Ana Elisa Toledo, the au pair from Brazil who was caring for two children of a Denver family, was stabbed 74 times by her former boyfriend, Martin Novotny of the Czech Republic, according to testimony today during Novotny’s preliminary hearing.
Novotny said in a videotaped confession played in court that he thought he could get away with killing her. To that end, and prior to attacking her in the early hours of Dec. 13 at a Denver home, he dug a hole off of Interstate 25 near Castle Rock intending to bury her body there.
Toledo was the nanny for a Denver couple who lived in the 2500 block of Cook Street. She met Novotny in October 2004 in Denver at a basketball game.
But 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 that their relationship wasn’t like it used to be and he suspected she was seeing other men.
He was able to enter the Cook Street residence through a basement window and confronted Toledo in her bedroom.
“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 as his voice trailed off.
He added that he wasn’t thinking when he went to the house.
“I don’t know what happened to me. I don’t know,” he said.
After the confession and testimony from Webster, Chief County Judge Andrew Armatasordered 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 put the murder weapon and bloody clothing in a bag, and returned to the Castle Rock area where he dumped the bag in a dumpster.
He made no attempt to remove Toledo’s body and later returned to Denver where he called police and turned himself in. He said he had killed his girlfriend and told officers where the 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 to muffle the screams 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.”
Webster told defense lawyer Jason Pink that there was no evidence that Toledo, 24, had been sexually assaulted.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
