CO CO - Beverly England, 32, Salida, 12 June 1980

Over the years the hope, especially around the anniversary of her disappearance, was that her body might be discovered and bring closure to her family, but so far that hasn’t happened. That hope remains and with the advent of the new technology and a cold case investigator, it is even stronger.

Beverly England was described by friends as a quiet young woman who enjoyed her hobby of making and furnishing Victorian dollhouses. She had worked as a waitress and as a bookkeeper. Her last job was at the Homestake Mine.

“It wasn’t like her to leave her children,” Smith said in a 1997 interview. “She loved her kids. The night before we had talked about buying material to make school clothes for Bricia, who was starting kindergarten in the fall.”

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Bones confirmed to be missing Salida woman who disappeared in 1980
Beverly England's bones were found in the Mount Shavano area in 1992

Through advanced DNA technology, law enforcement was able to determine last month that bones found in 1992 matched England's DNA.

Salida Police Department and the Chaffee County Sheriff's Office have reopened the investigation, and the site near the bones is now being excavated for evidence.

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AllisonS said:

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_28930697/bones-confirmed-be-missing-salida-woman-who-disappeared

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On June 12, the newspaper reports, Salida was preparing for an annual whitewater festival called FIBArk — and with the Arkansas River running at the highest point recorded up until that time, flooding concerns were on everyone's mind.

England, meanwhile, asked a friend to watch her kids — Bricia, five, and Cayl, eight — for a couple of hours that morning so that she could meet a woman not named in the Mail piece.

This request didn't seem unusual, but England's tardiness was. When she hadn't returned by 4 p.m., her husband, Dale, picked up the kids. A few hours later, he set out looking for Beverly and found her car abandoned at a nearby park, with her shoes and purse inside.

At first, it was feared that England had drowned. As noted, the river was about to burst its banks, and she couldn't swim. But searches of the river and the surrounding areas proved fruitless, and the woman with whom England met that morning was cleared by authorities.

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She also was having an affair with a man whose wife was pregnant, according to Leonard Post, who was at the time the chief of the Salida Police Department.

England told the friend that she was going to meet with her lover’s wife at Riverside Park.

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England had some “personal issues” to discuss with the woman, Post said. He declined to name the woman, who was pregnant.

“There was a meeting between these two ladies about this affair,” Post said.

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After learning about the confrontation between England and the pregnant woman, a police officer went to the pregnant woman’s house to ask her whether she had met with England earlier in the day.

The woman had injuries on her body.

“There was evidence of aggressiveness. We don’t know if it was a fight or self injury,” Post said.

But the woman declined to speak with police. She requested legal counsel, he said.

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The pregnant woman who met with England moved out of town.

“Dale England was cleared. But the pregnant woman was not cleared at all,” Post said.

The woman and her husband were and remain persons of interest in the disappearance, he said.

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One thing the identification of England’s bones proved conclusively was that she hadn’t accidentally fallen into the river and drowned.

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“There was evidence of aggressiveness. We don’t know if it was a fight or self injury,” Post said.

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One thing the identification of England’s bones proved conclusively was that she hadn’t accidentally fallen into the river and drowned.

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The 1980 disappearance of Beverly England in the mountain town of Salida is one of Colorado’s oldest mysteries. But FOX31 has learned there’s new hope her case might finally be solved.

“I’d say we’re very confident we know what happened and we’re very confident we know who did it," Chaffee County Sheriff John Spezze said.

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Spezze said the DNA identification of Beverly England has allowed detectives to reopen a 35-year-old murder case.

“Just luckily somebody stumbled on them and found them and gave us the opportunity to do what we're doing now," he said.

Investigators went back to the scene in October, where England’s remains were first found in 1992, and said they have uncovered new evidence. It’s being tested and depending on the results, Spezze and Clark said an arrest could still be made.

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Sheriff John Speeze confirmed the suspect has been identified but are not releasing that person’s name. He did say the suspect lives in the San Luis Valley.

Speeze says they have also discovered a vehicle that possibly holds key DNA evidence linking their suspect to the murder decades ago.

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