A shot, then it was 'real quiet'

Shotgun blast kills Edgewater woman; ex-boyfriend held

Ivan Moreno, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 6, 2006 at midnight

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EDGEWATER - Amanda Jean Duran pounded on a neighbor's door Wednesday night screaming, "Somebody help me, God help me," before a man shot her in the head with a sawed-off shotgun.

Duran's suspected killer and ex-boyfriend, 26-year-old Gilberto Cruz, surrendered to Edgewater police Thursday morning. He is being held without bail at the Jefferson County Detention Facility on investigation of first-degree murder, said Detective Brad Maerz.

Cruz was arrested on domestic violence charges in Aurora in 2004, Maerz said.

The slaying of the 22-year-old woman happened in a matter of seconds, neighbors said, seconds that were filled with Duran's frantic pleas for help, and then a shotgun blast.

Loretta Garcia, who was in her house across the street, said she heard a woman yelling, " 'No, no, please no,' and boom! That's when I heard the gunshot. The gunshot went off and then it was real quiet."

Duran's next-door neighbors heard her pleas and her knocking, even heard her trying to open their door. But by the time they went to the door, they heard a blast and dropped to the ground, said Maria Rivera, who lives in the house where Duran went to ask for help.

"When one of the men opened the door, she had already been shot," said Rivera, 33.

Brandon Thalley, 17, Garcia's son, said he went to peer out his window after hearing Duran's screams and "saw a dude pull out behind her and just shoot her."

Neighbors said they saw the gunman drive off in a red pickup truck with the lights turned off.

"Just drove off like nothing happened," Vanessa Ortega said, recalling how nonchalant the man seemed.

Meanwhile, Garcia hurried to the house where Duran was shot. When she got there, she said the porch light flickered on and she saw Duran's body slumped against the opened screed door.

The door flung open, and a woman screamed at the sight of Duran's body, then the door was shut again, Garcia said.

"I touched her and she still had a pulse," said Garcia, who stayed with the woman holding her hand until police arrived.

She said her husband, Tim Thalley, told her moments later, "Babe, she's gone. They checked her again and she's dead."

Garcia made the sign of the cross above the victim's forehead.

"That's all I could do for her," Garcia said.

Three of Duran's cousins stopped by her house Thursday morning to leave two boxes of flowers on her lawn, with a heart-shaped ballon that read, "I Love You," attached to one of the boxes.

One of the cousins, Stephanie Perez, said it had been weeks since she had talked to Duran.

"We heard on the news her name, and we thought, 'There's no way,' " Perez said. "She's going to be greatly missed."

By late afternoon, neighbors had brought more flowers and more balloons. And on the doorstep where Duran died, neighbors placed four red Christ candles.

Neighbors said Duran had moved into her house in the 2000 block of Otis Street months ago.

"I used to see her now and then," Garcia recalled. "She was a pretty little girl."

morenoi@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2895

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