CO CO - Tim Watkins, 61, shot to death, Mount Herman, 14 Sept 2017 #3
- Thread starter Sillybilly
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Arlene never even knew tim. She’d do anything to get on camera.
The area that was blocked off is no longer blocked off. No word on what they are looking for around here
That's curious - as if they were looking for something specific.
And what did they find?
And wasn’t a judge supposed to rule on a sealed arrest warrant today?
Are you aware if they brought in a dog for this search?
I don’t know.
The thread that was started on Nextdoor was closed by the mods of Nextdoor, and the information sharing stopped there.
cathdawg
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I find this case maddening..no one in the Community has really rallied...it saddens me.. I have given up on the press...I sent a tweet to Lance Benzel the other day..."Hi, Lance any news on Tim"? "Has the Judge decided to allow the autopsy report to be opened" ...zip, no response.
Maybe it's because everyone is being kept in the dark? I saw a recent article that made me wonder if TW's case is among those suppressed by judges. Apparently the Denver Post did some investigating and it's a pronounced practice in CO. Very long article, some snippets below:
The Denver Post began investigating suppressed cases in Colorado nearly a year ago after reporters were denied access to records and expressed concern about the practice.
"Thousands of court cases across Colorado – hundreds of them involving violent felonies – are hidden from public view, concealed behind judges’ orders that can remain in effect for years, The Denver Post has found."
In every suppressed case, the Post found, the judge’s suppression order and the reasons supporting it are shielded from public scrutiny. Courthouse employees and many law enforcement officials, including prosecutors, will not even acknowledge the suppressed cases exist, the Post found.
“This sounds like the Star Chamber to me,” said Alan Chen, a constitutional law professor at University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law, referring to the 15th-century English court chastised for arbitrary rulings and secret proceedings. “Colorado is one of the worst states in terms of access to criminal court records for reasons I really have no explanation for. I’ve not heard of this being practiced anywhere else in the country. It’s frightening that if anything improper is going on, no one will know about it or have any way to find out.”
Although courtrooms remain open to the public, including hearings for suppressed cases, the only way to know when a hearing is to occur is to be there when it is scheduled. A Denver Post reporter happened to attend one hearing in which a murder suspect pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and no public record of the event existed. The only way to learn the defendant’s name was to be there when the judge announced it.
Source:
Friday, July 20, 2018
Thousands of Colorado court cases hidden from public view
This is scary.
There is an ongoing Search & Rescue for a missing man in Mt. Herman. KRDO NewsChannel 13 / KRDO.com
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Oh, no... it's all too familiar. Earnestly hoping they find this young man alright.
"He left to go hiking Sunday morning and was expected to return Sunday night.
"He did not return any cell phone calls, it was turned off, he did not return texts, he did not come home, he did not come home again this morning," Melissa Reynolds, Rudinicki's mother said.
His family says he knows the trails well and has hiked in the area for years."
His family said a former teacher spotted Rudinicki on Raspberry Mountain Sunday morning but no one has seen him since.
El Paso County Search and Rescue looking for missing hiker near Mount Herman
Someone made a WS thread for him:
CO - CO- Kevin Rudnicki, 20, Mount Herman, 3 September 2018 *Hiker*
CO - CO- Kevin Rudnicki, 20, Mount Herman, 3 September 2018 *Hiker*
Just to clarify for non-locals, there are two Raspberry Mountains not far from each other. One near Divide in Teller County (not the one in this instance) and this one adjacent to Mt Herman in El Paso County.
At the link below are quite a few pics and a map showing Raspberry Mtn Trail #716. TW was found near the mouth of Limbaugh Canyon Trail #715. Both trail heads are very near each other on Mt Herman Rd. Pic #15 of 16 shows where Raspberry Mtn Trail #716 ends and one can either turn back or pick up Limbaugh Canyon Trail #715.
Located west of Monument and south of Palmer Lake, Raspberry Mountain is a broad, wide peak next to Mt. Herman. It suffers an identity crisis, overshadowed by its more popular neighbor, Mt Herman, and sharing the exact same name of a peak near Divide in Teller County
Hiking Raspberry Mountain
At the link below are quite a few pics and a map showing Raspberry Mtn Trail #716. TW was found near the mouth of Limbaugh Canyon Trail #715. Both trail heads are very near each other on Mt Herman Rd. Pic #15 of 16 shows where Raspberry Mtn Trail #716 ends and one can either turn back or pick up Limbaugh Canyon Trail #715.
Located west of Monument and south of Palmer Lake, Raspberry Mountain is a broad, wide peak next to Mt. Herman. It suffers an identity crisis, overshadowed by its more popular neighbor, Mt Herman, and sharing the exact same name of a peak near Divide in Teller County
Hiking Raspberry Mountain
YESorNO
The Queen (aka "mrsmuir") SWBB
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Murder on a Mountain Bike
When 60-year-old Tim Watkins disappeared on a stretch of singletrack outside Colorado Springs, no one suspected that the truth of how he died would rip the community apart
Nov 25, 2018
"Around 10 a.m. on Friday, September 15, 2017, Ginger Chase-Watkins called the Old Town Bike Shop in Colorado Springs looking for her husband, Tim Watkins. She hadn’t heard from him in more than 24 hours.
A bike mechanic and lifelong outdoorsman, Watkins was known to spend nights in the wild, something he had done since he was a boy in Palmer Lake, Colorado, the town where he and Ginger grew up and still lived. But lately he’d been sleeping in his car, often parked at a local trailhead, to escape the turmoil in his personal life....
Ginger reported Watkins missing after she called Old Town, and she posted information about his disappearance on social media the next morning. A local search party formed; around 2 p.m. on Saturday, a volunteer found a cycling shoe on the side of Mount Herman Road, three feet from an upright beer can and not far from the popular Limbaugh Canyon Trail. Ginger confirmed that it was her husband’s shoe—a size 42 Pearl Izumi. Years ago his feet had been disfigured in an accident, and he almost never took a step without his shoes on. She figured he couldn’t be far....
According to sources familiar with the investigation, Watkins had been shot in three places and buried beneath logs and branches in a shallow depression 40 yards west of the Limbaugh Canyon Trail. Bullets had grazed his ear and injured his hand; the likely fatal shot, from a .22 caliber, entered near his ribs and never exited. Closer examination of his front tire later revealed that it had also been shot. Watkins is the first mountain biker known to have been murdered during a ride....
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office won’t comment on its investigation into Watkins’s death, and any records about the case (which is still open) are not publicly available. Various theories have emerged about what happened. ..."
Murder on a Mountain Bike
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When 60-year-old Tim Watkins disappeared on a stretch of singletrack outside Colorado Springs, no one suspected that the truth of how he died would rip the community apart
Nov 25, 2018
"Around 10 a.m. on Friday, September 15, 2017, Ginger Chase-Watkins called the Old Town Bike Shop in Colorado Springs looking for her husband, Tim Watkins. She hadn’t heard from him in more than 24 hours.
A bike mechanic and lifelong outdoorsman, Watkins was known to spend nights in the wild, something he had done since he was a boy in Palmer Lake, Colorado, the town where he and Ginger grew up and still lived. But lately he’d been sleeping in his car, often parked at a local trailhead, to escape the turmoil in his personal life....
Ginger reported Watkins missing after she called Old Town, and she posted information about his disappearance on social media the next morning. A local search party formed; around 2 p.m. on Saturday, a volunteer found a cycling shoe on the side of Mount Herman Road, three feet from an upright beer can and not far from the popular Limbaugh Canyon Trail. Ginger confirmed that it was her husband’s shoe—a size 42 Pearl Izumi. Years ago his feet had been disfigured in an accident, and he almost never took a step without his shoes on. She figured he couldn’t be far....
According to sources familiar with the investigation, Watkins had been shot in three places and buried beneath logs and branches in a shallow depression 40 yards west of the Limbaugh Canyon Trail. Bullets had grazed his ear and injured his hand; the likely fatal shot, from a .22 caliber, entered near his ribs and never exited. Closer examination of his front tire later revealed that it had also been shot. Watkins is the first mountain biker known to have been murdered during a ride....
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office won’t comment on its investigation into Watkins’s death, and any records about the case (which is still open) are not publicly available. Various theories have emerged about what happened. ..."
Murder on a Mountain Bike
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ElementalLaura
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Great article. The author mentions how a case report on then-suspect DN was suppressed (BBM):
He was never named a suspect, and he was never cleared.
“Detectives told Watkins’s family that they had no evidence to link Nations to the murder scene: ballistics tests were inconclusive, meaning the bullet inside Watkins was too deformed to match its striations to the murder weapon, and DNA tests were also inconclusive, though it’s unclear whether Nations submitted DNA.”
Hence why they re-visited the murder site in August...the ballistics were inconclusive, so they hoped to recover the other two bullets, or any other strays that were ejected?
Authorities return to where mountain biker's body found in hunt for overlooked clues | Colorado Springs News | gazette.com
Thank you. I had been following Tim's case but there is a lot I have missed. I hope one day the truth of what happened will be revealed, and those responsible will be held accountable.