Ana Elisa Toledo, the au pair from Brazil killed in December, was stabbed 74 times by her former boyfriend, who had earlier dug a grave for her near Castle Rock, according to court testimony Wednesday.
Martin Novotny of the Czech Republic said in taped confession played during his preliminary hearing that he believed he could get away with killing Toledo, 24.
“She woke up, and I killed her with a knife. I stabbed her many times in her head and her neck. Many times, many times, many times,” Novotny said, his voice trailing off.
He added that he wasn’t thinking when he went to the house where Toledo lived and worked.
“I don’t know what happened to me. I don’t know,” he said.
Toledo was the nanny for a Denver couple who live in the 2500 block of Cook Street. She met Novotny in October 2004 at a basketball game in Denver.
Novotny, 23, told Denver homicide Detective Shane Webster that he and Toledo kept breaking up, getting back together and breaking up again.
At the end, he said, she told him their relationship wasn’t like it used to be and he suspected she was seeing other men.
He told investigators that prior to attacking Toledo in the early hours of Dec. 13, he dug a hole off Interstate 25 near Castle Rock, intending to bury her body there.
He was able to enter the Cook Street residence through a basement window and confronted Toledo in her bedroom.
After the hearing the taped confession and testimony from Webster, Chief County Judge Andrew Armatas ordered Novotny to stand trial for first-degree murder and burglary.
According to the testimony, after killing Toledo and leaving her body on the bedroom floor, Novotny left the home through the same window, went back to his apartment and showered. He then allegedly put the murder weapon and bloody clothing in a bag, and went to the Castle Rock area, where he placed the bag in a Dumpster.
He later returned to Denver, where he called police and turned himself in. He said he had killed his girlfriend and told officers where her body could be found. He also helped them find the bag of bloody clothing and the hole he had dug.
Novotny told police that when he entered the bedroom, Toledo woke up and began screaming. He placed a pillow over her face and then began stabbing her with a hunting knife.
“She told me about someone else,” he told Webster. “I heard about him before we broke up. I thought she was seeing him.”
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
