GUILTY CO - Kathleen Stetzel, 60, Grand Junction, 22 July 2014

Investigators in Mesa County are searching for a missing 60-year-old woman and say they "need" to speak with her son, according to the sheriff's office.

Kathleen Lynn Stetzel, 60, went missing from her Grand Junction home on the 700 block of 25 Road, the release said.

The Mesa County Sheriff's Office identified her son as Daniel John Stetzel, 31.

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The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office... announced Saturday that the body found in the desert north of Grand Junction on Thursday night is that of Kathleen Lynn Stetzel. Investigators have been searching for her 31-year-old son, Daniel Stetzel, since her disappearance and say they still want to talk to him about his mother.

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Investigators in Mesa County are searching for a parole escapee with a long criminal record for questioning in the disappearance and death of his mother, court papers and public safety records show. Daniel Stetzel, 31, is considered a person of interest in connection with the death of his mother, Kathleen Stetzel...

Daniel Stetzel, whose criminal record dates back to the summer of 2002, has been arrested 17 times in Colorado on charges including assault, possession of methamphetamine, robbery, and resisting arrest... Habitual offender charges against Daniel Stetzel in 2009 were dismissed by the district attorney's office, the records say.

An active felony escapee warrant against Daniel Stetzel — who had also violated parole in 2008 — issued on June 26 out of the Adams County court, remains outstanding, according to court documents. A spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections said Daniel Stetzel walked away from a drug and alcohol counseling-based halfway house.

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A parole escapee named a person of interest in the death and disappearance of his mother — a Mesa County woman — was arrested Monday by an officer from the Grand Junction Police Department.

Daniel Stetzel, 31, was taken into custody on "a warrant or warrants previously issued by other agencies," the Mesa County Sheriff's Office said in a news release...

Stetzel is being held in the Mesa County jail in lieu of $20,000 bond.

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Officials are continuing to investigate the death of a former Sioux City resident whose body was found in a Colorado desert...

Benjamin said no charges have been filed against Stetzel in connection with his mother's death. No suspects have been identified, she said.

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Daniel Stetzel, 31, faces second-degree murder charges in connection with the death of Kathleen Stetzel, 54, the Mesa County Sheriff's Office announced Wednesday.

Daniel Stetzel was charged Tuesday after he confessed to the killing on Monday, the office said.

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Court documents show 31-year-old Stetzel admitted to investigators that he stabbed his mother with a screwdriver twice during a fight. He then allegedly wrapped a bed sheet around her neck...

Also according to the documents, Stetzel told police the fight started when his mother yelled at him for taking a cigarette off a table. He claims the pair have been at odds since 2008 when he was sent to live in his mother's home after being paroled.

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Documents obtained by the CALL Investigators show the Department of Corrections did not search for an escaped felon, who is now back in custody after allegedly killing his mother.

Daniel Stetzel, a 5-time convicted felon, was an escapee from a halfway house for nearly one month before he was re-arrested.

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Daniel Stetzel was found to be incompetent after he was charged with second degree murder.

Stetzel was sent to the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo for an indefinite amount of time.

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A Grand Junction man accused of killing his mother last summer at her home and dumping her body in the desert off 25 Road has been found competent to proceed in his Mesa County criminal case.

Chief Mesa County Judge David Bottger on Thursday found in a ruling that 32-year-old Daniel Stetzel has been restored to competency after an evaluation and lengthy stay at the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo. Bottger last November ordered Stetzel admitted at the hospital after a state psychologist concluded Stetzel wasn’t fit to proceed.

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A Grand Junction man on Tuesday told a judge he hears strange voices “not as much” as he once did, then admitted he killed his mother in a rage over a cigarette.

Daniel Stetzel, 32, could be sentenced to anywhere from 16 to 48 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the death of 54-year-old Kathleen Stetzel, whose body was dumped in the desert off 25 Road before it was found by family members on July 24, 2014, two days after she was reported missing.

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In an ironic and tragic twist, friends and family of Daniel Stetzel said the man’s mother, Kathleen Stetzel, was one of several people who lobbied judges and others in the justice system to help find treatment instead of jail time for her mentally ill son.

On Monday, 32-year-old Daniel Stetzel sat in one of the same courtrooms and was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Monday for killing his mother.

“This is a particularity horrible crime. Mr. Stetzel, in apparently an argument over a cigarette, twice stabbed (his mother) in the throat. Then after she threatened to call law enforcement, he strangled her. Anyone who commits a crime of this magnitude deserves to go to prison for a significant time,” Mesa County Chief Judge David Bottger said in handing down the sentence.

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The Colorado Court of Appeals dismissed that appeal Thursday because Daniel John Stetzel waived his right to appeal when he admitted to killing his 54-year-old mother, Kathleen Stetzel, in 2014 and pleaded guilty to it.

"Defendant, who suffers from a mental illness, was represented by an attorney when he confessed and when he agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder," Judge James Casebolt wrote in the ruling, which was joined by Judges Daniel Taubman and Laurie Booras. "The court confirmed that defendant understood the elements of the plea and the rights he was giving up by pleading guilty."

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