And it’s possible that some cases are not linked, that a pimp or a boyfriend was responsible.
Serial killers don’t always follow an exact script every time they kill, and there were some differences in some of the cases identified as being similar.įor example, there were differences in how some of the women were killed, said Cheryl Moore, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office cold-case investigator and another of those involved in the new probe. They were usually beaten and strangled, but in some cases they were little more than skeletons by the time they were found and an exact Many of the victims had engaged in risky behaviors - such as The bodies were found sporadically over years in numerous jurisdictions in the Denver metro area, in places such as Aurora and Denver, as well as Adams, Arapahoe, Jefferson and Weld counties.ĭuring that period and since then the Denver area almost always had more than 100 homicides a year.Īs was common at the time, detectives with each sheriff’s office or police department investigated their own cases, and there often wasn’t much communication with counterparts in other jurisdictions, Brandt said. The way Walker’s body was posed would lead investigators to conclude her death was related to other body-dump cases.īy then, the killings had been occurring for more than a decade, but no one had made the connection that they were tied together - a result of the realities of the time. It was the Fourth of July in 1987, about midway through Colorado’s deadliest harvest. Blood vessels had burst when she was strangled, staining the whites of her eyes with tiny red dots. Her remains had been discarded and “staged” not far from East Colfax Avenue in east Aurora. Tall weeds drooped in two parallel lines, marking the path where 18-year-old Karolyn Walker’s bare heels dragged behind her limp body.
It’s that thought that drives the detectives. Or, at worst, still roaming the streets somewhere. Their killers could be in prison for other crimes. Detectives believe as many as 11 of those could be tied to two serial killers who have been caught and convicted - although they lack the evidence to say definitively. The numbers are staggering: The unsolved deaths of 38 women from that time fit some pattern.
Looking for weapons of choice, staging of bodies or similarities in victims, the detectives try to tie killings to a murderer already in prison or to a previously unidentified perpetrator. As cold-case detectives sift through evidence of unsolved killings, they are looking for patterns that might match a signature method of a serial predator. Other investigators are looking at different groups of unsolved killings. “That person might be 60, still capable of finding more victims.”įour detectives from three different agencies are working together on 17 cases they believe may be related. “Sexual assault, strangulation and a desire to shock police were elements that drove the killer,” said Marv Brandt, a cold-case investigator for the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office.
Today, the detectives who have taken on the old cases are motivated by the desire to find justice for women long dead - and by the fear that some of those killers are still out there, preying on others. The work is driven by a simple belief: that as many as a half-dozen serial killers stalked Denver-area streets for more than two decades. Those detectives have submitted evidence from various cases to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for DNA testing, hoping new technology might identify suspects. Many were involved in risky behavior - such as prostitution.Īnd although some of the murders from that period were eventually solved, a new effort is underway by detectives from around the metro area - some working together, some working alone - to find the answers in the killings. The crimes unfolded in a chilling pattern: An average of nearly twice a year during that 21-year span, the nude body of a young woman was discovered along a rural road or field around Denver. Between 19, dozens of young women were snatched off Denver-area streets, killed and dumped along rural roads, a crime spree that includes 38 unsolved murders that cold-case detectives believe may have been victims of a serial killer - or killers.
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