Tuesday, April 24, 2012

11 Mile

The bodies of former Colorado Springs mayoral candidate Mitch Christiansen and his wife were found at Eleven Mile Reservoir after a boating accident.





* * * * * * DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF MITCH AND SUE CHRISTIANSEN * * * * * *



Search Resumes For Missing Springs Mayoral Candidate


Mitch Christiansen, Wife, Were Boating At Eleven Mile State Park
Posted by Kim Nguyen, Web Editor
POSTED: 7:14 am MDT May 26, 2011
UPDATED: 7:31 am MDT May 26, 2011


     LAKE GEORGE, Colo. -- Search teams are resuming the hunt for a former Colorado Springs mayoral candidate who disappeared while boating at Eleven Mile State Park.
     Mitch Christiansen and his wife, 62-year-old Susan Christiansen, had gone fishing over the weekend at Eleven Mile reservoir when their boat capsized.
     The couple left for the fishing trip on Friday, according to a neighbor.
     Susan Christiansen's body was found Sunday afternoon. Crews from Park County and Eleven Mile Reservoir State Park spent Sunday searching the water and the shoreline for Mitch Christiansen but could not find him.
     Authorities don't know when the boat capsized, said state parks spokeswoman Debbie Frazier.
     The Christiansens had entered in the 27th No Name Fishing Tournament but did not check in on Saturday morning to collect their tournament hats, Melissa Mrazek, an event organizer, told The Gazette newspaper.
     Winds gusting to more than 40 mph whipped across the lake Saturday, Frazier said, creating whitecaps and sending some fishing tournament participants hurrying in boats back to shore.
     Frazier said the search will resume on Thursday.
     Married for 42 years, the Christiansens have two children and five grandchildren, according to his campaign biography. Mitch Christiansen, a commercial real estate broker, dropped out of the mayor's race in March.

I first became familiar with Mitch Christiansen during the first mayoral debate; when I heard him speak, I knew he spoke for me, and immediately threw my full support behind his candidacy.




A few weeks later, I was introduced to Mitch during a meeting; he'd just dropped out of the race....but I showed him my "Mitch for Mayor" post, and he smiled.



Thereafter, we became fast friends, and were in daily contact. 


I last saw Mitch on Election Day; I had my husband in tow when we happened into Mr. and Mrs. Christiansen at a restaurant.  Introductions, handshakes, and smiles went around the table...


...and then we went on our way.


I last heard from Mitch on May 18, when I told him I needed to seek some professional advice.  "We'll meet up soon," he wrote, "we just need to make our schedules work."


And that was it.



I was stunned to learn of this awful tragedy; all I could do was cry. The crying time is not yet over...indeed, it will never be.



* * * * * * * *

Mitch was one of my biggest supporters - not financially (though he had offered to pay for the repair to my car's ignition)...but certainly with encouragement. 


He was no stranger to hardship...and though he knew times were hard for me and my family, he reminded me every day to never give up.


I applied for a job last week, and listed Mitch as a reference; I was hired for that job today...so certainly, he's still at work as one of God's angels.


I am a better person for having known him, and believe that he continues to watch over me.


* * * * * * * *


Man, oh, man was Mitch smart...and blessed as well with common sense, integrity and courage.  He had a memory like a steel-trap, and could point my nose in the right direction; it was he who told me to look at Banning-Lewis Ranch.


Mitch was humble, and had a quiet sense of humor; he was the one who forwarded to me the hilarious Obama speech.


Mitch was a man amongst men -- a real-life Marlboro man -- and that's how I'll always remember him.


* * * * * * * *

Let us never forget that life is short and fleeting...to savor every moment...and to tell the ones we love how much we love them.


My condolences to Mitch's family, and to everyone who knew and loved the man, his wife, and their dogs.




rest in peace

Saturday, April 21, 2012

incommunicado

hey...you know, sometimes you make plans and things don't work out entirely to schedule.  my car was to be running and i was supposed to have a job by now...anyway, only the first part of that equation has been realized but one out of two ain't bad right?

long story short, no internet at the moment.  take care and be well, i'll be back in a bit.

JOCELYN SANDBERG: I still remember you, No. 8

COLD CASE: Jocelyn Sandberg was murdered 14 years ago...and even though the police & fickle GLBT community in Colorado Springs seem to have forgotten her, Spydra hasn't.
Photo by zyrcster

I thought I'd have more time to devote to
 Jocelyn Sandberg, but I didn't.  Today is the anniversary of her death, however...



"Number 8" she called herself, the eighth of nine children; stamped as she was with the number of the spider, perhaps is in part why she haunts me to this day.




Photo by zyrcster
She died under the light of the full moon.



The police completely screwed up the investigation into her murder.  No doubt, important evidence was lost under the Luis Velez evidence scandal.  



And who knows what clues might have been lost when the house in which Sandberg lived burnt to the ground two years later...blamed on a problem with the furnace.

I just find it so interesting that the property on which that house once stood now belongs to Colorado College.  


Alexander Pring Wilson was cleared in this case...I'd tell you the details about it, but like I said, he was cleared, and for whatever reason, my hunch was always that he had nothing to do with this murder.

Nicole "Nicki" Deyton, the friend who'd gone to the concert with Jocelyn that night, was also cleared of any involvement, though no one knows the reason(s) why she was eliminated from suspicion.

For what it's worth, as I was researching this story I suddenly got the *strong* feeling that whoever killed her was not just some random stranger, but rather that her murder was related to the planning of the Lavender Film Festival.


Photo by zyrcster

I don't know.  


But someone does.


I didn't know you well, Jocelyn...


...but I still remember your honeyed voice on the radio...


...I still remember singing and dancing at the bars with you when reggae music was playing...


...I remember you and me and Marvin smokin' a doob behind Jose Muldoon's...


...and I remember that night at the Underground, when you led the crowd to sing along with me....


...I am still shocked and saddened...


...and I still remember you.  


Thank you for continuing to haunt me...in a way, I'm honored.  




And don't worry, a spider never forgets...and for as long as I'm alive, I'll never let anyone else forget, either.


xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo


- thank you to Cris Stoddard for the photographs, and for helping to fill in the gaps -










'Human ball of energy' loved music, life

Woman touched many with honesty, friendliness



The music that's been playing on KRCC since April 26 has been for Jocelyn.
Jocelyn Sandberg loved music, lived for music. Everyone who knew her has a story to tell about Jocelyn and her CDs, or Jocelyn and her weekly jaunts to concerts in Denver or Boulder. Even those who didn't know her might recall seeing her - perhaps as the doughmaker who used to dance around in Poor Richard's restaurant, where she worked on and off for the past decade, or maybe riding around town on an old Schwinn with a big fat seat, wearing headphones and singing some Joan Armatrading.
Even the final hours of Sandberg's life were filled with music. On the night of April 25, a Thursday, she and a friend had gone to Boulder to see a band.
Sandberg's body was found early the next morning outside Armstrong Hall at Colorado College. It's unclear what sort of altercation led to her stabbing death just a couple blocks from her Dale Street apartment. No arrests have been made, and police are saying little about the investigation.
In the week since the killing, those who knew her best gathered to grieve at her homes away from home: Poor Richard's and KRCC, where she was operations manager and an on-air personality.
They talked of her zest for life. How she was loud at times, sometimes mouthy. About how she also was fair-minded, nonjudgmental. About her honesty, and how she had a knack of speaking her mind without offending. Mario Valdes, her boss at KRCC, describes her as a "human ball of energy" who had a "day life, a twilight life and a night life" that affected and intersected with a variety of people.
On the Sunday after her death, friends, co-workers, her parents and one of her brothers got together at her apartment. Valdes remembers marveling at the collection of people - the differing hair colors, the piercings, tattoos, cowboy hats, the straights and gays.
"If her parents didn't know she was colorful, they gotta know it now," Valdes remembers thinking. "This is as unusual a crowd as you can throw together in Colorado Springs. Period. It's a testimony to her extraordinarily friendly ways. This is a lady who had a way to make you feel good. It's a simply intangible sort of power."
Sandberg's father, Harley, said he is surprised to see the impact his 41-year-old daughter had on many people - andby what he saw at her memorial service the next night: "We were expecting a small room with a few people, maybe 20 to 30 people, but there was this huge cathedral-like place, and it was full," he said.
Hundreds of people gathered in Shove Chapel to say goodbye.
Child No. 8
Jocelyn Sandberg grew up in Ojai, Calif., a town northwest of Los Angeles known as an artists colony. She was the eighth of Harley and Evalyn Sandberg's nine kids. "She was a very sweet girl, very kindhearted," said Tim Sandberg, one of her five brothers. She also was one of the more gregarious, standing up for others.
Tim Sandberg said the family lived in a huge house with a lot of big trees - an ideal place for children. But, he added, "You can imagine 11 people milling around a house - it's a ticket for madness."
Church - the Mormon faith - was a big part of the family's life, Tim Sandberg said. Harley and Evalyn Sandberg moved to Salt Lake City when the children were grown.
In the years after high school, Jocelyn's jobs were many and varied: She worked for the Ventura, Calif., Parks and Recreation Department; for Sears, repairing washers and dryers; as a baker; and as a buyer of wholesale organic produce. Jocelyn's father said she moved to Colorado Springs in the late 1980s.
Jocelyn was good about keeping in touch with her family - she had siblings in Utah, California, Washington state and Ohio. Her roommate, Flannery Hysjulien, said Jocelyn had something for the mail carrier almost daily - either cards for nieces and nephews or CDs to mail to friends. In letters to her parents, she'd sign off as "No. 8."
Her mom and dad last saw her over Christmas, which she spent with them in Salt Lake.
On the morning of April 26, Evalyn Sandberg's 78th birthday, two police officers knocked at her door.
"I'll bet," she said to the officers, "you're going to give me a birthday present I don't want."
From listener to music host
Valdes, KRCC's operations director, remembers hearing of Jocelyn Sandberg before she started working at the station - when she was just a listener. Early one morning sometime in 1989 - Valdes can't remember exactly when - he arrived at work to find someone had dropped off baked goods for the overnight deejay. When Valdes asked where they had come from, he was told "the baker chick dropped them off."
"She was a total stranger with no connection other than she had a radio," Valdes said. Soon enough, Sandberg was volunteering at the station, seeking a DJ slot, willing to approach a new-age show head- on. "She was so desperate to get on the air that she took on something she didn't know much about," Valdes said.
In the mid-1990s, Sandberg moved to Ohio, where she worked for a time at radio station WCBE-FM in Columbus. Dan Mushalko, who worked with her from 1994 to 1996, said Sandberg was passionate about fighting for what she believed in. In fact, he credits her for turning him into a stronger advocate for his own kids' show.
"She, in all honesty, was one of the best, if not the best, of the music hosts that we've had," he said. "It's very hard when you're doing an eclectic format to find someone who can be masterful of the different genres out there. It was wonderful to listen to her shows, because the radio wave was like canvas to her, and she just painted with sound."
After she had quit WCBE, she stayed in Ohio and still would show up at the station on some Saturday mornings with fresh bread from her job at a bakery.
In early 2000, Sandberg moved back to Colorado Springs and returned to work at KRCC. At the time of her death, aside from being on the air, Sandberg was the station's operations manager, in charge of training and scheduling.
In her small upstairs office at KRCC, notes about upcoming concerts were penciled into her calendar and on scraps of paper. Sandberg was able to score all sorts of concert tickets through her job - a perk she took advantage of. When a friend offered her an '89 red Geo Metro that needed a host of fixes, she took it. "She only wanted that car for one reason," Valdes said. "To go to concerts."
In the past week, cards and e-mails have poured in to KRCC - expressions of sympathy for someone people had often heard but never seen. "This is a box of cards that we've gotten since yesterday," Valdes said Wednesday, plopping a stack of condolences on a table at KRCC. "Most of these are from people who have never met her."
One card was signed by a dozen inmates at the Limon Correctional Facility. It also came with a typed letter: "Here in the Big House, we enjoy a few privileges that include a radio and an FM antenna perched high upon a communications tower. ... Joslyn (sic) will be missed, and we wish the best for those who knew and loved her."
'We just sat there and cried'
Poor Richard's was like a second home to Sandberg. She'd toss pizza and talk with customers at the same time. Or roll up a couple hundred dough balls while she danced. She put her baking skills to work by inventing the recipe for the Poor Richard's pizza crust.
"I had a sketchy recipe a salesman had given me," said City Councilman Richard Skorman, who owns the restaurant. Jocelyn, he said, "came up with some really good ideas to keep it thin and chewy."
Her pizza-crust recipe won a Best of the Springs award from The Gazette. It was published April 26.
Skorman said he really got to know Sandberg in 1992, around Amendment 2 time. Sandberg was a shift manager, and Skorman's restaurant was a gathering place for people who opposed the ballot measure, which would have banned laws that protect gays from discrimination based on their sexual orientation. It passed, but was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
"We used to talk about politics a lot," Skorman said. "She was a strong voice urging me to run for City Council. I think she felt I was somebody who could represent people who don't have a voice in local politics."
Last year, Sandberg got involved with the Lavender Film Festival, which showcases films of importance to gays and lesbians. She was excited about going to San Francisco in June to help select some of the films that would be coming to Colorado Springs this year.
Alma Cremonesi, the festival's organizer, said she was looking forward to Sandberg's input. "She was very direct. She told you what she thought, and I really appreciate that quality when I'm working with people," Cremonesi said.
When Sandberg felt strongly about something, she spoke her mind. "She was completely vegan," said January Powner, a Poor Richard's co- worker. "She would always be preaching to me about that." Through Sandberg's example, a teen-age boy who works at the restaurant also became a vegan. Sandberg called him her "vegan brother" and gave him pamphlets that claimed stockyard animals are mistreated.
On the afternoon of April 26, just hours after learning of Jocelyn's death, Skorman closed Poor Richard's. The staff got through the lunch rush and put a note on the door, saying they were shutting early because of an emergency. A dozen or so workers and some of Jocelyn's friends sat sharing their grief. Then they went for a walk, stopping at a downtown florist. They made their way back to the spot where Jocelyn was found and left their flowers.
"We just sat there and cried," said Pam Hartman, who works at Poor Richard's and whose son is the Sandberg-inspired vegan.
The next night, Saturday, Skorman invited Sandberg's parents and some of her friends to the restaurant for pizza. Jocelyn had worked at the restaurant earlier in the week, rolling dough.
"We all sat around a big table," Skorman said, "and ate Jocelyn's pizza."
'I miss her terribly'
Before Sandberg's brother, Tim, left Colorado Springs on Wednesday evening, he went through his sister's CD collection and picked a few. He put on one of her flannel shirts. He also found a treasure: "I unearthed a box of cassette tapes. She has in the past recorded some of her programs to self-critique and to improve her presentation. That's exactly what I wanted."
He wishes he had a recording of the service at Shove Chapel, so the rest of Jocelyn's brothers and sisters would understand how much she meant to so many in Colorado Springs. He hadn't realized it until after she was gone.
"I didn't know her as well as people here knew her," he said. "I feel kind of cheated because of that. I have big regrets that I didn't come here and visit with her when she was alive.
"I love my sister, and I miss her terribly."
That night, he drove out of town, toward Salt Lake, in an '89 red Geo Metro.

Sandberg Week - Keystone Cops

Police still puzzled by CC slaying

Springs cops ask for help in finding woman's killer


Date: April 28, 2002 Publication: The Gazette Author: Anslee Willett
An autopsy showed Jocelyn Sandberg died from multiple stab wounds to the chest, neck and head, but what led to her death on the Colorado College campus early Friday morning remains a mystery.

Police continued looking for the prime suspect, who reportedly had an altercation with Sandberg, 41, the operations manager for public radio station KRCC.

A composite sketch of the suspect may be released early this week, said Lt. Skip Arms of the Colorado Springs Police Department.

On Friday night, police canvassed "the entire downtown area" for anyone matching the suspect's description or for anyone who might recognize the description, Sgt. Ken Fiorillo said Saturday.

"We planted the seed we're looking for this person," Fiorillo said. "We need any help we can get."

The suspect was described as a white man in his early 20s to late 30s, 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall, and weighing 150 to 160 pounds.

He had short, dark brown hair and was clean shaven. He was wearing a long-sleeved light blue shirt and dark jeans and was carrying a small, dark-colored backpack or daypack.

Police said they are investigating three or four scenarios as to what led to Sandberg's death but declined to elaborate.

"We can't commit to any one because we just don't know," Fiorillo said.

Sandberg went to a concert with a friend out of town Thursday and returned early Friday, police said. The friend told police Sandberg got into an altercation with an unidentified man at Tejon and Dale streets, near Sandberg's home and a block from where she died.

Sandberg's friend told police she went to look for her and later called police when she couldn't find her.

A college maintenance worker found Sandberg about 4:25 a.m. Friday on a walkway at the southwest corner of Armstrong Hall near Cascade Avenue and Cache La Poudre Street. Police found evidence of a struggle where her body was found.

Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 634- STOP. Callers with information leading to an arrest may be rewarded as much as $1,000.

Copyright 2009 The Gazette



* * * * * * * * 



Cops still hunting CC killer

Sandberg's parents wait for answers


Date: May 24, 2002 Publication: The Gazette Author: Bill Vogrin
A month after public radio personality Jocelyn Sandberg was found stabbed to death on the Colorado College campus near downtown, Colorado Springs police are revisiting area nightclubs looking for leads.

Her parents say authorities are pursuing new theories after originally targeting a single man reportedly seen arguing with Sandberg shortly before her death.

"My husband called (Springs police) this morning," Evalyn Sandberg said Thursday from the couple's home in Salt Lake City. "They don't have anything new."

The lead detective in the case did not return phone calls Thursday.

Police told the Sandbergs they are actively investigating the stabbing death of their 41-year-old daughter, who was an on-air personality and operations manager at KRCC.

"They said they were going to do the rounds of the bars (Thursday night), as they have done in prior times," Evalyn said.

Sandberg's body was found April 26 on a sidewalk outside Armstrong Hall on campus. Authorities said she was stabbed in the face, neck and chest.

It's unclear what led to her stabbing death just a few blocks from her Dale Street apartment.

No arrests have been made, and police are saying little about the investigation.

"We are frustrated," Evalyn said. "It's interesting it has taken so long and there are no apprehensions. They ought to consider more than one theory. We told them they should, and they reassured us they were pursuing more than one theory."

The night before her body was found, Sandberg and a friend had driven to Boulder to see a concert.

The friend told police she and Sandberg returned late to Colorado Springs. Sandberg apparently left the car and got into an argument with a man near her apartment, the friend told police.

The friend stayed in the car while Sandberg and the man walked out of sight. The friend then walked into Sandberg's apartment to get a dog and went to look for her. When she was unable to find Sandberg, the friend called police.

About 3:30 a.m., a neighbor heard four screams that awakened him. He described the screams as one loud shout followed by three quieter ones. He didn't hear any more commotion and assumed it was loud college kids.

About an hour later, a college maintenance worker found Sandberg's body.

Police said there was evidence of a struggle.

The El Paso County Coroner's Office said Sandberg died from multiple stab wounds to the neck, chest and head. The autopsy report has not been released.

Shortly after the killing, police said they were looking for a white man in his early 20s to late 30s, 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall and 150 to 180 pounds. They say he had short, dark brown hair, was clean shaven and wore a long-sleeved light blue shirt, dark jeans and carried a dark backpack.

Police circulated sketches of two men's faces considered possible witnesses and wanted for questioning.

Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 634- STOP.


Copyright 2009 The Gazette
 


** ** ** ** ** ** ** **





Sandberg case stays open/

No suspect in killing after 2 months





Publication:The Gazette 


Publish date:June 29, 2002 


Author:Cary Leider Vogrin





Keep talking about Jocelyn.


That was the parting message from Police Chief Luis Velez to Jocelyn Sandberg's friends, who learned Friday detectives have no prime suspect in Sandberg's homicide.
"Keep her name out there," Velez said to the group gathered in the back room at Poor Richard's restaurant, where Sandberg worked on and off for many years. "Keep talking it up to everyone you come in contact with."
Sandberg, a personality on public radio station KRCC, was found stabbed to death early April 26 near Armstrong Hall on the Colorado College campus.
"Today makes two months and two days since Jocelyn was found," Velez said. "There will be a day when we'll all have a smile on our face. At this moment, I don't have that kind of news."
This was the second update Velez has given Sandberg's friends. One came from Massachusetts to hear what the chief had to say.
Velez said detectives have looked at and cleared people in Sandberg's death, including the friend she was with in the hours before her murder.
Sandberg, 41, was killed shortly after she and the friend returned to Colorado Springs from Boulder, where they attended a concert. The two were near Sandberg's Dale Street apartment when an altercation occurred between Sandberg and her assailant.
Velez said there are witnesses in the case. He wouldn't say if any of these witnesses actually saw the crime occur. "We have witnesses. Let me leave it at that," he told the group, who came ready with questions.
One wanted to know whether police considered using hypnotherapy on witnesses to get more details about the attacker. Velez said he wasn't sure that angle was discussed but that any investigative tactic would have to stand up in a courtroom.
Velez and homicide detective Richard Gysin, answered other questions:
No, they don't believe there was more than one attacker, they said. Yes, they have checked and ruled out links to other recent homicides, including the stabbing deaths this month of two homeless people south of downtown.
Gysin and Velez said investigators have canvassed the college area. On any murder, Velez said, it comes down to detectives knocking on doors and talking to people.
They're checking out transients, people who live in the area, employers and employees. They've even got the roster of the college's student body.
"Overwhelmingly, to the tune of nine out of 10, we come up with a suspect," Velez said.
Although Velez said cases have a better chance of being solved within 72 hours of the crime, "two months and two days in our timetable is not a long time."
Some of the 20 or so friends gathered for the briefing said although they received little new information, it was heartening to hear the police chief and a detective say they're committed to solving the case.
"I think it's important to touch base and get their reassurance," friend Cris Stoddard said.
After Sandberg's death, hundreds turned out for a memorial service at Shove Chapel at Colorado College. Some attending knew her well. Others knew her only as a voice on KRCC, where she was operations manager.
Wednesday, the two-month anniversary of her death, Sandberg's family, including her eight brothers and sisters, gathered at her parents' Salt Lake City home and held a private service. Her mother, Evalyn, said in a phone interview Friday it was the first time in eight years the family has come together.
Is she frustrated no arrests have been made?
"Not really because we see these things happening throughout the nation. Many, many times the case doesn't get closed satisfactorily," she said. "We're not vengeful people, and nothing is going to return her to us."
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 





CC killing among city's few unsolved cases

Sandberg's friends, family wait for answers






Publication:


The Gazette 


Publish date:


April 26, 2003
 
Author:


DEEDEE CORRELL



Jocelyn Sandberg's killing wasn't going to be solved overnight, Colorado Springs Police Chief Luis Velez said.
Meeting with Sandberg's friends and family two months after the fatal stabbing April 26, 2002, Velez told them it was a tough case but one time eventually would solve.
One year has passed, and the killing of the 41-year-old KRCC radio station operations manager near Armstrong Hall at Colorado College remains unsolved. It is one of six unsolved cases from 2002.
Colorado Springs police closed the other 21 homicide cases last year.
Of all crimes investigated by the Police Department, homicides have the highest clearance rate at nearly 80 percent. A case is cleared when a suspect is arrested or police determine no crime was committed.
The El Paso County Sheriff's Office investigated nine homicide cases involving 12 victims last year. Its clearance rate hit 100 percent when detectives arrested two men earlier this month in the December shooting death of Guy Kelley in Security.
The Police Department and Sheriff's Office have clearance rates significantly higher than the national average of 62.4 percent, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's 2001 report. Data is not available for 2002.
Only one homicide the Sheriff's Office has investigated since 1995 remains unsolved - the 2001 death of Ricky Espinoza, whose body was found in a landfill east of Fountain, sheriff's Investigations Cmdr. Joe Breister said. Deaths such as Espinoza's in which the body is removed from where the crime occurred are more difficult. Investigators must first determine where the person died and sometimes who they are before they can set about collecting the evidence that might land a suspect behind bars.
"Instead of going to look for suspects, you have to find out who is our victim and where did the crime occur? " Breister said.
It took detectives days to identify Espinoza, but they still don't know where he was killed.
"Here it is, approaching two years, and we have yet to find the crime scene," Breister said.
Crimes involving strangers who randomly select their victims are more difficult to clear, Colorado Springs police Lt. Skip Arms said.
That's especially true when there are no witnesses or other avenues to trace back to the killer. And physical evidence isn't necessarily the linchpin people think it is, Arms said.
"If you're dealing with somebody who's never had testing done, it's not going to give you anything," he said.
But most cases here are ones in which the victim has a connection to the killer, Arms said.
Local law enforcement agencies reported higher clearance rates on sex assault cases last year than other departments nationwide in 2001, the most recent year for which data is available. The nationwide average was 44.3 percent, compared with 48.4 percent for Colorado Springs police and 78 percent for the Sheriff's Office.
Clearance rates for property crimes tend to be lower than for violent crimes, partly because police have fewer resources for investigating them, Arms said.
In 2002, police investigated 4,063 burglaries and cleared 14.6 percent. The Sheriff's Office cleared 17 percent of the 755 burglaries it investigated last year.
"A detective responsible for working 20 to 30 to 40 burglaries a month is not going to be able to put the same emphasis as when two to three detectives are working one homicide case," Arms said. "If we had unlimited resources, more cases could be worked."
Another factor is that burglars often leave little evidence, Breister said.
"On a homicide or sexual assault, you've got DNA, blood, saliva, hair," he said. "On a burglary, someone's kicking in the door. We may get a size 10 footprint, and we can track it down to being a Nike tennis shoe. It's not a fingerprint."
Clearance rates don't mean much to Delaney Utterback, a close friend of Sandberg, who knows clearing a case can't clear the pain.
"I'd like to see some type of resolution, but nothing in me is relying on that to fix having to cope with her being dead," Utterback said.
Others, including Sandberg's mother, Evalyn, who lives in Salt Lake City, share that feeling.
"We felt her loss intensely. But there wasn't bitterness or hysteria or a wish for vengeance," she said.
"But for the sake of justice and avoiding the same prospect for someone else, that person should be found and stopped." She said she trusts Colorado Springs police are doing everything they can.
"I can look back and see they knew what they were doing and were acting in a professional way," she said.
Going through her daughter's belongings and taking care of her financial matters this past year taught her about the woman her daughter became, she said.
"She was an orderly record keeper and honest payer of her bills. She was generous and free with her money," she said. "I see these things as an outgrowth of the sunny, little personality when she was growing up. Life was good for her."
KRCC honored Sandberg on Friday, the anniversary of her last full day alive, with her favorite songs.
"The 25th was a wonderful, joyous day with her, the end of our fund drive," Utterback said. "It's a day we want to remember."
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0285 or dcorrell@gazette.com


Sketches rereleased in unsolved death of DJ






Publication:



The Gazette 

Publish date:



January 9, 2004
 
Author:



DEEDEE CORRELL



Jocelyn Sandberg died nearly two years ago, and the only clues police have today are what they had at the beginning a single strand of hair and sketches of two suspects.
Colorado Springs detectives released those sketches again Thursday, trying to jog someone's memory and drum up some leads.
"We're hoping someone sees it, maybe someone who's holding back, and that they'd be willing to say, 'I know something,'" detective David Edmonson said.
Sandberg, a popular disc jockey with the KRCC radio station, was found stabbed to death April 26, 2002, outside Armstrong Hall on the Colorado College campus.
Sandberg, 41, and a friend had returned from a concert in Boulder between 2 and 3 a.m. when the friend said Sandberg got into an argument with a man near her Dale Street apartment.
About 3:30 a.m., a neighbor heard four screams that awakened him. An hour later, a college maintenance worker found Sandberg, stabbed in the neck, chest and head.
The friend described the man who argued with Sandberg as white, clean-shaven, about 5 feet 8 inches, between 150 and 180 pounds, with medium-length brown hair in his late 20s to early 30s. He is depicted as Suspect No. 2 in the sketches.
Another witness who saw a man running from the area described a man in a baseball cap, Suspect No. 1 in the sketches.
Anyone with information about the homicide is asked to call Edmondson at 444-7673, or remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at 634-STOP. Anyone calling Crime Stoppers with information leading to an arrest could earn a cash reward of as much as $1,000. 
SUSPECT ONE SUSPECT TWO