Tribune TRI LAKES 2.20.13
Tri-Lakes
Tri-Lakes Region, Monument, Gleneagle, Black Forest and Northern El Paso County
February 20, 2013
Free
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourtrilakesnews.com
Murder, suicide suspected Ethan Courrau allegedly killed his girlfriend’s children and then himself By Lisa Collacott
lcollacott@ourcoloradonews.com
Air Force Academy Cadet Fourth Class Zach Graf shows students at Lewis-Palmer Elementary School how to attach the legs to their jitterbugs. The Jitterbugs are electric cars and is all part of the electric unit the students just finished. Cadets from the academy’s STEM club assisted students during the project Feb. 14. Photo by Lisa Collacott
STEM comes to a D-38 classroom Students at LPES build their own electric cars with help from cadets By Lisa Collacott
lcollacott@ourcoloradonews.com To conclude their unit on electricity local fourth graders put what they learned to use by making electric cars with the help of United States Air Force Academy cadets. Cadets joined fourth graders at LewisPalmer Elementary School for breakfast on Valentine’s Day and then assisted them in making electric cars called jitterbugs.
Fourth grade teacher Neva Nardone said she participated in the STEM Bootcamp for teachers at the academy last summer and also oversees the STEM club at LPES. “One of the things we did in the STEM Bootcamp was to build these jitterbugs and I thought it would be a good to have the cadets come help the students,” Nardone said. Nardone said the kids have a basic understanding of circuits. To make the jitterbugs the kids used recycled CDs, hobby motors, batteries, paper clips, wire strippers and pipe cleaners. Cadet Fourth Class Zach Graf showed students in Nardone’s class how to attach the different parts to make them work while Cadet Third Class
Winston Sanks assisted in Jennifer Hayden’s class. Both cadets are part of the academy’s STEM club. Capt. Caitlin Thorn, an aeronautical engineering instructor at the academy accompanied the cadets to LPES and said it’s important to teach the students all about STEM. “The goal is to make sure they know what STEM is all about so they pursue these subjects in college,” Thorn said. Nardone said the students also had a family assignment where they built electric bumper cars and they will be racing the cars in class next week. As part of their STEM learning students will also be participating in their own Mars mission.
A former Monument man is suspected in the stabbing death of two young children in Falcon. Ethan Courrau, 22, allegedly stabbed his girlfriend’s children and is believed to have then turned the weapon on himself. According to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office a call came in at 11:12 p.m. on Feb. 13 of a reported stabbing. When deputies arrived at a mobile home located on the property of the Remington Ranch Equestrian Stables in Falcon they found 19-month-old Scarlett Gallagher dead and her three-year-old brother Ryan Willhite with serious injuries. Willhite was transported to the hospital where he later died from his injuries. The young boy would have been four-years-old on Feb. 26. Deputies also found Courrau with injuries and transported him to the hospital where he too died. El Paso County Sheriff’s Office public information officer Lt. Jeff Kramer said all indications lead to Courrau’s injuries being self-inflicted but they are still waiting on the autopsy results to confirm that. Kramer said Courrau was the boyfriend of the victim’s mother Katie Cane but was uncertain if Courrau lived at the mobile home. He did say that the 9-1-1 call was made by the grandmother of the victims. It is believed that Cane was not at home at the time of the stabbing and when she arrived home she found her children and Courrau. Courrau is the son of Beth Courrau, a member of the board of directors for Woodmoor Water and Sanitation District and the former president of the North Murder continues on Page 7
Police seek potential witness in disappearance of Monument teen Man seen in the area the day Dylan Redwine went missing By Lisa Collacott
lcollacott@ourcoloradonews.com The La Plata County Sheriff’s Office is seeking a person that could be a potential witness in the disappearance of 14-year-old Dylan Redwine. Redwine went missing Nov. 19 near Vallecito Lake, the day after he arrived in Vallecito to visit his dad for Thanksgiving. The sheriff’s office interviewed someone the weekends of Feb. 9 and 10 who remembers seeing a man on the day Redwine disappeared. This person told investigators
that the man indicated he was looking at rental properties and asked this person where the nearest gas station was. The person didn’t have a description of the vehicle but described the man as Hispanic, between 45-50 years old, approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing about 170 pounds. He had dark hair. Sgt. Dan Bender, public information officer for the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office, said this person is not a suspect or a person of interest. “When that person passed that along to us we put that other person’s description out in hopes that they will see that on the news and contact us because they were apparently on that county road the day Dylan went missing and we want to know if they
REDWINE FAMILY TO APPEAR ON DR. PHIL According to the Facebook page Finding Dylan Redwine, it has been confirmed that Elaine and Mark Redwine and their son Cory and Brandon, Mark’s son from a previous marriage, will be taping the Dr. Phil show on Feb. 20 to talk about Dylan Redwine’s disappearance. An air date has not yet been scheduled. saw any vehicles, if they saw anyone that looked like Dylan or anything of that effect,” Bender said. Bender said it is possible that the person was not from the area and is not familiar with the ongoing case. The number of tips that has come in
has dropped but information continues to come in and they are investigated by the Dylan Redwine Task Force. Anyone with any information about the whereabouts of Dylan Redwine is asked to call the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office Investigators Dan Patterson at 970-382-7015 or Tom Cowing at 970-382-7045. There is a tip line available at 970-382-7511 where tips can be left on an answering machine that is checked by investigators regularly. People can also call the Durango-LaPlata Crime Stoppers at 970-247-1112 and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678. A reward for information leading to the teen’s whereabouts is available and now totals more $50,450.