Horrific Triple Slaying Here In Denver!
Nucars
story I unfolding here.
July 10 - A gruesome saga of torture, forced sex and murder that left
three bodies in a suburban townhouse ended early Thursday after the
suspect left word for authorities to beep him so he could confess.
William Lee Neal, a 42-year-old painter with no criminal record,
allegedly killed three women inside a townhome on West Chenango Drive -
the last of them on Sunday night, police say. He then allegedly took a
lone surviving victim, whom he had raped, back to her apartment, where
he held her and her roommates hostage for more than two days before
letting them go.
One of the murder victims was slain so brutally that the gender remains
officially unidentified pending an autopsy.
"At this point, we're trying to determine a motive for his actions,"
said Lt. John Kiekbusch of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department.
Before he confessed to investigators, Neal also admitted killing the
women to Steve Grund, the news director at Channel 2. Neal apparently
knew or dated at least two of the murder victims, as well as the woman
who was raped but survived.
"These three people - I don't understand what kind of a hold he had on
them," Grund said. "His discussions with me were that he loved them, and
then he had gone on to say that he had just raped one of them." Neal
turned himself in to authorities in the parking lot of a Target store at
about 12:45 a.m. Thursday. He was being held without bond in the
Jefferson County jail.
The investigation began Wednesday when a welfare check for Rebecca Lynn
Holberton, missing all week from her job at US West, led a sheriff's
deputy to the macabre crime scene in Holberton's townhouse at 12055 W.
Chenango Dr.
According to the arrest affidavit, the deputy saw what appeared to be
two bodies - one wrapped in a black plastic bag sealed by duct tape, and
another covered by a blanket in a chair, the ankles apparently taped to
the chair legs.
When more investigators arrived, a third victim was found, wrapped in
layers of plastic beneath a pile of blankets. Two of the three appeared
to have died from massive trauma to the neck with a sharp instrument.
Court records suggest the weapon was an ax.
Police identified two of the victims as Angela R. Fite and Candace Anita
Walters. The third is believed to be the 44-year-old Holberton, who was
supposed to return from vacation this week to start a new job as a
software translator.
Authorities began closing in on Neal after 6 p.m. Wednesday, when a
woman notified police from her home at the Cottonwood Creek apartments,
8801 W. Belleview Ave.
The woman, whose name is being withheld, said that on Sunday, Neal had
taken her to the townhouse and shown her the bodies of two people he
said he'd killed - apparently Walters and Holberton. Then he'd bound her
to the bed.
Neal left, the woman told authorities, and later returned to the
townhouse with Fite. Neal sexually assaulted her on the bed while Fite,
bound to a chair, looked on. Then the survivor watched as Neal stroked
Fite's leg and asked her what kind of day she was having.
Then, according to the affidavit, Neal struck Fite repeatedly in the
head with an ax.
Neal then took the surviving woman back to her Cottonwood Creek
apartment, where he held her and her roommates hostage until about 6
p.m. Wednesday, according to the affidavit. Curiously, Neal allegedly
threatened to kill them if they went to authorities, yet he also left
them with the message for police to page him.
Investigators believe Neal acted alone and that there are no additional,
unaccounted victims, said Sgt. Jim Parr, spokesman for the Jefferson
County sheriff.
At least three of the victims - Holberton, Walters and the survivor of
the townhouse horror - were well-acquainted with Neal, described by
people who'd met him as a sloppy-looking moocher.
Walters, in fact, had planned a Las Vegas junket with Neal last weekend,
her daughter told police. When Walters didn't show up for work Monday,
the daughter paged Neal, who told her that Walters had "hit a deer" and
"ran her car off the road." He told her Walters was in a Utah hospital.
Walters' daughter filed a missing persons report shortly afterward.
Holberton had also traveled to Las Vegas with Neal, her former
father-in-law said.
A father of one of the victims, who asked not to be identified, said he
had never met Neal but that his daughter had spoken of him.
"I had bad feelings about him," said the father. "Some stories that he
had told her were scary."
Among the stories Neal allegedly told the victim, said her father, was
that he was "worth millions of dollars" and that he was a "Mafia hit
man." Neal had an ex-wife, Jennifer, and a 5-year-old daughter,
according to Channel 2.
"I tried for I don't know how many years to tell people that I was
scared of him and nobody believed me because they didn't see that side
of him," Jennifer Neal told the station. "He's very ill-tempered, but I
couldn't imagine him killing anybody." Family members say their sympathy
lies with the victims.
"He had no right to take a life, and we pray for those families," said
Neal's nephew, D.J. Hardy. "Our blessings go out towards them." One of
the women held hostage by Neal at the Cottonwood Creek Apartments
declined to speak with a reporter Thursday night.
"I'm sure you'll understand we've been through a lot," she said.
Becky Coca, until recently the leasing agent for the Cottonwood Creek
Apartments, said Neal was a "short, fat, sloppy-looking" man who liked
to dress as a cowboy, and was "just weird, just weird." Coca and her
husband, Adrian, saw Neal often at the apartment complex, and believed
he lived with the surviving victim, her roommate and her roommate's two
daughters. They said he had a key to gain access through a building
security door even though he was not officially a tenant.
Becky Coca said Neal "was at the hot tub all the time" with the
surviving victim and her roommate and "once offered one of the staffers
$100 to let the hot tub stay open after hours." The same staffer told
them of seeing Neal walking around in full cowboy regalia - hat, duster,
boots and a pair of handguns holstered at his hips.
The Cocas described the survivor of the townhouse murders as an
attractive young woman and were puzzled why she would hang around with a
man like Neal. They said they regarded Neal warily long before they
heard of his murder arrest.
"If you made eye contact with him, he stared at you," Adrian Coca said.
Neal was advised of his rights Thursday morning in a video hookup
between a Jefferson County court and the jail, where he sat calmly at a
table with hands folded.
Described as "indigent" by his public defender, Neal did not speak
during the advisement. But his attorney, James Aber, said Neal "does not
wish to be contacted by any other law agencies or the media."
His next court appearance is scheduled for July 15, when prosecutors
expect to file formal charges against him. Channel 2's Grund taped
Neal's confession to him. Assistant news director Carl Bilek said the
tape has been turned over to investigators.
Grund, who was unavailable for comment, didn't specify the nature of his
relationship with Neal on the Thursday night newscast. Bilek said they
had met at a restaurant near the station a number of years ago but had
no other details.
In the newscast, Grund said he initially didn't buy Neal's murder
confession because Neal claimed he had also killed 500 other people as a
hitman. Neal told Grund the killing had to stop and threatened suicide.
But Grund started taking Neal's confession seriously when he received
word a few hours later that three bodies had been found.
When Grund faced Neal at the time of his arrest, he asked Neal how
someone he had known for so many years could be capable of such a
violence.
"He was clearly exhausted," Grund said. "And he just said, 'As I told
you Steve, I've been doing this since the army.' "
David Olinger, Sheeba Wheeler, Rick Alonzo and Patrician Callahan
contributed to this story.
Joe1orbit
I'd like to thank Nucars for providing this fascinating news item concerning
our latest and very impressive triple murderer over in Colorado, 42 year old
William Lee Neal. The news wires are full of articles about this gruesome
triple murder, thanks to William's skillful abd entertaining modus operandi,
but since Nucars posted one of most detailed of the news articles, I won't
bother posting any updates.
I did want to let you folks know that if you want to gaze upon the visage of
our new triple murderer, William Lee Neal, you will find a small facial photo
of him at the following URL:
http://www.wb2.com/News/webnews.htm#Painter+Confesses+to+Triple+Ax+Murders
It's not a great photo, and it only shows his face, but it's better than
nothing. Although both CNN and MSNBC are also showing photos of William, I
gotta keep in mind that not everyone has cable, and some of the NG readers live
in far-off countries. So, to those of you who meet that criteria and still
desire to get a visual image of what William looks like, just launch your
browsers to the above URL.
Take care, JOE
kyleke...@gmail.com
Son of Angela