Denver and Colorado Crime and Public Safety | The Denver Post https://www.denverpost.com Colorado breaking news, sports, business, weather, entertainment. Tue, 10 Jun 2025 02:27:05 +0000 en-US hourly 30 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 https://www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/cropped-DP_bug_denverpost.jpg?w=32 Denver and Colorado Crime and Public Safety | The Denver Post https://www.denverpost.com 32 32 111738712 Authorities restrict activities on Clear Creek through Golden as water levels churn with snowmelt https://www.denverpost.com/2025/06/09/clear-creek-restrictions-golden-jefferson-county/ Tue, 10 Jun 2025 02:07:01 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=7185830 Authorities on Monday placed restrictions on popular water activities on Clear Creek west of Golden and into the city, prohibiting belly boats, inner tubes and single chambered rafts — as well as body surfing and swimming — until water levels subside.

The temporary restrictions, which were put into effect at noon Monday, extend from the western boundary of unincorporated Jefferson County through the eastern limits of Golden, including Vanover Park.

Kayaks, river boards, whitewater canoes and multi-chambered professionally guided rafts are exempt but are encouraged to take extreme caution due to the safety concerns surrounding swift moving water and floating debris. All authorized users and occupants must use a Type I, Type III or Type V Coast Guard-approved flotation vest and helmet.

Water height and flows are expected to rise as the heavy snowpack continues to melt in the coming days.

The restrictions will be strictly enforced and violators may be issued a summons for a class 2 petty offense, punishable by a fine of up to $100.

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7185830 2025-06-09T20:07:01+00:00 2025-06-09T20:07:01+00:00
Resolution introduced by Rep. Gabe Evans condemning antisemitic attack in Boulder passes in U.S. House https://www.denverpost.com/2025/06/09/gabe-evans-resolution-antisemitism-boulder-attack/ Tue, 10 Jun 2025 02:01:57 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=7185759 The U.S. House on Monday passed a resolution introduced by Republican U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans that condemns the June 1 antisemitic attack on Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall by an Egyptian national who was in the country illegally.

Evans, who represents Colorado’s competitive 8th Congressional District, criticized the state’s “radical leftist leaders” in a news release Monday after his resolution passed, saying they have enacted laws that “prioritize illegal immigrants over public safety.”

“The passing of my resolution ensures we condemn all acts of antisemitism and affirms that the free and open collaboration between state and local law enforcement with their federal counterparts is key in preventing future attacks like this,” he said.

All Republicans in Colorado’s congressional delegation voted in favor, except Lauren Boebert, who did not vote.

How is the Colorado congressional delegation voting?

One-hundred-thirteen Democrats, including Colorado's U.S. Reps. Jason Crow and Diana DeGette, voted against Evans' measure. The other two Democrats in Colorado's congressional delegation, U.S. Reps. Brittany Pettersen and Joe Neguse, voted in favor.

DeGette, in a news release, said Evans' resolution "exploits this incident to demonize migrants, celebrate ICE and ignore the real concerns of Jewish Americans."

She said she sided with a separate resolution introduced by Neguse that also condemns the attack but doesn't mention the alleged perpetrator, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the Egyptian national who used Molotov cocktails to injure more than a dozen people -- some severely -- who were marching along the Pearl Street Mall in solidarity with hostages still being held captive by the militant group Hamas in Gaza.

Soliman faces 118 charges, including dozens of counts of attempted first-degree murder and first-degree assault.

Neguse's resolution has not yet received a vote in the House.

A third resolution introduced by New Jersey Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew that condemned the Boulder attack and called for combating antisemitism in the United States passed the House on Monday by a 400-0 vote.

Evans' resolution lays out the various immigrant violations that authorities say were committed by Soliman, 45, since he first came to the country in 2022. He was living in Colorado Springs when authorities say he drove to Boulder on June 1 and targeted the hostage-advocacy group Run for Their Lives.

The attack, the resolution states, "demonstrates the dangers of not removing from the country aliens who fail to comply with the terms of their visas." And it "expresses gratitude to law enforcement officers, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel, for protecting the homeland."

The votes on the competing resolutions came after a weekend of increasing violence and chaos in Los Angeles, as protesters demonstrated -- and in some cases rioted -- in response to federal immigration authorities acting under orders from the Trump administration arresting groups of suspected immigrants on Friday.

Protesters standing above the closed southbound 101 Freeway threw chunks of concrete, rocks, electric scooters and fireworks at California Highway Patrol officers and their vehicles that were parked on the highway. Officers ran under an overpass to take cover.

Nearby, at least four self-driving Waymo cars were set on fire, sending large plumes of black smoke into the sky and exploding intermittently as the electric vehicles burned.

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7185759 2025-06-09T20:01:57+00:00 2025-06-09T20:27:05+00:00
Denver hairstylist missing since mid-April found dead in Lakewood, mother says https://www.denverpost.com/2025/06/08/missing-denver-hairstylist-jax-gratton-found-dead-lakewood/ Sun, 08 Jun 2025 20:58:53 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=7184715 A Denver hairstylist who disappeared after leaving her University Hills apartment on April 15 has been found dead, her mother announced Saturday.

“There are no words strong enough for the grief we are feeling,” Jax Gratton’s mother, Cherilynne Gratton-Camis, wrote in a Facebook group dedicated to finding her daughter. “The light she carried, the love she gave so freely and the joy she brought into our lives have been taken from this world far too soon.”

In the nearly two months that Gratton was missing, more than 5,100 people joined the group to share information and try to find the missing 34-year-old hairstylist.

Gratton was last seen at about 10 p.m. April 15 in the 4200 block of East Iliff Avenue, according to the Denver Police Department.

Her body was found a week short of two months later, Gratton-Camis said.

Gratton-Camis started worrying when her daughter didn’t call on Easter, and the hairstylist’s friends realized something was wrong when she missed multiple appointments with her clients. Gratton rented a studio at the Solera Salon Suites’ North Broadway location.

Gratton’s body was found in a Lakewood alley in the 9600 block of West Colfax Avenue at about 5 p.m. Friday, Gratton-Camis told Denver7 on Saturday.

She said a Lakewood detective visually identified the hairstylist by her tattoos and that her daughter was found wearing the same clothes she left in.

“The body was in advanced stages of decomposition and could not be positively identified,” Lakewood Police Department spokesperson John Romero said in an email to The Denver Post. He said a suspicious death investigation was ongoing.

Jefferson County coroner officials said Sunday afternoon that no forensic identification had been made and the cause of death was “pending until further notice.”

An unidentified Denver Police Department spokesperson said Sunday that the Lakewood Police Department had taken over Gratton’s case.

No updates in the Lakewood investigation were available Sunday, Romero said.

“This has opened my eyes in ways I can’t ignore. It’s not just about Jax — it’s about all of you in the LGBTQIA+ community who face the world every day with courage, just wanting to live, love and exist safely and equally,” Gratton-Camis wrote on Facebook. “That should never be a fight. And yet it is.”

Gratton’s friends and family plan to gather in front of Denver’s City and County Building at 1437 Bannock St. at 11 a.m. Monday to talk about her death and remember her with the community.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

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7184715 2025-06-08T14:58:53+00:00 2025-06-08T17:09:33+00:00
1 dead, 4 injured in Denver crash on I-25 involving wrong-way driver https://www.denverpost.com/2025/06/08/fatal-crash-denver-i25-injuries-police-investigation/ Sun, 08 Jun 2025 16:18:48 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=7184641 One person was killed and four were injured Sunday morning in a Denver crash on Interstate 25 involving a wrong-way driver, police said.

A gray Chrysler van was spotted driving south in the northbound lanes of I-25 at about 2:59 a.m. Sunday near Mead, according to a news release from the Colorado State Patrol.

The van nearly struck a state patrol trooper, who then tried to pull the driver over, agency officials said in the release.

Despite the emergency lights, the van failed to stop and fled south on northbound I-25, officials said.

The trooper called off the chase because of the risk to public safety and sent a description of the van to nearby law enforcement agencies, the release stated.

Less than 30 minutes later, just before 3:30 a.m., the Denver Police Department received reports of a crash involving the wrong-way van.

The two-vehicle crash happened on northbound I-25 near 20th Street, according to the police department.

One person, the driver of the van, died at the scene of the crash, police said. Paramedics took four others to the hospital, three with serious injuries.

No updates on their conditions were available Sunday evening.

Northbound I-25 was temporarily closed Sunday for the crash cleanup and investigation, but all lanes had reopened before 9 a.m., according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

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7184641 2025-06-08T10:18:48+00:00 2025-06-08T17:06:35+00:00
As Douglas County’s home-rule election gets underway, the battle is already red hot. Here’s what’s at stake. https://www.denverpost.com/2025/06/08/douglas-county-home-rule-election-ballot-local-control-commissioners/ Sun, 08 Jun 2025 12:00:37 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=7180780 Douglas County is trying to do something no other Colorado county has done in nearly 50 years — adopt home-rule authority that would give the conservative bastion south of Denver more autonomy and powers of self-governance.

But the road to that reality has been anything but smooth, with a rally last week in Castle Rock decrying the move, a tense town hall meeting at county headquarters that ended in shouts and jeers — and a lawsuit attempting to shut the whole thing down.

Meanwhile, ballots started hitting mailboxes less than a week ago for the June 24 special election. If voters back the idea, the vote would kickstart the drafting of a home-rule charter by a 21-member commission.

A second vote in November would then seek final approval for the charter itself.

Local control has become a mantra of sorts across Colorado in recent years, with cities and counties lashing out — even taking legal action — against a state government they accuse of overreach in matters of local concern. The resistance ranges from the “Second Amendment sanctuary county” movement of six years ago, which conservative counties launched in response to new gun control laws, to last month’s lawsuit against the state and Gov. Jared Polis by Aurora and five suburban cities. They were attempting to block two recent land-use laws aimed at increasing housing density.

Commissioner George Teal, one of the chief proponents of home-rule authority for the county of nearly 400,000, said the time has come for Douglas County to assert its independence from a state legislature that has shifted decidedly to the left over the last decade.

Home-rule authority, Teal said, will give Douglas County greater legal standing to take on state laws that its leaders believe go too far. It will represent a “shifting of the burden” onto the state, requiring officials to come after the county if the state believes its authority is being usurped — rather than the other way around.

Douglas County has sued Colorado twice recently over disagreements involving property tax valuations and the level of cooperation local law enforcement can give federal immigration authorities. The county lost both cases.

“We will be an independent legal entity under state law — and we are not that as a statutory county,” Teal said. “Home rule is the very mechanism of local control.”

Opponents, operating under the Stop the Power Grab banner, say the run-up to this month’s election has been anything but transparent and open. They accuse the commissioners of quietly concocting the home-rule plan over a series of more than a dozen meetings starting late last year — and then rubber-stamping the decision at a public hearing in late March. That meeting lasted mere minutes.

“What this has brought out in us is the question of — why now?” said Kelly Mayr, a nearly three-decade resident of Highlands Ranch and a member of Stop the Power Grab. “Why are they rushing it? If this is a good idea for the county, why would we not take our time?”

Three Douglas County residents, including state Rep. Bob Marshall and former Commissioner Lora Thomas, sued the Board of County Commissioners in April, alleging multiple violations of Colorado’s open meetings laws. They asked the court to stop the June 24 election from going forward.

But a judge sided with Douglas County last month, saying he didn’t see evidence that the board violated open meetings laws and ruling that a preliminary injunction to stop the election would “sacrifice the public’s right to vote.”

Marshall, a Democrat who represents Highlands Ranch, says the fight is not over, and he expects to prevail in the court case at the appellate level.

In the meantime, he is in the running as one of 49 candidates vying to fill the 21 seats on the commission that would be tasked with drafting Douglas County’s home-rule charter — assuming voters give the OK to the idea on the same June 24 ballot. All three Douglas County commissioners are also running for the charter commission.

“If elected, my main goal will be to ensure transparency,” Marshall told The Denver Post. “There has been none in this process as yet.”

The June election is projected to cost Douglas County around $500,000.

A
A "Vote No on Home Rule" sign is seen on the northbound side of Interstate 25 near the Happy Canyon Parkway exit in Castle Pines on Thursday, June 5, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)

Weld, Pitkin first to adopt home rule

The state first approved home-rule powers for municipalities in 1902, and it extended the same authority to counties in 1970. Until then, counties were considered a statutory creation of the legislature and had to follow state law without exception.

Sixty Colorado counties still do.

Just two — at the opposite ends of the ideological spectrum — took advantage of the new designation in the decade after the law passed: Weld and Pitkin. Denver and Broomfield, though, have de facto home-rule status because of their combined city-and-county structure.

First to take up the home-rule mantle in Colorado was Weld County in 1976. County Attorney Bruce Barker said its three districts had essentially balkanized around that time, each running its own public works department and making its own purchasing decisions.

“The goal was to make things more efficient,” Barker said about the effort behind the switch.

The new charter included a one-of-a-kind five-member Weld County Council, separate from the Board of County Commissioners. The body sets salaries of elected county officials and fills commissioner vacancies. It can also suspend an elected official who has been criminally charged or indicted and it reviews conflicts of interest between county officers, appointees and employees.

“Remember, there was a complete distrust of government after Watergate,” Barker said of the era. “They wanted to have this County Council as a watchdog group.”

Pitkin County made its transition to home-rule governance in 1978, largely in response to concerns about rapid population growth and the desire to conserve threatened natural habitat in the Roaring Fork Valley, said County Manager Jon Peacock. His very role was created by Pitkin County’s new home-rule charter.

The county, home to ritzy Aspen, requires under its charter a vote of the people before it issues debt, as happened with a recent ballot measure that sought expansion of the county’s landfill.

“Home rule gives authority to counties to decide how they are going to organize to carry out the powers and responsibilities that are defined in state statute,” Peacock said. “We cannot exercise authority that is not given to us by state law.”

According to a briefing paper from the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Council Staff, home-rule authority in Colorado was designed to place several administrative functions under counties’ purview. They involve “finances and property, debts and expenses, and the powers and duties of officials, including elections, terms of office, and compensation.”

“In general, home rule ordinances addressing local matters supersede state law,” the briefing paper states. “However, in matters of statewide or mixed concern, state laws may take precedence over conflicting home rule ordinances.”

Weld County learned that the hard way earlier this year when the Colorado Supreme Court struck down a redistricting plan the county had put into play two years ago. Officials drew the boundaries of commissioners’ districts without adhering to a 2021 state law that required it to follow a different protocol.

The high court concluded that redistricting “relates to the county’s function, not the county’s structure.”

“And because the Colorado Constitution requires home rule counties to carry out statutorily mandated functions, home rule counties, like Weld, must comply with the redistricting statutes,” the court ruled.

Commissioner Abe Laydon of district I, left, talks with commissioner George Teal of district II at Douglas County Government office in Castle Rock, Colorado on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. Douglas County has engaged in a series of legal battles with the state over property tax valuations, state immigration laws and the validity of public health orders, like mask mandates during the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
Douglas County Commissioner Abe Laydon, left, talks with Commissioner George Teal at Douglas County government offices in Castle Rock, Colorado, on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)

How much more power would the county get?

Metropolitan State University political science professor Robert Preuhs said it’s clear from the language of Colorado’s home-rule statute and court cases on the issue that “you’re not getting much more policy latitude” with home-rule status.

“Broader issues like gun control and immigration enforcement and police cooperation with (immigration authorities) are still going to be constrained by state law,” Preuhs said. “You are still a creature of the state, but with more internal flexibility — although Douglas County seems intent on testing that.”

Teal, the Douglas County commissioner, said there are bills passed in the statehouse every legislative session that explicitly exempt home-rule counties from having to comply.

“I would like that opportunity for the citizens of Douglas County to take advantage of these exemptions,” he said.

And there are other laws that sit in questionable territory, Teal said. Home-rule status “gives us new tools in the tool belt. At the very least, it allows the county to challenge the state.”

Teal said he could see the county pushing back on Colorado’s mandatory retail bag fee, the way property assessments are calculated and limits that have been placed on law enforcement.

But first, voters must weigh in. As the campaign over home rule heats up with billboards and signs sprouting up along Interstate 25 and other places in Douglas County, the political temperature is rising as well.

At a May 28 town hall, Commissioner Abe Laydon laid out the stakes in front of 100 or so people in the commissioners’ hearing room in Castle Rock.

“Are we OK with how the state handled COVID-19 and the pandemic?” he asked. “Are we OK with how the state has handled illegal immigration?”

There was some sympathy from the audience, but others were skeptical. When the hourlong session ended, several people stood up and demanded that more of their questions on home rule be answered. Each side accused the other side of “fear-mongering.”

“What are you afraid of?” one attendant yelled as Laydon called for order.

Last week, newly released campaign finance data stirred up a new angle of attack for home-rule opponents. The Yes on Local Control committee raised $110,000 from just five donors — one of them Teal’s wife, Laura. The bulk of the total — $100,000 — came from just two developers.

By contrast, Stop the Power Grab has raised just over $30,000 from several hundred individual donors.

That has Marshall, the state representative from Highlands Ranch, questioning just how much grassroots support the home-rule movement has in Douglas County. And layer on that a recent survey of nearly 1,800 residents conducted for the county that showed respondents opposing home rule by a 54% to 44% margin; some information, including the survey’s margin of error, wasn’t available.

“Where is the outpouring of support for home rule the commissioners claim?” Marshall said.

Amanda Budimlya, who grew up in Colorado and has lived near Sedalia for a dozen years, has been dismayed by the state’s sharp turn to the left and supports the home-rule effort. There will be two opportunities — the June and November elections — for residents to weigh in, she said, giving everyone plenty of time to air out their concerns and grievances.

“It gives us standing so we can try and put things in the charter that we want to protect — like our liberty and rights,” she said of home rule.

Budimlya, 50, said it’s rich that the opposition adopted the name Stop the Power Grab for their campaign in a state where political power has only drifted in one direction in recent years.

“There’s already a power grab happening — the governor, the House and the Senate — it’s all Democrat-run,” she said of Colorado’s political makeup. “Any conservative voice is railroaded.”

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7180780 2025-06-08T06:00:37+00:00 2025-06-06T12:29:33+00:00
What it was like to work at one of America’s most notorious funeral homes https://www.denverpost.com/2025/06/08/sunset-mesa-funeral-home-employee-accounts/ Sun, 08 Jun 2025 12:00:15 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=7178927 It’s been more than seven years since the FBI raided a Montrose funeral home, kicking off one of the more harrowing true-crime stories in recent American history.

Investigators unspooled a macabre, nearly decade-long scheme by Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors owner, Megan Hess, and her mother, Shirley Koch, to sell hundreds of bodies and body parts without the consent or knowledge of grieving families.

The pair admitted to meeting with families under the auspices of performing cremations. Instead, they harvested body parts, even entire bodies, to sell through their other business, Donor Services.

They did this for eight years, handing mothers and children, nephews and best friends containers of cremated human remains — cremains — that didn’t contain their loved ones’ ashes. All the while, they were cashing in on the donated dead.

Hess and Koch each pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and will spend 20 and 15 years in prison, respectively.

The federal investigation shone a light on the largely unregulated body broker business in America and Colorado’s lax funeral home regulations. The morbid spectacle spawned podcasts, documentaries and multiple changes to state law.

Now the case is finally nearing closure after a federal judge in April re-sentenced the mother and daughter. But because they never went to trial, the public did not get to hear from a host of relevant parties or see much of the evidence that the government would have presented in court.

The FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office have denied records requests from The Denver Post and other news agencies, saying the only information available would come from documents already filed in the case.

A recent Denver Post review of the case file included a trove of unpublished accounts from former Sunset Mesa employees, who described the bizarre, unethical and illegal practices of the notorious funeral home.

The Post also interviewed another former employee whose story was not included in court records. Together, they provide one of the most comprehensive accounts to date of the people who worked for Hess and Koch.

In addition, the case file includes emails between Hess and body broker customers, detailing the back-and-forth as the funeral director marketed stolen bodies.

Here are those stories:

JoAnn Cocozza — Shirley Koch’s assistant

Investigators interviewed JoAnn Cocozza on Jan. 16, 2018, just a few weeks before the FBI raided the Montrose funeral home.

She recalled a 2013 incident, when Hess and Koch told her that a family was coming in to pick up cremains.

The only problem?

The ashes were labeled with a name that Cocozza recognized as being a body in the cooler awaiting processing. Sure enough, the body was still there.

Cocozza told the FBI that she gave the family cremains — as instructed.

The funeral home operators kept a large bag of cremated remains in the back of the building that they used to fill up small keepsake containers for grieving family members, Cocozza said. Hess and Koch told families that these were the ashes of their loved ones.

They did this over and over again across a long period of time, the assistant said, always using the same bag of cremains.

She recounted a specific instance when the bloodwork on a body that had already been sold came back showing it had been infected with hepatitis. Cocozza expressed concern that she or others could have contracted the disease from handling the body.

“Don’t worry about it,” Koch allegedly told Cocozza, according to court documents. “Just do your job; you won’t get it.”

Koch and Hess did not tell anyone about the hepatitis finding, Cocozza told investigators.

She said Koch mentioned they were making money off gold teeth extracted from bodies. Koch bragged that they made $40,000 by selling the gold, using the money to take a trip to Disneyland.

“I get to cash these in and keep the money,” Koch once said, according to Cocozza’s interview.

Koch and Hess pushed families hard to donate their loved ones’ bodies, she said, even if people said they weren’t interested.

“It’s hard, but don’t worry, their body is just a shell,” Koch allegedly said. She and Hess insisted that the donated bodies helped cure diseases and progress science. They never told families that the bodies were sold for a profit, Cocozza told authorities.

Body brokers — also known as non-transplant tissue banks — are different from the organ and tissue transplant industry, which the U.S. government heavily regulates. No federal law, however, governs the sale of cadavers or body parts for use in research or education.

In 2017, Koch gave Cocozza a silver vial that she said contained the ashes of Cocozza’s husband. Cocozza, however, told investigators she already believed the funeral home had given her his ashes years earlier.

Hess and Koch sometimes asked her to bring forms to the Montrose County offices to get death certificates. She knew, though, that the bodies had already been processed and shipped off, she told investigators.

“If they ask, make sure you say they are still at the funeral home,” Hess and Koch said, according to Cocozza’s interview.

Cocozza could not be reached for comment.

Amanda Rackay — Megan Hess’s secretary

Amanda Rackay gave testimony to authorities on Oct. 20, 2017.

After interviewing for the job at Sunset Mesa, Rackay recalled Hess saying, “I’m paying taxes, don’t worry. It’s all legal.”

Rackay’s duties included inputting information into an electronic death registration system. Hess told her to enter all dispositions as “burial” or “cremation.” The secretary later realized, she said, that there was also an option for “donation” in the system.

She asked Hess if she should use that designation for bodies donated through Donor Services, the body-broker business that Hess and Koch ran in addition to the funeral home.

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Hess allegedly told Rackay. “Let’s (label) them all as cremation.”

Rackay told investigators that she overheard Hess tell Koch that she was sick of the state tracking the body donations.

Rackay could not be reached for comment on her testimony.

Sharla Downing — Megan Hess’s public relations representative

Sharla Downing gave an interview to authorities on July 15, 2018.

Hess directed Downing to conduct a publicity campaign targeting the largest nursing homes in Montrose. The goal: have staff make positive remarks about Hess and Sunset Mesa so residents and their families would turn to the funeral home for business.

Downing said Hess provided her with fliers with the slogan, “Our family taking care of your family.”

The funeral home director had Downing give presentations about Sunset Mesa and Donor Services. She told Downing to stay vague when describing donations, using the term “tissue” to encompass anything from skin to knees to elbow joints.

Hess never spoke about selling whole body parts unless it was a whole body donation, Downing told authorities. In those cases, the body would be going to a specific research university, which would then send back cremains. Hess said she had connections with multiple universities, including Harvard, Downing said.

Hess made grandiose statements about how these donations helped people, Downing said — statements authorities later said were not true. Bodies from Sunset Mesa went to scientific and research companies; they were not used for transplants.

But the funeral director told people a spine donated to a disabled veteran in Florida helped the person walk again, Hess told investigators. Donated eyes helped the blind see, Hess claimed.

Older adults in these presentations asked how their bodies could be used for donations. Hess instructed Downing to tell them that the skin of an elderly person was better for skin grafting because it was already stretched out.

“Hess would pull on her arm skin as she described this,” Downing told investigators.

Audiences also asked whether Hess, Sunset Mesa or Donor Services received any financial benefit from the donated bodies. Downing said Hess initially replied that she only took a small shipping fee and “does it all for the good of the community.” Another time, Hess said the business may take a small recovery fee.

In reality, prosecutors later said, Hess made substantial money from these body donations by selling them.

Downing could not be reached for comment on her testimony.

Scott Beilfuss — Sunset Mesa contractor

In 2016 and 2017, Scott Beilfuss worked for a third-party marketing company that contracted with Sunset Mesa. His job involved meeting with prospective clients and discussing their future funeral needs.

In between those meetings, Beilfuss hung out for hours at Sunset Mesa with Hess and Koch.

“I always said I would write a musical about Sunset Mesa,” he said in an interview, chuckling. “It would be like the ‘Sweeney Todd’ or ‘Little Shop of Horrors.’ It was so crazy.”

Koch spent much of the day in the back of the funeral home, dismembering bodies, Beilfuss said. She learned the craft from YouTube.

Beilfuss said he sat in the funeral home’s planning room and Koch popped in, asking if he’d like to see her work. He always declined the invitation.

“I was a paper person, not a body person,” Beilfuss said.

Hess, though, was the “driver and the mastermind of the whole thing,” he said.

The two made presentations to older folks together, trying to drum up business. Hess was good at it, Beilfuss said. She was creative, ambitious and competitive — always looking for a way to scale up their business.

“Megan always used to say, ‘We’re cremating miracles,’ ” he said. “That was their tagline.”

At the beginning, it seemed to Beilfuss like Hess had good motives. As it went on, he said, it became more about money.

“It transitioned from serving the public to building up some income to show that she was successful,” Beilfuss said. “She wanted to be viewed as a successful business person.”

Now a Grand Junction City Council member, Beilfuss said he feels Koch had no nefarious intentions. She was just doing her job.

Hess, on the other hand?

“I don’t know she believed she was doing anything wrong,” he said.

‘Get ready!!!!!!’

The court documents also included emails showing how Hess negotiated and sold donated body parts to prospective buyers.

In one email from September 2013, Hess said she could deliver a “very nice, younger muscled donor” for $1,500. The body would be embalmed and delivered to an unspecified buyer in Fort Collins.

“I wish to be your partner in donation, so if there are orders such as matching whole legs (which I have pairs on-hand), whole hearts, torsos or other tissue that you are looking for, please let me know,” Hess wrote. “I can adjust pricing accordingly to meet your needs. If I have a donor you are interested in but need different pricing to make it work for your end, let me know.”

In 2014, Hess sent the same customer an email with the subject “female torso pics.”

“I’m sorry that I haven’t sent photos,” the funeral director wrote. “I have had terrible donors for your process. Meeting with hospice on the 4th… opening the flood gates of donors. They have 4-5 deaths a day. Get ready!!!!!! I have 3 spines when needed.”

In another email, Hess told a customer she hoped to send them 150 to 200 donors per year, if not more.

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7178927 2025-06-08T06:00:15+00:00 2025-06-08T20:54:08+00:00
Card skimmers planted at north Aurora truck stop last week, police say https://www.denverpost.com/2025/06/07/card-skimmers-north-aurora-truck-stop-flying-j-travel-center/ Sat, 07 Jun 2025 23:59:27 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=7184472 Truckers who filled up at the Flying J Travel Center in north Aurora last week may be victims of credit card skimmers installed at four gasoline pumps, police say.

The clandestine devices blend in visually with card readers and are used by criminals to capture financial data that may be used fraudulently.

Aurora police wrote in a social media post that the skimmers were installed between May 25 and May 31 at the gas station, near Interstate 70 and Airport Boulevard.

The devices were removed but stolen from the business before they could be recovered by officers, police said. The identity of the person who planted them was unknown to police as of Friday evening.

Customers who used the No. 22 and No. 24 diesel pumps during that time should notify their dispatch centers or banks and cancel their cards, and may contact Detective Steve Cox with questions at 303-739-6060.

Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867 or online.

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7184472 2025-06-07T17:59:27+00:00 2025-06-07T17:59:27+00:00
1 dead, 2 injured in crash that closed U.S. 285 in Jefferson County https://www.denverpost.com/2025/06/07/us-285-fatal-crash-jefferson-county-conifer/ Sat, 07 Jun 2025 22:44:29 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=7184459 One adult died and two were hospitalized after a crash that diverted traffic around a stretch of U.S. 285 near Conifer late Saturday morning, according to police and firefighters.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office announced the crash and the closure of the freeway between County Highway 73 and Log Trail on social media at 9:21 a.m. The roadway had reopened by 1:35 p.m.

The crash involved two passenger vehicles and a delivery truck, according to another post by the Elk Creek Fire Department.

Sheriff’s office spokesperson Jacki Kelley said Colorado State Patrol was investigating the crash as of 3:50 p.m.

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7184459 2025-06-07T16:44:29+00:00 2025-06-07T16:44:29+00:00
Police ask for public’s help to crack 2014 stabbing death of Aurora man https://www.denverpost.com/2025/06/07/aurora-police-2014-cold-case-stabbing-terrell-ephriam/ Sat, 07 Jun 2025 19:43:12 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=7184418 Police are renewing their efforts to catch the killer of a man whom officers found fatally stabbed near a north Aurora trail more than a decade ago.

Terrell Ephriam (Metro Denver Crime Stoppers)
Terrell Ephriam (Metro Denver Crime Stoppers)

The victim, Terrell Ephriam, would have turned 33 on Saturday, police wrote in a social media post Saturday morning.

Ephriam reportedly enjoyed walking around his neighborhood, which includes a section of the Sand Creek Regional Greenway.

Aurora police responded to a call about a stabbing on the afternoon of Feb. 26, 2014, and found him by the trail and the Wheeling Street pedestrian bridge at 28th Avenue.

Ephriam had suffered multiple life-threatening wounds and died after he was taken to a hospital.

Police wrote that investigators never identified a suspect.

Anyone with information about Ephriam’s death is asked to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867 or online.

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7184418 2025-06-07T13:43:12+00:00 2025-06-07T13:51:10+00:00
Aurora police seek leads in 2024 drive-by nightclub shooting that killed 1 https://www.denverpost.com/2025/06/07/aurora-police-seeking-leads-drive-by-fatal-nightclub-shooting-colfax-rafael-rivera-velez/ Sat, 07 Jun 2025 18:31:11 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=7184384 Aurora police say they’re still searching for one or more shooters who opened fire on a crowd outside of a Colfax Avenue nightclub in August 2024, killing one person and wounding another.

Officers responded to a report of a shooting at the club in the 11200 block of East Colfax early in the morning of Aug. 11, police wrote in a social media post.

When they arrived, they found a man — later identified as Rafael Rivera-Velez, 25 — who had been shot multiple times and died at the scene. A second person was shot and survived.

Witnesses told police the gunshots came from a blue sedan that drove into the parking lot, near where a group of people was standing.

“Investigators believe the crowd was randomly targeted by the suspect or suspects,” police wrote. “There is no suspect description and no additional information about the suspect vehicle. All investigative leads developed to date have been exhausted.”

Officers encourage anyone with information about the incident to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867 or online and qualify for a reward of up to $2,000.

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7184384 2025-06-07T12:31:11+00:00 2025-06-07T13:48:03+00:00