Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Alerts | Electronic edition | Advertise | Subscribe to the paper | Today's Extras

Breaking News:

Subscribe

Home › News › Local News

Gunman came from 'good, grounded family'

The Rocky

Published December 14, 2007 at 5:24 p.m.
Updated December 14, 2007 at 5:36 p.m.

Text size  

More Local News

More stories »

Junior high's not the best time in most people's lives, but Ron Murray had an advantage:

"Everybody liked him," said boyhood friend Jim Ulibarri. "Ron has the most contagious smile."

Murray loved basketball as a boy, but when the tall blond wanted to play in Chicano tournaments he had to bring his birth certificate to prove he was half Hispanic.

"We used to give him a hard time about it," Ulibarri said, with a laugh.

The two attended Lake Junior High in north Denver and later reunited at the University of Colorado. By then, Murray had married his high school sweetheart, Loretta, and had a baby girl, Cherise.

"Ron is just an incredible guy," Ulibarri said.

That sentiment would later be shared by the many patients, friends and co-workers Murray met through his church and medical practice, where he specializes in the treatment and research of multiple sclerosis.

Those same people have rallied this week around the Murray family after their son Matthew killed four people in shootings at Christian centers in Arvada and Colorado Springs.

In Internet rantings, Matthew talked of a stifling Christian upbringing filled with abuse — an accusation family friends staunchly deny.

"There are not kinder or gentler parents," said Casey Nikoloric, who is Murray's patient and has known the family for years.

She and others who know the family have declined to comment, saying the family wants to wait until all the victims' funerals have been held.

Many things are not known.

What kind of treatment did Ron and Loretta Murray seek for their son, who heard voices and had trouble fitting in? Was the family aware he had bought five guns in the past year? Did they have any inkling that their oldest boy would be capable of such violence?

This is known by the people who love and ache for the Murrays:

"This was a good, grounded family," said Karen Wenzel, executive director of the Rocky Mountain MS Center. "Ron is a pillar in the MS community. He's one of the most compassionate caregivers I've ever experienced."

Deeply religous family

Ronald Scott Murray was born in Denver in 1951. Loretta Jean Casados was born in New York in 1953 and later moved to Denver with her family.

The Casadoses lived in the 3900 block of Shoshone Street. Robert Quintana lived a house away from the Casadoses, a family he remembers as deeply religious.

"They used to come to the door and try to get us interested in their church," said Quintana, now 65.

He remembers Loretta as shy and quiet. He believes she attended North High School.

That's where the 6-feet-3 Murray played basketball and was a member of the "D" or letterman's club. He graduated in 1970.

The couple was married by a Denver County Court judge on Nov. 27. They lived with his mother, Dorothy, at West 26th Avenue and Lowell Boulevard.

Ulibarri, who had attended West High School, reunited with Murray when they went to CU. He said Loretta and their daughter would watch him play during basketball tournaments.

"Ron worked a lot," Ulibarri recalled. "He parked cars at the Commerce City dog track.

"I never saw him get upset, overly excited. I never saw him low. He always had a smile on his face."

Murray graduated in 1975 with a degree in chemistry, and then graduated from CU's medical school in 1980. Loretta Murray received her bachelor's in physical therapy in 1977, university records show.

They lived in Salt Lake City for five years, where Matthew was born in 1983. The family return to Colorado in 1986, the year Christopher was born.

The Murrays in 1986 moved into a four-bedroom in the Cherry Creek Vista neighorhood in unicorporated Arapahoe County. They still live on Berry Place.

"I have a wonderful wife and family and am involved in our church," Ron Murray told classmates in 1990 at his 20-year high school reunion. "I will be married 20 years this fall to my high school sweetheart, Loretta."

Loretta had quit work to be stay home with her children.

The boys were homeschooled with instructive materials from a strict religious group, the Illinois-based Institute in Basic Life Principles. Critics said the program is cultish and encourages corporal punishment, but president Bill Gothard said it is based on "how to love your neighbor as Christ loved us."

The family is active at Love Fellowship Church in Denver, where Phil Abeyta, Matthew's uncle, is a minister, and Lorreta Murray is in charge of the women's ministry.

Matthew left that church a couple of years ago. He was living at home at the time of the shootings, drifted in recent years, and was asked to leave several programs he attended.

His only companion seemed to be his computer keyboard, where he spent hours on anti-religious Web sites.

"All I found in christianity was hate, abuse (sexual, physical, psychological, and emotional), hypocrisy, and lies," he wrote.

As for his siblings, Christopher, 21, attends Oral Roberts University. Cherise, 37, who also went to Oral Roberts, is a stay-at home mom with two children.

"These are two well adjusted, grounded children," said Nikoloric, the family friend.

"And their parents have devoted their lives to helping others."

Helping MS patients

Murray is in private practice in Lone Tree, but has close ties to Englewood's Rocky Mountain MS Center, which assists people with multiple sclerosis.

A neurologist, he has been affiliated in some way or another with the center for 25 of its last 29 years, the director, Wenzel, said.He currently is serving as a consultant to help the center hire a medical director, he post he once held.

Loretta Murphy helped do fundraisers for the center, Wenzel said.

Ron Murray's colleagues and patients are effusive in the praise for a man who treated his patients long after their insurance ran out.

"I cannot say more fine words about Ron and his professionalism," said board member Cade Sibley.

Since the shootings, an outpouring of sympathy has flooded the center. Nikoloric also has been bombarded with calls and letters, including an e-mail from a 10-year-old boy.

Dear Dr. Murray, it began.

I wanted to e-mail you and tell you that I am sorry for your loss. I recently lost my mom to MS and want you to continue your research. I am happy that you have researched so much already. I want to be an MS researcher when I grow up. Please continue your research and serving God. I am praying for you.

Phillip

Sometime around 1999 or 2000, Ulibarri, Murray's childhood pal, became concerned about his daughter's headaches. She suffered from migraines after a car accident and ultimately died at age 25 from her injuries.

Ulibarri hadn't talked to his friend in years, but Murray immediately made an appointment to see his 22-year-old daughter.

Ulibarri discovered Murray was the same guy everybody liked in junior high.

"Same personality. And he had that smile," Ulibarri said. "My heart aches for Ron and his wife."

Comments

  • December 14, 2007

    7 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    iluvdenver writes:

    Dr. Murray is brilliant and compassionate. He gives hope to his patients, which is critical for people living with MS. It's the best medicine we have while we wait for more effective drugs to treat this brutal disease.
    There have been suggestions posted on this forum that question how a neurologist could let his kid get so bad without noticing and getting help for his obvious mental illness(I am paraphrasing.) I feel confident that when we know more, the public will learn that Matthew Murray's family did everything they possibly could to help him.

  • December 14, 2007

    8:08 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    NothingOnTv writes:

    A birth certificate to prove he's half-hispanic? Tell me that's a joke. Why would they exclude anyone from the tournament based on race?

Post your comment

Registration is required. Click here to create your free user account, or login below.

Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.




(Forgotten your password?)




News Tip

Know about something we should be reporting? Tell us about it.

Sponsored links



Reprints