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Dead couple's parrot may inherit assets

Pair tried to set up a trust for their beloved Greeny

Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 11, 2006 at midnight

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BOULDER - The Boulder Canyon home of a child-sex offender found dead with his wife Saturday of apparent suicides may become a bird sanctuary, with a parrot named Greeny the chief beneficiary of the couple's estate.

Then again, their assets could go to a family friend who apparently turned over to the Boulder County coroner a handwritten note from the couple.

Or the friend might get the assets with the stipulation that they be spent on a bird sanctuary at the couple's home west of Boulder.

The bizarre tale of Paul James Stewart Scott, and his wife, Patricia J. Birosik, grew stranger still Tuesday with the revelation that the couple tried to set up a trust for their beloved parrot.

"When detectives were there in March, the wife, PJ, said everything was set up to go into a trust for the parrot," Colorado Springs police Detective Clay Blackwell said Tuesday. "They wanted to make sure the parrot was taken care of for the rest of its life. The property would become a bird sanctuary."

But the Boulder County coroner told Colorado Springs detectives Monday that a letter "was dropped off by a family friend who is beneficiary of the estate," Blackwell said.

Boulder County Coroner Tom Faure confirmed Tuesday that he had received a note, but he wouldn't classify it as a suicide note or discuss its contents. He isn't confirming the couple's names because next of kin, including those in Scott's native United Kingdom, haven't been notified.

Scott, who lived with his wife at 154 Betasso Road in the Sugarloaf subdivision west of Boulder, was arrested in March in Colorado Springs for trying to arrange to have sex with a child, and to have a 16-year-old suffocate him at the same time.

According to Blackwell, Scott had paid a $1,200 deposit to an undercover detective posing as a broker of deviant fantasies. He was arrested when he gave the detective the $12,000 balance.

Colorado Springs police tracked Scott's e-mails on an Internet chat room known to be frequented by adult sexual predators.

Scott pleaded guilty to solicitation of child prostitution and was scheduled to be sentenced to up to 12 years in prison.

His body and that of his wife were found two days before the sentence was to be imposed Monday. Two guns, each apparently fired once, were found next to the bodies outside the residence.

State lawmakers will introduce a bill this month that will make it easier for law enforcement officers to arrest adults who try to set up meetings with children over the Web. Currently, it's difficult to make an arrest until the actual meeting takes place, and that can put children in danger, say advocates of a tougher law.

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