Posted on 07/01/2007 12:30:41 AM PDT by beaversmom
A graduate student working in a forest radioed for help before she was found dead, and a colleague responding to her plea unwittingly accepted a ride from the man suspected of killing her, officials said.
Authorities have not said how Alyssa Heberton-Morimoto died, but an autopsy was planned for Friday. Her body was found late Tuesday in an isolated part of the San Isabel National Forest, 75 miles southwest of Denver.
The suspect, who has used the names Dennis Cook, Dennis Lee Cook and Robert R. Amos, was being held Thursday for investigation of first-degree murder. Park County officials said they were not sure whether he had a lawyer.
Heberton-Morimoto was a summer intern for the Colorado Geologic Survey, which locates and maps hazards such as sinkholes and avalanches. She was working with Karen Houck, a professor at the University of Colorado-Denver, where she was a graduate student in environmental sciences, survey director Vince Matthews said.
Heberton-Morimoto and Houck had separated Tuesday to go to another site for lunch. Houck heard Heberton-Morimoto's cries over the radio but could not find her. When Houck went for help, she unknowingly accepted a ride from the suspect, he said.
They then encountered a forest ranger on the road, and Houck got into his vehicle.
"I think we're extremely fortunate this isn't a double tragedy," Matthews said.
The Park County Sheriff's Department confirmed that Houck got into a vehicle with the suspect.
Park County sheriff's investigators said the suspect had been camping in the area, and they arrested him Wednesday. They have not said what led them to him.
Kansas records show the suspect was known as Dennis Cook when he was convicted of second-degree murder in 1982. He was transferred to a Colorado prison later that year; Kansas officials would not disclose the reason. He was paroled in 2000.
No one answered Houck's office or home phone Thursday.
Related article:
Suspect in Forest Murder Killed Before
http://cw2.trb.com/kwgn-park-county-murder-suspect,0,6446864.story?coll=kwgn-home-2
Rehabilitation at its finest. Barf.
I would like for the members of the Kansas parole board who let this creature go free to have to look the woman’s family in the eye and explain themselves. If not burn in hell.
If the sentence was 15 years to life, and he was convicted of assault while in jail and tried for other crimes including arson, don’t you think this constitutes a reason to hold him just a wee bit longer than two years above the minimum? Shameful. Borderline depraved indifference.
When this guy gets sentenced (again), the Kansas parole board members need be present for identical sentencing. Accountability.
All three-time convicted felons, violent or non-violent, should also be put to death.
I am tired of sharing my planet with people who can't play by the rules.
-ccm
It’s the judges. They rise up out of scum lawyers. Then, they become politicians.
Another reason to carry a sidearm in the woods around here.
This girl went into the woods, and her support had to hitch a ride from a stranger. It also sounds like both were unarnmed, so any predator like a mountain lion or a bear or this guy would be unimpeded. Sounds like this school should not send students into the real world until they add a course on how to deal with reality.
Totally agree...we need to execute violent felons, and, repeat felons.
Our society continues to slip when we value the rights of criminals over the rights of victims. Also, the rate of recidivism among executed criminals is zero.
” All three-time convicted felons, violent or non-violent, should also be put to death.
I am tired of sharing my planet with people who can’t play by the rules”
Careful there, the libs are changing the rules. In CT if you have a gun stolen and you don’t report it you will become a criminal. If it happens twice you are a felon.
They can’t ban guns so they seek to make everyone a felon.
“It also sounds like both were unarnmed, so any predator like a mountain lion or a bear or this guy would be unimpeded.”
A Ruger Super Redhawk Alaskan in .454 Casull would have been appropriate for any of those predators.
Better yet, sued. Money is the universal language and deterrent.
These government entities are immune to lawsuits, but..
There may be a glimmer of hope.
I heard a radio report a few days ago concerning a couple, don't recall where, that had some dead trees in their yard.
They needed a permit to cut them down. The local authorities and environmentalist refused to allow the tree cutting.
One of the trees fell and killed the husband.
The wife sued the government agency and environmental org., the government claimed immunity.
A judge has ruled that the suit can go ahead.
Since our laws rely on precedent, this ruling may be used in the future to bring justice to these parole boards, criminal psychologists, soft judges and other screwy government agencies.
Until we start making judges and parole boards legally (and financially) culpable for their stupid decisions, we'll keep having these problems. If you or I screw up in our jobs and cost a life, we get sued into oblivion, if not charged with manslaughter. Why aren't these people responsible for their actions?
I understand your thinking, but can’t agree. In our system of anarcho-tyranny, where there are so many laws that virtually no citizen couldn’t be convicted by a Nifong, and where charges are filed (or not) with caprice, this could be a disaster.
While I understand where you’re coming from, we have devalued the felony to the point where I could not support your program, without a serious review and overhaul of what constitutes a felony.
You and I are on the same page on this; see my previous post, as well as the first quote on my FR home page.
The members of the parole board deserve to be hung. They should be sued and charged with negligent homicide. Pressure should be brought on local politicians to have them fired. Their names and addresses should be spread far and wide in order to make future employment difficult.
Walking around in a forest, a citizen should be carrying a weapon...if they weren’t so hard to get.
How about the thousands who have had convictions for violent felonies overturned now that DNA analysis is available? Do you wish they had been put to death even though they were innocent?
“Walking around in a forest, a citizen should be carrying a weapon...if they weren’t so hard to get.”
I agree that you should be armed in the forest. Unfortunately, thats against the law on any National and most State forest lands. (except during hunting season and only then if you are hunting and have a license)
bttt
I would like for the members of the Kansas parole board who let this creature go free to have to look the woman’s family in the eye and explain themselves. If not burn in hell.
Yeah. From the article it looks like this happened on a national forest. As an employee of the USFS I have to say I am not allowed to carry a firearm or even pepper spray with me. The only people on the National Forest who are armed are the law enforcement officers. In my opinion that is not right - especially if they want people to work by themselves.
Are the National Forrest now full of illegal alien drug growers and other felon types? Especially in the S.West and Western US...I have always enjoyed spending time in the NF but I think twice about now due to the failure of our guv to protect our borders and interior.
Um, you're kidding, right?
I think it is pretty clear by the dude's photo that he isn't an illegal Mexican immigrant.
He's probably one of the several dozen or so serial killers that roam the backroads and mountain hideaways of the Western United States.
Thousands? Prove it. Cite even hundreds of cases, please.
As a Forest Service employee you are not allowed by your employer to carry a firearm, BUT it is legal for us free people to carry a firearm while in the National Forests in Colorado. Open carry is legal without a permit in this state, and thus we can carry a sidearm for defense against predators. With a concealed carry permit we can carry a firearm under a coat or in a pocket — while in the National Forests in Colorado. I do both while I’m walking in the San Isabel National Forest — the very same one where this murder occurred, and that incident is even more reason to not forget to carry a sidearm.
If I were to wake up as ruler of the world tomorrow, I would decree that all the laws of the nation would have to fit in a fifty-page booklet that would be studied in the last year of high school. Every rule that a man would need to follow for the rest of his life would be in there. If the legislature wanted to add more, first they'd have to decide on what to take out.
-ccm
Firearms are not hard to get -- in Colorado and other States which are not like Massachusetts or New Jersey. But the people at the University of Colorado and the voters in Denver would like our state to be like Massachusetts.
I agree that you should be armed in the forest. Unfortunately, thats against the law on any National and most State forest lands. (except during hunting season and only then if you are hunting and have a license)
You may be thinking of National Parks where it is illegal, or State lands in some of the "People's Republics" of the east coast. But here in Colorado it is legal to carry a weapon in any National Forest -- whether hunting or not.
BLM too.
” in Colorado it is legal to carry a weapon in any National Forest — whether hunting or not.”
Okay. Then I hereby cast the first vote for you as Ruler. That’s a good start.
ping
Overturned doesn't equal innocence. You have fallen prey to the propaganda. IANAL, but if IIRC, many if not most of the overturned cases resulted from the DNA evidence simply re-opening cases, which allowed the defense to get convictios thrown out on technicalities. That doesn't mean the person was innocent--it just means that the conviction isn't considered valid.
I'm not agreeing with ccmay (jammer and FreedomPoster gave good reasons why) but am simply refuting your point.
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