Laramie – Police are struggling to figure out how a small party among college friends turned into a violent attack that left three dead, including an aspiring nurse who graduated from Denver’s John F. Kennedy High School.
The victims – one woman and two men, as well as a fourth person who was injured – knew one another from classes and dorm life at the University of Wyoming and had been drinking alcohol, authorities said.
The outburst of gunfire left such a gruesome aftermath that investigators were still uncertain Monday whether the case was a triple homicide or a homicide-suicide, Laramie police spokesman Dale Stalder said.
“It was such a violent crime scene, and so many factors were involved,” Stalder said. “An autopsy will help answer some questions.”
Justin R. Geiger, 20, of South Beloit, Ill.; Amber Carlson, 19, of Denver; and Adam Towler, 20, of Laramie, died from apparent gunshot wounds. Surviving was Anthony Klochak, 19, of Chardon, Ohio.
Neighbors said a bloodied Klochak ran from the house early Sunday, screaming for help. Police arrived at the home in the 1900 block of Custer Street about 2:10 a.m.
“They were having a small party,” Stalder said. “What happened later is something we are trying to determine.”
Klochak was treated at Ivinson Memorial Hospital and released. He is a victim, not a suspect, Stalder said.
Klochak and Geiger were listed on the home’s lease with three others who were not present Sunday morning, Stalder said. Carlson and Towler were visiting the home.
Carlson had finished her freshman year at UW after graduating from Denver’s Kennedy High.
Towler, a student at Emory University in Atlanta, was home for a visit.
Jacob Lee, a junior at UW, lived on the same dorm floor as Geiger, before he moved off campus, and Carlson. Lee said they would go to parties together, watch movies and play video games.
Lee remembers Carlson as a shy young woman who was adjusting to college life, but she would “come out of her shell when you got to know her.”
Carlson was struggling academically after the fall semester, Lee said, but he believed she had better grades the following semester.
Lee, 20, learned about the deaths Sunday night, when his mother told him that some UW students had been found dead. He had talked to Carlson just a few days before she died.
“The last thing I remember her telling me was that everyone was mad at everyone else,” he said, though he didn’t think the remark had anything to do with her death.
Olivia Engkvist, 21, a senior at UW, also lived on the same dormitory floor as Carlson and Geiger in the fall of 2005. She described Carlson as “real outgoing” and “exuberant.”
Geiger was a close friend of Carlson’s, Engkvist said, but they weren’t dating.
There had been no reported problems at the home where the killings took place, police said, and neighbors were stunned that anything so violent could happen so close to their doorsteps.
“One murder in Laramie is extreme,” said Harold Vigil, who lives across the street from the home. “But three? Oh, my gosh.”
Neighbors Tuesday Wookey and her husband extended a friendly hand to the victims and found them to be courteous and friendly.
“This kind of shakes us up a bit,” Wookey said. “Nothing happens like this in Laramie – nothing.”
About 27,000 people live in Laramie, which gained notoriety when Matthew Shepard was beaten to death in 1998, allegedly for being openly gay.
But several Laramie residents defended their city Monday, saying it is a low-key place and relatively crime-free, except for the occasional beer bash and loud partying.
“It’s usually just a bunch of drunk kids causing a little bit of trouble, but otherwise it’s a great town,” said UW freshman Anthony Block.
The campus virtually empties over the summer, leaving about 2,000 students to work and attend summer school. Many had not heard of the killings Monday and reacted with shock when they were told.
“That’s just pretty crazy,” said junior Eileen Skidmore. “I can’t believe something like that would happen here.”
University spokesman Jay Fromkin said the school would offer counseling to any student who had problems coping with the deaths.
Lee said that when he lost Carlson, he lost his best friend, the one he could go to anytime he had a problem.
“I’m beyond the point of sad, beyond the point of crying.”
Staff writer Monte Whaley can be reached at 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com.
