A man suspected of fatally shooting a neighboring couple over the weekend walked into Thornton police headquarters accompanied by his mother and stepfather about 2:30 p.m. this afternoon.
Lance McDermed, 36, told officers in the station’s lobby who he was, said Matt Barnes, public information officer for the Thornton police.
Barnes said that McDermed had changed his appearance – shaving his goatee, one of the most noticeable features of his picture released by police after he was suspected in the deaths of his neighbors, Vera and Marco Escobedo.
The couple was shot and killed about 6:40 p.m. Saturday at the Autumn Creek condos after they responded to a knock at their door by McDermed, police said.
Barnes said that McDermed was disheveled-appearing when he walked into the police station.
“They had not called to inform us they were coming in,” said Barnes. “It was a total surprise. We had been in contact with the family and encouraged them to have him turn himself in.”
McDermed had been in Cheyenne, Wyo., where his mother and stepfather had picked him up and returned him to Thornton, Barnes said.
He said McDermed and his family were not accompanied by a lawyer and that no gun or weapon was turned over to authorities.
Barnes said that detectives sought to interview McDermed before he was transferred to the Adams County Detention Facility. He did not know if McDermed made a statement to officers.
But he said that the mother and stepfather did talk this afternoon.
“They were cooperative and spoke with investigators,” said Barnes.
Earlier this afternoon, the Weld County Sheriff’s Office found McDermed’s car, a 1984 Chevrolet Cavalier, at a truck-stop car wash at Interstate 25 and Colorado 119. The car was found at about 12:30 p.m., after truck-stop employees called authorities to report it.
Barnes said that currently crime-scene investigators and detectives from Thornton are at the Del Camino Service Plaza processing the crime scene and interviewing witnesses.
The Cheyenne Police Department is assisting Thornton police. Barnes said that police don’t know how McDermed made his way to Cheyenne or the time-frame of his travels.
McDermed is being held for investigation of two counts of first-degree murder, is being held at the Adams County Detention Facility without bond, said Barnes.
Barnes said that the relatives of the victims, who live in the Denver area, have been notified that McDermed is in custody.
“We are very relieved that he has been taken into custody and is no longer a threat to the community,” said Barnes.
On July 23, Vera Escobedo filed a harassment complaint against McDermed, telling police that McDermed screamed profanities at her as she parked her car outside the building they lived in.
McDermed has no prior criminal record in the state, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records.
Vera Escobedo, 41, and her husband, 44, had lived in the 9100 block of Gale Boulevard, beneath McDermed and his wife, for about four years.
The Escobedos died at the scene. A brother-in-law and his sons, ages 2 and 4, who had been visiting the couple, were unharmed.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
