75 CENTS
March 22, 2018
ELBERT COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
KEEPING OPERA ALIVE: Opera Colorado works to keep the art form thriving in the metro area, around the state. P19
‘He would want us to forgive’ An arrest was made more than seven years after the death of Kiowa teacher Randy Wilson BY DAVID GILBERT DGILBERT@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
K
iowa High School let out for the summer in May 2010, with popular science teacher Randy Wilson’s youngest son Dean among the 29 graduates. Wilson’s sons Cody and Weston had recently told their dad that they were both expecting children, who would be his second and third grandchildren. Not long after graduation, as the cottonwoods along Kiowa Creek leafed out in the warm spring sun, Wilson, 52, drove to Montana to visit relatives. On his drive back toward his Kiowa home on Sunday, June 13, Wilson stopped in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for dinner. At 10:45 p.m. he pulled off I-70 at exit 304 and stopped to gas up at a Conoco on the outskirts of Bennett, just north of Elbert County on Colo-
rado’s eastern plains. The late-spring brilliance of the week prior had ceded to a gloomy cold front over the weekend, and the wind whipped. One more exit down the interstate, opposite a rest area since torn down, was the junction with Kiowa-Bennett Road. Only 30 miles of dark prairie separated Wilson from home. He never arrived. ‘Why him?’ The next day, June 14, 2010, dawned gray and drizzling on the plains north of Kiowa. Tim Fry and his friend Greg were headed south along Kiowa-Bennett Road to get registration tags for Fry’s truck, according to a Denver Post article from the time. At the crossroads with County Line Road, a rare bend in the route, almost exactly halfway between Bennett and Kiowa, they spotted a parked white sedan, facing north in the gravel. Across the road, in the grass, lay a body. The two men had found the body of Randy Wilson, dead by asphyxiation with a bag over his head and a belt SEE WILSON, P6
The life and death of Randy Wilson: Part 2 High school teacher Randy Wilson was found dead at a lonely prairie crossroads in 2010. For more than seven years, those who knew him struggled with the mystery of his unsolved death. Then, in December 2017, came a surprise arrest in the case. Part one last week looked at the legacy of the father of five and well-respected educator. This week, part two of the two-part series looks at the shockwaves Wilson’s death sent through the rural town of Kiowa, as well as developments in the yearslong investigation.
Kiowa school counselor Liz Morrone stands behind a plaque remembering teacher Randy Wilson, who was found dead in 2010. DAVID GILBERT
THE BOTTOM LINE PERIODICAL
‘It’s a very special, inviting community that I felt a strong connection with during the interview process.’ Matt Cohrs, new Elizabeth town administrator | Page 8 INSIDE
VOICES: PAGE 14 | LIFE: PAGE 19 | CALENDAR: PAGE 15 | SPORTS: PAGE 5
ElbertCountyNews.net
VOLUME 123 | ISSUE 8