Waiter may have seen missing woman
Police investigators had run out of leads and ideas about the whereabouts of a Summit County woman who has been missing since Nov. 29, but friends and family members may have some newfound hope with a possible sighting in Idaho Springs.
Patricia McCormick was last seen Nov. 29 while making deliveries for a Napa Auto Parts store in Frisco to Keystone resort’s vehicle maintenance shop.
Police have searched throughout Summit County, even drilling holes in Lake Dillon to see if she might have driven into the lake, but there have been no confirmed sightings of McCormick or her pickup since.
Police investigators said few leads had been reported until Thursday afternoon, when Phil Bassist, a waiter at the Buffalo Restaurant and Bar, said he thought he saw McCormick in the restaurant.
“She just looked so similar to the woman who is in the poster,” said Bassist, who didn’t call police until later in the afternoon. “I didn’t see the poster until after she left, but she had the same haircut and hair color.”
Bassist, who was not the woman’s waiter, said she was sitting with a man with glasses and dark hair.
“I called the police because I hoped someone would call if it was my mom,” he said.
A spokesperson from the Frisco Police Department said the department followed up on the lead but could not confirm if the woman was McCormick.
Alcohol suspected in wreck on Colo. 119
Too much speed and the probable involvement of alcohol sent a truck tumbling into Boulder Creek on Saturday, seriously injuring its passengers, according to the Colorado State Patrol.
The driver, a 34-year-old woman from Lafayette, was thrown from the 1990 Chevy truck as it skidded and tumbled off Colorado 119 as it approached at 11:24 a.m. Investigators don’t believe she was wearing a seat belt.
Her passenger, a 13-year-old girl thought to be her daughter, remained buckled in her seat.
Both sustained serious injuries and remained in Boulder Community Hospital on Saturday evening. The Highway Patrol would not release their names because their injuries were life-threatening and some family members may not have been contacted, said Sgt. Jeff Goodwin.
Witnesses following the truck as it snaked northbound a few miles outside Boulder said the driver made an erratic U-turn and raced southbound at a high rate of speed. The driver lost control of the truck in a curve.
“We don’t know what in the world happened to cause her to make a U-turn in the road and drive like she did,” Goodwin said.
Preliminary evidence indicates that the driver had been drinking, he said.
Developer sues over Rocky Flats water
A prominent Jefferson County developer filed a federal lawsuit Friday contending that the U.S. government and the operators of the now-defunct Rocky Flats nuclear trigger plant are poised to renege on an agreement designed to settle claims of plutonium contamination.
Charles Church McKay said in his lawsuit that a 1985 settlement requires the U.S. Department of Energy and Rockwell International to supply up to 20,000 gallons of water a day to his development, Rock Creek Industrial Park.
The DOE, which has decommissioned the nuclear production facility, also stopped operating its water treatment plant last year, according to the lawsuit. The DOE began trucking water to the plant but has threatened to discontinue that service on Dec. 31, the lawsuit said.
McKay contends the government also is destroying roads and pipelines that are useful to his development.
The developer is asking the court to force the DOE to continuing supplying water to the development as well as stopping the government from destroying water lines that lead to the industrial park.
Police searching for driver in hit-and-run
Longmont police are searching for a burgundy 2006 Ford F-150 pickup that investigators suspect was involved in a fatal hit-and-run accident in Longmont on Wednesday.
Min B. Gurung, a 65-year-old restaurant worker from Nepal, was run over and killed as he was crossing Colorado 119 to catch a bus just west of Hover Road.
The driver of the vehicle that hit Gurung did not stop and continued to travel westbound on Colorado 119 toward Boulder.
The driver and the specific F-150 model are unknown, but parts left at the scene indicate the pickup sustained damage to the front right headlight and right front fender.
Longmont police are asking anyone who may have witnessed the accident or anyone with information to call Longmont police at 303-651-8862 or Boulder County Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
Water Congress hires city official as leader
Doug Kemper, chief water planner for the city of Aurora, has been hired as executive director of the Colorado Water Congress, an organization of water professionals with a history of influence on state water laws.
Kemper will start work Thursday.
He said he first would familiarize himself with the Water Congress’ operation and membership, then visit areas of the state to meet with other water leaders and organizations.
