of the ski area remained open, that it was offering discounted tickets and that it would re-open the lift as soon as possible following the completion of testing.
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Solved: Colorado Springs cold cases from 1972, 2010 closed
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Cold case detectives in the Colorado Springs Police Department’s homicide unit say they have solved two cold case murders, but both of the people accused are dead.
The first cold case stems from the September 1972 stabbing death of Deborah Lynn May, 19. Colorado Springs police say they were able to preserve DNA evidence from an alleged suspect in the case and use new testing methods to try and get a hit.
When the tests were performed, the DNA matched to a man named Craig Brame, who police say was an acquaintance of May’s boyfriend’s.
Brame and the boyfriend were both serving in the U.S. Army at the time and were stationed at Fort Carson.
The department found Brame had died in April 2004, but said the new evidence convinced investigators and the El Paso County district attorney that Brame was responsible for May’s murder.
The second cold case police said they solved was the March 2010 murder of 56-year-old Yong Glen, who was shot to death at her tailor’s shop on Maizeland Road.
After she was shot dead, the suspect in the case stole her vehicle, police say.
Last March, someone tried to register the vehicle in California, and investigators tied the car to a man named Robert Quillen. But they also found that Quillen had committed suicide just before they tied him to the vehicle.
However, investigators were able to analyze the gun Quillen used in his suicide and, paired with evidence from the vehicle, were able to convince the district attorney that Quillen was Glen’s murderer.
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