Old truck yields horror

Mom held after man buys $100 pickup, finds baby's remains

Felix Doligosa Jr., Rocky Mountain News

Published August 11, 2006 at midnight

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STRASBURG - Greg Korb bought a broken-down 1971 yellow Chevrolet pickup truck for $100 Wednesday in hopes of finding a salvageable motor.

Instead, he found a dead baby in a box in the littered bed of the truck.

"Just a horrible situation," said Korb. "I can't believe someone would do this."

Investigators on Thursday arrested a 23-year-old woman, who admitted being the mother of the baby, for investigation of first-degree murder and child abuse.

The woman, Christy Lee Cole, and her boyfriend sold Korb the truck, he said.

Cole is being held without bail in the Arapahoe County jail. The boyfriend is not facing charges in the case, Sheriff Grayson Robinson said.

Cole is believed to have delivered the child full term, or near full term, in October 2005.

Robinson declined to say whether investigators believe the baby died shortly after birth or elaborate on what led them to clear the boyfriend as a suspect in the case.

Cole lived with her boyfriend and 3-year-old son in the Country Gardens Mobile Home Park, 1200 South County Road 57, according to investigators.

The three moved to the park in Strasburg in January 2005, said June Korb, who owns the mobile park with Greg Korb, her son.

Since the couple moved in, neighbors said the bed of their yellow truck was always filled with trash such as mattresses, broken sofas and garbage bags. They said the vehicle was always parked in front of the home.

Residents complained of a foul stench from the truck and how the couple never took out their trash, neighbors said. Residents are supposed to take their garbage to any of the three dumpsters located in the mobile home complex.

"There was always notices on their door about how they're supposed to take out their trash," said neighbor Marilyn Callahan. "The nearest dumpster is just less than a minute away."

After failing to pay July's rent, the couple was being evicted and were looking to make extra cash, said the park owners. Cole did not work and her boyfriend worked in lawn care, said neighbors.

Greg Korb offered to buy their broken down truck.

"They wanted to get rid of it and I wanted the parts," he said.

Korb said he met with the couple four times on Wednesday asking questions about the truck. Each time, they offered to help him dump the trash from the truck, he said.

Korb said he told them he preferred to get help from his 15-year-old son. Since the couple was selling the truck for only $100, Korb said that throwing out the trash "was the least that I could do."

The father and son towed the truck to a dumpster and began removing trash bags from its bed at about 8 p.m.

The two found one open black plastic bag that was filled with leaves. Also inside was a small box that contained the decomposed body of an infant.

Korb then called 911.

Deputies interviewed residents in the mobile home park Wednesday night as technicians took fingerprints and evidence from the truck.

Investigators took Cole in for questioning early Thursday and she admitted she was the mother of the dead baby. She was arrested at 5:30 a.m., Robinson said.

"If she (Cole) did this, she deserves to be tried for murder," said another neighbor, Amanda Callaway. "If you shake a baby to death, you're in trouble. Trouble is different from murder."

Under the state's Safe Haven Law, parents can surrender newborns to hospitals or fire stations within 72 hours without threat of prosecution or liability.

"This didn't have to happen," Robinson said.

Callahan said Cole had not told neighbors that she was expecting a baby last year and said she hadn't noticed that the young woman was pregnant.

Cole's 3-year-old son has been placed with the Arapahoe County Human Services Department.

The body of the baby was so decomposed that investigators could not determine the infant's sex, said Robinson. An autopsy has been done and investigators are awaiting results.

"You expect to hear something like this in Denver," said Callaway. "Not out here."

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