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
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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
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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."
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CC killing among city's few unsolved cases
Sandberg's friends, family wait for answers
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
Copyright 2009 The Gazette.
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Sketches rereleased in unsolved death of DJ
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.
Copyright 2009 The Gazette.
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