Page 49 - AreaNewsletters "May 2021" issue
P. 49

C O MMU N I T Y
Did You Know This...
about True Crime in Castle Rock by Lora Thomas
Douglas County Commissioner and
But first, Castle Rock “Geography” Trivia:
There is an interchange on I-25 at milepost 184 on the northside of Castle Rock that is now known as both Founders and Meadows Parkways. What was the interchange known as in 1984? (Answer at the end of this article)
LAST ISSUE: (Click to see)
I wrote about Ross Carlson, who in 1983 was charged with killing both of
his parents, claimed he had a multiple- personality disorder and then died of leukemia before he stood trial. That kind of intrigue is rare, but it really happened here in Douglas County.
That was just one of many fascinating criminal cases that I knew about while I served as a Colorado State Trooper in Castle Rock from 1984-1991.
As a State Trooper, my shifts rotated every two weeks – I never knew what I was going to get into, but it was usually
something interesting. On
Saturday, September 26,
1987, I was working the
2PM-10PM swing shift,
regularly assigned to drive
a Ford Mustang. That car had front bucket seats and enough room in the back seat
for my briefcase with all of my paperwork, a statute book, extra citations, blood
kits and some snacks and pop to get me through the night. It had a 5-speed manual transmission and could really move!
That night after our dinner break, Trooper Charlie Arellano and I were west of
Castle Rock just o  Wolfensberger Road,
former State Patrol O cer assigned to Castle Rock in the 1980’s
looking for a hit and run driver from a previous crash when we heard Dispatch air “10-0 vehicle white Dodge van involved
in an o cer down last seen NB I-25
from Monument Hill” It was 7:58PM. Charlie and I headed SB on I-25 from Wolfensberger, and just as I cut through the median south of Castle Rock, I saw
a silver van NB! I ducked into the NB lanes, trying to catch up to that silver van but stay far enough behind it so as not to spook the driver. It was a good thing I had that Mustang because it didn’t take too long before I saw the van swerving to the right onto the shoulder of I-25 just north
of Wolfensberger Road. I-25 at that time was just two lanes in each direction with a dirt median. As I kept the silver van in sight, I saw it swerve to the left
into the median and kick up a bunch of dirt. I wanted to stop the van but when I heard “o cer down” my thoughts were that an o cer had been shot and the driver of the van was wanting me to stop him
so he could shoot me next! I kept calling Dispatch, asking for a cover car, but was repeatedly told to “Stand by.”
Continued on next page...
49 Castle Rock “AreaNewsletters” • May 2021


































































































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