GUILTY CO - Nanine Grimes, 15, murdered, Adams County, 4 Sept 1980

mysteriew

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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
 
A 15-year-old girl's efforts to defend herself against her attacker 25 years ago may have led police to her murderer.

Nanine Grimes was stabbed more than 80 times.

Adams County sheriff's officials say they've arrested 42-year-old Troy Brownlow who is linked to slaying of Nanine Grimes through DNA evidence from blood samples taken from the original crime scene.

An arrest affidavit says Grimes was found dead in a bedroom of her Adams County home in September 1980. She tried fighting off her attacker as she was stabbed 80 times.

"This is one of the most horrendous crime scenes I'd ever seen," said Doug Darr, the Adams County sheriff. "It's one of those things that haunt you over time."

Brownlow's DNA profile was put into a national database after his release from an Arizona prison last year.

A match was found when the Colorado Bureau of Investigations retested blood samples collected shortly after the murder. Brownlow was arrested last week in Tucson, Ariz. He was a one-time neighbor of Grimes.

Although he was a juvenile when the crime occurred, Brownlow will be tried as an adult on first-degree murder charges, according to Adams County District Attorney Don Quick.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/4392624/detail.html
 
mysteriew said:
A 15-year-old girl's efforts to defend herself against her attacker 25 years ago may have led police to her murderer.
Nanine Grimes was stabbed more than 80 times. ....

Although he was a juvenile when the crime occurred, Brownlow will be tried as an adult on first-degree murder charges, according to Adams County District Attorney Don Quick.
It never ceases to amaze me when Defense Lawyers try to get a carreer criminal charged as a "juvenile" years after a brutal murder. It is like saying, "Sure he butchered the little girl, but hey, he was just a kid back then." And it amazes me that newspapers mention it, and that any court would even consider it seriously.

The way that I see it is that the murderer (no matter what age he was at the time) has known all these MANY years who murdered the girl, and he has FAILED to come forward in all that time. The day before he became an adult (agewise) was the last day that he could have turned himself in and stood trial as a "juvenile". But, he continued to keep the secret of who killed the girl until he is caught by DNA evidence, and now the "juvenile" debate begins. At least in this case, he will be tried as an adult, but so often our legal system seems to be standing on its head.

The Prosecutors will have to be very careful in trying this case, so that they don't include ANY subsequent misconduct in either the trial or sentencing phase, or it will be ruled "prejudicial" by an appeal court and the verdict or sentence overturned. This will allow the Defense to claim that the accused was a poor misguided youth in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that he had "no prior" criminal record.
 
I missed why he was in prison in AZ... was it for murder?

That DNA database is something else!
 
What a psychopath! To have the nerve to talk to the sister, knowing that he had killed her, and obviously he kept his cool the whole time as well. very scary!

And she moved away from colordao to get away from the "monster" and he ended up in the same state??

is that just a strange coincidence?

Sharon
 
A man charged with killing an Adams County teenager 25 years ago told a friend in a jailhouse phone call that he walked in on the murder but was unable to stop it, according to court testimony Friday.

Troy Brownlow, 40, was charged in April with murdering 15-year-old Nanine Grimes, whose gruesome death had confounded investigators for nearly a quarter-century.

Brownlow was arrested in Tucson, Ariz., after a routine DNA sample he submitted to Arizona prison officials in 2004 matched blood samples taken from the crime scene. Those samples had recently been entered into a national DNA evidence database.

http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3899099,00.html
 
mysteriew said:
A man charged with killing an Adams County teenager 25 years ago told a friend in a jailhouse phone call that he walked in on the murder but was unable to stop it, according to court testimony Friday.
He just happened to walk in on a murder, couldn't stop it, so he just left and didn't think it was important enough to mention. It seems to have just slipped his mind until now!

Well, that explains it all so clearly. Off with you, then!
 
Richard said:
He just happened to walk in on a murder, couldn't stop it, so he just left and didn't think it was important enough to mention. It seems to have just slipped his mind until now!

Well, that explains it all so clearly. Off with you, then!

LOL, Don't shoot the poster!
 
mysteriew said:
LOL, Don't shoot the poster!
No shots at you! Although, I would not mind taking a few at some of the idiots who commit these kinds of crimes, finally get caught, and expect the world to believe their BS excuses. And a few shots at the lawyers who play legal games are in order as well.
 
If you want to get to the bottom of this then find someone named Mike Detrick (not 100% on the spelling) somewhere possibly still in Colorado. Mike should be between 40 – 45 years old.


Mike Detrick, Mike Steel and myself where all roommates back in Sept of 1980, and lived just a mile from where Nanine was killed. Mike was maybe 18 – 19 years old and saw the entire attack though a vision. Yes I said vision. But before you dismiss this as a bunch of BS, keep in mind that Mike knew enough details that day to get the Police Detectives to our house within minutes of our phone call. I’m sure they thought that Mike was involved since none of the facts that he knew of the crime were released to the public at that time. Including the EXACT amount of times Nanine was stabbed. When I say none of the details I mean they didn’t even disclose that someone had been killed at that time.



Believe what you want but most of you know that psychics have been called in on a many of cases throughout the years. So there must be something however small it is to using them? Trust me if I was you reading this I wouldn’t believe it either as I’m still pretty skeptical of so called “Psychics” myself (after all if they could see all this then why not just play the lottery and retire instead of answering phones all day?) but I’m not reading this I lived it some 25 years ago. Then when I ran across the article that after all this time they think they found the killer it was like stepping back in time. The only problem is I’ve lost contact with both Mikes and don’t know where to know with what little I know from a very strange angle of the case?



Anyway, Mike really made a believer out of all of us. After several other predictions and premonitions he had relayed to us, all of which came true and made us start thinking, Well one day Mike started telling us about a girl who (Nanine) who had been stabbed and I believe it was 87 times? Mike told us this long before the papers ever found out. So we had no confirmation that anyone was even killed. Let alone stabbed or stabbed that many times.? All we had to go on was Mikes past track record so we convinced him to call the police immediately after he told us. Who like I said was out in a matter of minutes to our house. The detectives talked to each of us and then to Mike for close to two hours before leaving.



Being some 25 years ago, and my memory not what it was I don’t have much more then that. Other then Bell Roth Park just off of 88th Street in Federal Heights should be searched very closely. I know he passed this on to the authorities but I’m not sure if they found anything such as the murder weapon. If not then I would bet this is where it still could be found.



That’s all I’m really going to say for now seeing that I’m sure most of you have discarded me as some kind of nut case trying to connect to such a horrible event in a young girls short life.
 
Welcome to WS Grey! Did you or your friends know the victim or any of the suspects? Did the story your friend told, match up with the info now coming out? Do you iknow if Mike maintained contact with the LE?
Did you go to school with Miike? If so, you might sign up for classmates.com and reunion.com and do searches for him.
I also knew someone who was very good at predicting catastrophic events- even down to details, but his were usually about family or friends. They also disturbed him quite a bit.
 
Thanks for the welcome and for not blasting me as some kind of crazy man.

I hesitated to even mention it. I went about my business thinking nothing more of the whole ordeal other then it being a story that I’ve told for years. Then when it hit the papers again, I started to remember more of the details that Mike had told us which didn’t make sense to us at the time. All of his “visions” were like peaces of a puzzle more then a start to finish (movie) kind of thing. And a lot of times it wouldn’t make sense until it would actually happen. Mike saw things both Past and Future. One vision was an accident that happened to me one day and was told to the other Mike while I was out actually getting into the accident. Another concerned the other Mike which happened that day before Detrick could tell him but had told me. So most of his premonitions where easily verified. That’s what got us believing his stories. Trust me at first we where discarding them as BS.

To answer your questions,
I don’t think any of us knew Nanine or Troy. They were about 3 years younger then us and ran in the high school crowd I image.

And as far as the details they are a bit scratchy but as it turns out they ended up very much related.

One thing I remember the detectives drilled him on was the attacker. Mike couldn’t see the attacker’s face and the only frontal view he ever had, there was no face just a dark shadowy image in a hood? But I will say this, there was only ONE attacker or person present when she was attacked. So Troy’s story of walking in on the attack I don’t believe for a moment. Mike would have seen if there were two and said something I’m sure.

He saw more of Nanine and described her to us right down to every detail I remember. He had a hard time dealing with the images of her being killed for some time after. Mike described the knife as a kitchen knife if I remember right, but as far as the water from the water bed goes, he couldn’t make any sense of what he was seeing so he didn’t really explore that part of the vision.

One thing that really sticks in my mind that hasn’t been disclosed is what Mike saw at Bell Roth Park. Actually it was behind the old Foxfire Apartments now called “Parkview Terrace” on Milky Way Drive which is next door to the park.
http://www.skylineadvantage.com/pages/parkview_files/ParkView1.jpg
Without a doubt, something happened there and I suspect that is where Troy went to after the attack. The park does have a small stream or drainage ditch that runs through it so maybe he washed up there or got rid of the weapon in that spot. That location is maybe 4 blocks from Nanine’s house. I feel very strongly that they should take another look in that area.



I haven’t seen either Mike since 1982.
I know that Detrick had a couple more contacts with the detectives (by their request) after the initial contact with them, but I don’t know if he contacted them after the story broke or is letting it slide.

I tried to find either one of them through the Internet but haven’t had much luck. I know that Mike Steel came from a small town in the Colorado Rockies where his parents lived but have no idea if Detrick was from around there or not?
 
Troy Brownlow was just 16 in 1980, but his blood was all over a gruesome murder scene, a prosecutor said Tuesday, pointing three times to the now 41-year-old man and saying, "He is the murderer."

But Brownlow's lawyer told jurors the old, cold case is a classic "whodunit" and that her client already had a bloody hand when he entered 15-year-old Nanine Grimes' house and encountered "a tough biker type."

"He's the real killer," defense attorney Mary Mulligan said, referring to the older man Brownlow says was there. "Those were the actions of a cold-blooded psychopath, not of a frightened 16-year-old kid."

On the night of Sept. 4, 1980, Deanna Grimes came home, walked into her room and saw her younger sister lying in a pool of blood on her waterbed. She'd been stabbed more than 80 times.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4755384,00.html
 
Troy Brownlow was just 16 in 1980, but his blood was all over a gruesome murder scene, a prosecutor said Tuesday, pointing three times to the now 41-year-old man and saying, "He is the murderer."

But Brownlow's lawyer told jurors the old, cold case is a classic "whodunit" and that her client already had a bloody hand when he entered 15-year-old Nanine Grimes' house and encountered "a tough biker type."

"He's the real killer," defense attorney Mary Mulligan said, referring to the older man Brownlow says was there. "Those were the actions of a cold-blooded psychopath, not of a frightened 16-year-old kid."

On the night of Sept. 4, 1980, Deanna Grimes came home, walked into her room and saw her younger sister lying in a pool of blood on her waterbed. She'd been stabbed more than 80 times.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4755384,00.html
 
Very interesting, I'd like to read more about this one. Thanks for posting the story link.
 
An Adams County jury has convicted a man in a gruesome murder that dates back 26 years.

It was 1980 when 15-year-old Nanine Grimes was found stabbed more than 80 times in her Adams County home. Now, Troy Brownlow will spend the rest of his life in prison for the crime.

The jury on Tuesday convicted Brownlow of first-degree murder in the Sept. 12, 1980, killing of Grimes, who was found by her older sister. "It's the best day ever," said the sister, Deanna Davis. "We finally have justice. That's all we ever wanted."

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3934175
 
An Adams County jury has convicted a man in a gruesome murder that dates back 26 years.

It was 1980 when 15-year-old Nanine Grimes was found stabbed more than 80 times in her Adams County home. Now, Troy Brownlow will spend the rest of his life in prison for the crime.

The jury on Tuesday convicted Brownlow of first-degree murder in the Sept. 12, 1980, killing of Grimes, who was found by her older sister. "It's the best day ever," said the sister, Deanna Davis. "We finally have justice. That's all we ever wanted."

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3934175
 
but thank God for the advances in DNA and forensics!!

Can you imagine the weight of grief that was lifted from this girl's family?

How these people with missing loved ones and unsolved murders get up and face everyday is beyond me. I think it is absolutely HUGE when something this cold gets resolved.

And, KUDOS to the investigators that never forgot and kept looking for her murderer!!
 
For those interested:

Trow Brownlow served time in prison in Arizona for theft. The date of the offense was 11/1/2000, it was a Class 4 felony and the sentence length was three years. He was released 2/21/2004 and supervision was terminated on 10/21/2004.

You can view the info throught the inmate datasearch feature at the below site.

www.azcorrections.gov
 

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