For a week, Robert Pastore mulled whether to kill himself as he camped on a mountain pass between Georgetown and Grant.
The body of a person apparently strangled was in the back of his van on Guanella Pass, a popular camping spot.
On Friday at 3:30 p.m., Pastore drove to the Park County sheriff’s substation in Bailey and told a deputy he was suicidal.
His arms were coated in dried blood.
“He appeared to be pretty distraught,” Undersheriff Monte Gore said Saturday.
According to authorities, Pastore, 31, told them he killed someone and the body was in his van in the sheriff’s parking lot. A deputy went outside and found the body in the back of the van.
Authorities have not released the name of the victim or said whether the victim was male or female, child or adult.
Pastore’s ex-wife, Serephita Treston-Pastore, filed for divorce in Denver District Court in February, records show. The divorce was finalized two weeks ago.
On May 6, a warrant was issued for Pastore’s arrest after he failed to appear for a hearing on a marijuana possession charge, according to Denver court records.
Pastore was being held Saturday at the Park County jail as investigators from three agencies processed crime scenes in the sheriff’s parking lot, the Guanella Pass campsite and a Denver home where the slaying allegedly occurred, Gore said.
He said the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and Denver homicide investigators were on the case.
“It’s definitely going to be a Denver case,” said Denver police spokeswoman Virginia Quiñones.
She said Denver police went to the Park County jail and interviewed the suspect about what happened. She did not reveal the location of the Denver homicide.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
