LAKEWOOD — Armed with new DNA test results, state officials have made arrests in a 1976 murder and a string of nine sexual assaults four years ago in Aurora, Arapahoe County and Denver.
Ricky Harnish, 52, was arrested this morning in Aurora for investigation of kidnapping and first-degree murder in the death of Holly Marie Andrews, 16, whose body was found Dec. 27, 1976, in Clear Creek County.
Harnish, who was serving a community corrections sentence, is being held without bond in the Clear Creek County Jail, said Sheriff Don Krueger.
Michael Keith Lollis, 43, was arrested in connection with three sexual assaults in Denver, one in Arapahoe County and five in Aurora. He is being held in the Denver City Jail in lieu of $1 million bail.
Lollis is accused of raping girls and women between the ages of 16 and 26 between November 2004 and July 2005, Clem said. The suspect attacked after dark, and stole jewelry, cellphones and money from the victims, he said.
“We’ve been waiting for this day for four years,” Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey said during a news conference at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Lakewood.
The arrests of Harnish and Lollis were made as a result of a law that went into effect in July requiring all Colorado felons to provide DNA samples.
Matches of DNA from the crimes were made through the national Combined DNA Index System database, according to Lance Clem, spokesman for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
