When Gary Petkus was growing up in a middle-class home in Illinois, there was no sign that he would end his life as the reclusive resident of a Glenwood Canyon cave.
“He kind of went off the deep end,” said cousin Steve Petkus.
Climbers found a body in the cave near No Name Tunnel in Glenwood Canyon in late March. The Garfield County coroner recently identified it as that of Gary Petkus, 57.
Petkus grew up in Oswego, Ill., a small community about 50 miles from Chicago, where his father had an optical-supply business.
He spent summers on Lake Holiday, about an hour west of Chicago, where his parents had a vacation home.
Steve Petkus frequently saw his cousin, who was the third of four children, at family gatherings. “He was a normal kid, really pretty nondescript,” said Steve Petkus, 58, whose father, Louis, was a partner with Gary’s father, Felix, in the optical business.
But something went wrong with Gary Petkus sometime after he left high school.
Petkus left home saying he wanted to live in the mountains, said deputy coroner Lisa Clifford, who said the information came from his brother, named Louis Petkus after his uncle.
“He loved the mountains, and that is where he wanted to live,” she said. Gary was schizophrenic, his brother told the coroner.
Brother Louis Petkus declined to talk to The Denver Post about Gary. “It was his choice, and I respect what he chose,” he said.
Except for hearing stories about Gary that pulsed through the family pipeline, Steve Petkus lost contact with his cousin.
“He spent some time after high school in North Carolina,” Steve Petkus recalled. “I heard that he got involved with drugs, and he just totally freaked out.”
It is unclear exactly when Gary Petkus arrived in Colorado. But in 1978, he was arrested in Clear Creek County, said Clifford. The arrest record doesn’t say what the bust was for, she added.
Glenwood Springs authorities believe he lived in the area for at least 20 years, and many of the town’s homeless people knew of him, according to the Glenwood Springs Post Independent. They told the newspaper he kept to himself and wouldn’t leave his cave for weeks on end.
He did have a general-delivery mailbox, where his mother, Sarah Petkus, sent letters to him, Clifford said.
Petkus died of natural causes weeks — perhaps months — before his body was found with his hands already beginning to mummify.
Gary Petkus’ remains will be returned to his family. “He is going to be cremated as soon as (his brother) faxes back the paperwork,” Clifford said. “His brother is going to take the ashes.”
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
