Phillip Lieurance, a 36-year-old man from Emporia, Kansas, will face one charge of second-degree murder and two charges of tampering with a dead body in the deaths of Linda Estrada, 44, and Amy Ford, 39, when he returns to Colorado, according to a Kiowa County arrest affidavit.

Lieurance is detained in the Lyons County Jail in Kansas on charges unrelated to the Colorado homicides, including vehicular assault and other traffic violations.

Kiowa County sheriff’s deputies issued an arrest warrant for Lieurance in connection with the deaths of the Kansas women after their remains were found by law enforcement in rural eastern Colorado on Sept. 20.

Lieurance told Kiowa County deputies that the two women had gotten into a fight in his vehicle while he was driving on Interstate 70, and he pulled off the road when it escalated to punches being thrown, the affidavit stated.

According to the affidavit, Lieurance told Kiowa County deputies that the two women got out of the truck and Ford picked up a rock and hit Estrada in the head with it. Lieurance claimed that he ran into Ford with his truck to try and break up the fight, hitting her with the front driver’s side of the vehicle.

Lieurance then moved the two bodies to a remote area to hide them from law enforcement, the arrest affidavit stated.

The two women were reported missing in Kansas on Sept. 11, and on Sept. 16, Kansas officials reached out to the Kiowa County Sheriff’s Office to open up a multi-state missing persons investigation.

Lieurance had been arrested returning to Emporia on Sept. 10 when he intentionally rammed into multiple cars on the road and was taken into custody by the Lyons County Sheriff’s Office in Kansas, according to the arrest affidavit.

When Emporia officers towed Lieurance’s car after his arrest, they noticed what looked like blood stains on the center console, passenger seat and rear area of the car, the arrest affidavit stated.

After finding knives, needles and two cellphones in the car, Kansas officials were worried Lieurance had dumped the women’s bodies and traced the phones’ movement back to Kiowa County using cellular data and security videos, according to the affidavit.

According to a search warrant from the Emporia Police Department, Ford called 911 from a gas station in Denver, claiming that Lieurance had made threats to kill her and Estrada, and threatened them with a knife. By the time Denver police arrived, Ford was gone.

Investigators from the Kiowa County Sheriff’s Office also noted a hang-up 911 call that the sheriff’s office received Sept. 10 in the arrest affidavit. During the initial call, dispatchers could hear a female voice saying something about 911 and screaming in distress.

According to the affidavit, when the phone call disconnected, a 911 dispatcher attempted to call the number back, but a male voice answered. He claimed everything was fine, but refused to give a name or address before hanging up. Dispatchers were unable to reach anyone at that number again.

Lieurance confessed to at least one homicide during a Sept. 18 interview with Kansas officers, telling police they would find the bodies southwest of Eads next to a cow pond, the arrest affidavit stated.

The following morning, Deputy Avery Snover with the Kiowa County Sheriff’s Office gathered a search party to begin looking for the two women in the area Lieurance described, but deputies were unable to find anything, according to the affidavit. Later that day, Lieurance told Emporia detectives that he wanted to voluntarily show Colorado law enforcement where the bodies were.

On Sept. 20, Lieurance arrived in Colorado under a police escort and led officers to the women’s bodies.

Lieurance has not been officially charged by the 15th Judicial District Attorney’s Office in Colorado as the case remains under investigation, a spokesperson for the department said Monday. He is awaiting a Jan. 19 sentencing hearing for his charges in Kansas.

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Susan Baffour, a 63-year-old woman from Denver, pleaded guilty to two counts of child abuse, a Class 2 Felony, on Oct. 16 — a plea deal that dropped the charge of first-degree murder from her case, according to the district court case file.

On Nov. 27, Denver District Judge Alex Myers sentenced Baffour to 36 years in prison, 5 years of mandatory parole and $1,928.50 in monetary fines. Myers could have sentenced Baffour to a maximum 48 years in prison.

“Dametrious Wilson’s death was a terrible tragedy for his family and friends and for the entire City of Denver,” District Attorney Beth McCann said in an emailed statement. “This sentence all but ensures that Susan Baffour will never be able to hurt anyone again. I want to thank the prosecutors and investigators in my office, as well as the detectives with the Denver Police Department, whose hard work on the case brought about this successful resolution.”

Just before 8:30 a.m. on June 3, 2022, Denver police officers responded to an apartment in the 1900 block of North Ulster Street, where 8-year-old Dametrious Wilson was found unconscious after Baffour beat him with a wooden back scrubber the night before.

According to the arrest affidavit, Baffour wanted to discipline Wilson for tearing part of her couch.

After taking him with her to Home Depot to get supplies, Baffour used duct tape to bind Wilson’s arms and legs together and cover his mouth before hitting him more than 40 times with the back scrubber, the affidavit stated.

Baffour told police she treated Wilson’s injuries before bed, and he drank a glass of water overnight, the affidavit stated. When she checked on him around 8 a.m., he would not wake up and she attempted to give CPR compressions.

At 8:41 a.m., paramedics pronounced Wilson dead at the scene.

Baffour had been awarded custody over Wilson and his now-11-year-old sister in 2017 because their mother was unable to care for them, according to the arrest affidavit.

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The Denver Police Department announced just after 10 a.m. that a woman had died of her injuries at a hospital and that they were investigating the shooting near the intersection of North Federal Boulevard and West 2nd Avenue as a homicide.

Police officers found the woman when they responded to the shooting, according to a 12:29 a.m. Monday post on X.

The woman was taken to the hospital by paramedics while officers remained at the scene for the investigation and to develop suspect information, the department’s post stated.

Detectives also learned another victim went to the hospital on their own. That person’s injuries are not clear, and details about their identity, including their age and gender, were not available.

Anyone with information should contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867 or file an anonymous report online.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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The strike that began Sunday night was set to last through the day Monday, with some of the striking workers rallying outside DIA’s Main Terminal at 10:30 a.m.

Around three dozen of the striking workers showed up to Monday’s rally, walking around the plaza entrance by the Westin Hotel wearing SEIU sweatshirts and holding signs that read “Swissport Cargo Workers On Strike Over Unsafe Working Conditions.”

“It’s a big ask to get people to risk their job in this way, even though it’s legally protected,” said Andrew Guttman, who works as a cargo agent for Swissport. “People are nervous about it. Doing more than one day would’ve been a lot to bite off.”

Cargo workers were expected to be joined by other airport workers, community members and elected officials supporting their fight for safer working conditions, according to a Monday news release from the Service Employees International Union.

While the cargo workers are not part of the union, they reached out to it for help after their Swissport strike notice gained 80 to 90 workers’ signatures.

Swissport handles airfreight and airport ground services at DIA, and the strike only should affect Amazon packages coming in and out of the airport, not commercial flights, Guttman said.

According to Swissport’s website, the company has provided airport ground services and managed an air cargo warehouse at DIA since 2006.

The DIA media relations team confirmed airport operations are expected to remain normal during the strike in an emailed statement to the Denver Post on Monday.

“We want management to take our concerns seriously, so hopefully this is a way to get that to happen,” Guttman said. “If it’s not, we’ll keep working to get them to pay attention. We want to organize this because it matters to us.”

Guttman said the strike is an escalation of petitions that management hasn’t responded to — the first being circulated a year ago in December 2022 and the most recent being filed in August.

The petitions called out faulty and broken equipment, dangerous working temperatures at facilities, heaters not functioning during winter weather, and inadequate safety training.

“We’re trying to get their attention, and we knew we had to go bigger in some way,” Guttman said. “After the second petition was circulated in August, we gave them a deadline of the following month to respond. When that didn’t happen, we had never stopped talking to each other and this strike just felt like the next natural thing.”

Earlier this year, Swissport workers at DIA alleged a warehouse fire broke out after a loading truck struck a floor heating machine that was exposed without any protections in place, according to SEIU’s Monday release.

“I’ve just seen too many of my coworkers get hurt and be put in dangerous situations at work over the past year,” Guttman said. “We’ve delivered petitions, filed multiple OSHA complaints, and Swissport has refused to address the real safety concerns that are putting our lives at risk on the job.”

Denver workers aren’t alone in these issues.

Last December, Swissport workers at the Chicago O’Hare airport also went on strike to call out unfair labor practices. In June, Swissport workers at Boston Logan International Airport, Dulles International Airport, and LaGuardia followed.

In a statement, Swissport officials said the company is “unwavering” in its commitment to following operating permit requirements and labor regulations while “fostering a workplace that values the rights and well-being of our employees while maintaining operational compliance with industry standards.”

“Most of our employees fulfilled their scheduled hours and did not participate in the work stoppage,” Swissport officials said in a statement. “Swissport continues to proactively address any issues or concerns raised by our team, reinforcing our enduring commitment to cultivating a positive and supportive work environment.”

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While gas prices across the country have been decreasing for three months, Colorado has some of the fastest-falling gas prices in the country, according to a Monday report from AAA.

The news couldn’t come at a better time for travelers, as AAA expects more than 115 million travelers to hit the roads during the holiday season, from Dec. 23 to Jan. 1, according to their Monday report.

As of Monday morning, the average price per gallon in Denver sat at $2.60 and national prices averaged $3.11, according to a news release from GasBuddy. Colorado’s average hit $2.78 per gallon Monday.

“For the 12th straight week, or three straight months, the national average has continued to decline, now at its lowest level of 2023 heading into the prime of the holiday season as oil prices continue to struggle amidst cooling demand,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, stated in Monday’s news release. “With nearly 80,000 gas stations in the U.S. now priced below $3 per gallon, and 23 states also seeing average prices of $2.99 or less, motorists are getting substantial relief at the pump in time for the holidays.”

According to GasBuddy price reports, the cheapest station in Denver was priced at $1.93 per gallon yesterday while the most expensive was $3.99 per gallon, a difference of $2.06, the news release stated. Denver’s cheapest station had the lowest price per gallon in the state.

Other areas are seeing low prices as well, with Fort Collins averaging $2.86 per gallon and Colorado Springs averaging $2.66 per gallon. Drivers can check where their county falls online with GasBuddy’s interactive map.

“The trend is likely to continue in most states this week, while the national average could soon fall below $3.05 per gallon, the lowest since 2021,” De Haan stated in the release.

With falling seasonal demand, prices are expected to continue dropping through the end of the year and into early 2024, AAA stated in the report.

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NWS meteorologists expect several inches of snow around Rabbit Ears Pass and the Park Range in northern Colorado, according to Monday’s hazardous weather outlook from the NWS.

While the plains can expect a milder day, with temperatures in the upper 40s and lower 50s, a mixed bag of light snow and freezing drizzle will spill over area tonight, NWS forecasters stated on social media.

Larimer and Weld counties will see the worst tonight’s sleet, but much of the northern plains will see slick travel conditions form overnight into Tuesday morning from freezing precipitation, the hazardous weather outlook stated.

Freezing drizzle will also be possible overnight for the I-25 corridor, potentially creating icy roads for tomorrow’s morning commuters, according to NWS forecasters.

Another storm system dropping to the south of Colorado could bring more snow Wednesday into Thursday, mainly over the mountains and then further east and south across the Palmer Divide, NWS meteorologists stated in Monday’s outlook.

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The crash happened in the area of East Colfax Avenue and Elm Street, the Denver Police Department posted on social media at 3:44 p.m. Sunday.

Police did not specify the number or type of vehicles involved in the crash, or which party was sent to the hospital.

Drivers should expect delays in the area and take alternate routes if possible.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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Edgewater Chief of Police Eric Sonstegard said it appeared the shooting took place inside an apartment in the 2700 block of Ingalls Street and that several people wrestled with the shooter to subdue him.

Sonstegard said police believe there were at least six people in the apartment at the time of the shooting, but there could have been more that officers are working to identify.

The other individuals in the apartment subdued the alleged shooter, leaving the 29-year-old Denver man with traumatic injuries, Sonstegard said.

It appeared to be a large gathering or party with friends and alcohol, and the suspect was an invited guest, he said.

Officers who responded to the scene just after 5:15 a.m. Sunday found a 29-year-old Edgewater man with a gunshot wound and the suspect with head trauma, according to a Sunday release from the police department.

Paramedics administered medical care to the gunshot victim at the scene, but he died from his injuries. The victim’s identity and cause of death will be released by the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner.

Emergency personnel took the suspect to a local hospital, where he remains in critical condition and intubated, Sonstegard said.

Police are unaware of any possible motive that might have led to the shooting and have been unable to speak with the suspect due to his condition, but the preliminary investigation suggested the suspect had gotten into an altercation with the victim before the shooting.

“The suspect was present in the apartment and known to the other people there, this wasn’t some random person bursting in,” Sonstegard said.

Anyone with information about the shooting should contact police investigators at 720-763-3024 or Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867.

This is a developing story.

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Gusts of up to 80 mph will continue through 5 p.m. Sunday, making travel difficult for high-profile vehicles, according to the National Weather Service.

High winds may result in blowing snow and reduced visibility, especially over mountain passes and areas that saw the worst of the snowstorm that moved out Saturday morning, NWS forecasters said on social media.

Sunday morning, 88 mph winds hit Coal Creek Canyon, 74 mph winds were measured Berthoud Pass, and 72 mph winds blew through Dakota Hill, topping the NWS’s peak winds tracking list.

Highway 93 between Boulder and Golden, open areas in the foothills and higher mountain passes above the timberline will be most vulnerable to blowing snow, the NWS said in a hazardous weather outlook Sunday.

With light snow falling throughout the day, mountains in northern Colorado with north-west facing slopes could see up to 4 inches of snow accumulate Sunday, with 2 inches projected for the rest of the mountains, the hazardous weather outlook stated.

Light snow will continue to fall through Tuesday, when another storm system is expected to hit Colorado, including the Denver metro area, according to the hazardous weather outlook.

Weather will be drier and warmer towards the end of the week, NWS forecasters said.

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More than 200 members of the activist organization marched from the Tivoli Quad on Auraria Campus to the intersection of Speer Boulevard and Champa Street around 11:30 a.m. Sunday, calling for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, humanitarian aid and an end to U.S. aid to Israel, according to a Sunday news release from Jewish Voice for Peace.

The rally came just after the end of the one-week cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, and nearly two months after the conflict first started, with Hamas militants attacking several areas in Israel, killing over 1,200 people and taking hundreds of hostages, according to Israeli officials.

As of Sunday, more than 15,500 people had been confirmed killed in Gaza since the start of the conflict, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. The ministry told AP reporters that 70% of those killed are women and children.

“As Jews, we wholeheartedly reject violence against the Palestinian people in the name of Jewish safety,” stated Allie Cannington, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, in the news release.

The group parked a car in the intersection, and a small group of activists chained themselves to each other and to the parked vehicle with duct-taped tubes and metal wire, blocking traffic.

Police diverted traffic away from the intersection for more than an hour before 15 people were arrested by Denver officers, according to the Denver Police Department. All 15 had been released by Sunday evening, according to a news release from Jewish Voice for Peace.

A spokesperson for the police department wrote in an emailed statement that officers made three separate announcements over a public address system for the people to leave the roadway or face arrest. When they refused to move, officers started arresting individuals around 12:40 p.m.

Denver Fire Department personnel used power tools to safely separate the individuals from each other and the vehicle so they could be arrested, according to the police department’s statement.

Several protesters in the activist organization’s news release claimed this action unnecessarily endangered the demonstrators, and that the emergency responders should have used manual tools instead of electric saws.

A total of 15 people were arrested in connection with obstructing a street, failure to obey a police order and using prohibited equipment to obstruct the public’s and emergency crews’ ability to use the roadway, the police department said in its statement.

The Denver/Boulder chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace organized the protest alongside the Colorado Palestine Coalition, marking the fourth consecutive day of protests against the Jewish National Fund’s Global Conference For Israel.

Noah Perlmutter, a Jewish American member of the group and one of the 15 arrested, said he joined the protest to bring attention to the violence that Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank are subjected to every day.

“I hope our peaceful protest pushes our representatives to immediately address the dire humanitarian crisis happening right now in Gaza,” he said. “We need a lasting ceasefire and a pathway to peace.”

Jewish Voice For Peace has organized several Denver protests for Palestinian lives in recent months, including demonstrations at the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, and has put pressure on Colorado’s congressional representatives to publicly call for a cease-fire.

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