Years ago, Timothy Newell discounted a co-worker’s off-handed remark as braggadocio fueled by a half-dozen cans of Budweiser.
But it unsettled him enough that he never forgot the incident: He says Ricky Lee Harnish indicated to him that he felt remorse for killing someone.
Then on Feb. 1 — 11 years after that brief conversation in a Greeley hotel — Harnish was arrested for investigation in the 1976 rape and murder of 16-year-old Holly Andrews. Harnish is being held in the Clear Creek County Jail without bond.
Newell said he started crying when he heard about Harnish’s arrest.
“It shocked the hell out of me,” Newell, 49, said. “I should have asked more at the time. Maybe we could have got him locked up.”
Newell has not spoken to Clear Creek County sheriff’s investigators or county prosecutors about the incident but said he is willing to do so.
“Yeah, I’d be willing to tell them,” Newell said. “I think the authorities should know.”
In 1995, Harnish got divorced and moved to Denver, where he went to work for a communications company.
Newell said he was working for the same company, TR West, which has since gone out of business, when Harnish was hired to install fiber-optic equipment for businesses.
Newell, who was a project manager at TR West, drove up to Greeley to ensure Harnish stayed on task. He and Harnish stayed in the same hotel room and after hours would watch television together.
Every night Harnish would drink about a six-pack of Budweiser beer, Newell said. One night, the two were watching the show “Cops” when a police officer came on the show and was talking about killing someone.
Newell said he told Harnish that he could never live with himself if he had killed someone.
Newell recalls Harnish responded in a matter-of-fact way: “Yeah, I know what it’s like.”
“After he said it, he was kind of quiet,” Newell said. “He had a blank stare.”
Newell said it was clear by the context of the conversation that Harnish was saying he had killed someone. But he didn’t ask Harnish any questions and Harnish didn’t elaborate.
On Dec. 21, a Colorado Bureau of Investigation officer took Harnish’s DNA when he was serving a community corrections term for a drug conviction.
His DNA matched that in semen taken from the body of Holly Andrews, a Columbine High School student who was raped and murdered Dec. 26, 1976. Her body was found about 5 miles west of Georgetown.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
