Kirk Mitchell relished making sense of a thriller.
It’s no secret how the longtime Denver Put up reporter earned himself the nickname Kirk “Chilly Case” Mitchell following years of devoted protection of unsolved legal investigations throughout Colorado, together with writing concerning the state’s most sensational murders and different mayhem.
Mitchell, who retired from The Put up in 2020 after 22 years on the newspaper, died this week in Pennsylvania after battling prostate most cancers since 2016. He was 64.
His byline could be discovered on tales about topics starting from the Aurora theater taking pictures to remedy canines in prisons to the drug kingpin “El Chapo.”
Oldest son Vance Mitchell stated his father was by no means afraid to fulfill with convicted killers or interview somebody from any stroll of life.
“He appeared like he approached it as serving to individuals inform their story in their very own phrases,” Vance Mitchell stated.
Buddies, former coworkers and relations have been desirous to return the favor, sharing Kirk Mitchell’s story within the pages his byline as soon as graced.
Kirk’s story
Kirk Vance Mitchell Sr. was born in Peru, Indiana, the place his father was stationed with the U.S. Air Drive. After shifting round with the service, the Mitchells settled in Keene, New York, the place Kirk’s dad and mom, who have been achieved painters, moved the household right into a mattress and breakfast they’d purchased.
The younger Mitchell performed soccer, basketball and soccer at Keene Central College, from which he graduated in 1977. All through his skilled profession, Mitchell’s resume boasted that he graduated within the Prime 10 in his senior class. There have been solely 9 college students, daughter-in-law Debbie Mitchell stated.
“He actually put that on all of his resumes,” she stated.
After highschool, Mitchell served two years in Quito, Ecuador, on his mission with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. After returning, Mitchell earned his journalism diploma from Brigham Younger College.
Mitchell started his journalism profession on the Related Press in Salt Lake Metropolis, then labored at newspapers in Twin Falls, Idaho, and Mesa, Arizona, earlier than becoming a member of The Put up in 1998.
At The Put up, Mitchell spent years as against the law reporter, overlaying a number of the most infamous murders in Colorado, together with the 2013 assassination of Colorado Division of Corrections government director Tom Clements by a parolee who was a member of a white supremacist gang within the jail system.
Mitchell was most pleased with his contributions to 2 of the Pulitzer Prizes gained by The Put up’s newsroom — the 2000 and 2013 awards within the breaking information class for protection of the Columbine High School and Aurora movie theater massacres, respectively.
“He was a dogged reporter,” stated Vikki Migoya, a former Put up editor who now works as a public affairs specialist with the FBI. “He would pay money for one thing and dig and dig.”
Migoya famous Mitchell, who she edited whereas she labored on the paper, by no means turned down a narrative and would give it his all whether or not a brief crime merchandise, a vacation function or a particular investigation.
“He may discover folks that no one else may discover,” Migoya stated. “If we have been attempting to find somebody — the topic of a lawsuit or a relative of somebody we would have liked on the telephone — Kirk was the one who would dig in and be capable to discover that particular person.”
For years, Mitchell wrote The Put up’s chilly case weblog, which garnered a number of the highest readership on the newspaper’s web site. His fascination with unsolved crimes earned him the nickname “Chilly Case” from his colleagues on the paper’s metropolis desk.
“An individual who spent so a few years writing about crime may change into hardened and cynical however that didn’t occur to Kirk,” stated Lee Ann Colacioppo, The Put up’s government editor. “There was an optimism to him that you may truly see in the way in which his eyes twinkled and a need for justice that discovered its voice in his devotion to writing about chilly instances. He was a diligent and delicate reporter and a proud and devoted father. The newsroom simply felt proper when he was hunched over his laptop.”
Typically his weblog posts would generate ideas that may assist detectives resolve the crime, Vance Mitchell stated.
“The factor he was most enthusiastic about was attempting to resolve the thriller,” he stated.
Whereas overlaying a lot tragedy, Kirk Mitchell was additionally riveted by discovering the sunshine in individuals.
Put up photographer R.J. Sangosti recalled Mitchell repeatedly writing tales about individuals in jail coaching remedy canines behind bars and discovering pleasure in watching them work together with the animals.
“He was enthralled by how somebody may very well be a cold-hearted legal at one level of their life and, at a distinct level, they might share their bunk with a canine and educate it to like and care for a kid with extreme autism,” Sangosti stated. “Kirk noticed individuals at their worst, however in some way he at all times was capable of finding the very best in that particular person and included that in his tales.”
Kirk Mitchell was a voracious reader, having fun with — you guessed it — thriller novels.
He authored a nonfiction ebook, “The Spin Doctor,” concerning the 2002 loss of life of Nancy Sonnenfeld, explaining how her husband Kurt Sonnenfeld turned the first suspect earlier than escaping to Argentina and combating extradition again to Denver.
The Sonnenfeld case was one in all many through which Mitchell was known as to seem on true-crime tv reveals to speak about his protection. He continued to seem on these reveals even into his retirement.
Regardless of the generally troublesome subject material, Mitchell had a humorousness about his work.
“Usually we’d ask him, ‘How was work?’ And he would say, ‘Properly, I used to be in jail,’” Vance Mitchell stated. “He thought it was humorous to inform individuals he went to jail.”
A household man
Family members described Mitchell as a household man, epitomized by his shut companionship along with his son Jonathon Mitchell, who has Down syndrome.
