When the mother of 19-year-old Ahmad Clewis-Green saw the news that a body had been found in a barrel downtown this week, she called Denver police to say her mentally ill son did it.
She said Green had told her he had bashed in the skull of a prostitute he had refused to pay Oct. 14 and hid her corpse for almost two weeks.
The body of a 27-year-old woman was found by a maintenance worker in a steel drum in a parking lot near 22nd and Lawrence streets on Tuesday morning.
On Thursday, the Denver coroner’s office identified the woman as Esperanza Soledad Pardue of Arvada. She died of a blow to the head, the autopsy indicated.
Green allegedly confessed after he was arrested Wednesday, telling investigators that he met Pardue in a park and she agreed to have sex with him for money.
Afterward, he refused to pay her. She became angry and refused to leave his apartment, so he hit her in the head with a metal pipe, according to his statement to police.
The body had been written on with a black felt pen, according to police documents, which do not indicate what was written. Pardue’s clothed body was found wrapped in a shower curtain and garbage bags.
Green allegedly kept the body in his apartment until he moved it about 3½ blocks in the barrel.
His mother told investigators that a friend helped her son dispose of the body, but that person is not named in court records.
Green lived at the Apartments at Skyline Park assisted-living facility for about six months. He did not have a job, neighbors said. They knew him as eager to help and abundantly friendly. He told them he was bipolar and schizophrenic.
Green frequently brought home transients and sketchy characters from the neighborhood, they said. Most neighbors would not give their names because they feared Green’s associates.
“I can’t make it make sense in my mind because he was a very meek child,” said neighbor Harold Skobe. “He was a nice kid, but he was lonesome. Most of the people here are old, and he was young, just a kid. I think he brought home the wrong friends.”
His criminal record is scant. He pleaded guilty to assault and disturbing the peace in the 1300 block of 17th Street in November. He served four days in jail.
Green also paid a $54 fine for skateboarding on the 16th Street Mall at Lawrence Street last month.
Pardue’s extensive criminal record in Colorado started two years ago, records show.
She was most recently arrested by Denver police Aug. 1 on a stolen-vehicle charge.
Her other arrests include charges of prostitution, several drug-related offenses, child abuse, fraud, forgery, contempt of court and numerous failures to appear in court.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
