DENVER (KDVR) — There are hundreds of unsolved homicide cases, long-term missing person cases, and unidentified remains cases in Colorado where at least three years have passed since the crime happened.
The Colorado cold case task force created a list of those cases dating back to 1970. The Problem Solvers are working to highlight cold cases in our state.
Who murdered Vicki Clements Carpenter?
The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office and Colorado Bureau of Investigation are working to solve the cold case murder of Vicki Clements Carpenter over 37 years ago.
The sheriff’s office said Carpenter went to Knicks Restaurant and Saloon on Feb. 18, 1985, to compete in a fashion contest. They said around midnight, she left the restaurant.
Carpenter’s mother said she never returned home, and she reported her daughter missing the next day.
Witnesses told the sheriff’s office they saw Carpenter get into a white and maroon 1967 Buick by herself at Knicks.
Carpenter’s car was later found abandoned and disabled half a mile from Knicks in the parking lot of an apartment complex.
A little less than two months later on April 2, 1985, Carpenter’s body was found floating in the Cherry Creek spillway by kids who were fishing.
“Investigative leads in this case have failed to identify who is responsible for murdering this young, vivacious woman,” the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office said.
The sheriff’s office said that Carpenter, 25 at the time, had a three-year-old son.
To this day, her case remains unsolved.
If you have any information about this case, please call the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office at 303-795-4711.
Highlighting cold cases in Colorado
Here are some of the other cases we’ve highlighted:
- Cold case: What happened to this woman who disappeared in 1990?
- Cold case: Who killed this 10-year-old boy in 1991?
- Cold case: Who murdered Stephanie Bauman 42 years ago?
- Cold case: Who murdered Jennifer Larsen 27 years ago?
- Cold case: Who shot David Williams to death in 2005?
- Cold case: Who murdered Maggie Long 1,651 days ago?
- Cold case: What happened to Elizabeth Miller 40 years ago?
- Cold case: Who kidnapped Christopher Abeyta 35 years ago?
- Cold case: Who killed JonBenét Ramsey 25 years ago?
- Cold case: Who killed Jessica Bejarano 15 years ago
- Cold case: Where is Terri Ackerman?
- Cold case: Who killed Richard Elliott at a grocery store 23 years ago?
- ‘Don’t ever give up hope’: Cold case: Who killed Edward Steinbach?
- Cold Case: Who killed Denise Davenport 37 years ago?
- Cold case: Who murdered James O’Neal Johnson 23 years ago?
- Cold case: Where is Jennifer Lynn Marcum?
- Cold case: Who murdered Daniel Lell in Aurora in 2013?
- Missing: Highlighting the search for people missing in Colorado
- 18 people remain unidentified in Denver since 1970
If you ever have a cold case you would like us to feature, please fill out this form or send an email to dara.bitler@digital-staging.kdvr.com-
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System shows there over 20,000 open missing persons cases in the United States and over 300 in Colorado.