Cold Cases: These Littleton Murders Remain Unsolved After Years

LITTLETON, CO – Every case has a file, and every file has a detective. And every detective nows there is a grieving family behind the case waiting for closure.

Littleton's police department has only four open homicide cold cases, some of them decades old, but they are still considered of high importance for the department, said Commander Trent Cooper.

Detectives wait for a hint, a clue, "somebody bragging in a bar, somebody confessing to their girlfriend or wife," he said. "Somebody knows something," he said. The longer the investigation, more memories become unclear, the more rumors and false leads start to swirl.

"We're always looking for anyone who knows anything. If you have any shred of information, we ask you to come forward. Don’t think any item is too small. We don’t know what the missing piece of the puzzle is," Cooper said.

Jaime Albert Villarreal, 23, Killed March 18, 2016

Monday was the third-year anniversary of Littleton's most recent cold case–the murder of Jaime Albert Villarreal, 23, of Thornton. Three years ago, Villarreal, a father of two young children, was shot and killed in an early-morning ambush, while he and a partner were sitting in his pickup truck, waiting for instructions as hired snow-plow operators.

Around 5:20 a.m., officers were summoned to an office building at 8122 S. Park Lane. There, they found Villarreal on the ground with gunshot wounds in the snow-filled parking lot. Shortly thereafter, police found Villarreal's red pickup truck, set on fire, nearby in the 800 block of West Jamison Avenue. Villarreal's partner was found close-by with less-serious gunshot wounds.

The second victim was able to tell investigators about the two men who approached the truck out of the heavy snowfall and fired at both passengers, Cooper said. After watching Villarreal being shot at close range, the second man told police he escaped from the truck and ran away, but the shooters "jumped in the snowplow and chased the second victim down," Cooper said. "They were shooting at him, and shot him in the leg, but he cut through parking lots and was able to hide. Then he was able to flag somebody down and get help."

The case has perplexed detectives because they can't figure out whether the shooters knew the victims. The isolated location of the shooting, as well as the early hour during terrible weather and the second victim's testimony seems to point to a stranger-on-stranger attack, which is very rare, Cooper said. "The vast majority of homicides committed by somebody the victim knows," he said.

With any homicide investigation, detectives start with the victim and "work their way out," he said. Friends, family and associates are interviewed, sometimes multiple times.

But investigators have run cold on tracking down any connection between the two snow plow drivers and the shooters.

"The case lends itself to have us believe it was a random shooting," Cooper said. "But, of course, we can't say that for certain."

Rhonda Holland, 46, killed Jan. 17, 2004

Rhonda Holland was murdered in the basement of her family's gift shop on South Rapp Street. Police said her throat was slit. Her parents found her body after noticing the lights were on in the business, Cooper said.

Shortly after Rhonda was murdered, a former neighbor who had once lived across the street from Rhonda was charged with killing his wife by slitting her throat. Gregory Thomas Parker, 46, was charged with killing his wife, Barbara Parker, about a month after Rhonda's death.

Gregory Parker called 911 from the road on his way to New Mexico and told a 911 dispatcher, "I murdered my wife at 11 o'clock at 673 West Longview Avenue." He was arrested and convicted, but has never confessed to Holland's murder, Cooper said.

"[The District Attorney] never charged him with the death of Rhonda Holland," Cooper said. "He went to prison for murder of wife and he's serving a life sentence currently. We interviewed him on a number of occasions, saying, 'Look you have nothing to lose.' We hoped he would confess and help us bring closure to her poor mother who was just destroyed by this crime, but [Parker] insists he had nothing to do with it."

Parker is still the prime suspect in the murder, Cooper said. The killer took Rhonda's car and ditched it at the Essex House Hotel. As DNA evidence analysis improves, investigators hope that new insights will come from DNA and fingerprint analysis, even from cold cases.

Rhonda Holland was the mother of two young sons, according to reports.

"Somebody has got to know something about these cases. These poor families don’t get any closure. We still want to know what happened so families can have a little peace," Cooper said.

Erin Golla, 26, Jim Springer, 29 and Bobby Zajac, 23, killed Jan. 27, 2002

Erin Golla, 26, Jim Springer, 29 and Bobby Zajac, 23, were found shot to death late at night Jan. 27, 2002 at the AMF Broadway Bowl at 5485 S Broadway in Littleton. Golla, a mother of two girls and Springer, a father and recent transplant from Utah, were both working at the bowling alley on the closing shift. Bobby Zajac had been bowling and was going to get a ride home from Jim Springer, police said.

After closing the alley, Erin called her ride to come pick her up, police said.

Erin's friend also saw a man leave the bowling alley, with a shaved head and wearing a trench coat, Cooper said. Media reports said the man smirked at her and then left in a pickup truck. The robber forced employees to open the bowling alley's safe and remove cash and a few checks, media reports said. The bowling alley had also been burglarized a few weeks earlier, police said.

Cooper said police have considered the likelihood that the same person who burglarized the bowling alley may have killed the three victims.

"When people have success with a location, they’ll come back," Cooper said. But would the suspect come back a third time? Cooper doubts it. "Pattern crime" is the term used for repeat petty crimes, but homicides are more serious, Cooper said. The department has never believed that the bowling alley murderer has returned to the scene.

"Homicides are heat-of-the-moment, crimes of passion, crimes of opportunity or crimes where suspects knows the victim," Cooper said. "Any homicide is probably a one-off by the suspect and they're not going to return."

On the anniversary of the killings this year, police once more asked for tips. Investigators say they follow up on every lead, but often tips can be "a phone call to a dispatcher in the middle of the night," Cooper said.

"We do make an attempt to convince them to come in and see us. Our dispatchers are highly trained to work with callers to try to get as much information as they can."

Sitting down with investigators allows them to collect information not released to the public, to try to confirm details that only the suspect knows about "particularities of the scene and the nature of the crime itself," Cooper said. These details can also weed out false confessions.

For example, Dan Pesch, 34, was arrested in Littleton in 2017 after falsely confessing to killing Kiowa High School teacher Randy Wilson in 2010. He later retracted his confession and murder charges were dropped.

Melissa Chase, 17, of Englewood, killed Dec. 8, 1983

The death of Melissa Chase, 17, of Englewood in December of 1983 is Littleton's oldest unsolved homicide, Cooper said. The murder took place before Cooper started on the force.

Chase disappeared at night while walking home from her job at a gas station on Dec. 8, 1983. Her 22-year-old boyfriend at the time told police he went out searching for her and found her body, partially naked, under the Lehow Bridge near near the Big Dry Creek. Her face had been beaten and police believed she had been "kicked in the head" media reports said.

"As you can imagine, we first believed the boyfriend was the prime suspect for a long time," Cooper said. "It's kind of a random place to find your girl friend under the bridge."

The 22-year-old who was never arrested or named was eventually murdered himself, Cooper said. "It happened in El Paso Texas. He had moved down there and was living on the street."

Investigators said that during his interviews, he had "somewhat of an alibi," Cooper said. They noted "his emotional state at finding her body. Detectives were convinced he was genuinely upset by finding her and her condition," Cooper said.

"We are still keeping in touch with Mel’s family," Cooper said. "That’s still a case with detective looking at periodically. It was an unfortunate thing for her and her family, and we’d like to bring closure to it."

If you have a tip about an unsolved crime in Littleton, you can contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-STOP (7867) with unsolved crime information. You will remain anonymous. If the information you provide leads to an arrest by the police and acceptance of the case by the District Attorney, a cash award up to $2,000 may be given to you.

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