Description
Victim: Carol Murphy
Perpetrator: Kevin Elmarr
Location: Lefthand Canyon, Longmont, Colorado
Date of Murder: May 22, 1987
Date of Conviction: Oct. 5th, 2009
On May 23, 1987, Carol Murphy's nude body was found by hikers near a trailhead in Lefthand Canyon. She had been strangled and her throat had been slit.
Carol, a local security guard, had last been seen at her job site on the morning of Friday, May 22 when she told coworkers she was going on a picnic with her ex, and was last seen taking off on a motorcycle.
Police soon learned that Carol had a complicated love life, and soon many suspects emerged: Kevin Elmarr, Carol’s first husband with whom she had two children, Curtis Murphy, Carol’s most recent husband with whom she had only been separated from for one month following an affair he had that led to him impregnating a woman named Kendra, and her new, suspected boyfriend Willie, Kendra’s husband.
Months into the investigation, police also learned of a link between Carol’s death and a potential serial killer, Clifton St. Dennis, who had been squatting in Lefthand Canyon near the crime scene on May 23, 1987. St. Dennis and was originally interviewed by police the day of Carol's murder, and later falseley confessed to her murder.
Over the years, numerous pieces of evidence were tested for DNA, but failed to yield any results. The case went cold, but was reopened after Crime Stoppers called the Boulder County Sheriff’s department because they were doing a piece on the murder.
Cold case investigators worked to obtain new DNA from there persons of interest and in 2007 investigators received a positive match for Kevin Elmarr’s DNA to the unknown male profile from the rape kit preformed at the autopsy, and Kevin Elmarr was arrested on January 29, 2007.