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With slayings of homeless men reaching 7, Webb says he will seek FBI help in investigating attacks
By Hector Gutierrez and Lynn Bartels
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writers
Police found the bodies of two decapitated homeless men Wednesday, prompting Denver Mayor Wellington Webb to ask the feds for help.
The gruesome discoveries in a field behind Union Station brings to seven the number of homeless men who have died brutal deaths in lower downtown since Sept. 7. Three were decapitated. Only one of the heads has been found.
Wednesday's find was all the more shocking because it came after Denver police arrested seven homeless youths on various charges, prompting confidence among many transients that they were once more safe on the streets.
"I thought the crimes had been solved," Webb said Wednesday. "With the two additional bodies that popped up today, this obviously means we need additional resources to safeguard the people of the city."
Webb personally asked Attorney General Janet Reno for FBI assistance.
"She committed to me that she would provide whatever resources we need to assist in our effort," the mayor said.
The slayings have terrified Denver's homeless population. The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless announced it will put up transients in motels to try to get them off the streets.
That approach might appeal to those who refuse to stay in shelters for whatever reason but now are in even greater danger on the streets, said coalition president John Parvensky.
"How could something like this happen in a city like Denver? It's unfathomable," he said.
It was a homeless man who triggered Wednesday's massive police effort involving more than 100 officers. He found a body at 11:30 a.m. about 60 yards behind Union Station and south of Chestnut and 19th streets.
Police called in a large number of officers to comb the brush field for evidence and found the second victim about three hours later. The body was about a quarter mile from the first victim.
As the sun began to set, police called in even more officers to sweep the field. They found cardboard boxes that the homeless use for mattresses, tents where the transients live and drug paraphernalia, but they did not find the heads of the two slain men.
Detectives using flashlights continued to collect evidence after darkness fell.
Police spokesman Sgt. Tony Lombard said the two victims appear to be homeless, but they have not been identified. They had been dead at least a week.
Denver police officers usually patrol the field about 2 every morning, he said. It is a haven for the homeless.
Regina Theresa Jackson, a transient from Seattle, said she has slept in the field almost every night for the past few months. Jackson said "bunches" of other people sleep out in the field.
"I can't believe they found more bodies out there," she said. "We were just there."
Jackson said officers questioned her and a male friend and photographed them.
Police have shied away from using the term "serial killer."
"I don't think we know," Webb said. "What we do know is that seven people are dead, and they are all homeless individuals."
The first four homeless men who were slain were beaten to death, police said.
Three homeless youths have been charged in one of the deaths, of Melvin Washington, 47. He was assaulted Sept. 8 and died of his injuries a week later.
Two of the suspects in Washington's death, along with four other homeless young people, also have been charged with attempted first-degree murder in the beatings of two other transients. All the suspects have been jailed for a week or more.
The body of a fifth homeless man, Kenneth Rapp, 42, was found Oct. 22 in a field at Lipan and 19th by a city crew cutting weeds. Police estimated Rapp was killed three or four weeks earlier.
That body also had been decapitated.
Former FBI profiler Gregg McCrary said the beating deaths and the beheadings probably are not linked, although he cautioned that he has not read any police reports.
He said he would surprised if more than one person were involved in the beheadings.
"The likelihood that you've got more than one (killer) is pretty small because this is such bizarre pathological behavior," he said.
Also, Denver police Tuesday night arrested a man for investigation of beating a transient sleeping on the 16th Street Mall.
The victim was sleeping in the doorway of a building on Welton Street when someone beat him with a board. Police arrested Rodney Donald Polk, 37.
Staff writer Manny Gonzales contributed to this report.
November 18, 1999
