mysteriew
04-17-2005, 05:58 PM
Deanna Grimes' gut told her that she would be next.
In 1989, she left Colorado, afraid of her sister's killer, who, at that time, had been on the loose nine years.
She moved to Arizona and changed her last name to Davis, all to hide from the man who butchered her 15-year-old sister, Nanine, on Sept. 4, 1980, in their Adams County home.
On Thursday night, nearly 25 years after she found her sister's body, the Adams County Sheriff's Office arrested a suspect - in Arizona.
Troy Mark Brownlow had gone to Thornton High School with the Grimes sisters. They lived two blocks apart and rode the same bus to school.
"I had expected a monster, someone with horns," Davis said Friday. "Anyone who can cut up a little girl into 86 pieces has to be a monster. I had known this boy since third grade."
Brownlow, 40, is being held at the Pima County Jail in Tucson, Ariz., on a fugitive warrant and $1 million bond. He faces charges of first-degree murder after deliberation. It's unclear when he will be brought back to Colorado.
The phone rang at Davis' home at 4:17 p.m. April 7. The news was almost unbelievable - after all of these years, authorities knew the identity of Nanine's killer.
Authorities linked Brownlow to the killing through blood DNA. When Brownlow walked out of an Arizona prison in February 2004 on burglary charges, he had to give a DNA sample.
When Colorado law enforcement began reviewing cold cases and ran evidence samples found at the 1980 crime scene through a national database, they got a hit.
Brownlow was the man, the database concluded.
"In this case, Brownlow's name never came up," said Adams County Capt. Fred Stoll, who's in charge of investigations.
The connection shocked authorities, and it stunned Davis, who chatted with Brownlow at her 10-year high school reunion.
"The whole time we were talking, he knew something I didn't," said Davis, who was 16 when her sister was killed.
http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3705537,00.html
In 1989, she left Colorado, afraid of her sister's killer, who, at that time, had been on the loose nine years.
She moved to Arizona and changed her last name to Davis, all to hide from the man who butchered her 15-year-old sister, Nanine, on Sept. 4, 1980, in their Adams County home.
On Thursday night, nearly 25 years after she found her sister's body, the Adams County Sheriff's Office arrested a suspect - in Arizona.
Troy Mark Brownlow had gone to Thornton High School with the Grimes sisters. They lived two blocks apart and rode the same bus to school.
"I had expected a monster, someone with horns," Davis said Friday. "Anyone who can cut up a little girl into 86 pieces has to be a monster. I had known this boy since third grade."
Brownlow, 40, is being held at the Pima County Jail in Tucson, Ariz., on a fugitive warrant and $1 million bond. He faces charges of first-degree murder after deliberation. It's unclear when he will be brought back to Colorado.
The phone rang at Davis' home at 4:17 p.m. April 7. The news was almost unbelievable - after all of these years, authorities knew the identity of Nanine's killer.
Authorities linked Brownlow to the killing through blood DNA. When Brownlow walked out of an Arizona prison in February 2004 on burglary charges, he had to give a DNA sample.
When Colorado law enforcement began reviewing cold cases and ran evidence samples found at the 1980 crime scene through a national database, they got a hit.
Brownlow was the man, the database concluded.
"In this case, Brownlow's name never came up," said Adams County Capt. Fred Stoll, who's in charge of investigations.
The connection shocked authorities, and it stunned Davis, who chatted with Brownlow at her 10-year high school reunion.
"The whole time we were talking, he knew something I didn't," said Davis, who was 16 when her sister was killed.
http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3705537,00.html