Virtually 40 years after a passerby discovered the skeletal stays of lacking teenager Donna Sue Wayne in a northeast Aurora subject, investigators lastly recognized a suspect in her demise — a person already in jail for the homicide and sexual assault of one other lady killed within the metropolis seven months after Wayne.
Richard “Ricky” Saathoff, 65, is charged with first-degree homicide and second-degree kidnapping in Wayne’s demise, in response to the Arapahoe County District Attorney’s Office.
Saathoff’s arrest affidavit was first reported Wednesday by 9News.
Whereas some particulars of the 18-year-old’s disappearance have lengthy been public information, a newly filed Aurora Police Division arrest affidavit illuminates the winding path investigators trod for almost 40 years, utilizing DNA and fingerprint proof together with witness statements to determine Saathoff as a suspect.
Wayne went lacking after leaving her Aurora house to satisfy up with pals at a Montbello home occasion and bar the night time of June 13, 1986.
She was final seen alive early the subsequent morning, when a Stapleton airport employee noticed her being bodily and sexually assaulted by a person driving her inexperienced 1972 Ford LTD within the 800 block of North Picadilly Highway.
Earlier experiences described the automobile as pink, however the arrest affidavit consists of images of the inexperienced Ford. The automobile was later destroyed. .
Wayne screamed for assist earlier than the person pressured her again into the automobile, the girl instructed police. The girl drove to the closest home to get assist, however by the point police arrived, Wayne and the person have been gone.
Wayne’s automobile was seen deserted in Aurora’s Hoffman Heights neighborhood the subsequent day, on June 15, 1986, however police didn’t hyperlink the automobile to Wayne till it was towed away two weeks later, an Aurora chilly case investigator wrote within the affidavit.
Police lifted two fingerprints from the driving force’s aspect window, and a neighbor discovered Wayne’s automobile keys, tossed in an evergreen bush down the block close to Vaughn Elementary Faculty, a number of weeks later.
Wayne’s physique was discovered by a passing driver in a northeast Aurora subject plagued by trash and particles one month after she was final seen alive, together with her garments and purse have been strewn concerning the space, in response to the affidavit.
Her precise explanation for demise was by no means confirmed due to how a lot her stays had decomposed, however she had a number of damaged bones, together with her jaw, ribs, clavicle and in her neck, chest and face.
The investigation appeared to stall after her physique was discovered as police chased leads that didn’t pan out.
Fingerprint proof from the driving force’s aspect window was later misplaced and went lacking for years, till it was discovered and retested in 2009, with no matches.
Investigators retested the fingerprints in a brand new system in 2012 and matched the 2 prints to Saathoff, who was already in jail after he was convicted of homicide within the demise of 40-year-old Norma Houston. Houston’s physique was discovered bare, brutally overwhelmed and assaulted close to a fuel station at 11697 E. Colfax Ave. on Jan. 18, 1987, seven months after Wayne’s demise, police wrote.
Like Wayne, Houston had important trauma to her head and a damaged jaw, police wrote.
Houston was sexually assaulted, and although Wayne’s stays have been too deteriorated to substantiate sexual assault, her pants and underwear had been eliminated, like Houston’s.
Investigators linked Saathoff to Houston’s homicide after his DNA was discovered on her garments, and he was convicted of first-degree homicide and sentenced to life in jail in June 1988. He’s eligible for parole in June 2027, state information present.
After the 2012 fingerprint match, investigators tried to additional hyperlink Saathoff to Wayne’s homicide, in response to the affidavit. A detective interviewed him in jail in 2014, and he denied realizing Wayne (and later denied killing Houston).
Investigators decided Saathoff lived together with his dad and mom in the identical neighborhood the place Wayne’s automobile was deserted, and so did his ex-girlfriend.
In Could, greater than a decade after the fingerprint match, investigators once more checked out Wayne’s garments for a DNA pattern, and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation discovered and examined DNA on Wayne’s denims that had a excessive chance of belonging to Saathoff.
Saathoff stays in jail on the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility in Cañon Metropolis, according to state records. His subsequent court docket date was not accessible Friday.
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