Two men have been identified as suspects in the 1998 beating death of a homeless man in Fort Collins.
Police said in a news release that Frank Webb, 56, was taken into custody last night in Muscatine, Iowa. David Lee Griffin, 46, is currently in prison in Pennsylvania on auto theft charges.
They will be charged with first-degree murder in the death of Gary Martin Birks, 48, a transient whose body was found Sept. 14, 1998.
A passer-by notified police about a body under a railroad trestle just south and west of the intersection of Vine Drive and College Avenue, police said. An autopsy found he had a broken skull, facial bones and ribs as well as bruising and internal injuries.
Fort Collins police began re-examining Birks’ death in September 2006, in the hopes that advances in evidence technology would move the case forward.
The warrants against Webb and Griffin, who were homeless at the time of the murder, are a result of that work, police said.
Details about how detectives identified the two were not made available, and the arrest warrants have been sealed.
Fort Collins police are seeking extradition for both suspects.
