GOLDEN, Colo. – A body discovered in Golden on Sunday is in fact that of 27-year-old pizza delivery driver Nathan Collin Leon, the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner confirmed Monday. Police are investigating the Commerce City man’s death as a homicide.
Leon’s body was found around 5:45 p.m. by someone flying a remote control airplane in a field near 151 Rooney Road. The victim had been shot numerous times, police said.
It had been nearly six hours since a manager at the Domino’s Pizza at 40th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard where Leon worked called police to report him missing. He had been dispatched to deliver a pizza to the corner of 50th Avenue and Forest Street and never returned or checked in.
When police went to the location, they found his car abandoned. Police traced the pizza order to a nearby Sapp Brother’s gas station, where employees say police reviewed surveillance video trying to find images of the person who ordered the pizza.
“He is good father, a hard-working man,” said Leon’s nephew Bryce as he held a picture of his uncle Sunday.
Leon’s family says they learned about his disappearance on Sunday afternoon. The family says they called Leon’s phone repeatedly and say Sunday evening a man answered who called himself “stupid.”
It’s unclear how the family learned about the scene in Golden but the family says they sent people to the area to begin searching for Leon. By nightfall, the unidentified man had discovered the body.
The Denver and Golden police departments are looking for anyone who may have information regarding the homicide or seen anything suspicious in the areas of the Rooney Road Gas Flare, Foothill Road and Eldridge Circle in Jefferson County, or East 50th Avenue and North Forest Streets in Denver. Anyone with information was asked to call 720-913-7867.