A 15-year-old boy who went missing in Denver on Thursday is described by police as an Alaska Native who was last seen wearing a baggy black and white checkered outfit.
Missing Indigenous Person Alert Activation Michael Davis, described as a 15-year-old Alaskan Native male, last seen at 11:00 AM January 22, 2026 in the 1000 block of North Cherokee Street in Denver, Colorado.
Shaida Ghaemi was last seen Sept. 9, 2007, in Wheat Ridge. (Photo courtesy Colorado Bureau of Investigation)
Arash Ghaemi has wondered for 18 years what happened to his mother after she disappeared from a Wheat Ridge motel.
So Ghaemi, an artificial intelligence developer and entrepreneur, turned his profession into his passion.
“What if I can get the case files and run it through AI?” he said of the police investigation into his mother’s disappearance. “Maybe it will show me something and make the connections. If I could build it to solve my mom’s case, I could likely build it to solve other cases.”
Ghaemi launched CrimeOwl, an AI program that searches cold-case files to generate new leads for investigators, last year.
So far, the AI platform is in the hands of a few private investigators who are using it to chase leads on behalf of families searching for missing loved ones. Ghaemi hopes one day the program will have its big break in solving a case, and maybe — just maybe — it will help figure out what happened to his mother, Shaida Ghaemi, when she disappeared in 2007.
Ghaemi, who goes by “Ash,” on Tuesday met with investigators, information-technology staff and commanders at the Wheat Ridge Police Department to show off his AI tool and to ask for an update on his mother’s case.
For now, Wheat Ridge police say CrimeOwl is too unproven to use in the department’s investigations, including Shaida Ghaemi’s disappearance.
And they are tight-lipped about her case.
“We were really happy to meet with Ash. It’s part of our philosophy of relationship policing,” said Alex Rose, a Wheat Ridge police spokesman. “It was a twofold meeting to explain what we could about the case and to give some professional insight on the AI tool so it can become more widespread and of use to agencies across the country.”
‘Still trying to make sense of it’
When Arash Ghaemi was growing up, his mother was almost too good a mother, he said, describing her as “almost overbearing” in taking care of him and his older sister.
But when Arash was 17, his parents divorced, and everything changed.
Shaida Ghaemi became distant from her children. She left home a lot.
“It was weird,” he said. “She went from always needing to be in contact with me and my sister to she could take it or leave it.”
Shaida Ghaemi did not have a permanent home and did not have a job, her son, now 40, said. She traveled between Colorado and Maryland, where her parents lived.
In 2007 — five years after the divorce — she moved into the American Motel in Wheat Ridge with her boyfriend, Jude Peters.
“I am still trying to make sense of it,” he said of the changes in his mother’s behavior.
Arash Ghaemi was a 22-year-old server at a Red Robin restaurant in Highlands Ranch when his grandfather called from Maryland on a September night and told him they were unable to reach his mother. He asked his grandson to call the police.
Shaida Ghaemi, then 44, was last seen on Sept. 9, 2007, by Peters. Drops of her blood were found in their motel room. At the time, Peters told 9News it was menstrual blood and that Ghaemi often left for months at a time.
Wheat Ridge police still consider her disappearance a missing-person case, and there is no “clear indication of foul play,” Rose said. “Jude is not considered a person of interest in this investigation at this time,” Rose said of Peters.
“They still don’t know where she’s at and they don’t have any trace of her,” Ghaemi said.
‘True value’ of AI
Artificial intelligence is gaining ground as a law enforcement tool. Multiple police departments across Colorado are using the technology, most commonly for converting body-worn camera footage into written crime reports. It’s also being used to track license plates and to scan people’s faces.
The Wheat Ridge Police Department uses Axon’s Draft One to help write police reports, based on their body-worn camera footage.
“Our officers know they’re accountable for every single word,” Rose said. “It gives them a who, what, when and where and can save them time, but it’s not a substitution for good police work.”
Ghaemi launched CrimeOwl about six months ago. He is also developing AI programs for the dental industry and a new sports statistics program that could eventually be used by the NBA.
He programmed CrimeOwl to sort through all of the documents in a case file and build a map of the people connected to the missing person, such as partners, family, close friends and neighbors. The AI also creates a timeline of events leading to the disappearance or death and then maps all of the geographic locations connected to the crime, he said.
The platform has a chat function so investigators can ask the AI to sift through files to find answers to their questions.
While CrimeOwl was designed to help with missing-persons cases, Ghaemi said he hopes it can be used to solve other crimes.
No police departments have bought the product so far.
Ghaemi, who lives in Miami, said he tested CrimeOwl on a solved cold case in Florida and, after uploading the police case file into his program, the AI created a list of credible suspects within 30 minutes, he said. Police confirmed it had identified the actual perpetrator, he said.
“It took me 30 minutes to do what it could have taken them weeks or months to do,” Ghaemi said. “That’s the true value here.”
Not ready for police use
CrimeOwl, however, is not ready for active law enforcement investigations, Rose said.
The CrimeOwl platform would need to be secure so no one could tamper with the evidence once it is uploaded, Rose said. It would need to receive various certifications before any law enforcement agency used it, he said.
It would also need to be vetted by lawyers so any leads it generated would hold up at trial, he said.
“There are a lot of details and a lot of hypotheticals that would need to be heavily vetted for AI technology in a real-world police setting,” Rose said.
Still, Wheat Ridge police are intrigued by Ghaemi’s AI tool and were more than willing to offer advice and expertise, he said.
“We’re always going to applaud somebody who is trying to use technology to find ways to help,” Rose said.
Ghaemi said the Wheat Ridge investigators declined to hand over his mother’s case file because of the security concerns. He had wanted to upload those documents into CrimeOwl to see if it could generate new leads.
Police officials also told him that if they used CrimeOwl to identify a suspect, that person’s defense attorney would likely argue bias since the AI platform was built by the missing woman’s son, Ghaemi said.
“My stance is it has been 18 years. You guys have passed it on to other investigators. It’s not solving the case,” he said. “I’m willing to take that risk.”
Ghaemi hopes to overcome the legal barriers and law enforcement skepticism before his new company folds under financial pressure. He said CrimeOwl has a revenue stream, but it loses money every month.
“I built this thing with a mission in mind at first,” he said. “I didn’t really know how it would work or if it would work or if I would go broke. Even if it’s not me and CrimeOwl went broke tomorrow and we had to shutter the doors, I just want investigators to use AI to solve these cold cases.”
Colorado officials are investigating the death of a woman in Grand County after witnesses spotted two men putting her body in a car, according to investigators.
Law enforcement responded to the U.S. Forest Service’s Sulphur Ranger District Office in Granby at about 12:05 p.m. Saturday, according to a news release from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Witnesses told investigators about an unspecified “disturbance” outside of the northern Colorado office that morning and said they spotted two men placing a woman in a vehicle, according to the release. One of the men drove the victim to the Middle Park Health Emergency Room, across the street from the USFS office, witnesses said.
The woman, a 38-year-old Granby resident who has not been publicly identified, died from her injuries shortly after 1 p.m. Saturday, investigators said in the release.
It’s unclear how the woman was injured, who the two men were and whether her death is under investigation as a homicide. As of Sunday morning, no suspects had been publicly identified or arrested.
The Grand County Coroner’s Office will release the woman’s identity and cause of death at a later date.
A 15-year-old Denver boy is missing after he was last seen Thursday morning in the Athmar Park neighborhood, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Michael Davis was last seen at 8 a.m. in the 700 block of South Lipan Street, state officials said in a Missing Indigenous Person Alert.
Michael is affiliated with the Athabascan tribe and is described as 5 feet, 10 inches tall and 130 pounds with brown eyes and brown hair. He also wears glasses.
Anyone with information about his whereabouts should call 911 or the Denver Police Department at 720-913-2000.
ACTIVATION – Michael Davis (15-Year-Old Indigenous Male) last seen on 12/11/25 at about 8am in the 700 block of S. Lipan Street in Denver, CO. Michael is affiliated with the Athabascan tribe. Michael’s last clothing is unknown, but Michael does wear glasses. If seen Call 911. pic.twitter.com/G1CVuFc0zk
Almost 40 years after a passerby found the skeletal remains of missing teenager Donna Sue Wayne in a northeast Aurora field, investigators finally identified a suspect in her death — a man already in prison for the murder and sexual assault of another woman killed in the city seven months after Wayne.
Richard “Ricky” Saathoff, 65, is charged with first-degree murder and second-degree kidnapping in Wayne’s death, according to the Arapahoe County District Attorney’s Office.
While some details of the 18-year-old’s disappearance have long been public knowledge, a newly filed Aurora Police Department arrest affidavit illuminates the winding path investigators trod for nearly 40 years, using DNA and fingerprint evidence along with witness statements to identify Saathoff as a suspect.
Donna Sue Wayne.
Wayne went missing after leaving her Aurora home to meet up with friends at a Montbello house party and bar the night of June 13, 1986.
She was last seen alive early the next morning, when a Stapleton airport worker saw her being physically and sexually assaulted by a man driving her green 1972 Ford LTD in the 800 block of North Picadilly Road.
Earlier reports described the car as red, but the arrest affidavit includes photos of the green Ford. The car was later destroyed. .
Wayne screamed for help before the man forced her back into the car, the woman told police. The woman drove to the nearest house to get help, but by the time police arrived, Wayne and the man were gone.
Wayne’s car was seen abandoned in Aurora’s Hoffman Heights neighborhood the next day, on June 15, 1986, but police did not link the car to Wayne until it was towed away two weeks later, an Aurora cold case investigator wrote in the affidavit.
Police lifted two fingerprints from the driver’s side window, and a neighbor found Wayne’s car keys, tossed in an evergreen bush down the block near Vaughn Elementary School, a few weeks later.
Wayne’s body was found by a passing driver in a northeast Aurora field littered with trash and debris one month after she was last seen alive, with her clothes and purse were strewn about the area, according to the affidavit.
Her exact cause of death was never confirmed because of how much her remains had decomposed, but she had multiple broken bones, including her jaw, ribs, clavicle and in her neck, chest and face.
The investigation seemed to stall after her body was found as police chased leads that did not pan out.
Fingerprint evidence from the driver’s side window was later misplaced and went missing for years, until it was found and retested in 2009, with no matches.
Investigators retested the fingerprints in a new system in 2012 and matched the two prints to Saathoff, who was already in prison after he was convicted of murder in the death of 40-year-old Norma Houston. Houston’s body was found naked, brutally beaten and assaulted near a gas station at 11697 E. Colfax Ave. on Jan. 18, 1987, seven months after Wayne’s death, police wrote.
Like Wayne, Houston had significant trauma to her head and a broken jaw, police wrote.
Houston was sexually assaulted, and though Wayne’s remains were too deteriorated to confirm sexual assault, her pants and underwear had been removed, like Houston’s.
Investigators linked Saathoff to Houston’s murder after his DNA was found on her clothes, and he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in June 1988. He is eligible for parole in June 2027, state records show.
After the 2012 fingerprint match, investigators tried to further link Saathoff to Wayne’s murder, according to the affidavit. A detective interviewed him in prison in 2014, and he denied knowing Wayne (and later denied killing Houston).
Investigators determined Saathoff lived with his parents in the same neighborhood where Wayne’s car was abandoned, and so did his ex-girlfriend.
In May, more than a decade after the fingerprint match, investigators again looked at Wayne’s clothes for a DNA sample, and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation found and tested DNA on Wayne’s jeans that had a high likelihood of belonging to Saathoff.
Saathoff remains in prison at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility in Cañon City, according to state records. His next court date was not available Friday.
A former Englewood police officer was arrested on suspicion of assault after he pulled a man over for running a stop sign and, after struggling to communicate in Spanish, proceeded to shock the man with a Taser, put him in a chokehold and drag him to the ground, investigators said Tuesday.
Ryan Scott Vasina, 30, faces charges of second-degree assault, third-degree assault and first-degree official misconduct, according to the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office. The second-degree assault charge is a felony, while the other two charges are misdemeanors.
He turned himself in at the Denver Sheriff Department on Monday and was released on a $25,000 bail, according to the district attorney’s office.
“This type of conduct is a stain on the profession and is not reflective of the Englewood Police Department or the people who serve our community with honor,” Police Chief David Jackson said during a news conference on Tuesday morning at the district attorney’s office in Centennial.
Vasina, at the time a probationary officer, pulled over 20-year-old Carlos Rangel-Rincones, a Venezuelan national, shortly after 11 p.m. Oct. 8 near South Lincoln Street and East Layton Avenue, according to an arrest affidavit.
Investigators said Rangel-Rincones was seen running a stop sign on dash-camera video.
Rangel-Rincones primarily speaks Spanish and knows minimal English, so he had trouble understanding Vasina during the traffic stop, he told investigators through an interpreter. Vasina never requested an interpreter to respond to the scene, District Attorney Amy Padden said during the news conference.
In the expletive-laden encounter, Vasina repeatedly asked Rangel-Rincones for his license and keys and refused to answer the man’s questions, according to the arrest affidavit. He told Rangel-Rincones to turn off the car, and the man complied, but then asked for the keys, which Rangel-Rincones did not turn over.
Instead, Vasina repeatedly tried to pull Rangel-Rincones out of the car while cursing and insulting him as Rangel-Rincones pulled back and tried to access a translation app on his phone.
Vasina again ordered him to get out of the car and used his radio to tell emergency dispatchers Rangel-Rincones was fighting him, but his body-worn camera footage showed that wasn’t the case.
Instead, the recording showed Vasina telling Rangel-Rincones he was going to shock him and then deploying the Taser one second later, investigators wrote.
Rangel-Rincones then got out of the car, and Vasina told him to get on the ground, but immediately put him in a chokehold and dragged him down.
Rangel-Rincones told investigators that he was trying to send his location to his mother-in-law because he thought he was going to be killed.
Vasina choked him for about 12 seconds and put his weight on the man’s back, further injuring him because he still had Taser barbs in his body, investigators said.
Rangel-Rincones could not breathe during those 12 seconds and was later photographed with bruises on his neck, Padden said. He never fought, resisted or failed to follow lawful orders before Vasina used force, she said.
Investigators also wrote in the affidavit that Rangel-Rincones did nothing to warrant Vasina’s use of force and did not resist even as he was being choked.
The type of chokehold Vasina used in the traffic stop is illegal in Colorado, and all chokeholds are prohibited under the Englewood Police Department’s use-of-force policy unless deadly force is authorized.
Englewood police started investigating the encounter after Rangel-Rincones came to the department on Oct. 9 to file a complaint, Jackson said Tuesday.
Jackson learned about the encounter five days later when an unidentified person from outside the police department emailed him late Oct. 13, he said. Englewood police first reviewed Vasina’s body-worn camera video on Oct. 14 and immediately referred the case to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Vasina was put on administrative leave that day.
Vasina was still a probationary officer and was terminated after his probationary status was revoked, Jackson said. He was hired at the Englewood Police Department in November 2024 and previously worked at the Colorado State Patrol from June 2021 through October 2024.
Vasina did not have a disciplinary record in Englewood and an initial review of his other body-worn camera video did not show similar incidents, Jackson said.
State Patrol officials referred questions about Vasina’s employment, including his disciplinary record and past use of force, to the agency’s records department, which did not immediately respond to a public records request on Tuesday.
Vasina’s state police certification through the Peace Officer Standards and Training board was still active as of Tuesday afternoon and did not show his arrest. His next court date was not available Tuesday.
A man was shot and killed by a La Plata County sheriff’s deputy on Tuesday afternoon after coming at the deputy with an ax handle and baseball bat during a traffic stop for what appeared to be domestic violence, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Multiple people called 911 at around 2:40 p.m. Tuesday about a man and woman who were fighting inside a moving vehicle driving north on U.S. 550 leaving Durango, CBI officials said in a news release Wednesday.
A La Plata County deputy and Durango police officer spotted the vehicle in the 28000 block of U.S. 550, about six miles north of Durango, and pulled the driver over.
A woman got out of the vehicle and ran toward the officers for help and the driver, armed with an ax handle and baseball bat, started moving toward the woman and the deputy, according to the CBI.
The deputy shot the man and, despite medical aid, he died at the scene.
No one else was injured during the encounter, state officials said.
The sheriff’s deputy was put on administrative leave as part of the standard protocol for police shootings, and the CBI is investigating the case along with the Southwest Regional Shoot Team.
Law enforcement officials are searching for an Indigenous teenager reported missing Wednesday from Englewood, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Tyrain Willow, 17, is a 5-foot-4-inch, 120-pound boy with black hair and brown eyes, according to a missing Indigenous person alert from the agency. He is affiliated with the Northern Arapaho Tribe.
Tyrain was last seen at about 7 a.m. Wednesday near South Broadway and Eastman Avenue in Englewood, CBI officials said in the alert.
He was wearing a white-and-black Los Angeles Dodgers hat, black jacket, black shirt, gold/tan pants and white shoes, investigators said. He may have been wearing an earring in his right ear.
Anyone who sees Tyrain or has information about his whereabouts is asked to contact the Englewood Police Department at 303-761-7410.
Pushback and criticism against the federal government continued across Colorado this week after immigration officials arrested a father and two children in Durango, sparking local protests that were met with pepper spray, rubber bullets and physical confrontation by federal agents.
Colorado Bureau of Investigation officials on Thursday announced the agency will investigate a federal agent throwing a protester’s phone and pushing her to the ground outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Durango.
The encounter was caught on video as demonstrators gathered outside the ICE office on Monday to try to prevent a Colombian man and his two children from being separated and moved to different facilities.
Fernando Jaramillo Solano and his 12- and 15-year-old children were arrested Monday morning while heading to school despite the family’s active asylum case, advocates with Compañeros Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center said.
Durango Police Chief Brice Current asked the CBI to investigate in the wake of a widely circulated video which “appears to show a federal agent use force on a woman during the demonstration,” the state agency said Thursday.
Investigators will look into whether any state criminal laws were broken during the incident and send the investigation to the 6th Judicial District; the district attorney’s office will decide whether to file charges.
Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday said Colorado officials were not informed of the operation or given any information about whether Jaramillo Solano and his children were suspected of any crimes.
“The federal government’s lack of transparency about its immigration actions in Durango and in the free state of Colorado remains extremely maddening,” Polis said on social media.
“The federal government should prioritize apprehending and prosecuting dangerous criminals, no matter where they come from, and keep our communities safe instead of snatching up children and breaking up families,” he continued.
ICE officials did not respond to an email seeking comment about the investigation and arrests.
Dozens of Durango and La Plata County residents packed City Council chambers and overflowed into the hallway during a tense, emotional community meeting Thursday evening.
City officials at times seemed at a loss for how to address the arrests and protests, including ICE officials refusing to let Durango police perform a welfare check on the children.
“People really put their lives on the line for the children and this community, and it was an incredible display of people’s position on this issue. It makes me very proud and sad at the same time,” Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales said.
Community members who attended the protest spoke about being assaulted and seeing others assaulted by ICE agents while state and local police watched and did nothing to intervene.
Sixteen-year-old McKenna Bard described calling 911 five times to beg for medical assistance, but no one came, leaving high school students and residents to try to treat their own injuries for more than two hours.
Bard was one of several speakers who criticized the Durango Police Department for failing to help community members during the protest, even to provide medical aid.
“The people of Durango feel betrayed, lied to and disgusted,” Bard said.
The Rev. Jamie Boyce, a minister with the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango, said she saw ICE agents stomp on protesters who sat with linked arms, pepper-spray protesters directly in the face and use sound cannons and rubber bullets. One agent put a protester in a chokehold, she said.
“City Council, I want you to hear the haunting cries of people asking, ‘Why won’t you protect us?’ Because that is the question that calls for your moral clarity,” she said. “I beg you, claim your moral ground and strength of character to help heal our hurting city.”
The arrests and protests in Durango are among a wave of violent federal immigration action across the United States, with similar clashes between demonstrators and federal agents happening in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Ore.
Stephen Miller, a top adviser to President Donald Trump, last week said any state or local officials who impede federal law enforcement are engaging in illegal activity.
“To all ICE officers, you have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties, and anyone who lays a hand on you or tried to stop you is committing a felony,” Miller said on Fox News.
ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. — The Colorado Bureau of Investigation has issued a missing senior alert for a 70-year-old man last seen around 10:30 a.m. Monday.
Luis Gabriel Coria, 70, was last seen near 12200 Magnola Way in Thornton.
Coria lives with cognitive impairment, which may make him confused, the CBI said. He is also in need of medications he does not have with him.
He was last seen wearing a red shirt, black shorts and black shoes. Coria has grey hair and brown eyes, he’s 5 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs approximately 160 pounds.
Anyone with information about Coria’s whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the Adams County Sheriff’s Office at 303-288-1535. The Adams County Sheriff’s Office said Rampart Search and Rescue was out Monday night search for Coria but were unable to locate him. They will resume their search Tuesday.
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Denver police are searching for the driver in a Friday evening hit-and-run who seriously injured a motorcyclist in Athmar Park.
The unidentified woman, believed to be in her mid-20s, was driving a gray 2015 GMC Sierra pickup truck with Colorado license plate EFC-I90 when she crashed with a motorcycle in the 2200 block of West Alameda Avenue, according to a Medina Alert issued by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Denver police said the motorcyclist, who has not been publicly identified, was seriously injured in the crash at about 6:45 p.m. Friday.
The pickup truck was last seen in the block where the crash happened, investigators said in the Medina Alert. It had a black bed cover and damage to the passenger-side truck bed and bumper. An American flag decal was also displayed on the lower left corner of the windshield.
Anyone with information about the vehicle or driver is asked to contact the Denver Police Department at 720-913-2000.
On 10/17/2025 at 6:45 pm a gray 2015 GMC Sierra, Colorado plate EFC-I90, driven by a mid-20 year old female, fled the scene of an accident that caused serious bodily injury. The vehicle was last seen in the area of 2200 W. Alameda Ave. If seen call Denver PD at 720-913-2000. pic.twitter.com/pycWsqbXTa
DENVER — It’s been more than 40 years since Sid Wells, a 22-year-old student at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU), was murdered, but it feels like yesterday for his family.
“The older I get, the harder it is to stay composed,” said his older brother Robert Wells, his eyes growing misty.
Robert Wells described his brother as a gregarious person who treated everyone with dignity and respect.
“His sense of humor was amazing,” Robert Wells said with a smile. “He could be tenacious when he needed to be. He wanted to be an investigative journalist or fly jets for the Navy. What a great combination.”
“When he first called me, he said, ‘I met this beautiful girl, beautiful strawberry blonde hair, and we’ve been out on a couple of dates.’ And he was very excited about this new person in his life, and they’d gone out about three times,” Robert Wells recalled. “He said one of the cadets in the ROTC came up to him and said, ‘What’s it like dating Robert Redford’s daughter?’ He had no idea.”
News
Hunt ongoing for killer in student’s ’83 murder
One of the Wells brothers, Sam, found Sid Wells dead from a gunshot wound to the back of the head on August 1, 1983. Investigators identified a suspect, Thayne Smika, who was a roommate of the Wells brothers at the time of the murder.
Smika was arrested in October 1983. However, during a grand jury process to determine if and what charges Smika might face, it was discovered in District Attorney Alexander Hunter’s case file that the office had reached an agreement with Smika that the grand jury would not be able to come back with a “true bill” charging Smika with any criminal conduct, meaning he wouldn’t face any charges no matter what the grand jury determined.
Smika was eventually let out of custody and stayed in the area for a couple of years. A warrant for his arrest on forgery charges was issued out of Denver in early 1986, but he was never arrested, and the warrant was eventually dropped.
Smika’s family said the last time they heard from him was in 1986, when he said he was leaving town. According to court documents, he told his family members to get passports in order to visit him, implying that he would be leaving the country, but his family claims they haven’t heard from him since.
An abandoned car registered to his father, who said he gave the car to Smika before he left town, was found in Beverly Hills, California, in 1986, but there was no sign of Smika.
A different Boulder County district attorney, Stan Garnett, put together a new arrest warrant for Smika, which was approved on Dec. 2, 2010. It carries first-degree murder charges, a $5 million bond, and the conditions that Smika have no contact with the Wells family should he ever be caught.
“In this case, we have answers. We know who did it,” Robert Wells said. “The day he’s found and brought to justice is the day we’ll find out the rest of the story. Until then, that story is cold.”
Wells family
Shauna Redford and Sid Wells before his death.
Sid Wells’ mother became one of the founding members of the nonprofit Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons (FOHVAMP), which has advocated for those impacted by such cases since 2001. Eventually, Robert Wells became the executive director of the organization, a position he held for more than two decades.
“We’re here to make sure that these families’ cases are never forgotten,” said Robert Wells. “That murderer living amongst us doesn’t make for a safe society, and they need to be held accountable, and they need to be brought to justice. And as long as we’re around, we’re going to do what we can to ensure that happens.”
On Wednesday, Robert Wells introduced the new executive director of the organization: Kirby Lewis, who previously worked as an assistant director of investigations at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“I couldn’t have found a better person for this. His heart is in it,” Robert Wells told Denver7. “I’ll be falling back to a senior advisor position and probably handle a little bit of media. And Kirby Lewis will be up to his elbows in cold cases and working directly with the families.”
Lewis said he is both excited and intimidated to take on this new role.
“Recently, with COVID-19 especially, some grant money dried up or went away, so the organization is limited financially,” Lewis explained. “We’re going to make a big push for fundraising so that we can, maybe, FOHVAMP can finance some forensic investigative genealogy. We can maybe do some age progression on photographs, work with the media partners and get some case information out there and try and generate leads or tips for law enforcement to follow up on.”
FOHVAMP connects the families of cold case victims with law enforcement, providing an outlet for dialogue between the two.
“I cannot speak for their law enforcement agency, but kind of tell the family what’s going on behind the scenes that they may not understand or may not see,” Lewis said.
For Robert Wells, this change within FOHVAMP is a new chapter, and one that warms his heart.
“Sid, much like my father, would probably say, ‘God, you’ve done a great job, Rob. What are you going to do tomorrow? What’s next?’” Robert Wells said. “I’m not going away. I will be quietly in the background, doing the best I can, given health concerns and challenges, until they throw dirt on me.”
The Boulder Police Department sent Denver7 a statement that said Sid Wells’ case is still open and active, adding that “the search for the suspect has never ceased.”
The statement continued to say that “no matter how much time goes by, Boulder Police are deeply committed to finding justice for this family and that will never stop.”
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The Denver District Attorney’s Office failed to share police records with defense attorneys in as many as 756 criminal cases since 2022, potentially violating court discovery rules, a probe by the office found.
The prosecutors’ discovery software for years diverted Denver Police Department files that included a forward slash in the file name into an “error log that prosecutors were not aware of and could not access,” according to a statement from the office this week and notifications sent to defense attorneys in September.
The misrouted files were not shared with defendants — a potential violation of discovery rules, which require prosecutors to disclose evidence to defendants during a criminal case. The district attorney’s office uncovered what it called a “technical issue” with the software as it reviewed its own practices amid mounting serious sanctions for discovery violations across Colorado.
It was not immediately clear whether all of the files that were diverted into the error log were required to be disclosed to defendants, DA spokesman Matt Jablow said in a statement. But the office nevertheless notified defense attorneys and started the process of sharing all the files “out of caution and to avoid any delay,” he said.
“The DA’s office produced the files, even though, in many of those cases… the information appears to have been produced in a different format, may not have been legally required to be produced, or both,” he said in the statement.
Many of the misplaced files “contained information related to a defendant’s arrest, such as booking photos,” Jablow said. The error log issue most frequently impacted records that included dates in the file names, according to the notification sent to attorneys.
The impact of the technical glitch will vary from case to case depending on the severity of the case, the information in the undisclosed files and how far along in the legal process the case is, said Colin McCallin, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor.
Little is likely to change for defendants who have already pleaded guilty and served their sentences in less serious cases, like misdemeanors and petty offenses, he said. But there could be a bigger impact in ongoing prosecutions or more serious cases.
“Obviously, if the evidence is exculpatory, if it suggests the person didn’t commit the crime, that is a big deal; that can lead to serious sanctions,” McCallin said. “…If it is a minor violation, like, ‘Oh, we didn’t get the person’s full criminal history or mugshot’ — that’s probably not going to be a big deal. I would imagine in most lower-level felony cases or misdemeanor cases, I don’t know if anything will happen at all. A lot of those folks will have moved on.”
If the undisclosed material includes exculpatory evidence, it could prompt judges to dismiss cases or defendants to seek post-conviction relief, he added. Judges in ongoing cases might also consider sanctions against prosecutors for the discovery violations alone, regardless of what type of evidence was not disclosed, McCallin said.
“It really does sound like this was a computer issue; it’s not like the DA’s office was sitting on evidence intentionally or purposely withholding evidence,” he said. “I don’t think anyone thinks that. But the problem is, it is still a discovery violation.”
Angela Campbell, co-chair of the Denver chapter of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, said the district attorney’s public statements about the software issue have inappropriately minimized the potential impact of the discovery violations.
“The Denver DA’s statement is concerning because it seems to fail to take accountability for the serious discovery violations committed by their office,” she said, adding that defense attorneys are just starting to investigate the missing files and it is too early to know the full impact of the misrouted records.
“Nobody is saying that every single discovery violation was tantamount to a Brady violation — a failure to produce exculpatory evidence — but minimizing the discovery violations that occurred, first of all by saying, ‘Well, it was over 756 cases’ — they’re not just cases. These are 756 human beings,” she said. “People, presumably, who went to prison and endured serious consequences for what may or may not have been material discovery violations that would have impacted the cases. The truth is, right now, that I don’t think we know. And I don’t think they know.”
In a statement, Denver District Attorney John Walsh said prosecutors took “rapid steps” to fix the discovery issue as soon as they recognized it.
“The Denver DA’s Office is fully committed to providing complete discovery to the defense in every case and understands its responsibility to ensure that software issues of this kind do not arise,” he said in the statement.
Campbell questioned why it took prosecutors three years to find the software issue, and compared the situation to the case of now-fired Colorado Bureau of Investigation scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods, who is accused of mishandling DNA testing in more than 1,000 criminal cases during her 29-year career.
“This is the concern that every criminal defense attorney has, which is, is this going to be another Missy Woods debacle where we don’t know the extent?” she said. “And that’s the problem. When you undermine trust in a public institution, it’s really hard to get back. And that’s why accountability is so important.”
BOULDER, Colo. — The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) issued an Amber Alert for a 16-year-old girl who was last seen Monday forced into a two-door grey, Chevy Silverado.
The CBI said Juan Bretado, 19, is a suspect in the disappearance of Jasmin Zapata, 16. Bretado and another unidentified man are accused of taking Zapata around 8:57 p.m. Monday, the CBI said. They were in a truck with the Colorado license plate AXW-L52 and a lime green “Timpano” sticker in the bottom left of the rear windshield The vehicle was last seen around Thornton Parkway and Gale Boulevard.
Bretado is believed to be the driver of the truck, the CBI said. He’s 5 feet, 8 inches tall with brown eyes and black hair.
Zapata also has brown eyes and black hair. She’s 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs 110 pounds, according to the CBI. She was last seen wearing a black shirt and black pants.
CBI issues Amber Alert for teen last seen forced into 2-door Chevy Silverado
Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the Boulder Police Department at 303-441-3333.
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The police chief for the Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo used road-rage-like tactics to confront speeding drivers while he was off-duty, outside of his jurisdiction and in an unmarked state vehicle, prompting drivers to call 911 at least three times last year, an internal investigation found.
Chief Richard McMorran was reinstated to his position Aug. 15 with a 5% pay cut after a 10-month investigation into his actions. He was on paid administrative leave during that investigation, which included a review by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and a referral to prosecutors for potential criminal charges.
In an email Thursday, 10th Judicial District Attorney Kala Beauvais said her office is still considering whether criminal charges are warranted.
“We are nearing a decision,” she said.
McMorran did not return a request for comment Thursday.
On at least six occasions between January and September 2024, McMorran confronted drivers on Interstate 25 who he believed were speeding, the investigation found. The chief tailgated, raced and pulled up beside drivers. He yelled, gestured, swerved into the other drivers’ lanes, refused to let them pass, and “paced” them to gauge their speed, investigators found.
He was in the unmarked vehicle, outside of hospital grounds, off-duty and sometimes wearing plain clothes during the confrontations, the investigation found. It was not immediately clear Thursday whether the unmarked vehicle was equipped with police lights and sirens.
Two of the incidents, in January 2024 and September 2024, ended in actual traffic stops, the internal investigation found.
“You had multiple interactions with members of the public that caused them to fear for their safety and call 911. These interactions were repeatedly inappropriate, unprofessional, demonstrated poor judgment and exhibited a lack of understanding about the impact you have on members of the public when behaving this way,” Chris Frenz, deputy director of operations and legal affairs at the Office of Civil and Forensic Mental Health, the agency that operates the state’s mental health hospitals, wrote in an Aug. 13 disciplinary letter.
Drivers called 911 during three of the confrontations. At least one of the drivers was concerned that the chief “had ulterior motives other than traffic enforcement,” Frenz wrote.
The investigation considered whether the chief was specifically targeting women in the confrontations, spokeswoman Stephanie Fredrickson confirmed. She said the targeted drivers were both men and women but declined to give an exact breakdown of their genders “to protect their privacy.”
Frenz concluded that the chief was not specifically stopping women.
“I do not believe you were targeting (name redacted) or anyone specifically, as you admitted that it was common practice for you to identify people speeding and use various techniques to get them to slow down,” he wrote. “However, your practices very clearly gave an initial appearance of some type of targeting or harassing behavior from the viewpoint of any specific person subject to this behavior.”
During the internal investigation, McMorran denied swerving or tailgating, but generally acknowledged the incidents and told internal investigators that he feels he has “an obligation to intervene when people are driving too fast.” He said he pulled alongside drivers to monitor their speeds because his vehicle is not equipped with radar, and that the “perceived yelling and gesturing” was his way of telling the drivers to slow down.
“You were shocked that anyone thought you were trying to run off the road. You’ve never done anything like that before,” Frenz wrote in the letter, summarizing the chief’s positions during the investigation. “…If you had known so many people had been calling in, you would have approached things differently.”
The chief noted during the internal investigation that he is allowed to make traffic stops. He is a POST-certified police officer, state records show. Frenz wrote in his letter that “current policy” gives the chief the authority to conduct traffic stops.
Frenz wrote that he was reducing the chief’s salary by $498 a month, not because he made traffic stops, but because of the way he did so.
“You should have known that pacing people in an unmarked vehicle, with no uniform, without pulling them over, would cause confusion and fear,” Frenz wrote. “Moreover, your repeated conduct on the freeway reflected poorly on the department.”
In addition to the pay cut, McMorran, for the next year, is prohibited from driving his state vehicle outside of the hospital’s sprawling 300-acre campus, is prohibited from conducting traffic stops unless there is an immediate health or safety concern, and cannot drive his state vehicle to his home or use it for personal reasons, according to the letter.
The state mental health hospital’s small police department handles criminal matters at the 516-bed campus in Pueblo. The department includes a handful of certified police officers, as well as a number of security guards.
McMorran was appointed chief in 2018 when his predecessor was abruptly removed from his position, placed on administrative leave and escorted from the premises. The reason for the previous chief’s departure was not clear, but he did not return from leave.
The chief of the Center Police Department and a sergeant, twin brothers, have been charged with theft and placed on administrative leave.
Aaron Fresquez, the police chief, and Sgt. Adam Fresquez are accused of operating a private K-9 training business while on duty at the department in the San Luis Valley and using city resources. The 35-year-old brothers trained dogs for other police agencies and then kept the money that should have gone to the town of Center, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation said in a statement Friday.
Aaron Fresquez was also cited with a misdemeanor count of official misconduct.
The charges were filed after a yearlong investigation by the CBI at the request of the 12th Judicial District Attorney. The district attorney has asked the 6th Judicial District Attorney’s Office serve as special prosecutors to avoid a conflict of interest.
The brothers were served summons to appear in the court at a later date.
The city has appointed Lt. Eidy Guaderama as interim police chief.
Police are searching for a 16-year-old cognitively impaired Commerce City boy who was reported missing Monday.
Liam Sweezey, 16, was last seen walking in the 14000 block of East 104th Avenue in Commerce City around 6 p.m. Monday, according to an alert from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
The 16-year-old is described as a white, 6-foot, 160-pound teenager with black hair and brown eyes.
Sweezey was last seen wearing a black hoodie sweatshirt, black jeans and a white hat, investigators said in the alert. The teenager was also carrying a black handbag.
Police said Sweezey has cognitive impairments and requires medication.
Anyone with information on Sweezey’s whereabouts should call 911 or the Commerce City Police Department at 303-288-1535.
DURANGO, Colo. — The Colorado Bureau of Investigation issued a Missing Indigenous Person Alert for a woman last seen Monday around 8 a.m.
Activation: 64-year-old, Indigenous female, Virgie Mason, brown eyes and white hair, 5’03″/190lbs, was last seen on July 15, 2024, at approximately 8:00AM. Virgie left on foot from the Super 8 Motel located at 20 Stewart Street in Durango. If seen, please call 9-1-1 pic.twitter.com/ucYGQOqPRV
DENVER — The Colorado Bureau of Investigation issued a Medina Alert Tuesday for a 2016 Dodge Caravan with a Montana license plate and the woman driving it.
MEDINA ACTIVATION – Near Ogden St and E Colfax Avenue, a female driving a 2016 Dodge Caravan with MONTANA Plate 2-99798B ran over a male who later died as a result of his injuries. After stopping briefly, the driver fled the scene. The crash occurred on 06/25/24 at 1113 hours. pic.twitter.com/qQFymOva0Q
She’s accused of running over a man near E Colfax Avenue and Ogden Street on Tuesday. She stopped briefly before driving away, the CBI said. He later died.
She was last seen wearing a pink tank top and sunglasses.
The 2016 Dodge Caravan she was seen driving had the license plate number 2-99798B.
Anyone who sees her or the car in the Medina Alert is asked to call 911 or the Denver Police Department at 720-913-2000.
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