Alaska man arrested 17 years after woman found dead in Colorado canyon
Seventeen years after a Colorado woman’s remains were found decomposing in a Boulder County canyon, authorities have arrested a suspect who is now charged in her murder.
John Angerer, a 53-year-old man from Anchorage, Alaska, was taken into custody last week on a second-degree murder charge in connection with the killing of Angela Wilds in 2006, officials said in a news release issued on Monday.
Two hikers found Wilds’ remains in the South Saint Vrain Canyon, located about three miles outside of Lyons in Boulder County, on June 4, 2006. At the time, the hikers reported finding a “badly decomposing body” that was completely nude outside of a cross ring still on the left hand, which appeared to have been dragged from a shallow grave nearby to that location by a large animal, authorities said. Sheriff’s deputies later found a pair of yellow ski pants, a sleeping bag and a pillow inside a pillowcase folded neatly near the grave.
The remains were unidentified until November 2006, when a DNA test determined that they belonged to Wilds. She was 38 years old at the time of her death.
Authorities originally arrested and charged Angerer with second-degree murder in 2010 in connection with Wilds’ killing after investigators working her case in its earlier stages found evidence that they say connected Angerer to the crime scene as well as the victim.
But after a preliminary hearing later that year, a judge dismissed the case for a lack of probable cause. Authorities continued their investigation, and over the course of the next decade found and interviewed new witnesses and collected additional evidence that was then submitted to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for forensic testing and DNA analysis, officials said. The district attorney’s office presented the updated case to a grand jury, which in February returned an indictment for Angerer on a second-degree murder charge.
Angerer remained in custody in Alaska pending extradition back to Colorado, according to the district attorney and the sheriff in Boulder County.
“I am glad that we were able move our investigation into the homicide of Angela Wilds forward. I am proud that our detectives didn’t give up on this cold case, we know Angela’s family has been waiting a long time for this day to come,” said Boulder County Sheriff Curtis Johnson in a statement. “Her family is in our thoughts as we take the next steps in the judicial process.”
CBS News has contacted the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office for more information about Wilds’ case but did not receive an immediate response.
