Update on Burning Van - Murder
stew...@yahoo.com
By Erin Emery
Denver Post Staff Writer
Oct. 22 COLORADO SPRINGS - Police Detective Sean Mandel has a little bit
of the Fuller Brush man in him, except that he goes door to door looking
for killers.
Last Sunday, armed with a composite drawing of a man suspected in the
killing of Linda Ann Richards - a 28-yearold woman whose badly charred
body was found in a burning van early Friday - the detective began his
hunt.
Mandel knocked on the door at 4735 Keith Court on the city's southeast
side.
To his surprise, a man who looked strikingly similar to the man in the
composite drawing answered the door.
Bingo.
"It was Sunday afternoon - people were home watching football, and we
thought we would find someone who recognized him,'' said Sgt. Rod
Walker. "I never dreamed he'd be answering the door.''
Kent Eric Lebere, 23, who moved from Minnesota to Colorado Springs about
a year ago, was arrested late Tuesday and faces charges of first-degree
murder in Richards' slaying. She had been strangled before the van was
set on fire.
Police said Richards, who worked with her father in the family's
Tupperware business, had met Lebere at a bar called Crazy Mike's about 9
p.m. Thursday.
By all accounts, Lebere and Richards met by chance. The meeting between
the detective and Lebere, however, was certainly not.
Mandel found himself at Lebere's front door only after several pieces of
the puzzle - the result of good police work - had fallen into place.
"At first, it was a whodunit homicide,'' said Lt. Steve Liebowitz. "We
didn't have a lot to go off of.''
A motorist spotted the burning van in a stall of a car wash at 1388 S.
21st St. about 2:15 a.m. Friday and alerted a police officer at a
7-Eleven just three blocks from the fire.
After extinguishing the blaze, police and firefighters found Richards'
body sprawled in the front seat. She had been wearing a black-and-white
dress with pearl-type buttons. Her undergarments were twisted around
her, an arrest affidavit states.
The motive may have been "attempted sexual assault,'' Walker said, but
results of tests done during an autopsy will not be available for a few
more weeks. Police found Richards' driver's license in her purse, which
was in the van. Richards' fianceÚ told police she may have gone to Crazy
Mike's, a bar in southeast Colorado Springs.
Meanwhile, Detective Rich Payne called the Yellow Cab Co. and asked if
there had been any fares between 12:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m.
Bingo.
At 2:47 a.m., a cabbie picked up a man from the same 7-Eleven where the
officer had been contacted only a halfhour earlier. The cabbie said he
dropped the man off near Keith Drive and Webb Drive, only a few steps
from 4735 Keith Court, a residence Lebere, who works at a paint store,
shared with his aunt.
On Saturday, Detectives Mandel and Payne talked to the bartender at
Crazy Mike's. She told police that Richards came to the bar at 9 p.m.
Thursday, had tequila sunrises with a man who was wearing blue jeans,
white tennis shoes and a dark blue polo shirt with a red square logo on
the left breast.
The bartender told the detectives that she carded the man when he came
in, and his first name was "Kent'' and he was born in 1975. She said the
man told her that Richards was going to give him a ride home.
After talking with detectives, the bartender then aided Detective Joe
Bonomo, a police artist, in creating a composite drawing. On Sunday,
Mandel began knocking on doors in the neighborhood where the cabbie said
he had dropped off the fare.
When Lebere answered the door, Mandel gave him a copy of the composite
drawing, but Lebere told the officer he did not recognize the man in the
picture.
Mandel asked the man his name, talked to him briefly, and then Lebere
volunteered to go to police headquarters for an in-depth interview. He
has been arrested twice for driving under the influence of alcohol but
otherwise has no criminal record, police said.
Police obtained a search warrant for the Keith Court home and retrieved
articles of clothing - garments that match the clothes worn by the man
in the 7-Eleven videotape.
"We were elated last night when we found out that the suspect had been
arrested,'' said George Richards, the victim's father. "It helps us
greatly.''
He thanked police and people in Colorado Springs for their support and
help during the family's crisis.
He vowed to fight for tougher laws against violent crime.
"I think anyone would ask why,'' he said. "You can't answer the question
"why.' Right now, I'm dealing with it on a day-to-day basis.''
Walker said it is hard to say why a man would kill Richards, who had two
boys, Justin, 4, and Parker, 1.
"She stopped and had a drink in a bar and met the wrong guy,'' Walker
said. "That was her only mistake.'