Boulder – The first time best friends Bryan Grove and Jared Guy tried to dump Linda Damm’s body, their car got stuck in mud on the way to the landfill and they turned back, according to a court document released Tuesday.
The next night, in early February, the teens tried to get rid of the body in a cemetery. This time Grove and Guy took along Tess Damm, Linda Damm’s daughter and Grove’s girlfriend, according to Guy’s interview with police detailed in the document. But that attempt to get rid of the body also was not successful.
Four teens, ages 15 to 18, are under arrest in the slaying of Linda Damm at her home. Prosecutors are expected to file charges today.
Guy’s arrest affidavit provides the first detailed account from one of the suspects of how Linda Damm died and what happened in the days after her death.
According to Guy’s description, Grove said that Tess Damm called him one night, saying her mom was drunk and chasing her around the house.
When Grove arrived at the house, Guy said, he found Linda Damm choking her daughter. Grove said he threw Damm off Tess, and then Grove said Linda Damm came at him with a knife, according to Guy’s account in the documents. Guy said Grove told him he wrestled the knife away from Linda and stabbed her.
Guy told police he believed Damm was killed in the last week of January.
“I feel horrible,” Grove said, crying one night, according to Guy.
Guy said that sometime around Feb. 7 the teens attempted to dump Linda Damm’s body in the Erie landfill. The next night, the teens drove to a cemetery near Boulder’s New Vista High School, where Guy is a senior and peer educator with an anti-violence group.
They dug in the dark for two hours before placing Linda Damm’s body in a grave so shallow that there was a bump above the ground when the grave was covered, Guy said. The teens fled when they thought they saw a police officer, dropping Tess off at her home, according to the court document.
But then, driving Guy home, Grove suddenly turned the car around and drove back to the cemetery, according to the documents. The body wasn’t buried well enough, he told Guy, according to the affidavit.
The two dug up Linda Damm’s body and took it back to Tess’ home, Guy told police. Three weeks later, on Feb. 27, alerted by an anonymous tip, police found Damm’s decomposing body. It was gashed with multiple stab wounds and stuffed in the back of a Subaru at the home on West Brome Place in Lafayette.
Guy, 18, was arrested late Friday. Police had already arrested Tess Damm, 15, Grove, 17, and 16-year-old Jared Smith. Tess Damm and Smith, like Guy, are being held on suspicion of being an accessory to murder, according to the affidavit. Grove is being held on suspicion of first-degree murder, the document said.
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
