Pair allegedly used victim's credit card after slaying
By Hector Gutierrez, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published July 23, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
A woman and a teenager arrested in the slaying last month of an elderly man, whose house was set on fire, allegedly used the victim's credit card after he was found, according to court papers.
Laura C. Childress, 37, and Chase A. McGraw, 18, are being held in the Adams County Jail for investigation of first-degree murder and first-degree arson in last month's death of Bob Lee Moreland, 78, just outside Brighton.
The pair also are being held on suspicion of identity theft. They are expected to be charged today.
Witnesses told sheriff's detectives that the alleged assailants had stayed with the victim at his home before he was found dead June 15, according to an affidavit.
Childress claimed that she never stayed at the victim's home.
Police said the suspects were arrested in Kansas on July 4 while driving a stolen car.
A former roommate, who allowed the pair to stay with him at his Brighton home, reported his vehicle stolen to police, detectives wrote.
On the day of the slaying, Childress and McGraw reportedly had been staying with the man.
Detectives say that Childress and McGraw used a credit card belonging to Moreland at least three times after the victim was found dead.
Witnesses and banking officials told detectives that Childress had been stealing money from Moreland and forging his checks and that the victim was kicking her out of his home, according to the affidavit.
A Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent said he found that someone deliberately set fire to the basement bedroom of Moreland's home, which sent flames upward to the master bedroom,according to court papers.
An autopsy showed that the victim suffered skull fractures and four broken ribs.
Detectives recovered two claw hammers and a metal pipe from the scene with what appeared to be blood on them, according to the affidavit.
The coroner said he found evidence that the victim may have been strangled or suffered some type of pressure to his throat.
The coroner didn't find any soot in the victim's trachea, indicating that he likely was dead when the fire started.
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